(Hat tip: Kel)
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Muslim Mother Burns Teen Daughter Over Arranged Marriage
Child Abuse Charges for Hollywood Mother Who Burned Teen Daughter Over Arranged Marriage: Cops
A South Florida mother who used a knife to burn her teen daughter after the girl resisted her parents' wishes to marry her cousin in an arranged marriage is facing child abuse charges, Hollywood Police said Tuesday.
Sahar Thabit, 35, was arrested Friday and is facing three counts of child abuse on her 17-year-old daughter, according to a Hollywood Police arrest affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the abuse began in early January when Thabit used a stove to heat up the metal on the knife and burn her daughter's arm three times, twice on her left forearm and once on her upper right arm.
"I swear to God I didn't see anything," the victim's grandfather, Ali Alomari, told NBC 6 outside the family's home Tuesday.
The burns caused permanent disfigurement, the report noted.
A friend of the girl reported the abuse to a school administrator, who later called police, the affidavit said.
According to the friend, the teen said her parents became upset because she didn't want to marry her cousin, but wanted to marry a boy in Yemen she had met on the Internet, the affidavit said.
The daughter later told police that she had been talking to the boy in Yemen through the Internet, even though it's not allowed in the family's religion.
The girl's friend also said the parents verbally and mentally abused their daughter calling her a whore and slut, the affidavit said. The friend also said the girl had attempted suicide over the incident, the affidavit said.
When the victim's father was questioned by detectives, he claimed she had been burned by a stove until it was pointed out that the burns were in three different areas, the affidavit said. The father then asked for an attorney, the affidavit said.
The girl's grandfather gave the same explanation Tuesday, saying, "She burned herself in the stove."
After interviewing witnesses and the victim, police determined Thabit had placed the knife on her daughter's arms, the affidavit said.
Detectives weren't able to interview Thabit because she only speaks Arabic, the affidavit said. She was arrested and later released on bond, and it's unknown whether she has an attorney.
The girl's father told NBC 6 over the phone that the family is going through difficult times with the allegations and said he had no comment.
Lenore Walker, a psychology professor at Nova Southeastern University, said the alleged abuse in the case is similar to an honor killing.
”The rationale is that you're shaming your family by getting involved with a boy or a man who is unacceptable for whatever reason. In this particular case, it's because she was promised to another man and so she talked on the Internet, not even face to face," Walker said.
The Sobering Account of Gilad Schalit's Capture By Hamas
The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.
Gilad Schalit's capture: In his own words
In conversations with a psychologist after his return to Israel from five years in captivity, Gilad Schalit expressed fears over the IDF investigation he would undergo. Schalit knew exactly what he was worried about – he knew all too well the circumstances that led to his captivity. He knew that there was no military glory in what had happened there, on that night. He knew that he did not do his duty as an IDF combat soldier and did not even do the minimum to prevent his own capture.
Schalit knew that he had effectively given himself up on June 25, 2006, been taken captive without firing even one bullet, despite the fact that he could have prevented the entire situation with relative ease. He was very concerned indeed over his meeting with the military investigators.
But in contrast to other cases of soldiers being taken prisoner or abducted, the IDF was handling Schalit with kid gloves.
The soldier had become “the child of us all,” whose years of absence were etched on the national consciousness – and it was a sentiment that had infected the IDF as well.
There weren’t real investigations; there were neither interrogation rooms nor investigative tricks. Schalit was not subjected to the same treatment as former Hezbollah captive Elhanan Tannenbaum, for example. He was treated as the nation’s sweetheart.
The experts who examined Schalit identified his fears and alerted the investigators to possible trauma. He continued his military service. He became a superstar, with a life of privilege.
He delighted in the massive wave of warmth that washed over him, all the benefits that were showered upon him. He had given years of his life to his country; it may not have been a voluntary act, but even so it was one that was duly noted.
The day of his release, October 18, 2011, became a kind of national holiday. Traffic of streets was at a standstill, the collective tears of happiness flowed freely and even IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz branded him a “hero.”
Watching Schalit’s return, it was impossible not to have been teary-eyed. It happened to me, too, despite my years of writing opinion pieces against the deal-in-the-making, and even presenting a list of arguments as to why a rational country could not take such a step of capitulation. It seemed to me to be a national failure.
But ultimately, and after changing his own stance and betraying his own ideological principles, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided to pay the high price for Schalit’s freedom. Even today, I still don’t know if he did the right thing.
In the meantime, another intifada hasn’t broken out, and Israel has survived Schalit’s release. True, some of the prisoners who were freed have since been re-arrested, and launched a hunger strike that threatens to ignite the Palestinian territories, but the bottom line is that the soldier came home and started a new life, and Israeli society held firm to the solidarity for which is it famous. Only history can judge who was right, if it is at all appropriate to say if anyone in this whole affair was in the right.
This story is the story of Gilad Schalit. This is his version, as told to the IDF investigators who questioned him. As stated, he feared his encounters with them; he was ashamed of what he had to tell them, yet he did so with an honesty that truly inspires respect. He didn’t try to conceal the truth; he told them he’d failed and acknowledged that he had not done his duty. He said this willingly, without any coercion or pressure.
Schalit has a phenomenal memory, he knows exactly what happened on each day of his captivity, when he was moved from place to place, what he ate, what was done and what happened.
And thus, for his interrogators, Gilad Schalit went over the details of the attack that led to his capture. Here is Schalit’s version, almost in its entirety (which the exception of the details that were redacted by the censor).
The attack took place in the pre-dawn darkness. Schalit’s tank crew was on guard duty outside the Gaza Strip. During the night, the crew took it in turns to rest – two keeping watch and two sleeping.
With the dawn, everyone was supposed to be awake, in his place and battle ready. At this stage, there is a communications check with the rest of the troops in the field, as well as with the operations room, and everyone reports that they are ready. This is what Schalit’s tank team should have been doing.
In reality, just one of the four-man team was awake – the rest were sleeping the sleep of the just. The driver was in the driver’s seat, the gunner (Schalit) was in his place, the comms guy in his and the commander in the commander’s turret.
Schalit was what is known in the army as “rosh katan” (literally, small head, and meaning someone with little or no initiative).
He was assigned for operational duty without knowing what was going on around him, the makeup of the area, or where the enemy lay. He had attended meetings and briefings before setting out on the mission, but had not immersed himself in the details. He was, after all, a member of a team, and trusted in his commander.
If he had listened to the company commander of the sector, who had issued detailed briefings, he would have known that there had been an explicit warning from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) about a possible Hamas infiltration from Gaza, perhaps via a tunnel, and an attempt to kidnap a soldier. If he had been aware that in his vicinity – and just a few minutes away – there were reinforcements, perhaps it could have changed the face of the battle and even prevented the abduction.
In the briefing before the operation, it was clearly stated where everyone was located in the field, the deployment layout and more. A unit from the Engineering Corps had been situated 200 meters from Schalit’s tank, next to the border fence, throughout the night. Col. Avi Peled, the senior commander in the sector, who was suffering from a manpower shortage, had wanted to give back-up to the tanks in the field, and had brought in the team from the Engineering Corps, assigned as a personal favor.
It would have been possible for Schalit to call on this backup, had he known that they were there, but he had not been paying attention when the information was imparted.
“I didn’t listen,” he admitted to the investigators. “The commander was listening, and that was enough. I trusted him.”
