Just when you think the media cannot get any weirder, AP hands us this one. Read that caption.

And you wonder why so many of us consider the MSM to be anti-American.

From Little Green Footballs via Michelle Malkin.

MORE AT Macsmind, Six24, FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog, Below The Beltway, Noisy Room, The Kevin Show.

Posted by: Greg at 11:37 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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First, let me say that I would whole-heartedly support such a course of action (and think we should have nuked Tora Bora).

Second, let me say that IÂ’m shocked to hear it coming from France, of all countries.

France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.

Deflecting criticism of France’s costly nuclear arms programme, President Jacques Chirac said security came at a price and France must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state’s centres of power and its “capacity to act”.

He said there was no change in FranceÂ’s overall policy, which rules out the use of nuclear weapons in a military conflict. But his speech pointed to a change of emphasis to underline the growing threat France perceives from terrorism.

“The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part,” Chirac said during a visit to a nuclear submarine base in northwestern France.

“This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.” Chirac, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said all of France’s nuclear forces had been configured with the new strategy in mind and the number of nuclear warheads on French nuclear submarines had been reduced to allow targeted strikes.

I’m just curious – wouldn’t the world community have a hissy-fit if President Bush announced the same policy?

Posted by: Greg at 11:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Homegrown variety, hooked on left-wing enviro-hate rhetoric spewed by the Left for years. After all, when Al Gore writes a book that sounds like the Unabomber, why shouldnÂ’t folks emulate that mad bomber?

A Monroe man suspected of being a member of a radical environmental group was charged Tuesday in a federal court in California with plotting to blow up a U.S. Forest Service facility where genetic research is conducted.

Zachary Jenson, 20, and co-defendants Eric McDavid, 28, of Foresthill, Calif., and Lauren Weiner, 20, of Philadelphia, made their first court appearances in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Tuesday, said Patty Pontello, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California. The three, who are suspected members of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), are being held in the Sacramento County Jail pending detention hearings next week, Pontello said.

The three were charged with conspiracy to use fire or explosives to damage property, and also may have been planning to bomb a power plant, a cellphone tower and a fish hatchery, according to the FBI affidavit filed in the case. If convicted, they each face prison sentences of five to 20 years, Pontello said.

Lock 'em up and throw away the key.

Posted by: Greg at 01:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Why should we be surprised that a murderous terrorist like this would disappear into the woodwork rather than registering at a police station?

The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II failed to report to a police station Friday — the day after his release from prison — and authorities said the military could ask for his arrest for draft-dodging.

Mehmet Ali Agca was required to report daily to a police station to allow authorities to keep tabs on him until at least officials decide on whether he should serve his military service.

Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said Agca — whose whereabouts were unknown — had not reported to any police station by Friday evening. Guler said Agca was also required to report to a military hospital on Monday.

"If he doesn't show up, he will be listed as a draft-dodger" and his arrest could be sought, Guler said.

Let's see -- he murdered a journalist and tried to kill the pope. Do you really think he gives a rat's ass about being considered a draft-dodger?

This little tidbit is also interesting.

Agca, 48, received a hero's welcome by his ultranationalist admirers, who tossed flowers at the car whisking him through the gates of the high-security Kartal Prison outside Istanbul.

Does anyone know how strong this "ultranationailist" movement is, and what its platform consists of?

Posted by: Greg at 03:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Look at what Stephen F. Hayes has written in the current Weekly Standard. There is credible proof of Iraq as terrorist training ground.

THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.

The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak--and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis. According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing.

The photographs and documents on Iraqi training camps come from a collection of some 2 million "exploitable items" captured in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. They include handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, floppy discs, and computer hard drives. Taken together, this collection could give U.S. intelligence officials and policymakers an inside look at the activities of the former Iraqi regime in the months and years before the Iraq war.

And what do the documents actually show?

Other officials familiar with the captured documents were less cautious. "As much as we overestimated WMD, it appears we underestimated [Saddam Hussein's] support for transregional terrorists," says one intelligence official.

Speaking of Ansar al Islam, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist group that operated in northern Iraq, the former high-ranking military intelligence officer says: "There is no question about the fact that AI had reach into Baghdad. There was an intelligence connection between that group and the regime, a financial connection between that group and the regime, and there was an equipment connection. It may have been the case that the IIS [Iraqi Intelligence Service] support for AI was meant to operate against the [anti-Saddam] Kurds. But there is no question IIS was supporting AI."

The official continued: "[Saddam] used these groups because he was interested in extending his influence and extending the influence of Iraq. There are definite and absolute ties to terrorism. The evidence is there, especially at the network level. How high up in the government was it sanctioned? I can't tell you. I don't know whether it was run by Qusay [Hussein] or [Izzat Ibrahim] al-Duri or someone else. I'm just not sure. But to say Iraq wasn't involved in terrorism is flat wrong."

Got that -- "to say Iraq wasn't involved in terrorism is flat wrong." So once again we can show that the case for war made by the President was both truthful and accurate, despite the partisan ramblings of members of the disloyal opposition.

Remember this from Teddy Kennedy (D-Chivas Regal)?

"Iraq was not a breeding ground for terrorism. Our invasion has made it one.”

And this from John Kerry (D-Wife's Money)?

"Iraq was not a terrorist haven before the invasion."

Or this from any number of KOSacks, DUmmies MoveOn morons and other sufferers of Bsh Deranngement Syndrome?

"Bush lied; soldiers died!"

It turns out that their statements were frighteningly wrong -- and gave aid, comfort, and support to our nation's enemies during time of war.. So it wis with no hesidtation that I say "Leftists lied; American soldiers died!"

MORE AT: Kokonut Pundits, Powerline Blog, Let Freedom Ring, GeMatt's Place, Protein Wisdom, Austin Bay, Noisy Room, Michelle Malkin, and MANY OTHERS.

Posted by: Greg at 01:07 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Not one penny of mine will go for any movie featuring George Clooney. Not one george Clooney movie or television show will be watched in my home.

After all, Clooney admires terrorists and has contempt for America.

LET George Clooney explain why the suicide bombers in his "Syriana" are sympathetically depicted as pious heroes while all the Americans in the movie are greedy or homicidal cynics. "They [the terrorists] are, in a way, the most sympathetic, but I think that's important," Clooney said in a videotaped interview shown on Fox News Channel. "Because if you are going to fight a war on terror, which is not a state that you can go and bomb, then you need to understand what it is that creates the people who would do such horrible things, rather then just saying - labeling them as evildoers."

I wonder -- does he really believe that the Cindy Sheehan/MoveOn crowd and the Islamist community are big enough to sustain his career?

Posted by: Greg at 04:14 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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you can support this guy.

An Arabic language news network has aired a video of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, in which he called on U.S. President George W. Bush to admit defeat in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera said the video, which is about a minute long, was made in December.

According to CNN's translation of the video, Ayman al-Zawahiri offers his condolences to Pakistan for the October 8 earthquake before congratulating fellow Muslims for what he says is a victory in Iraq.

***

"Even though I send my condolences to my Islamic nation for the tragedy of the earthquake in Pakistan, today I congratulate everyone for the victory in Iraq. You remember, my dear Muslim brethren, what I told you more than a year ago, that the U.S. troops will pull out of Iraq. It was only a matter of time.

"Here they are now and in the blessing of God begging to pull out, seeking negotiations with the mujahedeen. And here is Bush who was forced to announce at the end of last November that he will be pulling his troops out of Iraq.

"He uses the pretext that the Iraqi forces reached a high level of preparedness. But he doesn't have a timetable for the pullout.

"If all of his troops -- air force, army -- are begging for a way to get out of Iraq, will the liars, traitors and infidels succeed in what the world superpower failed to achieve in Iraq?

"You have set the timetable for the withdrawal a long time ago and Bush, you have to admit that you were defeated in Iraq, you are being defeated in Afghanistan, and you will be defeated in Palestine, God willing."

Which only confirms my reaction to the words of this darling of the Left.

Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has come to national prominence since his call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, said Thursday night that he worries about "a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory."

Appearing at a town meeting in Arlington, Virginia, with fellow Democratic Rep. James Moran, Murtha said, "A year ago, I said we can't win this militarily, and I got all kinds of criticism." Now, Murtha told the strongly antiwar audience, "I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing."

