By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle
Hat tip to Crusader Rabbit
Remember their words, their actions on November 2nd and vote them out!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
And What About Muslim Violence In America?
This article from Family Security Matters spends some time regarding a study done that tries to diminish the effects of Islamic terror and such but it's a bit of a yawner angle for me...but in the same article, it is pointed out the wave of Muslim violence in America that has taken an alarming amount of human life over the past decade.
I'm not going to excerpt the whole article as I want to excerpt below the litany of islamic attacks, crimes and murder sprees that have been documented just in the past years. Look at the list, read the words and tell me that it isn't alarming. Remember, these incidents were not labeled as "terroristic" activity, simply crimes. But look at the motivation behind most of these bloody acts.
What we see in some of this is not true jihad by islamists but the effects of Sharia Law and subsequently, the effects of honor killings and martyrdom attempts. Let's not forget that in islam, if you feel you have "bad" acts stacked up against you in this world, there's only way to make it to your nirvana....and that is through jihad and martyrdom.
From the article:
Date: December 5, 2009- - Binghampton, New York - - A 46 year-old graduate student at Binghamton University stabs to death his Jewish professor and mentor because he was “persecuted as a Muslim.” The slain professor is the author of several books, including “Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Movements.” The killer, who was writing his dissertation on early Arab culture, once told one told his roommates: “I feel like destroying the world.”
Date: November 5, 2009 – Fort Hood, Texas - - Major Malik Nidal Hasan, 39, a Muslim American psychiatrist, opens fire on American troops at Fort Hood, Texas in a murderous rampage that leaves 13 soldiers dead and 38 wounded. The carnage begins as approximately 300 soldiers, in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan, line up to get vaccinations and to have their eyes examined at a Soldier Readiness Center. Hasan, who worshipped at the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, with several of the 9/11 ops, screams “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire with his semi-automatic pistol. Six months before the massacre, Major Hasan drew the attention of law enforcement officials for his anti-American tirades and his statements of support for the global jihad. In an Internet posting, the Muslim Major equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades. Reacting to the carnage, President Barack Obama says: “We don’t know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.”
Date: November 2, 2009 - - A 20-year-old woman dies in Glendale, Arizona from injuries suffered when her Muslim father ran her down with his Jeep Cherokee for becoming too Westernized. The father had taken his daughter to Iraq under the pretense of visiting relatives only to marry her off to a man nearly three times her age. The young woman managed to scrape up enough to escape from her forced marriage and to make her way back to the U.S. After killing his daughter, the Muslim father sets fire to his house in Glendale. Nine people are inside the house when the fire starts.
Date: October 29, 2009 - - Brighton, New York - - A 37 year-old Muslim housewife slits the throat of her sleeping husband at the couple’s home in Brighton, New York. She tells the police that she was forced to commit the crime because her husband was not a devout Islamist. She says that he pressured her to eat pork and even attempted to give her a drink that contained alcohol.
Date: August 21, 2009 - - Three members of a Somali street gang travel from Columbus, Ohio to Grand Island, Nebraska, where they gun down two Sudanese men at the Autumn Wood Apartments. The local television station reports that the motive of the shootings, which leaves one dead and another critically wounded, is religious. The gunmen are Muslims; the victims Christians.
Date: June 1, 2009 - - A Muslim convert opens fire at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing one young soldier and wounding another. The convert - - Carlos Bledsoe, 24 - - says that he “is mad at the U.S. military” because of what American soldiers “had done to Muslims in the past.” The killing, he says, was for the sake of Allah. “I do not feel I am guilty,” Bledsoe further tells Little Rock police officers. “I don’t think it was murder because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason. U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe we have to strike back. We believe in an eye for an eye.”
Date: February 14, 2009 - - The founder of a Muslim TV station beheads his wife in the hallway of his studio in Buffalo, New York when he learns that she is seeking a divorce. Despite the heinousness of the crime, Muzzammil Hassan is only charged with second degree murder. Hassan had been hailed by the Buffalo community as a model example of a moderate Muslim. Bridges TV - - Hassan’s television station - - had been established “to fuse American culture with the values of Islam in a healthy, family-oriented way.”
Date: January 1, 2008 – A Muslim cabdriver in Irving, Texas shoots and kills his two teenage daughters in his taxi upon discovering they had dated non-Muslim boys. He had plans for Amina, his eldest daughter, to marry a man three times her age in Egypt. Discovering that she is no longer a virgin, he withdraws a 9 millimeter pistol and shoots her twice at point blank range in the chest, severing her spinal cord. Then he turns the pistol on Sarah, his younger daughter, who is sitting in the backseat of the taxi. He pumps nine bullets into her body before abandoning the cab in the parking lot of the Omni Mandalay Hotel. He escapes arrest and remains at large. Many believe that he has returned to the welcoming arms of his family and friends in Cairo.
Date: July 6, 2008 – A distraught Muslim smashes his daughter’s skull with an electric iron and strangles her to death with a bungee cord when she expresses her unhappiness over her arranged marriage. The incident takes place in Jonesboro, Georgia. Ajay Nair, Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs at Columbia University, sugar-coats the killing by saying to CNN: “I think there are ways that we can rationalize it and make sense of it particularly in thinking about new immigrant communities in the U.S. and thinking about some of the struggles that they face.”
Date: February 12, 2007 - - An 18-year-old Muslim refugee goes on a shooting rampage at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City - - targeting shoppers who are buying Valentine’s Day cards. Five shoppers are killed; four more critically wounded. Witnesses say that the shooter - - Sulejman Talovic - - had a smile on his face every time he took aim, pulled the trigger, and cried out: “Allahu Akbar.” His aunt tells reporters: “We don’t know what happened, just like you guys. We know him as a good boy. He liked everybody, so we don’t know what happened.” Others claim to know what happened. Robert Spencer, noted author and journalist, says that Talovic is a victim of “sudden jihad syndrome” - - a malady increasing common among Muslim men, ranging in age from 14 to 40. The warning signs of this disorder are growing a beard, wearing long Islamic robes and skullcaps, going to mosques, and reading the Koran.
Date: October 6, 2006 – In Louisville, Kentucky, a Somali Muslim, clubs his estranged wife with a blunt object, leaving her for dead, and then proceeds to murder their four children for adopting American lifestyles. The children range in age from 8 to 3. The youngest of the children - - a boy and a girl - - are stabbed to death while sleeping in their bedroom; the other two girls are killed in the kitchen - - their bodies bearing defensive wounds on their hands and arms. The father tells the arresting police officers that he was compelled to kill his family because his wife had treated him with disrespect.
Date: September 20, 2006 – A self-professed Black Muslim shoots and kills a plain clothes police officer in Aurora, Colorado. He says that God wants him to kill. His mother later testifies that her son became transformed into a killer by reading the Koran.
Date: August 20, 2006 – An unemployed Muslim automobile worker uses his black Honda SUV to run down 18 pedestrians through the streets of San Francisco - one is killed. When the police arrive to take him into custody, the Muslim says: “I am a terrorist. I don’t care. Everyone needs to be killed.” A jury disagrees with the killer’s self assessment and rules that he is not guilty by reason of insanity.
Date: July 28, 2006 - - An angry Muslim American, making use of a 14 year-old girl as a hostage, breaks into a Jewish Center in Seattle, Washington. He selected his target by researching “something Jewish” on the internet and purchased two semi-automatic pistols from a local arms dealer. Upon entering the Center, he announces to the receptionist, “I’m a Muslim American and I’m angry at Israel” and shoots her. He proceeds to walk down the hallway, firing at women as they sit at their desks. Three of the workers are shot in the abdomen; one in the chest; and another in the head. He fires another shot at the stomach of an employee who is five months pregnant. The bullet misses and strikes the arm which she has raised for protection. He orders the pregnant woman to pick up her phone and to dial 911. He tells the operator: “I am tired of our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.” The police arrive at the scene and persuade the angry Muslim to surrender. In the wake of the carnage, six women are hospitalized - - three in critical condition - - one is paralyzed by a shot to the spine; another is near-death with wounds to the liver, pancreas, kidney, and heart. A seventh victim - - the director the Center - - is found dead at the scene. An FBI spokesperson later says that the shooting rampage was “the work of a lone gunman” who was “acting out his antagonism” against the system. Media coverage of the incident is eclipsed by the news of actor Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest.
Date: July 25, 2006 – A Muslim warehouse worker in Denver, Colorado - - announcing it is “Allah’s Choice - - shoots four of his co-workers and a police officer with a long-barreled handgun. One is dead, the others critically injured, before a SWAT team arrives to take out the shooter who greats them with a hail of gunfire. The Muslim’s sister later explains to the police that her brother was upset because people at the warehouse were making fun of his religion.
Date: June 16, 2006 - - A 24 year-old Muslim gunman goes to a movie theater on the outskirts of Baltimore and opens fire with his .367 Magnum at the packed audience as they watch “X-Men: The Last Stand.” One man – a 62 year-old Jewish medical supply salesman is dead at the scene. The Muslim lives in a multi-million dollar home and has no criminal record. He graduated with a degree in biology from Loyola College in Baltimore. He provides the police with no motive for his act. Tried for 1st degree murder, the Muslim receives no prison time. He is rather sent for an extended stay at a Maryland psychiatric clinic.