When the attack began, he was sleeping in his gunner’s seat, deep inside the tank. His personal weapon was on the floor underneath him; he wasn’t wearing his helmet, his bullet- proof vest was hanging on the back of the chair, and maybe his flak jacket was on. Maybe not.
As it turns out, the vest and the flak jacket saved his life. Schalit went to sleep at 4:35 a.m. Until then, he had been on guard in the commander’s post, and had been relieved by a team member. Twenty-five minutes later, he was awoken by the impact of a rocket-propelled grenade striking the tank. He looked up to see the tank commander, Lt. Hanan Barak, and the driver, St.-Sgt. Pavel Slutzker, climbing out of the tank at speed.
“Gilad, get out of the tank!” Barak yelled at him. From beneath him, he could hear the voice of Cpl. Roi Amitai, calling “Hanan, Hanan,” but Barak and Slutzker were already out.
The command to leave the tank contravened operational orders. An RPG cannot do significant damage to a Merkava 3 tank, and this was a light strike on the side. Yes, it caused shock and agitation, but even so, this was no reason to abandon the tank – it wasn’t on fire, the grenade had caused minimal damage, the electronic systems were working, and no one on the team had been wounded.
Following the attack, after it was all over, an army technician went to the tank, turned on the engine and drove it away. The tank that Schalit had been in was capable of continuing to fight. A tank like this is a powerful war machine, with an effective, precise and swift cannon; it has three machine guns, primed and ready at the touch of the trigger, not to mention all the other advanced weaponry on board.
And yet the crew fled. I’m not here to place blame. Under fire and in the heat of battle, people make mistakes, people don’t always stick to their orders; it has happened, does happen and will happen in every Israeli war. It was a judgment call at that moment, and ultimately, that call cost Hanan Barak and Pavel Slutzker their lives. Two people died in the tank attack, and their names far less familiar to Israelis than that of the captive for whose protection they made the ultimate sacrifice.
The officers questioning the post-captivity Schalit asked him if he had left the tank.
“No, I didn’t leave,” he replied.
“Why?” “Because the tank seemed safer than there, outside,” he said. “Outside is dangerous. Inside was protected.”
With the departure of Barak and Slutzker, Schalit heard the rattle of light weapons being fired. It was this gunfire that killed the two crew members, and they fell from the tank onto the ground. Schalit heard them fall, then quiet, and realized that the two, one of whom was his commander, were either dead or seriously wounded.
Cpl. Roi Amitai, who had been fast asleep at the time of the attack, was trapped in his spot in the tank. Schalit understood that he was alone. He decided to stay in the tank, and not get out and fight.
He had options, however, from inside. There was the machine gun, set up to be operated by the gunner without any need to stick his head out of the vehicle; he could have let off a few rounds and let the world know that the Merkava was still operational and in the fight. Yet he stayed put, in his seat, and hoped for the best.
Outside, at the same time, there were a total of two militants. The cell which had infiltrated from Gaza was seven strong. Two struck at an IDF post, wounded several soldiers and tried to flee. Both died.
Three more attacked an empty IDF armored personnel carrier some distance away, and the other two hit the tank. If the tank crew had remained inside the tank, it would have been easy to take out their attackers.
Even Schalit, alone as he was, should have been able to manage it. At this point Schalit was sitting in the gunner’s seat, praying for it to just be over. Then one of militants approached and threw two or three grenades into the turret. Schalit doesn’t recall the explosion of the grenades, but he does remember the smoke very well.
His bullet-proof vest and his flak jacket, hanging on the back of the chair, absorbed most of the impact. The chair was completely shredded.
Schalit, miraculously, was lightly wounded with shrapnel in his elbow and rear. He was scared, shocked. He stayed in the tank for a minute or two until the smoke spread throughout the turret and he found it hard to breathe. Then he decided, finally, to leave. He left unarmed. His gun, a deadly M-16, he left on the floor of the turret. In military terms, this is called abandoning your weapon.
If only Schalit had taken his gun with him when he left the tank; if only he had seen the militant approach the tank and start to climb up it. He could have taken him out easily, but he was not in battle mode. This is what Schalit himself told the investigators. Schalit’s tank did not fire a single bullet.
California Muslim Woman Sentenced To Five Years In Prison For Sending Money To Taliban In Pakistan To Kill U.S. Troops
Luckily, she was nabbed as she tried to fly back to Turkey on a one way ticket. So now she's in an American prison for five years and then she is deported back to Turkey.
I'd just as soon have seen her executed.
The story comes from Times of India.
Turkish woman sentenced to jail for funding Pakistan terror outfit
WASHINGTON: A Turkish woman was sentenced to five years in jail by a US court on charges of sending money to a terrorist outfit in Pakistan for attacks against American military personnel.
40-year-old Oytun Ayse Mihalik, a lawful permanent resident of the US residing in California, had pleaded guilty last August to one count of providing material support to terrorists.
When she pleaded guilty, Mihalik specifically admitted that she provided money to an individual in Pakistan with the intention that the money would be used to prepare for and carry out attacks against US military personnel and other persons overseas, the US Justice Department said today.
Using the alias Cindy Palmer, Mihalik sent a total of USD 2,050 in three wire transfers to the person in Pakistan over the course of three weeks at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.
"International terrorists require a steady pipeline of money to maintain and support their operations," said US Attorney Andre Birotte.
"The defendant in this case knowingly and deliberately made wire transfers to fund terrorist operations overseas, where contributions like these could have a significant and devastating impact on American interests," he said.
Mihalik has been in federal custody since she was arrested on August 27, 2011, as she was preparing to board a flight to her native Turkey with a one-way ticket.
As part of this case, Mihalik agreed that the US can take away her immigration status and that she will be removed from the US to Turkey after serving her prison sentence.
After her arrest, she told the FBI that she believed the person in Pakistan was a member of the Taliban and al Qaeda, and she knew he was using the money for mujahadin operations against American military forces in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.
British Court Rules That It's Better That British Citizens Die At the Hands of Abu Qatada Than He Gets Roughed Up In Jordan
So, British women and children get to die ahead of this scumbag. Is that the important thing in the PC world of British courts?
It's one thing to be a dhimmi. It's a whole 'nother thing to serve up your countrymen like lambs to slaughter.
The story comes from Radical Islam.
UK Gov. Loses Latest Battle to Deport Jordanian Terrorist Cleric
The British government has lost an appeal against a court decision to block the deportation of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian terrorist who is wanted in his native Jordan after having been convicted of terrorism charges in 1999. Qatada's lawyers claimed that he could not receive a fair retrial in Jordan due to the use of evidence against him having been obtained using torture.
Britain’s High Court ruled that there was a "real risk" that evidence obtained from witnesses using torture could be used against him by the Jordanian authorities, breaching his human rights, thus Qatada could not be deported.
The 52-year-old cleric, whose real name is Omar Mohammed Othman and is known as Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe, has been convicted in absentia in Jordan of terrorism offences. He would likely to face a retrial if he was sent back. The retrial concerns charges of allegedly conspiring to bomb Western and Israeli targets before 2000.
Qatada won a last minute appeal against deportation in November, 2012 but was month was arrested and jailed again in March for breaching bail conditions that prohibited the use of mobile phones and other communication equipment in his house. Home Secretary Theresa May's legal team argued in court that Qatada is a "truly dangerous" individual who has escaped expulsion only through errors of law and should be deported.