***

Murtha said he has told some Democrats who are considering a run for president that they are missing an opportunity by declining to call for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. "A number of senators who are running for president have called me," Murtha said. "And I told them there's only two policies. That's the policy of redeployment, which I've suggested, and the president's policy — stay the course is not a policy. And you folks, you're in between, you're missing an opportunity to show leadership. If you want to run for president, you can show leadership."

I guess that Murtha is suggesting that such "leadership" will gain the Democrats the all-important terrorist and terrorist-supporter voting-blocs in 2008.

So will Murth's supporters please quit telling us he is a patriot on the side of the soldiers, now that it is clear he is echoing the al-Zawahiri line?

After all -- giving aid and comfort and adhering to the enemy during time of war is treason, not patriotism

SIMILAR THOUGHTS FROM The Paladin Blog

Michelle Malkin comments on and has two videos of vets who confronted Cut & Run advocate John Murtha and his sniveling anti-American colleague Jim Moran at the meeting referenced above.

MORE AT: Mudville Gazette, Six24 Blog Aggregator, Small Town Veteran, Thoughts on Politics, Life, and God, Ed Driscoll, All Things Beautiful, CDR Salamander, JunkYardBlog, Clark Mountain Musings, Democracy Project, Right Mind, A Blog For All, Strata-Sphere, Cao's Blog, The WB42 5:30 Report With Doug Krile, Scipio the Metalcon, The World According To Carl, Macmind, The Anchoress, Byrd Droppings, NIF, Conservative Musings, GeeChee Girl, Mark In Mexico

Posted by: Greg at 04:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looks to me like we need to can a bunch of local employees in Egypt -- they are the bureaucratic cousins of al-Qaeda. It seems that these Muslim employees have been denying visas to Coptic Christians when they appear at the embassy for processing.

State Department officials are closely examining 15 to 20 Egyptian employees of the embassy's consular section after top officials received complaints from lawyers and human-rights groups about discriminatory behavior toward the Copts seeking visas to the United States, sources said.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, may have been wrongly denied visas, sources said.

In a recent meeting organized by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), top State Department officials were told that these employees, who conduct prescreening interviews and translations, appear to have unusual influence over a process that is supposed to be controlled by Americans.

"This is a widespread problem that we have been aware of for some time. Now, however, there are people stepping forward and are making formal complaints," said Father Keith Roderick, head of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, who attended the meeting.

Among those making complaints to the State Department is a Christian man who was seeking to donate a kidney to an uncle in New Jersey.

He says he was twice told to remove the cross he was wearing if he wanted a visa. He refused and was denied a visa.

Another is a woman who was scheduled to speak at a recent human-rights conference in Washington about what it is like to live in a Muslim-dominated country.

She claimed embassy officials demanded to see her speech.

She and two other Egyptian Copts were denied a visa while Egyptian Muslims were granted visas.

They have asked that their names not be made public for fear of retaliation in Egypt.

There have also been complaints that these employees keep posters in the embassy promoting supporters of the Hamas terror group.

Fire these terrorist-loving Islamist pigs. Heck -- fire every last Egyptian Muslim employee of the Embassy and replace them with Copts as a sign of our displeasure at the official abuse of Copts by the Egyptian government that has been copied by these swine.

And consider this frm one of the individuals who has helped document this abuse of members of a religious community that dates back to the first century of the Christian era.

"This should be a concern because if they can influence who they can keep out of the United States, they could also influence who can get in," said Caroline Doss, a Jersey City immigration lawyer who presented State Department officials with affidavits from Coptic Christian clients.

How many terrorists have they given visas? Do we have any way of finding out?

UPDATE: Great commentary on the issue at All Things Beautiful. More at DhimmiWatch, and Gates of Vienna. Also, a great older post on this issue from The Free Copts.

Posted by: Greg at 03:34 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Last time I checked, al-Qaeda is our major adversary in the Crusade Against Islamist Terrorism. Why, then, is a Boston government agency selling land to a group associated with al-Qaeda to build a mosque in the heart of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood? And why did the group get the land at a below-market price? Those questions are being asked by one Boston city councilman.

Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott imminently intends to call for a public hearing on the Boston Redevelopment AuthorityÂ’s sale of land in Roxbury for the construction of a large mosque to the Islamic Society of Boston, which has been dogged by charges of links to Islamic extremists.

The hearing comes at the urging of the lawyer for the David Project, the pro-Israel group currently being sued by the ISB for defamation, who sent a letter to McDermott and local media earlier this month alleging that the ISB trusteesÂ’ current president had signed a petition in support of the pre-trial release of Abdulrahman Alamoudi. The founder of the ISB in 1982, Alamoudi is now in prison in Saudi Arabia on terrorism funding-related charges.

Lawyers for the BRA and the ISB had rebuffed McDermottÂ’s request to participate in hearings in April, citing pending litigation in a lawsuit brought by a Mission Hill resident over charges that the BRA violated the separation of church and state in selling the land for the mosque at a below-market price in exchange for several services, including a lecture series on Islam, to be provided by the ISB.

“I understand if folks at the BRA can only answer limited questions, but I also think it’s fair to provide the opportunity to come in and ask questions,” said McDermott, who chairs the Post-Audit and Oversight committee. “I think the public, as well as any elected official, has the right to ask questions concerning whether the sale of this public parcel was handled properly and whether the sale price was in the taxpayers’ best interest,” McDermott said, adding that he intends to file the request for a hearing after the first of the year.

ISB lawyer Albert Farrah said that the ISB will not participate in hearings. “Any legitimate issues that have been raised about the transactions between the BRA and the ISB will be resolved before a court of law, not before Councilor McDermott’s subcommittee,” he said.

This deal stinks, and needs to be stopped. No other group -- and certainly not one with documented ties to the enemies of the United States -- would get such preferential treatment. Let them pay market rates for the land, and then only if they can prove that they have completely eliminated their ties to the enemies of the United States.

(H/T: Hub Politics)

Posted by: Greg at 08:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Logan Act prohibits American citizens from disrupting American foreign policy via direct contact with foreign government or officials.

"Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects."

In light of this long-standing statutory prohibition, will there be an indctment of this seditious loon?

The Irish Government must stop the US military using Shannon Airport to transport troops to the Middle East, American anti-war campaigner Cindy Sheehan demanded ahead of a meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern today.

The ‘Peace Mom’ spent the summer camped outside President George Bush’s Texan ranch waiting for him to speak to her about the death of her 24-year-old son in Iraq in April 2004.

Her actions galvanised the anti-war movement in the US and today she called on Irish people to stand up against their countryÂ’s involvement in the Iraq conflict.

Ms Sheehan said she wanted an end to the occupation of Iraq and to IrelandÂ’s involvement in allowing troop flights to stop over in the airport.

And she wanted to show Mr Ahern the face of a grieving mother.

Ms Sheehan, who was wearing a badge with her son’s face on it, said: “I want him to see Casey, and to see the face of a mother and to say that it’s not just about right and left, not about politics, it’s about flesh and blood.”

The violation of federal law is clear here. Three steps need to be taken immediately regarding Ms. Sheehan.

Investigate.

Indict.

Imprison.

She has become a potential national security threat -- even if no one takes her seriously.

Posted by: Greg at 11:40 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Gotta love this from Iraq's friendly neighborhood terrorist groups.

Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced this week's parliamentary elections as a "satanic project" that violated God's law, but they stopped short of an explicit threat Monday to attack polling stations.

Given that their actions show these rabid pigs to be the minions of Satan, I guess they have a certain expertise in the matter.

On the other hand, the freedom-loving people of Iraq have a different view.

Despite the sound of detonations rumbling across the capital and at least 15 deaths in ongoing violence, early voting went ahead in hospitals, prisons and military bases, and President Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters.

In other words, the Iraqi people are giving a purple index finger to freedom – and a middle finger to the swine who would take them back to the seventh century.

Posted by: Greg at 12:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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These clueless Spaniards think that Cindy Sheehan is going to "shake" the US Embassy? Who do they think they are kiding?

US pacifist Cindy Sheehan, "Mother Courage," will participate, along with the Couso family, in a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Madrid, rally organizers said on Thursday.

The organization Colectivo de Hermanos, Amigos y Compañeros de José Couso in Madrid said in a communiqué sent to Prensa Latina that on December 16 and 20, Sheehan, Juan Torres, Beatriz Zaldívar and Pilar Manjón will participate in the protest held every week in front of the embassy.

Cindy Sheehan and other mothers of US soldiers killed in the war are the founders of the organization Gold Star Families for Peace. Sheehan lost her son Casey in Iraq in April 2004.