Date: March 3, 2006 – An irate Iranian Muslim, experiencing sudden jihad syndrome, presses the pedal of his SUV to the metal in order to mow down nine students on the campus of the University of North Carolina. After striking each victim, he cries aloud: “Allahu Akbar.” The Iranian explains his actions by saying: “Allah’s followers have permission to attack those who have waged war against them with eternal paradise as an expected reward.”
Date: January 11, 2005 - - A quiet Muslim man, working as a housekeeper, at a retirement facility in Alexandria, Virginia, transforms into a homicidal maniac and commences to strangle, stab, and slash six elderly patients. One patient suffers a broken neck; another requires more than 200 stitches. Taken into custody, the Muslim, now subdued, reportedly recites the shahadah.
Date: August 6, 2004 – Houston, Texas - - A Saudi college student, upon receiving a so-called “religious awakening,” slashes the throat of his Jewish room-mate with a 4 inch butterfly knife, and nearly decapitates him. After the murder, the Saudi visits a mosque to give praise to Allah. Authorities refuse to treat the homicide as a hate crime. The Saudi is granted a deal which allows him to plead guilty to second degree murder and escape the mandatory death sentence. No motive for the crime is ever given.
Date: September and October 2002 - - Muslim snipers in the name of Allah killed ten people in suburban Washington D.C. for no apparent reason, save jihad. They critically wounded 3 more. Previous to this, the so-called Beltway snipers were responsible for additional murders in California, Georgia, Alabama, and the state of Washington.
Date: July 5, 2002 - - An Egyptian Muslim, living in Irvine, California, decides to celebrate his 41st birthday by going on a one-man jihad in order to gain martyrdom, entrance to 7th heaven, and the award of the 72 awaiting houris. He heads off to the Los Angeles International Airport, where he proceeds to shoot and kill a 24 year old ticket agent and a 61 year old diamond merchant. He critically wounds four more people before being gunned down and killed by security guards.
Date: September 11, 2001 - - Muslim terrorists conduct coordinated attacks that results in 2,993 deaths.
The carnage, listed above, could have been much worse, since of host of other attacks have been prevented by watchful law enforcement officials.
Pakistan Pushes Back Hard On NATO Apache Incursions Into the Country, Report of 3 Pakistani Soldiers Killed In Latest NATO Strike
Okay, I don't trust this latest information about 3 Pakistani soldiers being killed at a security checkpoint by NATO Apache attack helicopters one bit - for one thing, the report is coming from a "Reuters" source and secondly, this comes out JUST as we are seeing the Pakistani outrage over previous helicopter incursions into Pakistan over the weekend.
Here's some of the info from the report at DAWN:
It's hard to say just how upset the Pakistanis are about the Apache strikes inside of Pakistan - the Pakistani government, in the past, has publicly decried issues with NATO and U.S. military actions but in private has supported them, but this time I think they are drawing the line. Let's face it, over the past month the number of UAV strikes inside of Pakistan has gone through the roof and the Pakistanis haven't said a peep but word of the first helicopter strike inside the border drew first criticisms. And it seems to be building.
It's my guess that there will be some high level smoothing of ruffled feathers and some assurances from NATO that it won't happen again. And then it will happen again further down the line. Let's hope so.
Here's some of the info from the report at DAWN:
Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Nato helicopter attack in Kurram Agency, a border region with Afghanistan, security and military officials said, apparently the fourth such strike in recent days.
The attack by two Nato helicopters took place early in the morning in Teri Mangal village in Kurram Agency, an ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border.
“The helicopters shelled the area for about 25 minutes. Three of our soldiers manning a border post were killed and three wounded,” a senior security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
He did not say whether Pakistan responded to the strike.
Pakistan on Monday expressed outrage at violation of its airspace by Nato helicopters in Afghanistan over the weekend, saying it would consider “response options” to any future incursions.
It's hard to say just how upset the Pakistanis are about the Apache strikes inside of Pakistan - the Pakistani government, in the past, has publicly decried issues with NATO and U.S. military actions but in private has supported them, but this time I think they are drawing the line. Let's face it, over the past month the number of UAV strikes inside of Pakistan has gone through the roof and the Pakistanis haven't said a peep but word of the first helicopter strike inside the border drew first criticisms. And it seems to be building.
It's my guess that there will be some high level smoothing of ruffled feathers and some assurances from NATO that it won't happen again. And then it will happen again further down the line. Let's hope so.
Nato helicopters kill three Pakistani soldiers in Kurram
PARACHINAR: Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Nato helicopter attack in Kurram Agency, a border region with Afghanistan, security and military officials said, apparently the fourth such strike in recent days.
The attack by two Nato helicopters took place early in the morning in Teri Mangal village in Kurram Agency, an ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border.
“The helicopters shelled the area for about 25 minutes. Three of our soldiers manning a border post were killed and three wounded,” a senior security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
He did not say whether Pakistan responded to the strike.
Pakistan on Monday expressed outrage at violation of its airspace by Nato helicopters in Afghanistan over the weekend, saying it would consider “response options” to any future incursions.
Two Nato Apache helicopters killed 30 insurgents on Pakistani soil after a rare manned pursuit across the border from eastern Afghanistan late on Friday, after militants attacked a remote Afghan security outpost in Khost province, Nato forces said.
On Saturday, two Kiowa helicopters returned to the area and killed another four, Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) said in a statement in Kabul on Sunday.
Monday saw another possible border violation, with six militants killed in Kurram, a Reuters reporter in the area said. But an ISAF spokesman said it was “near the border,” rather than in Pakistan.
ISAF said in a statement issued late on Sunday that helicopters crossing into Pakistan were following its rules of engagement.
The rugged border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan is seen by Washington as a critical battleground in its fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Incursions into Pakistan are extremely rare and the United States prefers to use unmanned aerial drones for its attacks on militant positions in Pakistan's borderlands, known to be a haven for militant groups.
The United States has stepped up missile strikes by pilotless drone aircraft in the border areas in recent weeks.
So far 21 strikes have been carried out by the US drones in September, the record number in a month.
Western security sources said on Wednesday a militant plot to stage coordinated attacks in Europe has been disrupted in its early stages by drone strikes in Pakistan. —Reuters
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Mexican Drug Cartels Adopt the Tactics of Al Qaeda, 17 Mexican Mayors Assassinated In Two Years
Okay, some of you may still not be willing to refer to the forces of evil south of our border as an "insurgency" as I would describe it, but you should be able to identify them as terrorists with what has gone on recently in the targeting of public officials in Mexico.
From the report at Reuters via Breitbart:
Awhile back, the Mexican bad guys basically just snuffed out the officials that wouldn't play ball or who had gotten in the way - similar to gang and mafia tactics in America. But now, they are on a rampage of killing the title holder, not the individual - we've also seen this with the attacks on police and security officers in Mexico. The #1 target for al Qaeda in any location is the police station and police officers - if they can deplete the number of officers and intimidate all prospective replacements, they gain control of security...and we are seeing this now within a stone's throw of American soil and America lives.
Let's be big boys and girls and understand something - this border problem we have in America is literally weeks and months away from becoming way more than just an immigration issue - there are going to be dead Americans because of this and I'm telling you right now, there are some very specific people in Washington, D.C. that are going to have a LOT of blood on their hands.
From the report at Reuters via Breitbart:
The slaying of Sanchez, which police blamed on drug hitmen in marijuana-producing Michoacan state, underscored the vulnerability of elected officials as President Felipe Calderon intensifies his fight against powerful drug cartels.This is all about intimidation and creating fear - that, by definition, is terrorism. And the fact that these are mayors, public officials, elected government members...well, that is what links it to the tactics that al Qaeda has used in many countries - especially Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Just about every week we hear of a Pakistani elected official being assassinated by terrorists (al Qaeda) and just about every week we hear of a Mexican elected official being assassinated by terrorists (drug cartels). You see? No difference.
Last week, suspected drug hitmen shot and killed the mayor of a rural town outside Monterrey, the northern business city with close U.S. ties. Another shooting hours later left a mayor-elect in northern Chihuahua state critically wounded.
Drug hitmen have killed at least 17 mayors across Mexico since early 2008, according to media tallies. Five of those have died in the past six weeks as gangs seek to control towns along key smuggling routes into the United States.
"They've threatened to kill me twice. They wanted me out of the way to have total control," said Mauricio Fernandez, the mayor of San Pedro Garza Garcia near the Texas border, the country's richest municipality that is part of Monterrey.
Awhile back, the Mexican bad guys basically just snuffed out the officials that wouldn't play ball or who had gotten in the way - similar to gang and mafia tactics in America. But now, they are on a rampage of killing the title holder, not the individual - we've also seen this with the attacks on police and security officers in Mexico. The #1 target for al Qaeda in any location is the police station and police officers - if they can deplete the number of officers and intimidate all prospective replacements, they gain control of security...and we are seeing this now within a stone's throw of American soil and America lives.
Let's be big boys and girls and understand something - this border problem we have in America is literally weeks and months away from becoming way more than just an immigration issue - there are going to be dead Americans because of this and I'm telling you right now, there are some very specific people in Washington, D.C. that are going to have a LOT of blood on their hands.
Hitmen kill Mexican mayors as drugs war intensifies
(Reuters) - When criminals beat small-town mayor Gustavo Sanchez to death with rocks this week, Mexicans were horrified but no longer shocked by the latest attack on a local leader in the country's vicious drugs war.