The Court of Appeals' three judges unanimously rejected the government's appeal of November's ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) which allows Qatada to stay in Britain.
In their ruling the court said, "The court recognizes that Abu Qatada is regarded as a very dangerous person but emphasizes that this is not a relevant consideration under the applicable Convention law."
May argued that while she accepted that statements against him had been obtained by torture, she denied there was any risk those statements would be used against him at a retrial. The court disagreed with her and said, "Torture is universally abhorred as an evil. A state cannot expel a person to another state where there is a real risk he will be tried on the basis of evidence which there is a real possibility may have been obtained by torture. That principle is accepted by the secretary of state and is not in doubt."
The three-judge panel said the SIAC had applied that principle in the light of all the evidence in Qatada's case, and had committed no error of law in the process. They added that the government had not proved there were legal flaws in the previous decision, which found there was a real risk that evidence obtained through torture would be used in his retrial on terror charges in Jordan.
The Home Office said it would continue its fight to get him deported. "This is not the end of the road, and the government remains determined to deport Abu Qatada," it said in a statement. "We will consider this judgment carefully and plan to seek leave to appeal. In the meantime we continue to work with the Jordanians to address the outstanding legal issues preventing deportation."
It is now 11 months since the current home secretary told the UK House of Commons: "We can soon put Abu Qatada on a plane and out of the country for good." He has successfully fought off attempts at deportation since 2005 by arguing that his human rights would be violated if deported back to Jordan.
Friday, March 29, 2013
New Pope Washes and Kisses the Feet Of a Muslim Woman On Maundy Thursday
Pope Francis Washes Feet Of Muslim Female Prisoner In Break With Tradition (PICTURES)
Pope Francis has washed and kissed the feet of a two young female prisoners, one of them a Muslim, in a break with tradition.
While the foot washing of 12 people on Maundy Thursday is is part of the Christian tradition, mirroring Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet, women or Muslims have never before been included in the ritual.
It is also the first time the Mass has been held outside of the St Peter’s Basilica or the papal cathedral church in the Vatican CIty.
Francis' decision to celebrate the Mass with young offenders at the 'Casal del Marmo' detention center is in step with his record in embracing simplicity and humility
The Muslim Brotherhood Torture House In Cairo
The story comes from Radical Islam.
Christian Activist Tortured for Opposing Muslim Brotherhood
Last Friday, Islamists took over the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Cairo and turned it into a torture house for anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters. One Coptic Christian victim, Amir Ayad, almost died. This comes shortly after RadicalIslam.org’s report about the formation of Islamist militias to crack down on the opposition.
Mosque officials said that “members of the Islamist current” forcibly took over their facility after Friday prayers. They condemned the violence and the use of mosques for political matters. Similarly, the imam of Al-Kabir Mosque in Sharqiya said he was assaulted because he refused to preach in support of a “certain current” and that other imams are also being pressured.
Amir Ayad said he was detained and transported from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters to the seized mosque and beaten with sticks for hours. He saw other protesters, Christian and Muslim, also being abused. Ayad was abandoned by his torturers as he barely held onto his life. His life was saved when his brother received an anonymous phone call and brought him to an ambulance.
In a similar development, a church in Kom Ombo was firebombed and local Islamists rioted in response to a false rumor that a Muslim woman was forced to convert to Christianity.
Violence carried out by pro-Islamist activists against anti-Islamist demonstrators is increasing with around 200 injuries last Friday (3.22.13). The Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language website, IkhwanWeb, depicts the clashes as “mindless savagery against the Muslim Brotherhood” and blames the opposition for instigating “thugs, Black Bloc militias.” It also accused protesters of having “terrorized seven young ladies.”
President Morsi is signaling that he will take new aggressive measures to put an end to the demonstrations. He is threatening legal actions if “certain political figures are implicated.” He also said that the opposition is manipulating the media, portending future limits on the press. As RadicalIslam.org has documented the Muslim Brotherhood is working to infiltrate and shut down the independent media.
In addition, the Muslim Brotherhood and Jama’a al-Islamiya have also agreed to set up an Islamist “civilian” force to apprehend opponents.
The fact that Ayad was transferred from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters to the mosque-turned-torture-chamber proves some level of Brotherhood complicity in the torture.
The Brotherhood presents itself as a protector of Christians, but as RadicalIslam.org has reported Muslim Brotherhood thugs have beaten and tortured Christian Copts.
Wagdy Ghoneim, a Muslim Brotherhood cleric that spoke at Morsi’s rallies during the presidential campaign, said, “if you [Christians] conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter…our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Mohammed Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him.”
Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
At the same time, there is much uncertainty about the upcoming parliamentary elections that could be a major defeat for the Islamists if the vote is fair and the opposition National Salvation Front remains united. The elections were originally planned for April, but a court ruled against it. Morsi says he expects them to be held in October.
In the meantime, Morsi is free to enjoy his status as the "new Pharoah" since he’s declared that his decisions are final until a new parliament is in place. The longer the elections are delayed, the longer he has to solidify the Brotherhood’s grip and defang the opposition.
What has unfolded in Egypt proves that U.S. intelligence was mistaken in its understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in February 2011 that the Muslim Brotherhood is a “very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has described Al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.” In January 2012, he again referred to the Brotherhood as a “moderate Islamist” group that can “compete” with Al-Qaeda.
In 2011, the Washington Post reported, “An internal assessment, ordered by the White House last month, identified large ideological differences between such movements as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and al-Qaeda that will guide the U.S. approach to the region.”
The rising violence and human rights abuses against women and non-Muslims in Egypt should serve as a lesson about supporting self-described "moderate Islamists" as the solution to “extreme Islamists."
So What REALLY Happened When Obama Went To Jerusalem?
What really happened in Jerusalem
"I honestly believe that if any Israeli parent sat down with those [Palestinian] kids, they'd say, ‘I want these kids to succeed.' " - Barack Obama, in Jerusalem, March 21
Very true. But how does the other side feel about Israeli kids?
Consider that the most revered parent in Palestinian society is Mariam Farhat of Gaza. Her distinction? Three of her sons died in various stages of trying to kill Israelis - one in a suicide attack, shooting up and hurling grenades in a room full of Jewish students.
She gloried in her "martyr" sons, wishing only that she had 100 boys like her schoolroom suicide attacker to "sacrifice . . . for the sake of God." And for that she was venerated as "mother of the struggle," elected to parliament and widely mourned upon her recent passing.
So much for reciprocity. In the Palestinian territories, streets, public squares, summer camps, high schools, even a kindergarten are named after suicide bombers and other mass murderers. So much for the notion that if only Israelis would care about Arab kids, peace would be possible.
That hasn't exactly been the problem. Israelis have wanted nothing more than peace and security for all the children. That's why they accepted the 1947 U.N. partition of British Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. Unfortunately - another asymmetry - the Arabs said no. To this day, the Palestinians have rejected every peace offer that leaves a Jewish state standing.
This is not ancient history. Yasser Arafat said no at Camp David in 2000 and at Taba in 2001. And in 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank (with territorial swaps) with its capital in a shared Jerusalem. Mahmoud Abbas walked away.