During her visit to Spain, adds the press release, Sheehan will take part in several public events, in some of which she will be accompanied by María Isabel Permuy, the mother of the Spanish TV cameraman José Couso, who was assassinated by a US tank in Baghdad in April 2003.

Also present at the events will be Juan Torres, the father of a US soldier killed in Afghanistan in July 2004, and Beatriz Zaldívar, the aunt of Daniel Torres, another US soldier killed in Iraq in February 2005.

Maribel Permuy, Cindy Sheehan, Juan Torres or Pilar Manjón, who lost a son in the terrorist attacks on Madrid on March 11, are united by the pain of losing their beloved ones and their determination to fight for Peace and Justice, says the communiqué.

The woman has nearly fallen off the radar in this country, and represented an extreme view even among the Left. Why on Earth will the Embassy even care if the woman shows up in Spain -- unless she needs to have her passport replace?

Posted by: Greg at 05:36 PM | Comments (82) | Add Comment
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He may not be going to jail, but terrorist supporting prof Sami al-Arian may be going somewhere. More to the point, he is likely to be leaving the US on order of the American government.

Al-Arian, 47, remains in jail, where he's been since his February 2003 indictment, while the federal government decides whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges, which include three key counts accusing him of conspiracy to support the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Officials say there is no timetable for a decision.

If the government decides to abandon the remaining charges, it's doubtful Al-Arian will be permitted to return to his previous life in Tampa. He had been a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida, but was fired after his indictment.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding him on an immigration detainer and likely will try to deport him if he's released from jail. The agency can deport any foreign national it deems a terrorism risk and is held to a lower burden of proof than the criminal courts.

Al-Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents and holds permanent residency status in the United States, where he has lived for three decades. He was raised mostly in Egypt. If he is deported it's not clear where he would be sent.

This guy is definitely an undesirable alien -- and as such, has no claim to stay in the US. Frankly, I don't care where he goes, as long as he never spends another free day in this country which he so clearly despises.

Posted by: Greg at 09:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For the terrorist is the enemy of all humanity.

A little bit of good news on the terrorism front. Al-Qaeda's #3 leader has been killed by a laser-guided missle launched from a Predator drone in Pakistan.

The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News.

Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death.

“Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong,” President Pervez Musharraf told reporters as he arrived in Kuwait on an official visit on Saturday.

Whatever criticism I have of Pakistan and its regresive attitude towards the rights of Christians, the Musharraf government is working closely with the US to destroy the terrorist apparatus known as al-Qaeda.

This is not the first such attack seeking to take out Rabia -- several weeks ago an attack missed him but killed ight others, including Rabia's wife and children.

MORE AT: Captain's Quarters, Stop The ACLU, The Jawa Report, Random Numbers, Martin's Musings, OpiniPundit, Ace of Spades, Blogs for Bush

Posted by: Greg at 05:07 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 This makes what the twenty-third Al Quaeda # three killed sine lil'boots began his excellent Iraqui adventure?? MOre bullshit from the worst presidency in my 47 years of living.

Posted by: I'm an effin' idiot at Sat Dec 3 09:04:14 2005 (Sfcu+)

2 I've not kept track of the number of #3 al-Qaeda folks killed -- I'm just pleased that the job gives the holder a very short life expectancy.

And as for the "worst president" crap -- did you sleep through Johnson, Carter, AND Clinton? Or did you just drink the Kool-Aid?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Dec 3 09:36:29 2005 (oprAZ)

3 This operation was carried out by Pakistani personnel and was based on Pakistani intelligence efforts, the Americans were limited to providing technical assistance.

Give credit where its due. The US is poor at finding and eliminating terrorists on its own, as Afghanistan and Iraq can demonstrate.

Posted by: Aamir Ali at Sat Dec 3 10:19:31 2005 (UULRx)

4 Well if you must know until this ass-clown was appointed in 2000, I ranked them from worst to least worst:
1) Nixon
2) LBJ
3) Ronzo/Poppy (tie)
5) Ford
6) Carter
7) Ike (even though he was only pres. for my first 36 months)
Bubba Clinton
9) JFK (despite his only being in office for 34 months

Lil' Boots has blown away the competition as far as I am concerned, giving tax breaks skewed to the top 5% of earners was just the first of many fuck-ups. And to think we have to suffer three more years of this imbecile, I said before the last "election" if you want to live in a banana republic just elect the squatter-in-chief.

Oh yeah before you and any of your conservatard readers goes into a hissy-fit, when there is a tie for # 3 there is no # 4 so the list would normally be: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, and so-on. I was just lazy in making the list

Posted by: I'm an effing shiitehead at Sat Dec 3 10:28:28 2005 (Sfcu+)

5 Well, that proves you have very little historical understanding.

I'll leave Ile off the list -- I wasn't born until 1963 -- and rank them as follows (from worst to best)

1) Carter -- Good man, lousy president. Gave away the Canal and failed to act decisively in Iran.
2) Ford -- Snakebit from Day 1. The pardon of Nixon may, however, have been one of the great acts of courage in American history, as it saved the US from the trauma of a trial of a former president and the subsequent appeals/retrials, which would have impacted American electoral politics for the next decade at least.
3) Nixon -- A great president gone bad. Were it not for the paranoid act of hubris that was Watergate, he would rank much more highly. He has the makings of a Greek tragic hero like Oedipus -- brought low by his own unseen flaw.
4) JFK/LBJ -- Let's see -- Abandoned allies at the Bay of Pigs, nearly blew up the world in Cuba, allowed the Berlin Wall to be erected, got us into a full-scale war in Vietnam that we lacked the need or the will to win, and passed a series of programs that left us financially and socially bankrupt -- but diod get civil rights measures through due to JFK's death and substantial GOP help.
6) Clinton -- Only governed well because he had to follow the lead of a Republican Congress.
7) Bush 41 -- A pity he broke the tax pledge. Governed well otherwise, though reasonable folks can question the decision not to topple Saddam.
Reagan -- I certainly wish he had been able to implement all his platform -- America would be an even better place. As it was, he set the stage for the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I don't know yet where Dubya would fit -- probably on one side of the other of his father, but certainly not ahead of Reagan.

Oh, and I suggest that you read the US Constitution and the decision in Bush v. Gore to understand that Bush 43 was ELECTED, not APPOINTED -- no matter how often the Leftist meme to the contrary is repeated.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Dec 3 11:16:19 2005 (oprAZ)

6 Aamir -- I've seen reports presented both ways.

I'll be quite happy to find out it was Pakastani personnel rather than US technology. Now if those same Pakistani personnel could just bring us Osama'shead on a platter -- with or without a rasher of bacon on the side.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Dec 3 11:18:58 2005 (oprAZ)

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How do we deal with this tactical twist? And what does it mean?

MIREILLE, who was born in Belgium to a white, middle-class Christian family, blew herself to pieces last month in a suicide attack against American troops near Baghdad.

In one of the most extraordinary tales of Islamic radicalisation, she is thought to be the first white Western woman to carry out a suicide bombing.

Belgian investigators, who arrested 14 people associated with her, are keeping the 38-year-old womanÂ’s true identity secret, but details have started to emerge. She was from the southern Belgian town of Charleroi, married to a Moroccan and converted to an extreme form of Islam.

“This is how she came into contact with the organisation which allowed her to become a fighter for jihad,” said Glenn Audenaert, the federal police director. Her Belgian documents show that she travelled with her husband to Iraq. On November 9 she blew herself up in a car bomb attack on a US military convoy, killing — according to conflicting reports — either only herself, or six people. Her Belgian passport was near by. Her husband was killed by American troops in a separate incident.

Security sources said that they knew of no other western European women suicide bombers. Al-Qaeda recently appealed for white converts to become suicide bombers, because it was easier for them to travel and evade detection before carrying out their attacks.

The enemy today is not just "Middle Eastern men". Now it is women, and individuals of European descent. Short of annihilating Islam as a cancer among us, destroying it root and branch, how do we combat the Islamist enemy without destroying our most preciouis liberties? Must we recognize Islam an exception to our pincipled support of religious liberty that liberty might survive? Or do we travel the path of pure principle, even if the cost of our lives or our liberties if the enemy is successful?

Sadly, I do not know. How do we balance the lives of many against the liberty of our enemy?