The slaying of Sanchez, which police blamed on drug hitmen in marijuana-producing Michoacan state, underscored the vulnerability of elected officials as President Felipe Calderon intensifies his fight against powerful drug cartels.
Last week, suspected drug hitmen shot and killed the mayor of a rural town outside Monterrey, the northern business city with close U.S. ties. Another shooting hours later left a mayor-elect in northern Chihuahua state critically wounded.
Drug hitmen have killed at least 17 mayors across Mexico since early 2008, according to media tallies. Five of those have died in the past six weeks as gangs seek to control towns along key smuggling routes into the United States.
"They've threatened to kill me twice. They wanted me out of the way to have total control," said Mauricio Fernandez, the mayor of San Pedro Garza Garcia near the Texas border, the country's richest municipality that is part of Monterrey.
The attacks on elected officials add a new element of fear to the fight against cartels in Mexico, where drug violence has killed over 29,000 people since Calderon launched his drug offensive when he took office in late 2006.
Cartels "have reached a point where they are prepared to confront the authorities in this country in a way that threatens the wider population," U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual told reporters last week.
Motives for the killings are not always clear. Police at times suspect murdered officials have upset drug gangs or were killed by hitmen who accused them of ties to rival cartels.
Calderon, a conservative, vowed to "redouble our fight against these criminals" after the killing last week of the second mayor murdered near Monterrey since mid-August.
The body of Prisciliano Rodriguez, mayor of the town of Doctor Gonzalez near Monterrey, was left on a rural road, his white Stetson hat sitting nearby, after gunmen shot him on Thursday evening.
Officials blame the surge in violence around Monterrey and in neighboring Tamaulipas state on the rivalry between the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas.
Many residents in Monterrey and surrounding Nuevo Leon state, once an oasis of calm and prosperity, are terrified.
"Doctor Gonzalez is a no-man's land. It was just a matter of time before this happened," said a local resident who declined to give his name. "No one goes out at night."
This week, a cartoon in El Diario newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, the violent city across from El Paso, Texas, showed a mayor with a giant bull's eye on his cowboy hat.
WELL PAID BUT VULNERABLE
Winning a spot as mayor can be the start of a long, lucrative political career in Mexico, and many mayors have relatively high salaries, even those running small towns.
But mayors are also reliant on ill-equipped and often corrupt local police for protection, making them easy targets for drug gangs who have infiltrated police forces across Mexico.
The mayor of the town of Santiago near Monterrey was abducted last month by his own police and handed over to the Zetas to be killed, preliminary state investigations show.
Some among a slew of new mayors who take office for a three-year term in October already received threats from cartels during their election campaigns.
The government says it is doing everything it can to keep public officials safe. "We're working hard to identify those who may be at greater risk," Mexican national security spokesman Alejandro Poire told reporters on Tuesday.
Few mayors are as fortunate as Fernandez, who was tipped off by U.S. authorities about a murder plot last year and who has the support of some of Mexico's biggest companies in his plan to spend $50 million on reforming his police force.
Fernandez is known across Mexico for creating a paramilitary squad to go after kidnappers shortly after taking office -- though he says it has since been disbanded.
Officials in Chihuahua, Mexico's most violent drug war state, feel extremely vulnerable despite the army presence.
"I don't know how the government is going to look after the security of the new mayors near Ciudad Juarez. There is so much fear," said Victor Quintana, a leftist lawmaker in Chihuahua.
Muslim Nations Demand U.N. Tracks 'Islamophobia' Incidents Across the World
Once again, we see the United Nations being wagged by the coalition of islamic states - this time, the muslim countries are demanding that the U.N. start tracking incidents of islamophobia that occur across the globe.
I wonder...what do you suppose those muslim nations would CONSIDER islamophobia? Hmmm. How about a protest in New York City against the Ground Zero Mosque? That would probably be on the list, yes? Would that mean that my name would go on an international record for attending that protest? How about if a muslim runs for U.S. Congress and is defeated....is that islamophobic? Or how about a muslim woman who interviews for a job at a department store and doesn't get the job? That's gotta be islamophobia, right?
So, just what does our American ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission have to say about this? From the article at CNSNews:
U.S. ambassador to the HRC Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe wrote to Pillay in late August, deploring Jones’ threatened action and telling her that the U.S. “supports the full use of your office and moral authority to speak out against intolerance and instances of hate speech where they occur.”
The term "islamophobia" is the new "racist." We live in a time now that the Soft Jihad is not just creeping across America, it is hauling ass. And in its wake is a nation of people duped and chained by a combination of political correctness and islamic deception. The sooner we understand that this is total manipulation by an enemy force, the sooner we can fight back.
Muslim Nations Call for U.N. to Track ‘Islamophobia’
The Quran-burning controversy in the United States has prompted the Islamic bloc at the United Nations to revive its call for the U.N. to set up an “international monitoring mechanism” to track incidents of “Islamophobia.”
Five years after establishing an “Islamophobia Observatory” of its own, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is now calling on the U.N.’s top human rights official to set up a comparable body at her Geneva office. According to the OIC, human rights commissioner Navanethem Pillay has agreed to consider the proposal.
At the U.N. Human Rights Council this week, OIC members are also seeking support for a resolution condemning Florida pastor Terry Jones’ abortive call to burn copies of the Quran on September 11.
Introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the OIC, the text condemns “the recent call by an extremist group to organize a ‘Burn a Koran Day’” and says it was among “instances of intolerance, discrimination, profiling and acts of violence against Muslims occurring in many parts of the world.”
When it comes to a vote -- before the Council’s session in Geneva ends next Friday -- the measure almost certainly will pass. The OIC controls more than one-third of the Council’s seats, and its resolutions are routinely backed by non-Muslim allies such as China, Russia, Cuba and South Africa.
Moreover, Western democracies which usually oppose OIC “Islamophobia” and “religious defamation” measures at the HRC – on freedom of expression grounds – will not likely do so in this case, having strongly condemned Jones’ threats earlier this month.
U.S. ambassador to the HRC Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe wrote to Pillay in late August, deploring Jones’ threatened action and telling her that the U.S. “supports the full use of your office and moral authority to speak out against intolerance and instances of hate speech where they occur.”
The new resolution was circulated in Geneva after OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in an address to the Council, urged Pillay to set up an “observatory” in her office to monitor and document acts like threats to desecrate the Quran, and to report back to the HRC annually.
Ihsanoglu in his speech also said national government should take specific steps to combat religious intolerance and stereotyping, including “adopting measures to criminalize the incitement to imminent violence based on religion.”
Ihsanoglu met separately with Pillay and, according to an OIC statement, told her that incidents like Quran desecration “posed grave danger to global peace, security and stability.”
He pressed for her office to set up an “observatory” or “international monitoring mechanism” to monitor and document such acts.
The OIC said Pillay has given Ihsanoglu her assurance that she would “look into reviving the issue of the observatory” proposal.
Asked to confirm this account, a spokesman for Pillay said he would look into the matter, but did not respond by press time.
The call for the U.N. to set up an “Islamophobia monitoring mechanism” was made as early as 1997, when Iran’s ambassador raised the issue at a General Assembly committee meeting. It was repeated during the controversial Durban conference against racism in 2001 and on occasions since.
The OIC set up its “Islamophobia Observatory” at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of a 10-year plan of action adopted in 2005. The observatory issued its first report in March 2008, covering the period May-Dec. the previous year.
It has since issued two further reports, the most recent of which documented incidents in Western countries ranging from the Swiss ban on minaret building to complaints that pork was served in a supposedly vegetarian dish at a Christmas buffet for postal workers in Britain.
The same report cited President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo, pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and dropping of terminology seen as offensive to Muslims as optimistic indicators.
Our Government's Ignorance of the Muslim Brotherhood In Our Midst
This article from IPT speaks of how over the years, our Federal government has naively worked with factions of the Muslim Brotherhood and even to this day, when islamic terror threats have never been higher, we are still pandering to muslim organizations with links to the most dangerous of all terror groups.
First, let's remind ourselves of the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Nice, huh?
Well, as I was reading this article, I came across this paragraph - I highlighted in bold the operative sentence:
What we have seen for years is an absolute deluge of organizations that are all fronts...fronts for Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of our country, of our society. And while we might come to the conclusion that al Qaeda is one of the most brutal of islamic terror groups, the Muslim Brotherhood wins hands down as the most sneaky. These guys win the prize for secrecy, for deceit, and for camouflage.
Just a few years ago, we had the Holy Land Foundation trial in Texas - that trial also included unindicted co-conspirators....organizations that included the likes of CAIR. And even when that trial exposed the depths of organizations in America literally raising funds and sending funds to the likes of Hamas, and even though convictions came out of that trial...it's like it never happened now.
But hey, let's rest easy...the Obama administration is on the case! They've even got that special envoy speaking at one of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizational rallies! You do feel better now, don't you?
First, let's remind ourselves of the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood:
"Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; jihad is our way; and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
Nice, huh?
Well, as I was reading this article, I came across this paragraph - I highlighted in bold the operative sentence:
That record has not dissuaded the Obama and George W. Bush administrations from working with MB-affiliated organizations in the United States. This relationship is on display in Chicago this week, where Rashad Hussain, President Obama's special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), addresses the American Islamic College (AIC). A Hudson Institute report last year identified the AIC as having been planned by the Brotherhood-affiliated Muslim Students Association (MSA). The AIC was once headed by MSA founder Ahmed Sakr.