In that same speech, Obama blithely called these "missed historic opportunities" that should not prevent peace-seeking now. But these "missed historic opportunities" are not random events. They present an unbroken, unrelenting pattern over seven decades of rejecting any final peace with Israel.
So what was the point of Obama's Jerusalem speech encouraging young Israelis to make peace, a speech the media drooled over? It was mere rhetoric, a sideshow meant to soften the impact on the Arab side of the really important event of Obama's trip: the major recalibration of his position on the peace process.
Obama knows that peace talks are going nowhere. First, because there is no way that Israel can sanely make concessions while its neighborhood is roiling and unstable — the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Egypt, rockets being fired from Gaza, Hezbollah brandishing 50,000 missiles aimed at Israel, civil war raging in Syria with its chemical weapons and rising jihadists, and Iran threatening openly to raze Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Second, peace is going nowhere because Abbas has shown Obama over the past four years that he has no interest in negotiating. Obama’s message to Abbas was blunt: Come to the table without preconditions, i.e., without the excuse of demanding a settlement freeze first.
Obama himself had contributed to this impasse when he imposed that precondition — for the first time ever in the history of Arab-Israeli negotiations — four years ago. And when Israel responded with an equally unprecedented 10-month settlement freeze, Abbas didn’t show up to talk until more than nine months in — then walked out, never to return.
In Ramallah last week, Obama didn’t just address this perennial Palestinian dodge. He demolished the very claim that settlements are the obstacle to peace. Palestinian sovereignty and Israeli security are “the core issue,” he told Abbas. “If we solve those two problems, the settlement problem will be solved.”
Finally. Presidential validation of the screamingly obvious truism: Any peace agreement will produce a Palestinian state with not a single Israeli settlement remaining on its territory. Any settlement on the Palestinian side of whatever border is agreed upon will be demolished. Thus, any peace that reconciles Palestinian statehood with Israeli security automatically resolves the settlement issue. It disappears.
Yes, Obama offered the ritual incantations about settlements being unhelpful. Nothing new here. He could have called them illegal or illegitimate. It wouldn’t have mattered — because Obama officially declared them irrelevant.
Exposing settlements as a mere excuse for the Palestinian refusal to negotiate — that was the news, widely overlooked, coming out of Obama’s trip. It was a breakthrough.
Will it endure? Who knows. But when an American president so sympathetic to the Palestinian cause tells Abbas to stop obstructing peace with that phony settlement excuse, something important has happened. Abbas, unmasked and unhappy, knows this better than anyone.
Taliban Suicide Bomber Attacks Pakistani Government Convoy, 10 Killed, Over 30 Wounded
The Taliban always have a way of putting the damper on a weekend - today a suicide bomber struck at a convoy of government officials in Peshawar killing 10 but missing their target.
The story comes from DAWN.
Taliban bomber kills ten in Peshawar, 31 wounded
PESHAWAR: At least 10 people were killed and 31 injured Friday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a Frontier Constabulary convoy in a high security area of northwestern Peshawar city, police said.
The bomber blew himself up near a military checkpost, barely 500 yards from the US consulate, on Peshawar’s Fakhr-i-Alam Road, which connects the city’s Mall Road and Cantonment Road.
The Corps headquarters is also located half a kilometre away from the site of the attack, for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
The bomber intended to target FC Commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, security officials said. The senior paramilitary official, however, managed to escape the attack relatively unhurt.
Police Superintendent Mohammad Faisal said eight to 10 kilograms of explosive were used in the blast, he added.
Officials at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital said one woman and four men were killed in the attack. Moreover, four among the injured were personnel of the Frontier Constabulary.
Meanwhile, officials at the Combined Military Hospital confirmed they had received four dead bodies, while 17 patients were being treated for injuries from the blast. The dead included an Army soldier, an FC soldier, and two civilians, the official said, requesting not to be named.
Speaking from an undisclosed location via telephone, spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ehsanullah Ehsan, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had targeted the FC for their repeated operations against the Taliban and tribal people.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The Turks Celebrate Israel's Apology
The story comes from Radical Islam.
Crowning Erdogan as the New King of Islamists
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkey for the deaths of its citizens during the 2010 flotilla raid misses the point. The tension with Turkey was never really about the operation. It was about making Israel bow to Turkey, crowning Prime Minister Erdogan as the new king of the Islamists.
“Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear prime minister, we are grateful that you let our country experience this pride,” says billboards that have been set up in Ankara celebrating the Israeli apology.
The actions taken by the Turkish government since Netanyahu’s apology show that its goal is submission, not reconciliation.
Erdogan is extending his time in the spotlight by demanding that Israel pay $1 million to each of the nine casualties’ families, ten times the amount Israel has offered. He isn’t yet dropping his case against the Israeli generals involved in the raid, nor is he fully restoring diplomatic ties with Israel. And he’s announced that he will visit the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in what is a thinly-concealed victory lap.
The aspirations of the Turkish government were frankly stated by Foreign Minister Davutoglu. Last May, he said, “We will manage the wave of change in the Middle East. Just as the ideal we have in our minds about Turkey, we have an ideal of a new Middle East. We will be the leader and the spokesperson of a new peaceful order, no matter what they say.”
The Turkish government has announced its intention to build a mega-mosque in Istanbul that will have the tallest minarets in the world and can “be seen from every corner of the Bosphorus.” This is a reflection of its grand vision of dominance.
Erdogan was rated as the second most influential Muslim leader of 2012, only behind Saudi King Abdullah. Despite his reputation as a “moderate,” Erdogan has said that Hamas is a “resistance” group, not a terrorist group. He has won the admiration of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who said, “Turkey’s support for the people of Syria and Palestine is unforgettable. My brother Erdogan, thank goodness God gave you so much. And you deserve it. You are also a leader in the Muslim world.”
The Turkish government isn’t “moderate” and trying to position itself to help bring peace in the Middle East. Instead, its top officials are promoting the themes against Israel’s right to exist that sustain the conflict.
Erdogan recently said that “Islamophobia” and Zionism are crimes against humanity on par with fascism and anti-Semitism. He also called Israel a “terrorist state” during the latest round of fighting with Hamas. This rhetoric isn’t as inflammatory as Iran’s pledges to wipe Israel off the map, but the point is the same. A “terrorist state” should not exist, nor does a philosophy that is equivalent to fascism.
The Turkish government has adopted the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine of “gradualism.” As the ruling AKP party is strengthened, it has more room to implement its Islamist agenda.
In July, the government proposed limits on freedom of speech for the sake of “public morality,” “national security,” “public order” and to “prevent pro-war propaganda, discriminations and hate.” Turkey is now believed to have “more journalists in detention than any other state in the world.” Pianist Fazil Say, , a critic of Erdogan’s, was arrested for insulting “religious values.” A human rights organization defending him was charged with “denigration of the state.”
Since the AKP has taken power, the number of mosques has grown from 76,000 to 93,000, while not a single public school has been added. In the first seven years of its rule, the number of honor killings in Turkey increased by 14 times. In 2009, its rate of honor killings was five times that of Pakistan.
The increased Islamization of Turkey corresponds with increased discrimination against Christians and Jews and hostility to the U.S. and Israel. The Turkish Association of Protestant Christians complains of a “root of intolerance” resulting in anti-Christian discrimination.
