Now IÂ’ll concede that I donÂ’t give a ratÂ’s hind-quarters for the comfort or dignity of terrorists. I donÂ’t much care what was done to them to elicit good intelligence on al-Qaeda activities, and I believe the only process they are ultimately due involves a bullet dipped in bacon grease being fired into the base of their skulls. Terrorists, in my eyes, have surrendered any claim to humane treatment.

That said, there are others who disagree – but still believe that waterboarding might be appropriate. One, Deb Saunders, makes this important observation.

Some maintain that the CIA might have learned what it needed to know without waterboarding. But as one memo reported, before the questioning got tough, "KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, 'Soon you will know.'"
The questioning got tougher. As the memo noted, the CIA believes that "the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qaeda has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001."
And: Once "enhanced techniques" were used on KSM, interrogations "led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the 'Second Wave,' Â… to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner' into a building in Los Angeles."
Do I like waterboarding? No, but it is not life threatening; in extreme cases, I can live with it. And I'll take waterboarding over a 9/11 in Los Angeles any day.

So, my friends, ask yourself this – which city are you willing to see destroyed in order to protect the purported rights of terrorists? How many of your fellow Americans are you willing to sacrifice in order to avoid troubling your conscience? And do you truly believe that those whose decisions differed from what yours would have been on this matter merit criminal punishment? Indeed, let me ask it more explicitly – when confronted with a choice between American patriots and America’s enemies, why do you side with the latter?

Posted by: Greg at 01:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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NOT a conservative or a veteran. The new addition to the Ten Most-Wanted list is an animal rights terrorist.

The FBI announced Tuesday the addition of Daniel Andreas San Diego to the list, hoping a burst of international publicity associated with the move will help investigators find him after six years on the run.

San Diego, 31, may appear to be out of place on a terrorist list with familiar names like al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Adam Yahiye Gadahn. The "strict vegan," according to the FBI, is charged with bombing two corporate offices in California in 2003. The blasts caused extensive property damage but no deaths.

Vegans eat no meat or any other food containing animal products.
Authorities allege San Diego bombed facilities in Emeryville and Pleasanton, California, because he believed the Chiron and Shaklee Corporations had ties to animal-testing labs.

Unlike the alleged right-wing threat that DHS issued a report about recently, we do have actual violence being committed, with actual individuals and groups engaging in terrorism. Seems to me that this is where DHS really needs to be focused, educating law enforcement about the real threats rather than making ambiguous statements that could legitimately be seen as tarring over half the nation.

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What a pity – his rotting corpse should already be hanging from the yardarm of USS Bainbridge.

The pirate suspect arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama was all smiles on arriving in New York City late Monday, escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers.

None of the officers would confirm his identity, but his arrival for trial in the United States had been widely expected.

The suspect arrived at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in Manhattan, which is linked to a federal detention facility where he was expected to be held pending an appearance in federal court. The timing of that appearance was not immediately available. He was walked through the rain, surrounded by media, as well as officers from federal and New York City law enforcement agencies.

This is, once again, a failure by the US government. Just as we have too often treated terrorism like a criminal justice issue rather than a military issue, we are now doing the same with piracy. Thomas Jefferson knew pirates for what they are – the enemies of all humanity – and treated them accordingly by dispatching Stephen Decatur and the US Marines to Tripoli to deal with them. He didn’t bring them back to the US for trial. We should not be setting this precedent now.

And what we also should not do is follow the line of nonsense put forth by Tony Karon in Time.

A New York trial for Muse is unlikely even to prompt others to refrain from acts of piracy. There is no fear of America among young Somali gunmen, who demonstrated that attitude in the most grisly fashion in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, during the infamous "Black Hawk down" incident. That event has achieved mythic status in the Somali imagination. Instead, the trial is more likely to prompt Muse's peers to seek symbolic retribution — possibly even prompting them to make his release the condition for freeing some future group of hostages they capture on the high seas. Until now, the Somali pirates have scrupulously avoided harming their captives; their capture has been simply a business transaction. That may soon change. An escalation in the confrontation between the pirates and the ships of richer nations will present a golden opportunity to the Shebab to exploit popular nationalist sentiment and turn the business of piracy into a coastal jihad.

A more likely way to turn local sentiment against piracy would be, for example, to put those responsible for holding a shipment of food aid destined to feed the starving in a famine-plagued region on trial in an African court. Somali piracy needs a Somali solution — beginning with the creation of a political order capable of enforcing law and order and protecting Somalia's sovereignty, and offering young Somali men alternative livelihoods. Putting captive pirates on trial may be part of the solution to the piracy problem, but it will only be effective if the courts and laws are seen as legitimate by the communities from which the pirates hail. Putting them on trial in New York may satisfy the desire by many in the U.S. to send a harsh message to those that dare mess with Americans. But it only raises the likelihood of more, and more dangerous, pirate attacks.

Yeah. Right. Sure. That ranks right up there with suggesting that terrorists be tried in Islamic courts under sharia rules as a means of getting the Muslim world to accept the legitimacy of actions taken against them. What such lunacy instead points out is the need to treat these pirate attacks as the military problem they are – and the importance of bombing the bases and sinking the vessels used by pirates in addition to following the rules in the old “Rocks & Shoals” code to be vigorously enforced.