What we have seen for years is an absolute deluge of organizations that are all fronts...fronts for Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of our country, of our society. And while we might come to the conclusion that al Qaeda is one of the most brutal of islamic terror groups, the Muslim Brotherhood wins hands down as the most sneaky. These guys win the prize for secrecy, for deceit, and for camouflage.
Just a few years ago, we had the Holy Land Foundation trial in Texas - that trial also included unindicted co-conspirators....organizations that included the likes of CAIR. And even when that trial exposed the depths of organizations in America literally raising funds and sending funds to the likes of Hamas, and even though convictions came out of that trial...it's like it never happened now.
But hey, let's rest easy...the Obama administration is on the case! They've even got that special envoy speaking at one of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizational rallies! You do feel better now, don't you?
Washington's Schizophrenic Approach Toward the Muslim Brotherhood
"Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; jihad is our way; and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." So reads the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a transnational Islamist organization with chapters in more than 70 countries. The group's long history includes collaboration with Nazi Germany, calls for the destruction of Israel, and support for attacks against American troops.
The Brotherhood's affiliates include the terrorist organization Hamas. Its alumni include 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's terrorist mentor. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaida's second in command, is said to have been heavily influenced by the ideology of the Brotherhood's Egyptian chapter.
Some of the most prominent Muslim organizations in the United States have close, longstanding relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was founded by Muslim Brotherhood members in the United States. And the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was linked in court papers to a Brotherhood-organized Hamas support effort.
That record has not dissuaded the Obama and George W. Bush administrations from working with MB-affiliated organizations in the United States. This relationship is on display in Chicago this week, where Rashad Hussain, President Obama's special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), addresses the American Islamic College (AIC). A Hudson Institute report last year identified the AIC as having been planned by the Brotherhood-affiliated Muslim Students Association (MSA). The AIC was once headed by MSA founder Ahmed Sakr.
Hussain's participation serves to highlight the fact that Washington has no policy for dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood, despite evidence that the group's agenda is hostile to the United States. In some cases around the world, there may be little choice but to do so. But a number of people who study the issue contend that the U.S. government is needlessly legitimizing the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hussain is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning on a panel moderated by Ahmed Rehab, head of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). So a White House aide is sharing the stage with a senior CAIR official.
The FBI's policy is to not do that. The agency cut off communications with CAIR in 2008, based upon exhibits in the Hamas-support prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) that places CAIR on a committee created to support Hamas politically and financially. An FBI congressional liaison wrote last year that "until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."
Rehab is among a number of conference speakers associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Others scheduled to address the conference include Safaa Zarzour, Secretary General of ISNA, and John Esposito, a Christian academic with longstanding ties to the Brotherhood. Other speakers include Esposito's protégé, pollster Dalia Mogahed; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); Farah Pandith, the State Department's special representative to Muslim communities; and Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a former vice president of ISNA. In 1995, Wahhaj testified as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman (AKA the "Blind Sheikh"), who was accused of conspiring to blow up the United Nations and other New York landmarks. Abdel-Rahman was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
"They're bullet-proof. It's horrible," veteran journalist Douglas Farah said regarding the political strength of Brotherhood-affiliated groups like CAIR and ISNA. U.S. policy "empower[s] groups whose ultimate goal is the creation of an Islamic nation in the United States."
Farah, a former reporter for the Washington Post, is sharply critical of the Obama Administration's courtship of MB affiliates. Obama's approach closely resembles that of the Bush Administration, which all too often consisted of using Brotherhood organizations like CAIR, ISNA and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as vehicles for outreach to American Muslims, he said.
Government officials should have a clear policy to avoid doing anything that grants groups like, CAIR, NAIT, ISNA, MAS and the International Institute for Islamic Thought legitimacy, Farah said.
"We don't fund them. We don't have our pictures taken with them. We don't go to their [events]."
The reality, however, is dramatically different, as Democratic and Republican administrations have tried to cultivate the Brotherhood groups as part of a larger anti-terror effort focused on the American Muslim community.
Recent examples have included a State Department-financed trip to Africa by a CAIR executive who spent time trashing U.S. law enforcement; sending representatives of ISNA and the Islamic Circle of North America to represent the United States abroad; and a U.S. Census Bureau lease with a Virginia Islamic Center that law enforcement officials call a front for Hamas.
Senior Obama Administration officials, including Hussain and Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, have addressed ISNA's national conventions. White House security adviser John Brennan joined ISNA President Ingrid Mattson for a forum on national security at New York University earlier this year, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano invited ISNA and MAS representatives to a forum on "counter-radicalization."
The final report issued by Muslimserve - the organization set up to implement President Obama's faith-based initiative in the Muslim community – included a message from presidential appointee Dalia Mogahed thanking a number of groups including CAIR and ISNA for their work on the project. The report also showed the logos of CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and the Muslim American Society.
And the Obama Administration has invited groups like ISNA to attend iftar dinners [fast-breaking meals during Ramadan] held at the White House and at various federal agency offices.
According to Farah, that's exactly the wrong approach. Including MB groups at iftars and other events creates the false impression that they have been "vetted" and determined to be clean. In fact, both CAIR and ISNA were unindicted co-conspirators in the HLF prosecution. Five senior HLF officials were convicted of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas and sentenced to long prison terms.
One document introduced during the trial was an 18-page memorandum written in 1992 by Mohammed Akram, a member of the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It described the role the group sees for itself in America:
"The process of settlement in America is a Civilization-Jihadist process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
One tactic the Muslim Brotherhood uses in countries where Muslims are a minority is to "subvert" Muslim communities "so they become their de facto spokesmen," said former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs J. Scott Carpenter.
Having senior officials like Brennan and Napolitano meeting publicly with Mattson and others involved in Brotherhood-affiliate groups sent the wrong message to non-Islamist Muslims, according to Carpenter, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The government is accepting the Brotherhood as representatives of the larger Muslim community.
During his tenure at State, Carpenter said there were "unofficial guidances governing how State Department employees deal with Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The "general idea was that the Muslim Brotherhood should not benefit from U.S. taxpayer dollars."
The policy (Carpenter left the State Department in 2007 but believes the Obama Administration has continued) was unevenly enforced from country to country, depending on the ambassador and the position of the Muslim Brotherhood in a particular area. There was a lot of pushback from diplomats who argued that the United States needs to be able to talk with virtually anyone – including hostile groups like the MB.
According to Carpenter, diplomatic efforts to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood were undercut by democracy-promotion efforts in Iraq, where U.S. and Coalition forces found it necessary to work with Islamist parties that may have been involved with the Brotherhood. In Egypt, diplomats were barred from working with the MB as an organization but could deal with Brotherhood members of Parliament.
Washington sought to walk a fine line – opposing the Mubarak government's repressive policies without being seen as endorsing the Muslim Brotherhood. "You don't want these groups [the Brotherhood and sympathizers] undermining the state" he said, and do not want the United States to be seen as endorsing the Muslim Brotherhood over other political parties.
Carpenter dismissed the official explanation that the invitation to Muslim Brotherhood MPs to attend President Obama's June 2009 Cairo speech was purely the result of an Egyptian decision about who to invite. American presidents decide who they will meet on these trips and do not cede that choice to foreign governments, Carpenter said.
He believes the Obama Administration seems to believe that "political Islam is on the march." That world view "can become a self-fulfilling policy," he added.
It is difficult to avoid talking with the Muslim Brotherhood, Carpenter said, because it is present in so many Muslim counties. To avoid giving the Muslim Brotherhood a propaganda windfall, it is critical to limit interaction to low-level officials rather than ambassadors.
Author Lorenzo Vidino, a careful observer of Brotherhood activities in the United States, explains the government's inability to come up with a workable strategy to deal with MB affiliate groups inside the United States. In his book, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West, Vidino cites FBI Director Robert Mueller's statement that the Bureau does not have a responsibility to consider the ideological background of some of the organizations it engages with and the consequences of partnering with them.
"In an organization whose weltanschauung is based on obtaining convictions and staying away from thorny ideological issues, investigating Brotherhood networks is hardly a recipe for fast career advancement. In the words of a former FBI agent, 'investigating jihadists gets you a promotion, investigating brothers gets you a headache,'" Vidino writes.
It is understandable that people in the bureaucracy have positive impressions of some Brotherhood officials, said Stephen Coughlin, a former Army major who was the Pentagon's leading researcher on Islamic law. Having met numerous Brotherhood officials during his time in Washington, Coughlin said that, on a personal level, many of these people are quite friendly.
What officials fail to understand is that the Brotherhood people "are only doing outreach in order to subvert you," Coughlin said. "I believe the people in the federal bureaucracy [who take a benign view of some Brotherhood affiliated groups] want answers that are easy to get and make them feel good about themselves."
Rather than engage it, Coughlin believes the U.S. government should designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. While al Qaida seeks to destroy the United States through terrorism, the Brotherhood seeks to achieve this through "ideological subversion," he said. The MB and al-Qaida "are two sides of the same coin."