A 2009 poll found that 55% of Turks do not want non-Muslims to have positions in justice or security. About 44% don’t want to be treated by Christian or Jewish doctors. About 57% are against having atheists as neighbors, while 42% feel that way about Jews and 35% about Christians. Interestingly, 54% don’t want “Shariah supporters” as their neighbors, which may be a reference to Salafists.
Nonetheless, the statistics and aforementioned facts show that the Turkish government is transitioning the country from a secular identity to an Islamist one. And Turkey is increasingly looking to export its ideology, whether it is in Syria through rebel forces or the U.S. through the Fethullah Gulen network and outreach to Native American tribes.
The political success of Erdogan is alarming. One of the best advantages the West enjoys in the ideological war is that Islamists usually lose much of their support once they gain power. The most recent entry in this pattern is the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. On the other hand, the popularity of the AKP and Erdogan has increased in Turkey since they came into power.
Israel may stand strong against Iran, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, but it caved to Turkey. The apology and the West’s reluctance to confront Turkey sends the signal that Erdogan is the leader of the region.
Saudi Arabia Could Break the Syrian War Wide Open As They Send MLRS Rocket Launchers To Rebels
From DEBKA.Saudi heavy weapons supply to Syrian rebels breaks up Arab summit in uproar
Syrian rebels fighting for control of the Syria’s biggest town, Aleppo, have obtained their first heavy weapons – 220-mm MLRS rocket launchers – through a large-scale supply operation run by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, according to debkafile’s exclusive intelligence sources.
His agents scoured the Balkans nations of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo and for large wads of cash snapped up Russian-made MLRS (Smerch) and Hurricane 9K57 launchers capable of firing scores of 220-mm rockets to a distance of 70 kilometers.
The Saudis hope to expedite the rebel capture of the big Syrian Nairab air base attached to Aleppo’s international air port. The Saudi prince has personally taken the Nairab battle under his wing, convinced that it is the key to the conquest of Aleppo, once Syria's national commercial and population center, after more than a year’s impasse in the battle for its control.
The fall of this air base would also substantially reduce the big Iranian and Russian airlifts to Assad’s army.
Russia brings down its cargo planes loaded with weapons and replacement parts for the Syrian army at Nairab after the air facilities around Damascus were targeted by rebel fire. Moscow has since warned the rebels that if they attack incoming or outgoing Russian planes at Nairab, Russian special forces will come in to wipe out their strength around the base and take over its protection themselves.
Of late, Russian and Iranian arms lifts to Nairab were doubled, after rebels seized many Alawite villages in the Aleppo and Idlib regions of northern Syria.
Members of Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, their inhabitants, mainly women and children, have been fleeing en masse from their homes in fear of rebel retribution. They are making for the coastal towns of Tartus and Latakia which are still under regime control.
The question is for how long. In the third week of March, Russian warships stopped docking at the naval port of Tartus after finding its piers and facilities crowded with Alawite refugees who came up to the Russian seamen begging for food, water and medical aid.
From March 21, Russian warships on the Mediterranean were ordered to avoid Tartus and relocate their visits to Lebanon’s Beirut port.
The Saudi operation for shipping heavy rocket launchers from the Balkans to Aleppo is complicated.
The rockets are fixed to vehicles weighing 43.7 tons each. The rockets themselves are 7.6 meters long and weigh 800 kilograms.
To arrange the transfer of this heavy artillery to the rebels in Aleppo, Prince Bandar contacted Hakan Fidan, head of the MIT-Turkish National Intelligence Organization. They agreed to set up an overland route from the Balkans via Turkey and across the Syrian border to Aleppo, under the protection of the Turkish army.
Our sources report that Ankara’s initial refusal of cooperation was overcome with a sharp reminder by Prince Bandar of the scale of Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia and the damage to the Turkish economy of their potential suspension.
The news that Saudi Arabia was supplying Syrian rebels with heavy weapons stunned the Arab League summit taking place in Doha, Qatar this week, bringing it to a clamorous end, debkafile's intelligence and Middle East sources reveal.
Saudi and Qatari delegates were heard hurling shrill abuse at one another and exchanging blows in private meeting rooms down the corridors of the assembly hall. The conference proceedings were abruptly halted as Arab delegation members pitched in to separate them. A total blackout was quickly drawn down on the summit as it broke up in disarray.
The Saudi royal rulers and Qatar’s Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani have been at extreme loggerheads over the Syrian civil conflict. Riyadh - and Prince Bandar in particular - accuses the Qataris of conspiring to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Damascus, including radical groups tied to Al Qaeda.
Qatari Prime Minister and Secret Service Chief Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem has shot back with the charge that Saudi Arabia is maneuvering for control of the Syrian rebel movement.
The Saudis condemn Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's close ties with Qatar’s ruling family which they say eggs on Doha’s schemes for Syria.
For this reason, too, Bandar insisted on Turkey taking active part in facilitating the Balkan heavy arms route to Aleppo.
The Jihadi Mess In Syria
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Chechen commander forms 'Army of Emigrants,' integrates Syrian groups
A commander from the Russian Caucasus known as Abu Omar al Chechen has formed Jaish al-Muhajireen wa Ansar, or Army of the Emigrants and Helpers, and integrated several Syrian fighting units into the ranks. Abu Omar was the commander of the Muhajireen Brigade, which fights alongside al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the Al Nusrah Front.
The creation of the Army of the Emigrants and Helpers was announced on March 26 by Kavkaz Center, a propaganda arm of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Russia's Caucasus.
"In March 2013, a unit of Mujahideen of Kataeb al Muhajieen, or Brigade of Emigrants, under the command of Abu Omar al Chechen was joined by several brigades of Syrian Mujahideen, including Kataeb Khattab, or the Brigade of Khattab, and Jaish Muhammad, or the Army of Muhammad, after which it was decided to reorganize the structure of Kataeb," Kavkaz Center reported.
"As a result, Jaish al Muhajireen wa Ansar, or the Army of Emigrants and Helpers, was created," Kavkaz Center continued.
The Army of Emigrants and Helpers "is fighting primarily in the province of Aleppo." Kavkaz Center describes the group as "one of the most prominent groups in the Syrian Jihad."
Kavkaz Center claimed that the Army of Emigrants "has more than 1,000 Mujahideen, Muslim volunteers from different countries, including the Caucasus Emirate," who "are fighting under its banner." The claim appears to be true; just one week ago, a Swedish fighter known as Abu Kamal As Swedee was reported to have been killed while fighting with the Muhajireen Brigade.
A video showing Syrian jihadists swearing an oath of loyalty to Abu Omar al Chechen, who is seen in the background, was also published on YouTube. Hundreds of jihadists are seen in the video, and some are flying al Qaeda's flag.
In the video, another commander, who is identified as "Emir Saifullah" said, "We came here to establish God's law .... We have a purpose: to establish sharia [Islamic law], God's law."
Saifullah also said that no distinctions should be made between the different theaters of the jihadists' war.
"To us, there is no difference between Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Caucasus, any place," he said.
Another video shows the takeover of a military base in Handara in Aleppo. Again, al Qaeda's banner is shown flying in the background.
Chechen jihadists in Syria
Abu Omar al Chechen first appeared in a videotape that was released by Kavkaz Center on Feb. 7 [see LWJ report, Chechen commander leads Muhajireen Brigade in Syria]. He was seen surrounded by 19 heavily armed fighters and seated behind al Qaeda's flag.