Posted by: Greg at 11:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When the New York Times does an article on it!

Egypt released new details on Monday of what it said was a Hezbollah plot to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip, to attack Israeli tourist sites in the Sinai Peninsula and to fire on ships in the Suez Canal. Officials said the police were hunting for 10 Lebanese suspects believed to be hiding in the mountainous terrain of central Sinai.

The case gained wide attention after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, acknowledged on Friday that he had sent an agent to Egypt to organize assistance for the Palestinians in their fight with Israel, and it quickly took on broader regional implications.

Hezbollah is a military, political and social organization in Lebanon with strong ties to Iran, a bloc in Lebanon's Parliament and ministers in the cabinet.

So got that, friends – Hezbollah is sort of a combination of the Elks, the Rotarians, and the National Guard. Never mind that they keep attacking innocent civilians and stirring up other attacks against the people of Israel. They certainly aren’t terrorists. The New York Times tells you so, and they certainly wouldn’t lie.

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Boy meets girl.

Boy and girl fall in love.

Boy and girl elope when her family objects.

Boy and girl kidnapped by mob sent by girlÂ’s family.

Boy and girl executed by firing squad.

Gotta love those Taliban family values.

Posted by: Greg at 11:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But misses the fact that the hosting company in question actually has a much longer history hosting cyberjihadi websites than even Rusty and the boys at Jawa Report noted.

On March 25, a Taliban Web site claiming to be the voice of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" boasted of a deadly new attack on coalition forces in that country. Four soldiers were killed in an ambush, the site claimed, and the "mujahideen took the weapons and ammunition as booty."

Most remarkable about the message was how it was delivered. The words were the Taliban's, but they were flashed around the globe by an American-owned firm located in a leafy corner of downtown Houston.

The Texas company, a Web-hosting outfit called ThePlanet, says it simply rented cyberspace to the group and had no clue about its Taliban connections. For more than a year, the militant group used the site to rally its followers and keep a running tally of suicide bombings, rocket attacks and raids against U.S. and allied troops. The cost of the service: roughly $70 a month, payable by credit card.

The Taliban's account was pulled last week when a blogger noticed the connection and called attention to it. But the odd pairing of violently anti-American extremists and U.S. technology companies continues elsewhere and appears to be growing. Intelligence officials and private experts cite dozens of instances in which Islamist militants sought out U.S. Internet firms -- known for their reliable service and easy terms that allow virtual anonymity -- and used them to incite attacks on Americans.

Uh, mind if I point something else out? This isn’t the first time that Rusty and the boys have tangled with this company (once my hosting company) – ThePlanet purchased Houston-based EV1 a couple of years ago, and that company had a little cyberjihadi problem, too. That leads me to question what is up over at ThePlanet that they seem to be a host of choice for the enemies of America and the rest of the civilized world.

Posted by: Greg at 11:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Which no doubt some weenie on the left will soon start calling this torture and a violation of international law.

During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the move South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was also regularly depicted in a similar manner during the TV series.

I don't think this sort of thing really qualifies as torture -- but if it does, i for one want to shout "Hurrah!" After all, this is the same sick SOB who liked to order women raped in front of family members and ordered REAL torture of political and religious dissidents. That he might have been humiliated by being forced to see himself depicted as the gay love rof Satan seems pretty mild by comparison -- and certainly les than he deserved.

Posted by: Greg at 03:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now I’ve long conceded that most Muslims in this country are decent folks – but have been adamant that there is something in the religion of Islam that we should be wary of. It is a violent strain that comes to the fore again and again in the form of terror attacks around the world and terror plots exposed around our country. Islamic groups claim that anyone who is suspicious of what goes on in the Muslim community – especially in mosques – is motivated by bias and prejudice, because such things don’t represent the true face of Islam. But what are we to make of this?

Two young Americans who left their homes to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia held a rare “press conference” in southern Somalia on Sunday, saying they want to be killed "for the sake of God," according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a report posted on a Somali news Web site.

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Last month, a source familiar with the FBI investigation told FOX News that "several" of the men had returned to the United States, while others “are still there [in Somalia]." Today is the first time any of these men have spoken publicly.

"We came from the U.S. with a good life and a good education, but we came to fight alongside our brothers of al-Shabaab … to be killed for the sake of God,” one man said at the press conference, as translated by Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

Yep – more jihadis among us.

Where is the indoctrination of such values taking place? The most obvious place is in the mosques of America – even if only a minority of them. So while Muslim groups complain of surveillance activities taking place in mosques, I urge that such activities be stepped-up. After all, mosques are public places, where the public is freely invited. For agents to listen to sermons preached there is not a violation of any right, any more than an agent listening to a sermon at St. Miscellaneous Catholic Church or Holy Roller Worship Center violates any right. After all, these are things that are open to the public, and so there is no expectation of privacy and no need for a warrant for law enforcement to sit and listen to what is said.

And after all, we know that incitement to jihad is happening in the Islamic community. Keeping an ear open for incitement to such criminality is only prudent

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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