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday Double Treat: Al Qaeda's Leader For Afghanistan & Pakistan Killed In Drone Strike, South Waziristan Hit Today, 4 More Taliban Dead
You know, I go to The Long War Journal's site each day now and my eyes grow large, they brighten and then I get this HUGE smile on my face. :)
Tuesday's news couldn't get a whole lot better as it was discovered yet not confirmed, that al Qaeda's new leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sheikh Fateh al Masri, was killed in last week's drone attack where a fleeing jihadi vehicle was blown to smithereens. By the way, al Masri was celebrating just his third month of ruling over Afghanistan and Pakistan for al Qaeda - because his predecessor met a similar fate and now al Qaeda is out head-hunting (pardon the pun) for a new leader. Any takers out there?
From the article:
Tuesday's news couldn't get a whole lot better as it was discovered yet not confirmed, that al Qaeda's new leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sheikh Fateh al Masri, was killed in last week's drone attack where a fleeing jihadi vehicle was blown to smithereens. By the way, al Masri was celebrating just his third month of ruling over Afghanistan and Pakistan for al Qaeda - because his predecessor met a similar fate and now al Qaeda is out head-hunting (pardon the pun) for a new leader. Any takers out there?
From the article:
Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate the US has killed al Qaeda's newly appointed leader of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sheikh Fateh al Masri, the leader of Qaedat al Jihad fi Khorasan, or the base of the jihad in the Khorasan, was killed in a recent Predator strike, Pakistani intelligence officials told AFP.
US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said they were aware of the reports and were investigating. One US official confirmed that Fateh was targeted in the spate of recent strikes but cautioned that given the total control that the Taliban and al Qaeda have in North Waziristan, it is difficult to be certain Fateh was killed.
Al Qaeda has not released a martyrdom statement announcing Fateh's death. Such statements are often released on jihadist Internet forums days or weeks after a leader is killed.
Fateh is thought to have been killed in the Sept. 25 strike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan, a known haven for al Qaeda's top leaders. In that attack, US Predators or Reapers fired three missiles at a vehicle, killing four "militants."
Datta Khel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Despite the fact that Bahadar and the Haqqani Network shelter al Qaeda and other South and Central Asian terror groups, the Pakistani government and military refuse to take action in North Waziristan. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are viewed as "good Taliban" as they do not attack the Pakistani state.
Fatah replaced Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's former leader in Afghanistan, who was killed in the May 21 Predator airstrike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan. Yazid served as al Qaeda's chief financier and paymaster. Al Qaeda has not publicly named Yazid's replacement for its top financial official, nor is it likely to do so given the job's importance, intelligence officials said.
I find it interesting that both this al Qaeda leader and his predecessor both have been killed now in North Waziristan...I guess we can another reason why the U.S. has been pelting this agency in NW Pakistan so heavily. At the same time, I cannot fully explain how badly it hurts an organization like al Qaeda when they lose a leader like this - these top leaders are pretty secretive of all of their contacts and trust between the Taliban sects and such is hard to earn...so now some new chump basically has to start all over.
One can only hope that this news is confirmed shortly. Then we can really celebrate here at Holger.
By the way, just in case you want a second helping of good news...a U.S. predator drone strike hit SOUTH Waziristan today and killed four Taliban. Yessssss!
(File photo above)
US kills al Qaeda's leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan in Predator strike: Report
Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate the US has killed al Qaeda's newly appointed leader of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sheikh Fateh al Masri, the leader of Qaedat al Jihad fi Khorasan, or the base of the jihad in the Khorasan, was killed in a recent Predator strike, Pakistani intelligence officials told AFP.
US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said they were aware of the reports and were investigating. One US official confirmed that Fateh was targeted in the spate of recent strikes but cautioned that given the total control that the Taliban and al Qaeda have in North Waziristan, it is difficult to be certain Fateh was killed.
Al Qaeda has not released a martyrdom statement announcing Fateh's death. Such statements are often released on jihadist Internet forums days or weeks after a leader is killed.
Fateh is thought to have been killed in the Sept. 25 strike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan, a known haven for al Qaeda's top leaders. In that attack, US Predators or Reapers fired three missiles at a vehicle, killing four "militants."
Datta Khel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Despite the fact that Bahadar and the Haqqani Network shelter al Qaeda and other South and Central Asian terror groups, the Pakistani government and military refuse to take action in North Waziristan. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are viewed as "good Taliban" as they do not attack the Pakistani state.
Fatah replaced Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's former leader in Afghanistan, who was killed in the May 21 Predator airstrike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan. Yazid served as al Qaeda's chief financier and paymaster. Al Qaeda has not publicly named Yazid's replacement for its top financial official, nor is it likely to do so given the job's importance, intelligence officials said.
Fateh, like Yazid, is an Egyptian who is close to Ayman al Zawahiri. Egyptians hold a significant number of al Qaeda's top leadership positions.
The Khorasan is a region that encompasses large areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran. The Khorasan is considered by jihadists to be the place where they will inflict the first defeat against their enemies in the Muslim version of Armageddon. The final battle is to take place in the Levant - Israel, Syria, and Lebanon.
Mentions of the Khorasan have begun to increase in al Qaeda's propaganda since 2007. After al Qaeda's defeat in Iraq, the group began shifting its rhetoric from promoting Iraq as the central front in their jihad and has placed the focus on the Khorasan.
Is Iran Shuttling Terrorists Into Venezuela? Is the U.S. Their Target?
I like to think that I keep up on things and although I don't really get my news via the MSM, I do catch a bit of the likes of Katie Couric and Brian Williams from time to time and I gotta admit, I just haven't heard ANYTHING about the fact that there are two flights, each and every month, between Iran and then Syria and on to Venezuela. Isn't that a bit odd? I just didn't know that there was such a huge "tourist" draw in Venezuela for Persians from Iran and Baathists from Syria!
From the article at Family Security Matters:
Last week in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the press that if the United States attacked Iran over its nuclear program it would face war like it had never seen.
Bluster? Maybe, but it ain't an empty boast if you can do it.
And Iran may have already been making preparations to strike America should we come to blows over nukes -- or anything else.
How? "Terror Air."
For three years now, there's been a twice-monthly "Axis of Evil Express" that shuttles "passengers" between Iran, Syria and Venezuela -- with occasional stops in Lebanon.
The flights come courtesy of Iran Air and Conviasa (Venezuela's national airline), which insists it's filling the travel needs of Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Venezuelan business-people and tourists.
But a Pentagon report to Congress this year on Iranian military power noted that Iran's elite troops, the IRGC and Qods Force, are growing in number in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.
What better way to move terrorists, spooks, weapons -- and who knows what else -- than under the cover of an innocuous commercial flight?
The fact of the matter is this - south of the American border has become an absolute terrorist haven. We have troops in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq per the direction of our Commander-in-chief, fighting against giving terrorists a foothold in those countries, yet at the same time, our "leader" has completely ignored the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas congregating in South America and Mexico....he has looked the other way as drug cartel gangs have turned into terrorist cells in Mexico, complete now with car bombing expertise....and now, we see a pipeline of potential terrorists direct from Iran and Syria into the country south of our border that represents the most antagonistic foe of our Republic.
By the way, has anyone discussed the fact that these "businessmen" from Tehran arriving twice a month in Venezuela might just be scientists in business suits? You know, scientists that are visiting Hugo Chavez direct from their normal jobs at the Iranian nuclear facilities?
Axis of Evil Express: Terror Flights from Tehran to Caracas
Last week in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the press that if the United States attacked Iran over its nuclear program it would face war like it had never seen.
Bluster? Maybe, but it ain't an empty boast if you can do it.
And Iran may have already been making preparations to strike America should we come to blows over nukes -- or anything else.
How? "Terror Air."
For three years now, there's been a twice-monthly "Axis of Evil Express" that shuttles "passengers" between Iran, Syria and Venezuela -- with occasional stops in Lebanon.
The flights come courtesy of Iran Air and Conviasa (Venezuela's national airline), which insists it's filling the travel needs of Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Venezuelan business-people and tourists.
Now, there is commerce and cooperation going on between Iran and Venezuela on some industrial and manufacturing fronts (e.g., autos, tractors and petrochemicals) and energy matters.
But the tourism angle is a bit hard to swallow, even though there is a Middle Eastern diaspora in Latin America. Can't you almost see the Venezuelan family huddled over glossy travel brochures, explaining how much fun they'll have on vacation in the Islamic Republic of Iran?
Plus, the flight doesn't accept open bookings, as transport for entrepreneurs or sightseers surely would. No, these planes are most likely carrying bad actors from the likes of Hezbollah, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Guard's Qods Force.
Hezbollah has been in Latin America for some time now -- witness its attacks on the Israeli embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994, both in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as its documented drug and arms trafficking.
But a Pentagon report to Congress this year on Iranian military power noted that Iran's elite troops, the IRGC and Qods Force, are growing in number in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.
What better way to move terrorists, spooks, weapons -- and who knows what else -- than under the cover of an innocuous commercial flight?
The direct flight dodges risky transits through various immigration portals where the passengers might show up on terror watchlists. Military flights between Tehran and Caracas might also garner notice by foreign intelligence.
In fact, in 2008, the State Department wrote that passengers on these planes get only "cursory immigration and customs controls" in Caracas. Plus, easy-to-get Venezuelan IDs make the country a "potentially attractive way station for terrorists," allowing newly arrived passengers to pose as Venezolanos during travel in the region.
But why come to Venezuela?
Well, Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez have become quite chummy. The IRGC and Qods Force, which provide internal security and train and equip other terror groups, could be coming to tutor Chavez's security services.