Posted by: Greg at 02:11 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 luogo interessante e bene-organizzato. Devo avere soltanto buoni contrassegni alla scuola

Posted by: Milano at Tue Jun 13 15:38:42 2006 (B4/Lt)

2 Luogo interessante, Info molto importante, grazie molto!

Posted by: Medio ambiente at Fri Jun 23 05:32:30 2006 (s6ivn)

3 Luogo interessante e ben progettato, siete buoni!))

Posted by: Galleria at Sat Jul 1 21:52:40 2006 (4a7/V)

4 Interessare, interessare, interessante ancora: -)

Posted by: Gianna at Sat Jul 1 21:52:40 2006 (4a7/V)

5 [URL]http://www.musica.gemsa.org [URL]http://www.cupido.sinobiometrics.org [URL]http://www.thekingpins.org [URL]http://www.biscotti.liftusup.org [URL]http://www.cipro.cunardcruiseline.org [URL]http://www.argento-asia.gemsa.org

Posted by: Multi-20/07/06 at Thu Jul 20 08:52:03 2006 (BZVOi)

6 [URL]http://www.argento-asia.gemsa.org [URL]http://www.thekingpins.org [URL]http://www.cipro.cunardcruiseline.org [URL]http://www.musica.gemsa.org [URL]http://www.biscotti.liftusup.org [URL]http://www.cupido.sinobiometrics.org

Posted by: Multi-20/07/06 at Thu Jul 20 09:52:19 2006 (BZVOi)

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They have listened to critics of the Flight 93 “Crescent of Embrace” design and taken another crack at memorializing the site where heroes died. Is it an improvement?

Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday.

The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, features most of the details of the original, which was unveiled in September after a worldwide design competition.

But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a "Crescent of Embrace," a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees.

In September, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., criticized the design in a letter to the National Park Service Director, saying many questioned the shape "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam _ and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists."

Paul Murdoch, president of Paul Murdoch Architects, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an "unfortunate diversion," but said they were sensitive to the concerns.

In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes welcomes visitors to the site, where they can then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims' names inscribed.

IÂ’m still not in love with the design, but will concede that it is a movement in the right direction.

MORE AT Michelle Malkin, A Blog For All, JunkYardBlog, David Boyd, and Local Liberty.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Cindy Sheehan, who owes her noteriety to the media giving too much attention to her last August, is now a media critic. Seems she and her supporters think the media is too soft on George W. Bush and too hard on her.

Sheehan supporters often fault the news media for questioning her motives and giving equal weight to pro-Bush demonstrators. Sheehan's detractors lament that journalists continue to give her consequence by reporting on her activities.

But the harshest critics of the so-called mainstream media are Sheehan and her immediate circle of activists.

Last summer, when her 26-day, anti-war vigil was front-page, international news, Sheehan often complained — to large groups of journalists — that the news media were ignoring the story of the anti-war movement.

Last week, it was the same message. Journalists visiting Camp Casey, the protest site named for Sheehan's son who was killed in the Iraq war, were frequently dressed down for various omissions and transgressions.

Jacque Betz, an anti-war demonstrator from Waldo, Fla., scolded journalists for failing to aggressively pursue claims that Bush wanted to bomb the Arab news organization Al-Jazeera.

Hey, Cindy -- you don;t get to micromanage the press. And given your book, speaking fees, and lies about your meeting with the President, I think you are due a little scrutiny.

Posted by: Greg at 01:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had a commenter here recently claim that there was no evidence of connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq prior to the current war. Perhaps these might be worth considering.

This charge is false for several reasons — and illogical for even more. Almost every responsible U.S. government body had long warned about Saddam's links to al-Qaida terrorists. In 1998, for example, when the Clinton Justice Department indicted bin Laden, the writ read: "In addition, al-Qaida reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al-Qaida would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al-Qaida would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."

Then in October 2002, George Tenet, the Clinton-appointed CIA director, warned the Senate in similar terms: "We have solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida going back a decade." Seventy-seven senators apparently agreed — including a majority of Democrats — and cited just that connection a few days later as a cause to go to war against Saddam: " ... Whereas members of al-Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq."

The bipartisan consensus about this unholy alliance was not based on intriguing but unconfirmed rumors of meetings between Saddam's intelligence agents and al-Qaida operatives such as Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Nor did the senators or the president ever claim that Saddam himself planned the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, the Justice Department, the Senate and two administrations were alarmed by terrorist groups like Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida affiliate that established bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.

More importantly, one of the masterminds of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled to Baghdad to find sanctuary with Saddam after the attack. And after the U.S.'s successful war against the Taliban, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the present murderous al-Qaida leader in Iraq, reportedly escaped from Afghanistan to gain a reprieve from Saddam.

Now we can debate how strong the connection was, how involved Iraq was in 9/11, and many other issues surrounding the war -- but to claim that the connection was non-existant and that claims of a connection were lies is to stray outside of documented fact and into the world of tin-foil-wearing conspiracy theories

Posted by: Greg at 12:13 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 One can only wonder who "authored " the "solid reporting" referanced wich leads to my next question why cant the anerican people see the reports..we all pay for the war so we all sould be able to see why were at war...anything else would be un american right rhymes?I mean our goverment would never LIE to us would they rhymes,,,so again why wont the Chen...err Bush admin put all the evidence for the war on the table and let the american people see our reason for going to war?

Posted by: Jojo at Fri Nov 25 22:03:26 2005 (9SIY/)

2 Ah rhymes you didnt censor my comments did you????that would be "unamerican " anyway I like to ask you do u belive in any "conspiracy "theories do you?

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 01:00:08 2005 (9SIY/)

3 All Things Beautiful TrackBack 'The Thanksgiving Gift From Al-Qaeda':

"You want to throw leaflets and not bombs at the terrorists. You want to come to a gunfight armed with a knife. Well good luck, you can kiss goodbye to that liberty you hold so dear, and treasure as the banner on your flag of democracy."

Posted by: Alexandra at Sat Nov 26 01:15:56 2005 (9JKJs)

4 No censoirship, JoJo.

Not because it would be "unAmerican" (the First Amendment applying only to governemnt, not private, actions), but because you are so pathetic that I choose to leave your words in place to show the true nature of the anti-American Left.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 03:12:29 2005 (JysJA)

5 I would hazard to state that the claims of a connection to al-Qaeda were as strong as the case for connecting Iraq to a vibrant and threatening WMD program - in the end such over-inflated concerns hardly now seem to be the baseis for which to have invested over 2,000 American lives, God only knows how many Iraqi lives, and over $200 billion of this country's riches which I believe many people could have found much better places to spend that sum of money.

I'd also like to think that you'd come up with something a bit more substantial then an article in the Honolulu Advertiser to make your case. When you scrape the bottom of the barrel like that to support a point you, do more to undermine your position than buttress it.

Posted by: James at Sat Nov 26 07:35:46 2005 (0XDLV)

6 James --

I picked one of the many sources for this column by Dr. Victor Davis Hansen, a well-kown and respected commentator on military history and affairs. Your comment betrays a certain ignorance and elitism rolled into a typical liberal dismissal of opposing points of view.

Let me help you out so you do not display your ignorance in the future. here is a quick biography of the author.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

He was a full-time farmer before joining California State University, Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002). He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–3).

He is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, scholarly papers, and newspaper editorials on matters ranging from Greek, agrarian and military history to foreign affairs, domestic politics, and contemporary culture. He has written or edited 14 books, including Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece (1983; paperback ed. University of California Press, 199 ; The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf, 1989; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Hoplites: The Ancient Greek Battle Experience (Routledge, 1991; paperback ed. 1992); The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (Free Press, 1995; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea (Free Press, 1996; paperback ed. Touchstone, 1997); The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer (Free Press, 2000); The Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Cassell, 1999; paperback ed., 2001); The Soul of Battle (Free Press, 1999, paperback ed. Anchor/ Vintage, 2000); Carnage and Culture (Doubleday, 2001; Anchor/Vintage, 2002); An Autumn of War (Anchor/Vintage, 2002); and Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (Encounter, 2003), Ripples of Battle (2003).

His newest book, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War (Random House), was published in October 2005. Click here to read more about the book.

Hanson coauthored, with John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom (Free Press, 1998; paperback ed. Encounter Press, 2000) and, with Bruce Thornton and John Heath, Bonfire of the Humanities (ISI Books, 2001).