"Chechen fighters," often described as fighters from the Caucasus and southern Russia, have been spotted on the Syrian battlefield for months. In October 2012, a group of "Chechen emigrants" is known to have fought, along with an element from the Free Syrian Army unit, under the command of the Al Nusrah Front to take control of a key Syrian air defense and Scud missile base in Aleppo. The Long war Journal speculated at the time that the group included members of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate [see LWJ report, Al Nusrah Front commanded Free Syrian Army unit, 'Chechen emigrants,' in assault on Syrian air defense base].
The Muhajireen Brigade is known to have participated in two other major assaults against Syrian military bases since the October operation in Aleppo.
In mid-December, the Muhajireen Brigade teamed up with the Al Nusrah Front to overrun the Sheikh Suleiman base, or Base 111. Arab and Central Asian fighters are reported to have participated in the battle.
And in mid-February, the Al Nusrah Front, together with the Tawhid Brigade and the Muhajireen Brigade, stormed the base of the Syrian military's 80th Regiment (or Brigade), which is situated near the main airport in Aleppo in eastern Syria.
Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, has praised the "mujahideen" in Syria as well as the fighters from the Caucasus. In November 2012, Umarov released a speech on the Kavkaz Center website that addressed the jihad in Syria.
"I appeal to the brothers, and I want to stress that we, the Mujahideen of the Caucasus, pray for you, make Dua [supplication to Allah], ask Allah to help you with His angels, that Allah helps you in every way,' he said.
In the speech, Umarov warned the Syrian jihadists not to "replace the regime of Bashar al-Assad, using Turkish, or Saudi, or Egyptian, or American, or English money, with another idol under the guise of democracy."
Umarov was added to the US's list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in June 2010. The US added the Islamic Caucasus Emirate to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in May 2011.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Threats To America....Coming Out of the Woodwork
Threats Galore
For rogue regimes to threaten America and its allies is nothing new. But I have the distinct sense these days that the threats are both prolific and becoming more boldly specific.
North Korea isn't just making its usual threats to drown South Korea in a sea of fire. Pyongyang has been cranking out cheesy videos depicting missile attacks on Washington, and just threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and on Guam. Iran's rulers are not only expressing their usual generic wish to wipe Israel off the map. Iran's top boss, a.k.a. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, just celebrated Nowruz with a televised speech threatening in geographically precise terms that if Israel's authorities "make the slightest mistake the Islamic Republic will annihilate Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground."
For that matter, Hamas, the terrorist overlords of the rogue non-state of Gaza, took it upon themselves last month to threaten President Obama that if he visited the Temple Mount during his trip to Israel, they would take it as a "declaration of war" against the Islamic world.
Is this business as usual, or cause for increasing alarm?
"Stick and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me"...? Hardly reassuring. In these realms, there are already too many sticks, stones, missiles and explosive devices. All these actors have an extravagant history of mayhem and murder, going back to their various inceptions. And what they appear to be learning from each other is that they can make ever uglier threats with relative impunity. There are, of course, reasoned arguments to be made that such threats are largely for domestic consumption, or that the comfortably ensconced thugs ruling over such places as North Korea, Iran and Gaza, for all their brinksmanship, would prefer not to launch attacks so devastating as to provoke devastation in response. There's even a case to be made that dire threats are a sign of desperation, or are perhaps just laying the groundwork for a better starting position at the bargaining table. But with North Korea conducting missile and nuclear tests, with Iran's uranium centrifuges spinning, with Hamas trucking in weapons from Iran, it's ever more ominous that the threats from this gang keep pushing the envelope. Time to ring the world's super cop... but who is that these days?
The Iranian Persecution of Christians Intensifies
Nursing mothers imprisoned: UN report details Iranian persecution of non-Muslims
Iran’s hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith, according to a new UN report.
The March report provides a rare, detailed view into the shocking treatment of Christians in Iran, where American Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence for his alleged work with Christians.
“The persecution of Christians has increased,” said Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s expert on human rights in Iran. “It seems to target new converts and those who run house churches.”
At least 13 Protestant Christians are currently in detention centers across Iran, and more than 300 Christians have been arrested since June 2010, according to the report. In addition to Christians, the nation’s 350,000 Bahai, who form Iran’s largest non-Muslim faith, have suffered under Tehran’s repression.
While most of the cases have not made headlines, the report spotlighted some examples.
Iran’s judicial authorities sentenced Christian Pastor Behnam Irani in 2011 and church leader Farshid Fathi in 2012 to six-year prison terms. Irani was convicted of “actions against the state,” because he preached Christianity, while Fathi was convicted of “religious propaganda.”
Abedini was sentenced in late January to eight years in Iran’s Evin prison for practicing Christianity in Iran.
Fathi was accused of distributing Persian-language Bibles and coordinating trips for church members to attend religious seminars and conferences outside the country, the report stated.
Iran’s regime shut down the home-based Janat Abad Assemblies of God Church in Tehran last year.
“Fundamentally, it is an issue of intolerance of different views,” Shaheed said.
There is a “new Islamization in part of the government” that might explain the spike in repression targeting Christians, he added.
The UN report is the latest evidence that Iran’s clerical leaders seek to stamp out religious freedoms for minorities and dissent in the authoritarian Islamic Republic.
In Washington, lawmakers expressed outrage on Tuesday at Iran’s behavior.
"I strongly condemn the Iranian government's continued persecution of religious and ethnic minorities and women,” Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who has spearheaded key Iran economic and human rights sanctions legislation, told FoxNews.com. “The United States has a responsibility to stand squarely with the Iranian people against their oppressive dictators."
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., told FoxNews.com the report confirms widespread and systematic violations of human rights under the Tehran regime.
“But this is what we have come to expect from [Iranian President] Ahmadinejad and his cronies,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “This reprehensible behavior will only get worse unless the United States and other responsible nations fully and vigorously enforce a wide range of sanctions against the regime and its officials responsible for human rights violations.”
Mohammad Reza Noroozpour, spokesman for Iran's High Council for Human Rights, told FoxNews.com the Iranian Constitution prohibits investigation of individuals' beliefs.
“It is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief,” Noroozpour said, insisting that freedom of expression is tolerated “except where there is infringement of the basic tenets of Islam or public rights.”
But Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com the report “is an indispensable catalogue of the scope and severity of abuses perpetrated by the Iranian government.
"Over the past year, the Iranian government has stooped to new lows by incarcerating infant children with their Baha'i mothers and more brutally, clamping down on Christian converts from Islam,” Bashir said. “The U.S. government also should sanction Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for their culpability in committing serious human rights abuses.”
Shaheed found “that 110 Bahais are currently detained in Iran for exercising their faith, including two women, Zohreh Nikayin (Tebyanian) and Taraneh Torabi (Ehsani), who are reportedly nursing infants in prison. It was further estimated that 133 Bahais are currently awaiting summonses to serve their sentences, and that another 268 Bahais are reportedly awaiting trial.”
He called the Bahai group the “single most important persecuted community in country.”
The Bahai is Iran’s largest non-Muslim faith, and was founded by Bahá'u'lláh in Iran in 1863. There are an estimated 350,000 Bahai in Iran.
As with the cases of repression targeting Iran’s Christian community, Mohammad Reza Noroozpour, the Iranian spokesman, did not delve into the specifics of the allegations in the UN report of incarceration of Bahai members.