It's also been reported Iranian "advisers" are embedded with the Venezuelan military. They may also be coaching the narco-terror group FARC, a Chavez ally, in its war with Colombia.
But, most important, with Tehran and Caracas' declared "axis of unity" against Washington, Iran (and its allies) might envision using Venezuela as a base camp for attacks on our interests in the region or even inside America.
There have been enough on-the-record suspicions about the Terror Air flight that some claim it'll soon be cancelled. That may be, but it doesn't mean its passengers have gone home or will no longer travel to the region -- far from it.
Indeed, Tehran's henchman will continue to help the anti-Yanqui Latin Left (e.g., Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia) to foment instability and subversion across the region -- while preparing terrorist action against us.
Remember: Although Ahmadinejad may seem to be little more than the Iranian regime's "yapping dog," that doesn't mean that when he threatens the United States (or Israel), he's crying wolf.
Muslim Teenager Detonates Chemical Bomb Outside Mosque In Maine, District Attorney In the Dark, Police Covering Up
This is quite simply, shocking. In a day and age in America when a 3 inch pipe bomb were to go off in a farmer's field in the middle of bumfuck Iowa, the national media and DHS squads would be on it like white on rice, we see at this report at Gadi Adelman's site that a muslim teen in Portland, Maine set off a chemical bomb outside of his mosque and the details of what happened and the subsequent investigation is about as secretive as the Warren Commission hearings.
From the article:
Last Tuesday evening at approximately 8:00pm an Islamic 13 year old detonated a bomb near the parking lot of the Islamic Society of Portland, Maine. Why was the DA’s office unaware this had happened?
Talk about things being ‘swept under the prayer rug’.
A fellow radio host of mine emailed me a story on Thursday night that I thought was a bit interesting, interesting because I had not seen or heard about it anywhere.
WCSH NBC Channel 6 out of Portland, Maine had posted the following story on their website Wednesday, September 22:
PORTLAND, ME (NEWS CENTER) -- Police say there were no injuries or damage caused by a chemical bomb that went off in a parking lot near the Islamic Society of Portland.
The bomb went off in the lot between the Islamic Society and Back Bay Grill around 8:00 PM Tuesday night. Portland Police say Islamic elders came forward to tell them that a 13 year old from the Society was experimenting and was responsible for the bomb. Another bomb was also found undetonated.
Police say it's unclear if charges will be filed against the teenagers.
I asked Asst. D.A. Thibeault what was happening with the case of the bomb that went off outside the Islamic Society of Portland. Her answer was “what bomb?” My reaction, of course, was to repeat the question and her answer was “I have not even heard about it.”
What? Could this be real? How has the District Attorney’s office not yet even heard about it? So, I read the story to her right off the WCHS website. I asked her if it didn’t concern her that an Islamic teenager had set off a bomb and told her that the police even found a second bomb. She replied that “it concerns me anytime anyone sets off a bomb regardless of their ethnicity.”
So, you have an assistant District Attorney in this smallish city in Maine who is clueless about a bloody bomb going off outside of a mosque in 2010....and when she tries to find out what is going on, she can't because the detective in charge is on vacation for a day.
So, let's recap here - a muslim teen detonates a chemical bomb outside of a mosque and has another undetonated bomb as well. The D.A.'s office is unaware of the incident and the police investigator is out of town. So perhaps this is just Maine...things work slower out there? Perhaps they are just way more tolerant of acts of terrorism and such in the state of Maine...you think? Take a look at this from the article:
Now here’s where I am a bit lost, back in April of 2007 a student was suspended from the Lewiston Maine Middle School for putting a ham sandwich down on a table where a Muslim student was also sitting. It was referred to as a “hate crime”. Part of the story from the Renew America website stated:
The latest incident of "Muslim outrage" involves a middle-school student purportedly placing a ham sandwich wrapped in a baggie on a lunch table where Somali Muslim students sit. One 14 year-old unnamed Somali student is reported to have said: "At the school the next day, I didn't feel safe. I felt like everybody was against me. Before I felt like I fit in, and everything was normal." The ham-placing "offending student" has been suspended, the Maine middle school is calling the placing of the ham sandwich a "hate crime" and the local police are investigating the child. More charges against the child may be forthcoming. School Superintendent Leon Levesque said: "The school incident is being treated seriously as a hate incident!"
So, a ham sandwich is considered “a ‘hate Crime’ and the local police are investigating the child. More charges against the child may be forthcoming”, but an Islamic teenager sets off a bomb and “Police say it's unclear if charges will be filed against the teenager”. Was the sandwich an exploding sandwich?
This story points out exactly what is going on in this country of ours right now - in a Land that was victim of the most horrific islamic terror attack in the world's history, in just 9 years since that attack, the islamists in America have been successful in setting themselves upon a pedestal in this society - threats of "islamophobia" have created a political correctness that has enveloped the entire muslim community in America in teflon.
Look at the final paragraph of Mr. Adelman's article and tell me this isn't dead on:
You can bet your Sharia Compliant local politicians that if that had been a non-Muslim 13 year old setting off a chemical bomb he would have been in cuffs and on every major network that night at 11pm. Oh, and of course, it would have been because his parents were Tea Partiers.
We live in an America where a grade schooler is brought up on charges for a hate crime for leaving an Oscar Mayer lunch meat sandwich on cafeteria table yet a muslim teen blows up a bomb in a mosque parking lot and every single detail is swept under the rug.
Welcome to the effects of the Soft Jihad, people.
(Hat Tip: Radio Jihad)
Portland, Maine: DA’s Office Not Told of Teenager’s Bomb
Last Tuesday evening at approximately 8:00pm an Islamic 13 year old detonated a bomb near the parking lot of the Islamic Society of Portland, Maine. Why was the DA’s office unaware this had happened?
Talk about things being ‘swept under the prayer rug’.
A fellow radio host of mine emailed me a story on Thursday night that I thought was a bit interesting, interesting because I had not seen or heard about it anywhere.
WCSH NBC Channel 6 out of Portland, Maine had posted the following story on their website Wednesday, September 22:
PORTLAND, ME (NEWS CENTER) -- Police say there were no injuries or damage caused by a chemical bomb that went off in a parking lot near the Islamic Society of Portland.
The bomb went off in the lot between the Islamic Society and Back Bay Grill around 8:00 PM Tuesday night. Portland Police say Islamic elders came forward to tell them that a 13 year old from the Society was experimenting and was responsible for the bomb. Another bomb was also found undetonated.
Police say it's unclear if charges will be filed against the teenagers.
That’s it? That was the whole story? A 13 year old sets off a bomb, police even state “another bomb was found undetonated.” It happened near the Islamic Society, the Islamic elders admitted the 13 year old was from the society and “it's unclear if charges will be filed against the teenager?”
I’m sorry but I for one don’t want some ‘Junior Jihadi’ running around making chemical bombs anywhere and getting away with it by saying it was some “experiment” gone wrong.
I needed to find out what had happened to this ‘Junior Jihadi’ so I contacted the District Attorney’s office in Portland, Maine and what I found out scared me more than a teacher with a twitch in a suicide bomber class.
Friday morning I spoke to the head of the Juvenile Justice Division, Prosecution Team Leader, Assistant District Attorney, Christine Thibeault.
I asked Asst. D.A. Thibeault what was happening with the case of the bomb that went off outside the Islamic Society of Portland. Her answer was “what bomb?” My reaction, of course, was to repeat the question and her answer was “I have not even heard about it.”
What? Could this be real? How has the District Attorney’s office not yet even heard about it? So, I read the story to her right off the WCHS website. I asked her if it didn’t concern her that an Islamic teenager had set off a bomb and told her that the police even found a second bomb. She replied that “it concerns me anytime anyone sets off a bomb regardless of their ethnicity.”
Okay, good answer. I followed up with “given the current situation with the Ground Zero mosque and homegrown terror in this country does is not concern you that a teenager who is Muslim set off a bomb outside the Islamic Society and you have yet to hear about it?” Asst. D.A. Thibeault answered that question directly, “Yes it does and soon as we get off the phone I am calling the Portland Police Department to find out about it.”
That still didn’t sit well with me so I asked the Asst. D.A. what the procedure was for cases involving juveniles in Maine. She explained that “if it was the person’s first offense the police could choose to handle it informally with in their own community”. She promised to call me back after contacting the Portland PD and a few hours later she did.
When Thibeault called me back she informed me that she was now aware of the incident, but that the Detective in charge of the case was off until Monday, so she really could not give me any further information. She did explain to me that she now had the name of the ‘Junior Jihadi’ in question and that she had never heard of him. She also confirmed that it was only one individual that was involved and not “teenagers” as reported in the last line of the WCHS story.
Given the explanation that I received during our first conversation I asked “where do you draw the line of the ‘first offense’? Isn’t it a bit more serious when that first offense involves a bomb that can kill or damage property?” She did agree with that and said that she would contact me as soon as she had spoken with the detective in charge.
This is by no means the fault of Asst. D.A. Christine Thibeault. She sounded as concerned as I was and was as helpful as she could be, given that she was totally unaware of the incident. This all falls directly on the Portland P.D. for not notifying the D.A.’s office to begin with.
This incident took place on Tuesday September 21 and I spoke with the D.A.’s office on Friday the 24th, the Detective in charge is off until Monday the 27th and the D.A. was still unaware of it until my telephone call.