Hanson has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Post, the Claremont Review of Books, The New Republic, National Review, American Heritage, Policy Review, Commentary, National Review, the Wilson Quarterly, the Weekly Standard, Daily Telegraph, and Washington Times and has been interviewed often on National Public Radio, the PBS Newshour, the Hugh Hewitt Show, and C-Span's BookTV. He serves on the editorial board of Arion, the Military History Quarterly, and City Journal.

In 2004, Hanson began a syndicated column for Tribune Media Services which appears in newspapers nationwide, and since 2001, he has written a weekly column for National Review Online.

Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A. 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978–79) and received his Ph.D. in classics from Stanford University in 1980.

He lives and works with his family on their forty-acre tree and vine farm near Selma, California, where he was born in 1953.

I think that establishes the qualifications of the author to comment on these matters -- even for an elitist like you.

Oh, and while you are at it, you might consider that the Honolulu Advertiser is not a grocery throw-away, but rather the major newspaper in the state of Ohio -- something akin to the DesMoines Register.

As for this particular piece, here it is coming from Tribune Media Services, the syndicator. I suspect it will be showing up over the next few days in various papers around the country --I happened to have picked the first.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 08:13:19 2005 (3DAR3)

7 Opps! I made an editting error.

"major newspaper in Hawaii -- something akin to the DesMoines Register in Iowa or the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 08:18:21 2005 (3DAR3)

8 Rhymes since have the New York and Los angeles times been solid quoting grounds for the neocon right???I mean that is pinko commie teratory for sure!!!!!What I m concrend with is how about the countles members of our armed forces and civlian staffers that were dismised when they raised objectionss to policy??In short thats all fine and dandy what your good doctor wrote but there not in the oval office Chen...errr Bush is , and he alone(at least on paper) is the author of this war.

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 13:36:45 2005 (9SIY/)

9 Well, as one who is not a neo-con, I don't know their attitude towards those papers. I pointed to them because they are part of Dr. Hansen's extensive and varied list of publications.

As for the rest -- would you translate it into something that vaguely resembles standard English and repost it? I'm sick and tired of reading gibberish.

Also, I note the LAX in your server name -- are you some homeless guy sponging the free internet service at the airport? That would explain a lot about your comments.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 13:55:42 2005 (CH4Gg)

10 Well as for my server I would have to refer you to my I.P company for that but again you dodge the issue by making a personal attack,lets say I am a homeless guy steeling free internet (wich I'm not what I am is a fulltime student and I work in the banking industry if you must know)how does that lessen the charge of a false pretext for war???How my right hack job of a freind does that account for the secrecy that your masters have advcated?I could be black ,white ,red,brown homeless or like you a closet homo with fetishes for men in sailor suits...but tell me how does that differ the facts and in this case lack of facts on the table? You quote a doctor and now I will"Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest." -Luke 8:17

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 14:54:32 2005 (9SIY/)

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Thank God (the True God, not the false one worshipped by the Islamists) that these toys did not get distributed to the children of Iraq.

Baghdad - The Iraqi army said on Thursday it had seized a number of booby-trapped children's dolls, accusing insurgents of using the explosive-filled toys to target children.

The dolls were found in a car, each one containing a grenade or other explosive, said an army statement.

The government said that two men driving the car had been arrested in the western Baghdad district of Abu Ghraib.

"This is the same type of doll as that handed out on several occasions by US soldiers to children," said government spokesperson Leith Kubba.

It was not immediately clear when the find was made or the suspects arrested.

These sick Islamist pigs murdered children waiting for toys today. Now we find that they were also looking to distribute deadly ones to other children.

Should we cut and run from such a foe, or should we stay and help the Iraqi people finish the job?

Posted by: Greg at 04:32 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Some stories need no commentary.

A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children, police said.

I'll let the words of one victim speak more eloquently than I can.

The suicide bomber in Mahmoudiya was targeting U.S. military vehicles parked near the hospital, said Iraqi army Capt. Ibrahim Abdeallah. He said two U.S. soldiers were wounded and one Humvee damaged.

The U.S. soldiers were distributing toys to children in the hospital, said police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi.

Dr. Osama Kassab of Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital said there were 23 injured and three dead at his facility. It was not clear if these were in addition to the dead and wounded cited by the doctor in Mahmoudiya.

"It was an explosion at the gate of the hospital," said one woman who had wounds on her face and legs. "My children are gone. My brother is gone."

They targeted women and children who wanted nothing more than toys.

Evil. Evil. Evil.

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Well, now the Left gets what it claimed it had wanted -- the indictment of Jose Padilla and the transfer of his case to full civilian control.

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charges for more than three years on suspicion of plotting a "dirty bomb" attack in this country, has been indicted on three counts alleging he conspired to "murder, maim and kidnap" people overseas.

The indictment naming Padilla and four others was unsealed Tuesday after being returned last week by a federal grand jury in Miami. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a U.S.-based terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government's earlier allegations that he planned to carry out attacks in America.

"The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference. Gonzales declined to comment on why none of the allegations involving attacks in America were included in the indictment.

I'm not surprosed by the lack of charges about plans to carry out an attack in the US. Making the information involved public would most certainly result in the disclosure of intelligence sources that are still useful. Better to put this Islamist pig away for a long time without burning a useful intelligence asset than to go "whole hog" when it would be detrimental to national security. As it is, three of the charges carry a potential life sentence -- one count each of conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy.

According to the indictment, Padilla traveled overseas to receive violent jihad training and to fight violent jihad from October 1993 to November 2001. On July 24, 2000, Padilla allegedly filled out a "Mujahideen Data Form" in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan and reportedly was seen in that country in October 2000.

A "Mujahadeen Data Form"? Am I the only one here who has a vision of burqa-clad women in a mud hut doing data-entry work?

The charges against him and four others allege they were part of a North American support cell that sent money, assets and recruits overseas "for the purpose of fighting violent jihad." The indictment mentions Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Egypt and Bosnia, but makes no allegations of specific attacks anywhere.

The others indicted are: Adham Amin Hassoun a Lebanese-born Palestinian who lived in Broward County, Fla.;, Mohammed Hesham Youssef, an Egyptian who lived in Broward County; Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a Jordanian national and U.S. citizen who lived in San Diego; and Kassem Daher, a Lebanese citizen with Canadian residency status.

Notice, friends, that we once again have a south Florida connection to terrorism -- where it is easy to flee the jurisdiction.. One of those indicted lived in San Diego, not far from the pourousborder with Mexico. Tow of the accused are in sustody in the US, while Youssef is in prison in Egypt and Daher is in Lebanon.

I wonder how long it is going to be before Left-wing supporters of the enemies of America demand the release of Padilla and his con-conspiritors on bail and the dismissal of all charges.

Posted by: Greg at 08:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or at least those are the reports coming out of Iraq.

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a farmhouse in northern Iraq at dawn Saturday, searching for suspected members of al-Qaida in Iraq. Eight insurgents and four Iraqi policemen were killed, officials said.

Brig. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri, the spokesman for the Mosul police, said Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers surrounded a house in the al-Sukar neighborhood of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

A fierce gunfight erupted and three of the insurgents detonated explosives, killing themselves. Five more died fighting, while four police officers were also killed, he added.

Al-Jubouri said officials were attempting to identify the dead insurgents.

Nineva province Governor Duraid Kashmola confirmed the report, adding that one woman was among the dead insurgents.

U.S. officials in the area were not immediately available for comment.

Sounds like good news so far.

But it gets better.

Arch terrorists and al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been killed, Arab press have reported.

According to reports, American and Iraqi forces are currently checking whether al-Zarqawi's body can be found among the bodies of other al-Qaeda members that blew themselves up at a house that was besieged by the forces at the northern town of Musul. (Ali Waked)

At least those are the reports from Arab sources Elaph and al-Mada, according to Iraq the Model and No End but Victory.

The Jerusalem Post also notes the reports.

The Elaph Arab media website reported on Sunday that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, may have been killed in Iraq on Sunday afternoon when eight terrorists blew themselves up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The unconfirmed report claimed that the explosions occurred while coalition forces surrounded the house in which al-Zarqawi was hiding. American and Iraqi forces are looking into the report.

American sources neither confirm nor deny the report -- but do seem to hint at the possibility.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

In other words, this may be it. The terrorist leader behind so much of the violence in iraq may be in Hell, roasting on a pit with an apple firmly clenched between his teeth -- a fit eternity for such an Islamist pig.

Hat Tip to Michelle Malkin and Mudville Gazette.