“Although Baha’ism is not considered an official faith, its followers are entitled to social and civil rights,” Noroozpour said. “It needs to be mentioned that this cult has not been recognized by any of the Islamic countries because of its theological content and the actions of its leaders.”
Roya Hakakian, an American-Iranian expert on the Islamic Republic, told FoxNews.com,” The Baha'is of Iran have been the targets of Iran's regime since its inception.“
Hakakian, the author of the highly acclaimed "Assassins of the Turquoise Palace" about Iran’s assassination of Iranian-Kurdish dissidents in Germany in the early 1990s, said, ”The ebb and flow of the regime's savagery toward the Baha'is has always had a direct correlation with the regime's own sense of instability and insecurity,” said Hakakian. “The greater the internal or external pressures on Iran, the more vehemently the regime treats its most vulnerable minority.”
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Why Does the Media Hate Women?
By the way...maybe the MSM should look at their own house....it was Ann Curry that got the boot, not Matt Lauer and it was Katie Couric that got kicked to the curb, right?
But we saw this with the MSM attacks on Sarah Palin, we saw the MSM choose sides in the Democrat primary in 2008 and gave Obama a blowjob while turning Hillary out into the cold and we've seen numerous media attacks on Bachmann and Nikki Haley. Oh, and let's not forget about the attacks on O'Donnell.
You know, come to think of it...the only woman that the MSM has been kind to has been Gabby Giffords..but that was only after she got shot in the head (by a Liberal) and they could use her as a poster girl for gun control.
Media Expose Their Own Standards While Targeting Bachmann
In a clear case of the media's double standard, CNN has been chasing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann around regarding her CPAC comments on the President's lavish lifestyle. This, when the majority of her speech focused elsewhere: on Benghazi, the federal debt, medical innovations, and cyber attacks.
And while CNN insists on piling it on, they bring ridicule on themselves by being guilty of what they accuse Bachmann of doing. CNN's Dana Bash chased the Congresswoman down the hall to ask her about her comments. The Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave her four Pinocchios in response to her speech. And, to give the liberal meme credence, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly condemned the Congresswoman as lacking focus with the conclusion, "Two words: Not Good."
"Congresswoman Goes Rogue: Independent fact check finds Bachmann wrong" read the banner underneath the CNN broadcast. But a closer look at the facts shows that the media themselves are omitting key information about Bachmann's comments.
Kessler quotes Representative Bachmann at length, writing:
"A new book is out talking about the perks and the excess of the $1.4-billion-a-year presidency that we're paying for. And this is a lifestyle that is one of excess. Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really, really late show. And I don't mean to be petty here, but can't they just push the play button? We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the President's dog. Paying for someone to walk the President's dog? Now, why are we doing that when we can't even get a disabled veteran into the White House for a White House tour? That isn't caring!"
However, Kessler omits key sentences with which Bachmann prefaced her criticism of the President: "Now we all believe that the President and the First Family, with all seriousness, do deserve the best security and the very best protection that we can get them," began Representative Bachman. "They deserve to live in the White House. They deserve to fly on a private plane."
"There is a problem," she asserted. And that problem is that their "excessive" lifestyle included, for example, five chefs, sleepover projectionists, and paid walking of Bo, the dog.
In his fact check, Kessler found that President George W. Bush spent nearly $1.6 billion in 2008 on the First Family and its security. He says that half of that was for the Secret Service. "Moreover, the money spent on the presidency and the so-called perks she describes appear to be no different for Obama than for Bush or other presidents," reports Kessler. "It's absurd to suggest otherwise."
Kessler points to two sources for Representative Bachmann's comments: Presidential Perks Gone Royal, by a Republican lobbyist, and The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House. In the latter book, author John F. Groom writes that "Despite having a vacation resort at Camp David reserved for the President's exclusive use-at taxpayer cost of $8 million a year-the Obama family has spent tens of millions more on their taxpayer-subsidized vacations to Hawaii, Spain, Vail, Cape Cod, Africa, and South America."
"At huge taxpayer expense, they take a date night to New York, as if the capital of the nation was devoid of suitable restaurants or entertainment."
"Groom's figures include a number of somewhat fishy guesstimates (‘unreimbursed campaign expenses'), but as it happens, a much more credible scholar-former White House aide Bradley H. Patterson Jr.-attempted to figure out the tab for the White House for a book, To Serve the President, published in 2010 by the Brookings Institution," writes Kessler (emphasis added).
CNN's Anderson Cooper insinuated that Presidential Perks Gone Royal is also not a credible source because it is self-published and without sources. "Congresswoman Bachmann apparently got her information from a 131-page self-published book by a long-time Republican lobbyist," said Cooper on CNN. "The book provides no specific sourcing for the claims it makes, no sourcing." Actually, according to Kessler the book has a list of sources that were consulted but not cited throughout the book. "It provides no specific sourcing for any of its claims, though in the back it provides a list of articles and books that presumably the author consulted," writes Kessler.
Representative Bachmann may have relied upon poor sources for her information, but did she actually say anything false? Four Pinocchios seems a bit harsh if she didn't.
"And as for Bo the dog, he has no designated walker," said Cooper on CNN. "None."
"The White House gardener actually walks the dog. It turns out the guy likes dogs and has walked presidential dogs for the last eight administrations," says Cooper. But Representative Bachmann didn't say that there was a dog walker for the President. She said that "We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the President's dog, paying for someone to walk the President's dog?" In other words, she never asserted that someone had been hired for this purpose, but that they were paid to do it. As for the "five chefs" the media have insisted on calling them five "cooks." Does this semantic difference really resonate with an American public struggling to get by?
An active duty member of the Air Force called in to the Chris Plante show on WMAL in Washington to point out that those five would be insulted to be called "cooks," and that they are in fact high quality chefs. Plante, a great local radio host who precedes Rush Limbaugh for three hours every day, skewered CNN, where he worked for many years, and the Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler, for getting it wrong by misquoting and mischaracterizing what Bachmann had actually said. They were the ones who got it wrong. Again, Bachmann said, "We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the President's dog," which Cooper, himself, confirmed when he referred to the person as a gardener, though he is actually the groundskeeper. Dana Bash ran up to her, however, saying, "What I want to ask you about is the fact that you said, you talked about the excesses that he's engaged in. The fact that he has a dog walker, which is not true." Bachmann didn't say "he has a dog walker."
Chris Plante raised the question as to whether or not we will soon see Dana Bash chasing after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, calling him out on his false implication that the sequester was what caused seven Marines to die in the training accident that took place this week in Nevada?" The question answers itself.
Regarding the projectionists, the press has asserted multiple times that Jimmy Carter watched movies hundreds of times while at the White House. The estimates range from 450 to 480 movies during his one term in office. As Plante pointed out, that is the equivalent of nearly 1,000 hours, or twenty 50-hour work weeks. Could that explain his dismal performance in office? How does this respond to the allegation that these days two projectionists sleep over at the White House to perform their duties, when, according to Rep. Bachmann, the First Family could have just pressed the "play" button? Technology has come quite a long way since the Carter Administration.