I don’t want to hear the Portland PD say that they were investigating and were planning on telling the D.A.’s office later, blah, blah, blah. Bull! This is something that should the Juvenile Justice Division of the D.A.’s office should have at the very least, been made aware of on Wednesday the 22nd even if an investigation were on going.
Now here’s where I am a bit lost, back in April of 2007 a student was suspended from the Lewiston Maine Middle School for putting a ham sandwich down on a table where a Muslim student was also sitting. It was referred to as a “hate crime”. Part of the story from the Renew America website stated:
The latest incident of "Muslim outrage" involves a middle-school student purportedly placing a ham sandwich wrapped in a baggie on a lunch table where Somali Muslim students sit. One 14 year-old unnamed Somali student is reported to have said: "At the school the next day, I didn't feel safe. I felt like everybody was against me. Before I felt like I fit in, and everything was normal." The ham-placing "offending student" has been suspended, the Maine middle school is calling the placing of the ham sandwich a "hate crime" and the local police are investigating the child. More charges against the child may be forthcoming. School Superintendent Leon Levesque said: "The school incident is being treated seriously as a hate incident!"
So, a ham sandwich is considered “a ‘hate Crime’ and the local police are investigating the child. More charges against the child may be forthcoming”, but an Islamic teenager sets off a bomb and “Police say it's unclear if charges will be filed against the teenager”. Was the sandwich an exploding sandwich?
This is where we have come to in this country people. I am tired of screaming about it week after week. Allah forbid we insult the Muslims in any way, shape or form, but charge the non-Muslim with a hate crime.
There is no telling what will happen with this ‘Junior Jihadi’, whether any charges will be filed and if so, if he will even be found guilty is anyone’s guess. But one thing is for sure here, had I not contacted the District Attorney’s office they would not have heard about it.
You can bet your Sharia Compliant local politicians that if that had been a non-Muslim 13 year old setting off a chemical bomb he would have been in cuffs and on every major network that night at 11pm. Oh, and of course, it would have been because his parents were Tea Partiers.
Monday, September 27, 2010
U.S., Britain, France and the U.N. Traveling To Israel To Force the Israelis To Stop Building Settlements On Their Own Land
As predictable as it is, western nations and the United (MUSLIM) Nations have voiced their disappointment and outrage at the idea that the Israelis have refused to extend their moratorium on settlement building - you remember, the settlement thing is what the Palestinians feel is the stumbling block to peace...until the Israelis agree to halt it and then the Palestinians come up with a new stumbling block.
But for the British, French and Americans to embarrass themselves this way is beyond the pale - we have the likes of France who is going through a huge dispute in their country about banning the burqa and deporting gypsies out of their country, but they are going to be all high and mighty and object to Israeli settlements on their own land? Bullshit is what this is and I won't even go down the path of what the Obama administration is going to make out of this.
I don't know about you folks, but I'm sick and bloody tired of America and the rest of the West insisting on telling the Israelis how to run their affairs - seems to me I didn't see any of these Western leaders traveling to Israel when that nation needed to bury the bodies of IDF soldiers Goldwasser and Regev. Seems to me there wasn't a peep said by these Western leaders when Israel had to bury the dead students of theirs after the seminary massacre. And the crowd was void of any Sarkozy or Obama when Israelis gathered in a cemetery to buy an infant killed in a market bombing.
The hypocrisy here stinks. Give me one damn day as President of the U.S.A. and let me issue the following statement:
Considering the daily struggle and battle that Israel confronts to protect her citizens and simply to survive, I am saying here and now that the United States fully supports the Israeli building of settlements on their own land. To think that a friend and ally of Israel would disrespect them in this matter and take the side of the Palestinians, is beyond the pale. If the Palestinian Authority is serious about Middle East peace, let them step up to the plate and denounce the Hamas charter, let them agree to the long and everlasting life of the Israeli nation and let them agree to present borders for a potential new state.
There, that wasn't hard. Why don't you try that one out, Barry?
Here's the article at The Jerusalem Post.
US joins condemnation of renewed settlement building
The United States and the UN joined a growing global condemnation of Israel's decision not to extend the building moratorium on Monday. Earlier, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherin Aston all issued condemnations of Israel for allowing the freeze to expire.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on Monday told reporters that the US was "disappointed, but we remain focused on our long-term objective and will be talking to the parties about the implications of the Israeli decision." He said the U.S. position in support of extending the freeze on settlements remained unchanged and praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for not immediately walking out of the talks.
Crowley also announced that the Obama administration's special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell will return to the region on Tuesday to continue urgent efforts to break a deadlock in negotiations over Israeli settlements. Mitchell will hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials later in the week
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed his disappointment that Israel had not decided to extend its policy of settlement restraint on Monday. Ban reiterated that "settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, is illegal under international law, and urged Israel to fulfill its roadmap obligation to freeze settlement activity."
Israel allowed the 10-month West Bank building moratorium to expire early Monday morning despite calls from world leaders to extend it and threats from the Palestinian Authority that they would leave the current peace talks if the freeze was not extended.
Earlier in the day, noting that Netanyahu had promised him to limit West Bank construction, French President Sarkozy expressed his regret that Israel did not extend the construction freeze.
British Foreign Secretary Hague also urged Israel to renew the building moratorium in the West Bank amid fears the expiry of the 10-month ban could "scupper Middle East peace efforts," according to Israel Radio on Monday.
Hague's statements reflected "widespread international concern" that the issue could derail the latest direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
EU Foreign Policy Chief Ashton's "strongly regrets" the Israeli move and that "the position of the EU is very clear: settlements are illegal under international law, constitute and obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible," Ashton's spokesman told DPA on Monday.
You Know the Drill, U.S. Predator + North Waziristan = 4 Dead Taliban
Three U.S. predator drone strikes in three days have gone down in North Waziristan and it's like an early birthday present for yours truly. We just keep hammering and hammering the Taliban in the NW Pakistani agency and today's strike removed four malignant Taliban from the earth.
From the article at The Long War Journal:
But hell yeah, this is freaking AWESOME!
From the article at The Long War Journal:
US Predators or the more deadly Reapers struck for the third time in three days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.I almost don't want to go on and on about how regular these strikes are becoming because I don't want to put a jinx on it and see them stop, so mum's the word!
Unmanned Predator or Reaper strike aircraft fired two missiles today at a known Taliban compound in the village of Khushali Toorikhel near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Four "militants" were reported killed in the airstrike.
“We can now confirm that four militants were killed when a US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed in the strike, and the target has not been disclosed.
The village of Khushali Toorikhel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar struck a deal with the Pakistani government not to shelter Taliban fighters from Hakeemullah Mehsud's branch of the Taliban, which is based in South Waziristan. But Bahadar has repeatedly violated his pact with the Pakistani government.
But hell yeah, this is freaking AWESOME!
US kills 4 'militants' in latest Predator strike in Pakistan
US Predators or the more deadly Reapers struck for the third time in three days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Unmanned Predator or Reaper strike aircraft fired two missiles today at a known Taliban compound in the village of Khushali Toorikhel near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Four "militants" were reported killed in the airstrike.
“We can now confirm that four militants were killed when a US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed in the strike, and the target has not been disclosed.
The village of Khushali Toorikhel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar struck a deal with the Pakistani government not to shelter Taliban fighters from Hakeemullah Mehsud's branch of the Taliban, which is based in South Waziristan. But Bahadar has repeatedly violated his pact with the Pakistani government.
The US has carried out one other strike in the village of Khushali Toorikhel, on April 26, 2010. In that attack, US strike aircraft fired three missiles at the compound owned by known "local rebel commander Haleem Khan," killing eight suspected militants who were thought to be from South Waziristan.
Bahadar's tribal areas hit hard in Predator attacks
The areas in North Waziristan controlled by Bahadar and by the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network have been hit especially hard by the US this year. In 2010 so far, 76 percent of the year's strikes have hit targets in territory controlled by Bahadar (36 strikes) or Haqqani (20 strikes). Eleven of the 20 strikes in Pakistan this month have hit targets in Bahadar's territory.
Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups. Several of al Qaeda's top commanders, including Mustafa Abu Yazid, the chief financial official and commander in Afghanistan, and Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of al Qaeda's military, have been killed in Predator strikes in Bahadar's areas in the last year.
The Pakistani government and military refuse to take action against Bahadar as he is considered a "good Taliban" leader. Bahadar, like the Haqqanis, does not advocate attacks against the Pakistani state and is viewed as strategic depth against Indian influence in Afghanistan.
The Predator strikes, by the numbers
The pace of the strikes this month is unprecedented since the US began the air campaign in Pakistan in 2004. The 20 strikes this month is a record number. The previous high was 11 strikes in January 2010, after the Taliban and al Qaeda executed a successful suicide attack at Combat Outpost Chapman that targeted CIA personnel who were active in gathering intelligence for the Predator campaign in Pakistan. In the bombing at COP Chapman, seven CIA officials and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed.
The US has carried out 74 attacks inside Pakistan this year, which is more than double the number of strikes in Pakistan just two years ago. The US exceeded last year's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram late last month. In 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010.]
All but eight of this year's 74 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan. Of the eight strikes that have occurred outside of North Waziristan, six took place in South Waziristan, one occurred in Khyber, and one took place in Kurram.
The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda's external operations. [For a list of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010.]