UPDATE: This update from the Washington Post has bad news (al-Zarqawi likely was not killed) and good some good news (imams and sheiks are cooperating in tracking the terrorist leader).

U.S. military officials believe it is possible that Zarqawi was killed in the raid but will not know with certainty until DNA tests are run, said a U.S. military intelligence official involved in Iraqi issues.

There is a "30 percent" chance that one of the bodies is Zarqawi's, he said. But he warned: "We've had dry holes before."

Over the past month, the official said, there has been a series of raids following a surge in tips from Iraqis unhappy with Zarqawi and his operation. These tend to be traditional Iraqi leaders -- sheiks and imams -- upset with the organization, especially its recent execution of Sunni Arabs in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar. "Their feeling is that al Qaeda in Iraq has overstepped its bounds," he said.

Could this be a sign of the waning of the insurgency, right at the time that liberals want to retreat from the field in disgrace?

UPDATE 2: The Counterterrorism Blog is suggesting that reports of al-Zarqawi's death are greatly exagerated.

UPDATE 3: MSNBC reports that troops just missed capturing al-Zarqawi.

Posted by: Greg at 09:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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No doubt encouraged by the speeches of James Murtha, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and other “Surrender Now” Democrats, al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists today murdered nearly 100 Iraqis in attacks on a hotel where foreign journalists stay and two mosques.

Suicide bombers killed at least 90 worshipers Friday inside two Shiite Muslim mosques northeast of the capital near the Iranian border, and a pair of car bombs outside a Baghdad hotel that houses foreign journalists destroyed a nearby apartment building and left several more people dead.

In Khanaqin, a mixed Shiite and Kurdish town 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, attackers wearing suicide belts walked into the two mosques and lined up among worshipers gathered for Friday prayers, then detonated their explosives as the imams at both mosques delivered their sermons. In addition to the 90 dead at the mosques, at least 75 worshipers were injured, said Ibrahim Hassan Bajillan, head of the local governing council in Diyala province.

The explosions collapsed the roofs of the Sheikh Murad Mosque and the larger Khanaqin Grand Mosque. Residents rushed to the scenes to search the rubble for victims. But after darkness fell, searchers called off the hunt for bodies for the night. Police said the toll is likely to rise after the search for victims resumes Saturday.

Shiite mosques are a frequent target of attackers in Iraq. Earlier this month, at least 29 people were killed in an attack on a mosque in Musayyib, south of Baghdad. The insurgency in Iraq is led by Sunni Muslims, the most radical of whom regard Shiites as heretics and accuse them of collaborating with U.S. forces.
In the capital, suicide attackers exploded two vehicles loaded with bombs outside the Hamra Hotel early Friday, collapsing at least one neighboring apartment block and shearing off walls around sleeping families.

The back-to-back Baghdad blasts killed at least six and wounded more than 41, police said. At least two children were among the dead, police said. There were no immediate reports of foreign casualties.

These killers enter into houses of prayer and murder worshippers. They gladly murder non-combatants. We must stand side-by-side with the freedom-loving Iraqi people and defend them, not engage in another Democrat-led Vietnam-style abandonment of a nation to the forces of violence and oppression.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Proving that the Islamist terrorists have no real commitment to Islam and no respect for Muhammad.

An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq said Friday the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also threatened to kill Jordan's King Abdullah II and bomb more hotels and tourist sites.

"Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al- Zarqawi said, referring to the king.

It would appear that al-Zarqawi places himself above the very family of his Prophet in determining what is the true practice of Islam, and is prepared to lay hands on those of his blood to further the perverse Islamist faith of the terrorists.

And, of course, al-Zarqawi is willing to lie for his cause.

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians.

At least 59 people were killed in the near simultaneous bombings at three Amman hotels _ around 30 of them in the wedding party taking place at the Radisson. Witnesses told Jordanian security officials that the Radisson bomber talked his way into the wedding hall, watched it for a while, then jumped on a table in the hall to detonate his explosives.

So al-Zarqawi questions the word of the Muslim survivors of the attack, those who witnessed the attack and made statements at the time about the circumstances of the attack. He is not only a murderer of his fellow Muslims, but he is a murderer of the truth. And add to that his statement of intent to murder a descendant of Muhammad, and I fail to see how any true believer in Islam can follow such an obvious apostate

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We see once more why treating the Islamists as civilized people will not work – they are not human beings, but are rather rabid swine.

NARATHIWAT, Thailand: Nine villagers from the same family were gunned down in their sleep yesterday by suspected Islamic militants in southern Thailand, as attacks escalated in the Muslim-majority region.

An unknown number of militants used grenades and automatic weapons to attack three homes in Ra Ngae district's Bo-Ngo village at 1.30am, killing all of those in one of the houses, including an infant, witnesses said. The massacre brings to 18 the number of people killed during the past week.

"There are nine villagers shot dead and another nine wounded," said Pracha Tearat, governor of Narathiwat province where the attack occurred, adding that the wounded had been taken to hospital and were out of danger.

Mr Pracha said the victims were targeted because they co-operated with the Government in its bid to quell an Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand that has been raging for more than 22 months.

"It's the really brutal work of militants. They kill everyone if they learn that those people take sides with the Government," he said.

Such murderous creatures need to be declared outside the protections afforded to mere criminals. These terrorists are the enemy of all humanity, and must be stopped by any means necessary, without regard for humanitarian considerations.

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On the other hand, it seems clear that both the US and the Iraqi authorities are determined to stop such abuses, which appear to be perpetrated by elements of one political party.

U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a secret Iraqi detention bunker run by the Ministry of Interior in central Baghdad and freed 173 Sunni prisoners who had been tortured with electric shocks and drills, Iraqi and U.S. officials said yesterday.
The Ministry of Interior in the Shi'ite-led government has been repeatedly accused of allowing extrajudicial detentions and abuses, including operation of anti-Sunni hit squads.

A Baghdad police official said officers from the Shi'ite-led Badr Brigade, which answers to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, were manning the bunker when the U.S. and Iraqi forces arrived.

"The army searched the bunker and found many prisoners there," said the police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They found prisoners who had been treated inhumanely, tortured with warm water, electricity and drills in their bodies."

He said all the detainees were Sunnis, and police braced for an outburst of anger when news of the discovery is widely circulated today.

Since they have seen fit to act like Saddamites, I hope the Iraqi courts treat the perpetrators like Saddamites.

Posted by: Greg at 01:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After being driven off ABC Radio affiliate WMAL-AM in Washington, DC by the terrorist supporters from CAIR, Michael Graham has found a new home on the air in Boston.

Michael Graham was fired in August by WMAL-AM because he refused to apologize for saying "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam," on-air following the London subway bombings.

"I stand by it," Graham, 42, told the Boston Herald on Monday.

The former standup comedian and GOP political consultant officially took over Monday as WTKK-FM's afternoon drive host after a two-week tryout, replacing Jay Severin.

"I think he's a very bright guy," said Peter Smyth, chief executive of Greater Media, which owns WTKK. He said audience response to Graham had so far been "incredibly positive."

Why wouldnÂ’t he be popular? After all, he is speaking the truth as he sees it, and his point of view is not unreasonable.

CAIR, angry that their attempt to censor one and intimidate many has failed, is already planning their next move.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said they're disappointed with the decision and will monitor his new show for similar comments.

"When you describe one-fifth of the world's population to be a member of a terrorist organization, that amounts to bigotry," said Ibrahim Hooper, a group spokesman.

Sorry, Ibrahim, gotta disagree with you. When most of that one-fifth says next to nothing when their co-religionists murder Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others in the name of the religion of that one-fifth of the world’s population, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the one-fifth is part of a terrorist organization – or at least providing aid, comfort, and support to the terrorists.

Congratulations, Michael.

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Proving once again that they have more in common with the objects of their adoration than with the human race, there has been another case of “animal rights” terrorism.

Animal rights extremists have targeted the widow of a former pharmaceuticals agent who has been dead for more than a year.

Kathryn Grant, 51, and her teenage son were at home when the family car was torched by fanatics who later boasted on a website "your decisions will come back to haunt you forever even when you have gone".

Mrs Grant said: "I cannot believe they have done this knowing Alex was no longer managing director."

The intended object of the act of terrorism, Alex Grant, the former managing director of the UK division of Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate, died in March.

Not that the terrorists cared about that. Their goal is terror against any who dare to disagree with them – and their bereaved families. They even brag about their intent.