In his comments, O'Reilly proves without a doubt that he did not listen to Rep. Bachmann's original speech. He accuses her of lacking focus. "But Mr. Obama is entitled to protection, convenience, and comfort, as he runs the nation," said O'Reilly. Indeed, Rep. Bachmann prefaced her comments on this same point. "Congresswoman Bachmann and all opponents of Obama should zero in on what's really important," asserts O'Reilly, "the President's failure to deal with out of control spending and his core belief that America is not a fair country" (emphasis added).
"That's what's important, not who's walking the Presidential dog." Perhaps O'Reilly should scold the media for focusing on the President's dog, not Congresswoman Bachmann.
Rep. Bachmann's speech did focus on a variety of issues, including the debt, Benghazi, cyber attacks, the "war against the young," bureaucratic salaries, medical innovations, and "over-zealous regulators." "It's time we cared," Rep. Bachmann asserted. She called the current financial situation "a generational injustice of epic proportions." Perhaps what upset the media most was that she accused the President of being uncaring-for multiple reasons, not just his perks.
Would Jew Believe This? The Story Of Passover.
By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle
For my regular readers:
I have been in the hospital for the last 5 days, missed the first Seder night, and haven't been able to post in all that time. So I'm posting these old posts for the holiday of Passover.
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Actually I'm not sure that is not the correct story. It could be giving that a certain Time Lord, his TARDIS and a few units of the IDF could have pulled it off.
But perhaps G-d did it this way:
Or maybe not. Any way that G-d performed the miracle of the Passover was the correct story.
Monkey in the Middle
For my regular readers:
I have been in the hospital for the last 5 days, missed the first Seder night, and haven't been able to post in all that time. So I'm posting these old posts for the holiday of Passover.
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A young boy returned home from Hebrew school, washed his hands and sat down to dinner.***********************************************************************
His father asked him what he learned that day in school.
The boy replied that the Rabbi told his class the most amazing story of how the Jews were rescued from the Land of Egypt and brought to the Land of Israel.
His father smiled and asked his son to relate the story the Rabbi told them.
"Sure Dad," the boy said. "Now this story happened a long time ago, before the time of CNN. Before the time of computers, and cell phones. Before even TV. I think it was in the 1920s or so it happened.
"Egypt was ruled by this guy named Pharaoh. I think it means "Nasty Egyptian". And we Jews were his slaves. We didn't like being slaves and prayed to G-d to set us free. G-d heard our prayers and sent us a miracle.
"G-d sent the IDF back in time to rescue the Children of Israel (I think they rescued the parents too.). The Commandos diverted the Egyptian Army while the Children and their parents fled to the Red Sea (It was red because G-d turned the water to blood like in Zombie Killers 3.). There the IDF built Pontoon bridges across the Red Sea for the people to go across. When the Egypt Army tried to follow, the IDF blew up the bridges.
"Then this guy named Moshe Dayan (He is the head of the IDF, I think. Rabbi said he was G-d's greatest profits.) lead the Children of Israel (and their parents) to Mount Sinai where Moshe lays down the law, destroys the Golden Calf and leads them to Israel.
"But it took them 40 years because nobody had a GPS and Moshe would not ask for directions."
His father had a look upon his face that was a cross between total astonishment and WTF. "Is this what the Rabbi taught you?"
"No Dad," the boy said. "But you wouldn't believe the crazy story he did tell."
Actually I'm not sure that is not the correct story. It could be giving that a certain Time Lord, his TARDIS and a few units of the IDF could have pulled it off.
But perhaps G-d did it this way:
From Chabad*********************************************************************
After many decades of slavery to the Egyptian pharaohs, during which time the Israelites were subjected to backbreaking labor and unbearable horrors, G‑d saw the people's distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: "Send forth My people, so that they may serve Me." But despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed G‑d's command. G‑d then sent upon Egypt ten devastating plagues, afflicting them and destroying everything from their livestock to their crops.
At the stroke of midnight of 15 Nissan in the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE), G‑d visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, G‑d spared the Children of Israel, "passing over" their homes-hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh's resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked as provisions for the way did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt on that day, and began the trek to Mount Sinai and their birth as G‑d's chosen people.
Or maybe not. Any way that G-d performed the miracle of the Passover was the correct story.
Pakistani Taliban Jihadi Leader Forms Death Squad To Get Musharraf
Pakistani Taliban threaten former President Musharraf with 'death squad'
A Pakistani jihadist who escaped from prison during a Taliban jailbreak last spring appeared in a video in which he threatened to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, the former President of Pakistan who has recently returned from self-imposed exile. The jihadist, Adnan Rasheed, said he formed an assassination team and plans to attack Musharraf.
Rasheed appears on a video with Ihsanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban Pakistan, who is wanted by the Pakistan government. The video was produced by Umar Studio, the media arm of the Movement of the Taliban Pakistan, and obtained from a Facebook page by the SITE Intelligence Group.
In the video, Rasheed, who speaks in both English and Urdu, is shown training a group of fighters who have supposedly been assigned to assassinate Musharraf.
Rasheed says the "death squad" is split up in groups of "fedayeen, sniper team, special assault team, and close combat team." The term 'fedayeen' is often used to describe suicide bombers.
"Musharraf, you can see this death squad around me. We warn you to surrender yourself to us, otherwise we will hit you from where you will never reckon," Rashid says in English while surrounded by his team.
Rasheed issues the threat to Musharraf as he is surrounded by his "death squad." Fifteen men wearing masks and military uniforms are seen armed with RPGs, sniper rifles, and assault rifles.
Musharraf returned to Pakistan yesterday and said he is seeking to return to politics. He left Pakistan in April 2009 after resigning the presidency in August 2008. Pakistan's Supreme Court was planning impeachment hearings just before Musharraf resigned. Upon his return, Musharraf was photographed with a protective vest that is visible underneath his clothing.
Rasheed is a longtime jihadist associated with al Qaeda
Rasheed has a history with Musharraf. He is a Pakistani terrorist who was involved in the Dec. 14, 2003 assassination attempt against then-President Pervez Musharraf. A member of the Pakistani Air Force, Rasheed was sentenced to death for his role in the assassination attempt. While in prison, Rasheed owned several cell phones and frequently communicated with journalists. He also got married while in prison and fathered a child.
Rasheed worked for Amjad Farooqi, the Pakistani terrorist who engineered the two assassination attempts against Musharraf in December 2003 at the behest of al Qaeda leader Abu Faraj al Libi; Farooqi is suspected of involvement in other terror attacks as well. Farooqi was a member of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan; the Harkat-ul-Ansar and its successor, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen; Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami; and Jaish-e-Mohammed. He served as a close aide to Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. In addition, Farooqi served as the group's representative to al Qaeda's International Islamic Front, which issued the 1998 fatwa that declared war on the US.
On April 15, 2012, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan launched a successful operation to free Rasheed and nearly 400 prisoners, including an estimated 200 Taliban fighters and jihadists, being held at a prison in Bannu. The operation was directed by Hakeemullah Mehsud, the emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, the group's emir for South Waziristan. More than 150 fighters assaulted the prison. Rasheed was later featured in a videotape celebrating the jailbreak.
Since Rasheed has been freed from prison, the Taliban have featured him in several propaganda tapes. Most recently, on Jan. 29, Rasheed appeared in a joint Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan video that announced the formation of of the Ansar al Aseer, a unit tasked to free jihadist prisoners and support their families. The video also featured Yassin Chouka, a wanted German commander in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Abdul Hakeem, a Russian IMU member.
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