Is the Election Fraud Conducted By Kansas City Somalis a Prelude To the Democrats Strategy To Hijack the November Elections?
This article, from American Thinker, is disturbing - to say the least. It deals with an election primary in Kansas City that pitted a strongly conservative Democrat against a far, far left candidate for the Democrats - the leftist won ...but HOW he won is what is sending chills through the conservative community in America.
First, let me just say that most of us have not forgotten what happened regarding the voter fraud of 2008's Presidential election - the fact that ACORN was busted for voter fraud with many of its officials in several states now serving time in prison should be enough to shatter the dreams of all American voters. Let's throw in the debacle that occurred with the "election" of Senator Al Franken in Minnesota and there is cause for real concern on what the Left will do in November.
Let's look at what happened in Kansas City:
Through a combination of massive, Somali-driven voter fraud, stunning Election Board incompetence, and the willful blindness of the Kansas City Star, machine Democrat J.J. Rizzo managed to beat conservative Democrat Will Royster by one vote in a Missouri State House primary on August 3.
There is no Republican running in this heavily Democratic, multi-ethnic Kansas City district. The Democratic nominee will face only a seriously outgunned Libertarian in the November election, and truth be told, Royster may be to the right of the Libertarian.
Royster, a retired Navy fighter pilot and all-around good citizen, asks a fundamental question: "If we won't let Somalis hijack our ships, why do we let them hijack our elections?" As many as a hundred Somalis voted, nearly all of them illegally, likely all of them for Royster's opponent, in a House district in which only 1,300 people showed up to vote.
First to testify was Lindy Hobkins, a Republican supervisory election judge. As she related, a group of Somalis came into her Kansas City election site led by one Somali man.
"They were unable to communicate on the most basic levels," said Hobkins of the Somalis. To help his voters along, the leader "left the premises, went outside to where the electioneers are out at the appropriate space allotted for them, and he brought in a sign for Mr. Rizzo." Hobkins continued: he "held it up and pointed at it and said this one, this one, this one."
Hobkins knew the law. "How could they be registered to vote," she asked Raymond, "if they did not know how to speak English on any level?"
At the end of the day, Judge Stephen Nixon, a product of the same machinery that produced the Election Board, ruled against Royster. No new election, no serious recount.
So, that is what the voting process has come to in America? A busload of non-English speaking immigrants are brought into a polling place and a "concerned citizen" holds up a sign in their native language and tells them which candidate to vote for? And just HOW did those Somalis get registered? Hmmm....you don't suppose that "concerned citizen" might have taken care of that FOR them do you?
What we can't lose sight of in this particular situation is that many, many of the races for House seats across this country literally come down to margins of victory less than 500 votes...some closer to 100 votes. When you consider that a Democrat could repel a Republican challenger by 200 votes out of say, 10,000 votes cast...well, you can see what a strong voter registration of fraudulent voters could mean.
So, I ask the question of all of you. Let's just say that a number of races that have been called for Republicans in November turn out to be won by Democrats ... how many of you are going to wonder just what happened? And what if fraud is found like it was in 2008? When ACORN did its dirty deed in 2008, most people agree that it didn't involve the kind of numbers to have affected the actual election of Barack Hussein Obama, but what about a Leftist who wins by 115 votes and takes a House seat away from the Conservative? Can this country survive that kind of tainting to our election process?
Sneak Preview: The Hijacking of the 2010 Election
Through a combination of massive, Somali-driven voter fraud, stunning Election Board incompetence, and the willful blindness of the Kansas City Star, machine Democrat J.J. Rizzo managed to beat conservative Democrat Will Royster by one vote in a Missouri State House primary on August 3.
There is no Republican running in this heavily Democratic, multi-ethnic Kansas City district. The Democratic nominee will face only a seriously outgunned Libertarian in the November election, and truth be told, Royster may be to the right of the Libertarian.
What the Democratic machine and the Star, which endorsed Rizzo, did not count on was for the intrepid Royster to challenge the election in court. In so doing, he has provided a sneak preview on how a desperate Democratic Party will attempt to neutralize the will of the people this November, and not just in Kansas City.
Royster, a retired Navy fighter pilot and all-around good citizen, asks a fundamental question: "If we won't let Somalis hijack our ships, why do we let them hijack our elections?" As many as a hundred Somalis voted, nearly all of them illegally, likely all of them for Royster's opponent, in a House district in which only 1,300 people showed up to vote.
The trial on September 7 in Jackson County, Missouri Circuit Court revealed several disturbing trends, some of which can be corrected by election day, some of which cannot.
First to testify was Lindy Hobkins, a Republican supervisory election judge. As she related, a group of Somalis came into her Kansas City election site led by one Somali man.
"They were unable to communicate on the most basic levels," said Hobkins of the Somalis. To help his voters along, the leader "left the premises, went outside to where the electioneers are out at the appropriate space allotted for them, and he brought in a sign for Mr. Rizzo." Hobkins continued: he "held it up and pointed at it and said this one, this one, this one."
In a disturbing little twist, David Raymond, the attorney for the Kansas City Election Board, grilled Hobkins as though she were a hostile witness. After she acknowledged that the Somalis were all somehow registered to vote, Raymond asked snidely, "Do you believe these voters should be disenfranchised?"
Hobkins was more than a match for Raymond. She and her husband had been helping refugees resettle. "The biggest deterrent to them becoming citizens, because they all want to be American citizens when they come here," she noted, "is that they do not have a handle on the language to be able to pass the test."
I checked the rules for citizenship. According to the official site for French-speakers (sorry, I don't speak Somali), an individual has to "connaître l'anglais et être au courant de l'histoire et du gouvernement des États-Unis." This translates to "know the English language and be current in the history and government of the United States." I cannot imagine that the requirements for Somalis are any different.
Hobkins knew the law. "How could they be registered to vote," she asked Raymond, "if they did not know how to speak English on any level?" Other than Hobkins, Royster, and Royster's attorney, no one else involved -- the Democratic Party, the Star, the Election Board, the trial judge -- expressed the slightest interest in the answer to this question.
Wendy Jones, an election judge at a separate polling place, provided even more damning testimony. "Did you notice groups of Somali voters entering the premises?" Royster's attorney asked. "Oh my gosh, all day long," she answered. When asked how many voters she saw, Jones answered, "To be honest, more than 50. That's the truth, your honor, more than 50."
According to the law, as the Republican co-director of the Election Board would testify, a person "with a disability or who cannot read or write" must state his disability under oath, sign and date a voter assistance card, and then have two judges sign and date the card. This voter can be assisted only by a judge or by a person the voter has sworn to be a family member. This procedure is usually reserved for the blind or seriously disabled.
Of the fifty-plus Somalis at Jones' polling place, not a single one was asked to sign a voter assistance card despite the fact that they all needed assistance from their "interpreters." Said Jones, "I witnessed myself seeing [the interpreters] fill out the ballots, actually fill out the ballots and actually tell the people ... where to fill it out at, what to sign."
When the interpreters, four of them, were asked why the Somali voters needed help, according to Jones, "Someone said they were blind, some of them said they couldn't read, some of them said they couldn't write. These are the excuses all day long that we had for these four individuals to vote with them and for them."
When Jones appealed to the Democratic supervisory judge for help, he reportedly told her, "You know, we all just want to make a little money here and just get out, just make the best of it and just -- let's go home."
Several other election judges testified, and none of them disputed what Jones and Hobkins said. A little unnerving was that other than Hobkins and Jones, the election judges had a hard time getting their nouns and verbs to agree. The collective ignorance of election law from top to bottom in the Kansas City Election Board stuns the observer.
One Somali did testify. An employee of the Somali Foundation, Abdul Kadir Sheikh told the court, under oath, of course, that he had taken Election Day off work because his wife was expecting a baby that day. Sheikh, allegedly a citizen, said that he had gone to Jones' polling site to vote but could not find his name on the voter rolls and so did not vote.
It just so happened, though, that while at the polling place, another Somali man approached Sheikh and asked for help voting. Sheikh obliged. That was it. As it happened, his baby was not born that day after all. "We didn't have any experience," Shiekh told the court. It was his first child.
One doubts that Sheikh will ever be challenged on his word, but Royster had already collected affidavits from two other poll watchers at that same site. Said one, "I personally witnessed Abdul Kadir Sheikh escort approximately (30) Somali voters into the polling place." A second person saw Sheik "sign their names in the registration book." This person claimed to have seen "more than 30" such people.
At the end of the day, Judge Stephen Nixon, a product of the same machinery that produced the Election Board, ruled against Royster. No new election, no serious recount.
Nixon took the same position that Rizzo's attorney had taken in his question to the Republican co-director. "Should a qualified voter, an American citizen, if you will, should they be disenfranchised, that is, should their vote not count because a judge forgot to initial the ballot[?]" As Nixon saw it, these good Somali citizens should not be "disenfranchised" -- the Democrat word du jour--because of multiple judges' errors. Royster is appealing.
The Kansas City Star has given this challenge only the slightest coverage. And in no article in a print edition has the word "Somali" appeared in relationship to the controversy.
In November, rest assured, the Somali vote and that of others of dubious citizenship will be turned against Republicans. There is a way for readers to fight this. Call your local Election Board today. Sign up to be a judge or a poll watcher. Ask for an inner-city precinct. And make sure you know the law better than your Democratic counterpart does. It won't be hard.
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