A recent addition to the Bite Back website - used by the Animal Rights Militia, Animal Liberation Front and other extremists - said: "This year we have been keeping many senior personnel from HLS's customers and suppliers under intense surveillance. One such person was Alexander Grant, East Sussex. Grant was a senior director of Roche who are a major customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences. We were planning an attack on Grant a few months ago but then realised that he had just died of a heart attack.

"In October we carried out the operation at Grant's address planting two incendiary devices under an expensive four-wheel drive, totally destroying it. People who sign contracts with or deal with Huntingdon need to realise that your decisions will come back to haunt you forever even when you have gone."

The time has come to treat these folks like al-Qaeda.

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Sajida al Rishaw is supposed to be dead now, killed in one of the homicide bombings in Jordan this week. She lives only because her bomb failed to detonate.

"We went into the hotel," she said. "He (my husband) took a corner and I took another.

"There was a wedding in the hotel. There were women and children.

"My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it failed. People started running and I ran with them."

My suggested method of execution? Boil her alive in bacon grease as an example to every other Islamist who might think of killing the innocent in the name of their barbaric beliefs.

Thus always to the enemies of humanity.

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Once again, an Islamist apologist for terror has attempted to dictate policy to a sovereign country via a threat of terrorism – and then denied that he ever made a threat.

Ireland is putting itself at risk of an attack from Islamic militants by allowing Gulf-bound U.S. military planes to refuel on the island, a leading radical British Muslim lawyer said on Friday.

Anjem Choudary, who is being investigated by Irish police over comments made during a university debate on Thursday evening, said media reports that he believed Ireland was a "legitimate" target were incorrect, however.

"I am not threatening the Irish, nor am I giving any veiled threats, but it seems that when a Muslim warns of potential danger then they are seen as terrorists and extremists," Choudary told Reuters by phone during a visit to Dublin.

"When politicians say the same thing, then it's considered to be political analysis and obviously it's no problem whatsoever."

According to Ireland's transport ministry, over 900 aircraft carrying U.S. military personnel or weapons landed in Ireland or used Irish airspace during the first nine months of this year.

Fine, Mr. Anjem, then hear this loud and clear. If you continue to threaten the well-being of non-Muslims, then you risk being smeared with bacon grease and lynched by outraged non-Muslims. I’m not saying that I believe you to be a legitimate target for such an attack, nor am I making a veiled threat – I’m simply offering an analysis of the possible consequences of your words and warning of the potential danger. I hope you don’t see me as a terrorist or extremist for offering that warning.

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And hopefully taking it rectally from 72 male virgins .

In what could be the biggest breakthrough in Southeast Asia's counter-terror campaign in more than two years, Indonesian police are set to confirm that the man behind the region's deadliest terrorist bombings is dead.

Australia, scores of whose citizens have been killed in Indonesian terror attacks, welcomed the news that Azahari bin Husin, a Malaysian, apparently committed suicide during a standoff with police at a house in East Java Wednesday.

Canberra conceded, however, that the battle against Islamist terror in the region would continue for years.

Three men were killed after they evidently detonated a large bomb, following a series of smaller explosions. DNA tests are pending, but Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty said Thursday Indonesian police were convinced the remains included those of Azahari.

The death of Azahari, described as the master bomb maker for the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network, would be a major coup for Indonesia and the most significant success in Southeast Asia's fight against the group since the 2003 arrest in Thailand of JI operations chief, Hambali.

Azahari, a geophysics professor who trained at terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the southern Philippines, is believed to have succeeded Hambali, who is in U.S. military custody.

Indonesia and Australia hold him responsible for bombings in Bali in 2002 and again last month; on a Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003; and outside the Australian Embassy in the city last year.

More than 250 people were killed in the four attacks, including 92 Australians, at least 72 Indonesians, and seven Americans.

Keep on cleaning out the scum, boys, and maybe we can see an end to Islamist terrorism.

And might I send a fond wish to Azahari in his new infernal home -- BURN, BABY, BURN!

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Well, al-Zarqawi has turned on his homeland, and its ruler, King Abdullah.

Three nearly simultaneous bomb blasts tore through hotels here Wednesday night, killing more than 50 people and sending fear and panic through the streets of the normally tranquil city.

Jordanian authorities immediately shut down many of the capital's main roads and deployed dozens of ambulances, police cars and military vehicles to help evacuate the wounded to a half-dozen overflowing hospitals. The country's land borders were closed about an hour after the attacks.

At least one American was among those killed in the bombings and at least two others were wounded, the U.S. Embassy in Amman reported Thursday.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, a group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombings in a statement posted Thursday on the Internet.

The statement said the attacks were carried out by "a group of lions" from the organization, the major foreign-led insurgent group fighting in neighboring Iraq. "After studying and observing the targets, the places of execution were chosen to be some hotels that the tyrant of Jordan has turned into a backyard for the enemies of Islam, such as the Jews and crusaders," the statement said.

Jordanians are furious, and do not support the attack on their nation by Islamists.

After the claim of responsibility, hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied outside one of three bombed hotels Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The demonstrators shouted slogans such as, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!

Interestingly enough, this attack comes on an Arab state that is ruled by members of the family of Muhammad himself, IslamÂ’s founding prophet.

King Abdullah is a 43rd generation descendant of the Prophet. Who, then, is better to determine the proper teachings of Islam and the proper way of life for a Muslim– the descendant of Muhammad, or a gang of upstart terrorists who murder indiscrimiantely?

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I understand a motherÂ’s grief at the likely execution of her son. But IÂ’m sorry, the fault lies with her son and the hate-filled value system he learned at his motherÂ’s knee and in the Islamist mosques the family frequented, not with the US. After all, this Canadian family is closely connected to Osama bin Laden, a fact long known and acknowledged by the Canadian government. Every male member of the family, in fact, has fought for al-Qaeda.

The mother of a Canadian teenager charged with murder and held at Guantanamo Bay accused Americans of acting like gods Tuesday and slammed Ottawa for doing nothing to help her son.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Maha Elsamnah lashed out at both Washington and Canada's federal government over the detention and treatment of her Toronto-born son, Omar Khadr, 19, who faces the death penalty if convicted by a special U.S. military tribunal. "The Americans are gods now," Elsamnah said from her east-end Toronto home.

"The Americans can do anything. They make the law. Nobody can tell them anything. Nobody can disagree with them."

What did this poor boy do? He merely tossed a hand grenade at American soldiers in Afghanistan, killing one and wounding another. This Islamist sow should be thankful that her son has lived this long in the relative comfort and luxury of Guantanamo Bay at American expense, instead of being killed and left to be consumed by vultures. After all, an American medic saved him instead of letting him die from his wounds. Terrorist scum have no rights that the civilized are bound to respect – but we allow them limited protections because we choose to be better than them.

Mama Maha sits in Canada demanding the Canadian government do something for her Canada-born son. I agree – the Canadian government should pay for the bullets with which this little Islamofascist is executed, and the bacon grease in which they are dipped before the execution takes place.

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Mark Bibi is familiar of the tactics of those Leftists who will brook no opposition to their anti-human agenda.

Animal-rights fanatics have figured out that you beat medical research that uses animals not by going after the researchers, but by going after those who do business with the researchers. They cow Wall Street, not by flying into buildings, but by trashing members' clubs.

Bibi knows what it is like to be a target. Anonymous thugs vandalized his house, smashed his car's windshield and made nasty phone calls to his home in the middle of the night.

Skip Boruchin, the only trader who refused to be scared out of business with Life Sciences Research, testified about the relentless intimidation he and his family endured. Activists painted his yard red with slogans such as "Skip is a murderer." On line, they called him a "child pornographer." One Web site instructed people to send sex toys to his ninetysomething mother at an assisted-living home. Another Web site listed the names, phone and Social Security numbers of 19 neighbors, and threatened to publicize information about their credit cards or medical history.

Violence? Well, there were the two bombs set at Chiron's Emeryville offices in 2003. Agents believe the second bomb was timed to go off as first-responders arrived. The FBI also believes the violence is escalating.

And their actions are violent – not limited to harassment or property crimes. And what’s more, they are willing to publicly state – under oath before a Congressional committee – that they endorse homicidal violence as justified against their opponents.

Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California physician who is spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, also testified Wednesday. Vlasak dismissed the intimidation of Boruchin and others as "getting a little spray paint on the wall."

Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., questioned Vlasak about a statement Vlasak had made defending the assassination of medical researchers. Once again, Vlasak justified violence. For "people who are hurting animals and who will not stop when told to stop," he answered, one option would be murder, a "morally justifiable solution."

Imagine, if you can, the outrage that would exist if mainstream pro-life groups took such a position (they condemn violence) – or if opponents of homosexuality endorsed the killing of homosexuals “who will not stop when told to stop.” There would be loud outrage from the Left – but there is not a word of condemnation when it is their ideological allies engaged in such threats of violence against those involved in legal activities – medical and scientific research designed to improve human lives.

And it isnÂ’t just medical researchers and their associates who get it. Consider this incident from Chicago.

A day after speaking out against the city's proposed ban on foie gras, chef Didier Durand arrived at his River North bistro Wednesday to an unwelcome sight: a shattered window splattered with a liquid resembling blood and busted-up flower boxes strewn on the sidewalk.

Police say Cyrano's Bistrot and Wine Bar at 546 N. Wells was vandalized between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Durand, who had spoken at a City Council committee meeting Tuesday about the proposed ban, suspects animal rights activists are behind the damage. The Health Committee voted in favor of the ban.

That’s right – not only do they want control of your diet, but they will do their best to punish those who dare to speak against their radical agenda.

The time has come to shut down the “animal rights” terrorists. The freedom of Americans -- and our lives and health – demand it.

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May she rot forever in a dank dungeon cell for her facilitation of terrorist actions.

The First Amendment provides no refuge for a civil rights lawyer who said she was unfairly convicted of providing material support to terrorists for publicly releasing the message of a notorious jailed terrorist, a federal judge said yesterday.

In a 54-page ruling that recounted key trial evidence, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl rejected all of attorney Lynne Stewart's arguments that the Feb. 10 verdict should be tossed out.

Stewart, 65, had argued that her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, was engaging in protected speech when he expressed his opinion about a cease fire by Islamic militants in Egypt that Stewart passed along in a 2000 press release.

Koeltl said the fact that the sheik participated in a conspiracy to kill people in a foreign country by communicating words from the prison where he is serving a life sentence did not make his participation constitutionally protected.

"The First Amendment lends no protection to participation in a conspiracy, even if such participation is through speech," he said.

Koeltl cited an earlier ruling Chief Judge Michael Mukasey made on the same issue in 1994 when Mukasey wrote that speech "is not protected by the First Amendment when it is the very vehicle of the crime itself."

In short, you cannot be the messenger for terrorists and then wrap yourself in the First Amendment.

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Looks like more Brits have been terrorized into "sensitivity" to Muslims. The latest move to dhimmitude involves the announced plans of several banks to discontinue giving away piggy banks

Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here.

Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture deems the pig to be an impure animal.

Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move.

"This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said.

However, the move brought accusations of political correctness gone mad from critics.

"The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity," the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said.

"We should learn to celebrate our difference, not be fearful of them."

Khalid Mahmoud, the Labour MP for a Birmingham seat and one of four Muslim MPs in Britain, also criticised the piggy-bank ban.
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"We live in a multicultural society and the traditions and symbols of one community should not be obliterated just to accommodate another," Mr Mahmoud said.

"I doubt many Muslims would be seriously offended by piggy banks."

The only problem is that the extremists you folks have fostered and sheltered in your midst DO object to being confronted by the image of a pif -- and they have a tendency to repond explosively.

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I see the arguments for both sides of the "secret detention" policy that has been adopted with regard to captured terrorists. I understand the need for secrecy, but am troubled by the potential for abuse of the power.

But in the case of this Australian law, I see a government going a step too far.

Proposed legislation in Australia would make it a crime for one parent to tell the other that their child had been detained under anti-terror laws, a report says.

If a youth aged between 16 and 18 was detained, one parent would be informed and allowed to visit for two hours daily during the detention, which could last for two weeks without charge, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

But if the chosen parent was the father, for example, and he told the mother where the child was, he could be jailed for up to five years.

The opposition Labor Party's spokesman for homeland security, Arch Bevis, scorned the proposal.

"The idea that one parent could see their child and then somehow be fined or imprisoned for telling the other parent is absurd."

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that assessment. Not only that, it is fundamentally immoral to drive that sort of wedge between a husband and wife. And besides, i a parent is such a security risk, then he or she probably ought to be in jail on terrorism charges as well -- especially if they have permitted their kid to be a part of such a group.

I think that the absurdity of the policy was pointed out nicely by the spokesman for the opposition Labour Party.

Using Prime Minister John Howard and his wife Janette as an example, Bevis said: "I suspect Janette would be pretty demanding of John to find out where the kids were. And I'd hazard a guess that John might even buckle under the pressure."

I'd have to agree -- and I'm pretty sure that george would tell Laura.

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Ghulam Nabi Lone, education minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, was murdered yesterday. I wonder who could be responsible for the killing What does the Washington Post have to say about the matter?

Islamic militants shot and killed a local government minister in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, part of a surge of recent violence that has dampened hopes for a new era of peace and cooperation in the disputed province following the massive earthquake that devastated the area on Oct. 8.

Ghulam Nabi Lone, education minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, was shot inside his home in the highly protected Tulsi Bagh neighborhood in the state's summer capital of Srinagar. His killing came just days after 10 members of two Hindu families were slain by militants in another part of the state.

I guess there is no rest for the "Religion of Peace" in the earthquake-stricken region -- and that it does not matter if you are a governemtn official or a family in your home.

But the excerpt above does leave me asking a question -- why can't the Washington Post bring itself to label these so-called "militants" as the terrorists thye really are?

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Chuck Colson offers an interesting overview of the threat to national security in our nationÂ’s prisons.

What makes prisons a “prime target” for al-Qaeda are two other things that, unfortunately, are in plentiful supply: a resentful population and people who will preach hate and violence to them.

After three decades of prison ministry, I can tell you that resentment and bitterness are the rule, not the exception, among prisoners. Radical Islam offers them a chance for vengeance against their perceived oppressors.

The incitement to hate and violence is provided by groups like the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Wahhabist group. Its literature, which urges war against Jews and Christians, was primarily sent to prisoners and Islamic prison chaplains.

The Koran they distributed in American prisons included an appendix by the former Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia entitled “The Call to Jihad (Holy Fighting in Allah’s Cause) in the Qur’an.” This appendix urged Jihad against all who refuse to convert to Islam.

While Al Haramain was shut down by federal authorities, there is, according to the Weekly Standard, “reason to believe that the literature [it] distributed . . . is only the tip of the iceberg of what has reached and may still be reaching U.S. prisons.”

I had to highlight that one part – one group has included material by a senior Saudi jurist justifying violent jihad against those of us who have the audacity to reject Islam.

Our prisons are a seedbed of potential Islamic extremism. What are authorities doing to put a stop to the problem?

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Why are two defense contractors apologizing for an ad depicting a mosque -- remember, they are being used by Islamists to attack Americans -- being assaulted by US troops in a helicopter?

Bell Helicopter and Boeing Co. have issued apologies after an advertisement for their V-22 Osprey aircraft infuriated a major Islamic group.

The ad in the Sept. 24 issue of National Journal, a political affairs publication, depicts U.S. special operations troops rappelling out of a Bell/Boeing-built CV-22 Osprey in an assault on a mosque.

"It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell," reads the ad headline.

Bell, Boeing and the National Journal made their apologies after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fired off a protest to Bell and Boeing.

Bell spokesman Mike Cox said the ad, developed by the company's agency, TM Advertising in Irving, Texas, was supposed to have been pulled by all publications after it ran one other time nearly a month ago.

The ad content had not been approved by all the people who were supposed to approve it, Cox told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "The first time the ad ran, we pulled it immediately."

"We took immediate action to cancel any insertions that had been placed and provided explicit instructions for its removal. Despite our directive to the National Journal to replace the ad, it was not replaced as requested, which resulted in its publication this week," Cox said in the company's official statement.

"We recognize that some organizations and individuals may have been offended by its content and regret any concerns this advertisement may have raised. Bell and our partners are evaluating creative processes to prevent this from happening again."

Oh, that's right -- the terrorist apologists from CAIR have complained -- and we don't want them getting their turbans in a knot (actually, I do want them getting their turbans in a knot -- around their necks). After all, they might protest and make the companies appear "insensitive" And we cannot have insensitive defense contractors, can we?

My question is very simple -- when will people quit apologizing for depicting the enemy as the enemy?

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