The Scriptorium

Wow! Even some Democrat Congress critters actually understand that announcing a time table for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan is a bad idea. Apparently some of them are smart enough to know that the Taliban watches the news, too. I’m sure Achmed and his buddies did a happy dance around their internet feed when Obama announced in the same sentence, his plans to spend months positioning our troops in theater, only to turn around and spend months sending them home. He was even kind enough to give them an exact date for their departure. Even an illiterate, blood thirsty terrorist can figure out that hunkering down for a while might be a good move in that situation. Sadly, our hopey/changey Commander in Chief will probably be taken by surprise when we hand over the reigns to the Afghans on the way out the door, and the Taliban promptly comes out of hiding to kill anyone who fought along side the Americans for the last year. Democrats never learn, but I bet the people of Afghanistan have. Pray for our troops.

A mixed message delivered by President Obama about America’s plans in Afghanistan have drawn a mixed reaction from members of the military who shortly may be on the ground receiving and giving orders to fight the Taliban.

Obama’s address last night at the U.S. military academy at West Point outlined plans to place an additional 30,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan, but he also announced a timetable for removing them.

He now must sell the idea to Congress, which holds the purse strings.

The plan immediately drew concerns from both Democrats and Republicans. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Obama’s “mixed signals” already have undermined the chances for success of any additional troop deployment.

Even members of the president’s own party were concerned.

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President Obama could have long ago put to rest the concerns that he’s not legally allowed to be president of the United States by showing an actual, certified copy of his birth certificate. The “copy” he posted on his website was not authentic. Now, two soldiers are adding themselves to the list of plaintiffs demanding to know if Barack Hussein Obama is constitutionally allowed to be President. For all Americans this is an issue of great importance, but for those who wear the uniform of the armed forces, the ramifications are even greater. The President of the United States is also their Commander-in-Chief. At least two soldiers want to know if the orders given by Obama are actually lawful orders. Read more here.

It looks highly Likely that Netanyahu will be the next Prime Minister of Israel, Evin though Livni’s Kadima party won one more seat in the elections. The right wing bloc won big overall, Labor is toast, and that means Netanyahu will be more likely to succeed at forming a unity government. This is the same way he won the last time he was Prime Minister. This is a good day for Israel, and bad news for Obama, who would have preferred to deal with the Labor party’s willingness to give away land to the Palis in exchange for more terrorism. It’s also a bad day for Hamas. Bibi becoming PM again is their worst nightmare. They know from past experience that when he says he will fight terrorism, he means it, and he isn’t going to hand them the West Bank and let them attack Israel from another side. He also won’t give the Golan up to Syria, as Livni supported doing. This would be especially dangerous, as Obama has lifted sanctions on Syria since taking office, and restored diplomatic relations with the terrorist supporting country. Israel definitely needs someone like Netanyahu with Liberals in America in power.

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary election as he addressed supporters in a speech early Wednesday, despite exit polls that predicted his party narrowly coming second to the ruling Kadima Party.

However, the exit polls also indicate that Likud is in a better position than Kadima to lead a coalition because of a strong showing by other nationalist parties.

“I’ve spoken to party leaders,” Netanyahu said, “and we have agreed to begin negotiations on forming a new government as soon as tomorrow.”

“Even if exit polls are accurate, there is no doubt regarding the only conclusion they point to: the Israeli people have said their word in a clear fashion, the nationalist bloc, led by Likud, won a clear victory,” Netanyahu added.

“The question is not what the polls say. The question is what the reality is. From this day on, the right wing bloc rises to an absolute majority in the Knesset,” the Likud chair went on to say.

“There is no doubt regarding our own movement’s meteoric rise. In the last Knesset we had only 12 seats, 10% of the Knesset. We have more than doubled our power and grown more than any other party,” Netanyahu continued.

“The rise of the right-wing camp and the Likud can only mean one thing, the people want change,” Netanyahu exclaimed. “The people want one path. Our path won and it will lead the people.”

Likud members, meanwhile, were quick to stress that Kadima’s apparent win did not mean it would necessarily be chosen to form the next coalition.

“I am certain that Netanyahu will be the next prime minister,” said Likud lawmaker Gilad Erdan. “Netanyahu has a clear advantage because the right wing parties have a larger bloc. The test is not which party gets the most votes, but which candidate has the best chance to form a coalition, and that person is Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu, meanwhile, phoned Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman just after the exit polls were released, apparently to discuss the future of the next coalition.

Former minister Silvan Shalom, another member of Likud, said Kadima was “delusional” to declare such a quick win. A government led by Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni was unrealistic, said Shalom, adding that Likud was the obvious choice for leading the next government.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) responded to Shalom by saying: “Tzipi Livni is the leader of the State of Israel from today until the next Knesset elections.”

FYI: Livni has attempted to form a unity government once before and failed. With the polls showing strong support for the right wing bloc, she’ll have an even tougher time getting support now, even if she offers those parties the moon in return for switching sides. Anything is possible I suppose, but I’m praying Netanyahu can bring some sanity to Israel’s foreign policy, and thwart Obama’s plans for the region.

Worldnet Daily reports that a recent Military Times survey of active-duty service members found 6 of 10 U.S. soldiers polled said they were “pessimistic” or “uncertain” about Barack Obama serving as commander in chief of America’s armed forces. The troops cited Obama’s inexperience in leading soldiers, his plans for accelerated removal of troops from Iraq, and his pledge to overturn the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexual service members as reasons for their concern.

It’s tragic, really, that we’ve elected a man during a time when we’re fighting two wars and a war on terror, and our service men and women don’t trust him to lead them. It would be troubling for sure to know that the man who will need to lead you to victory was against the war you’re fighting, doesn’t think what you are doing is for a noble cause, and has repeatedly stated, as a United States Senator, that he thought the troops would fail in Iraq.

Here are a couple of the comments made by troops who took the survey. Doesn’t it kind of seem like these troops know more about the war, what’s needed to win, and what the consequences of Obama’s plan could be, if enacted, than The One does.

“Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified, “nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief.”

“How are you going to safely pull combat troops out of Iraq?” asked Air Force 1st Lt. Rachel Kleinpeter, an intelligence officer with the 100th Operations Support Squadron. “And if you’re pulling out combat troops, who are you leaving to help support what’s left? What happens if Iraq falls back into chaos? Are we going to be there in five years doing the same thing over again?”

If only one of these young men or women could have run for President.

Read the full article here.

Yet another example of how the Bush Administration kept us safe from another Jihadist attack on the homeland.

A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press.

The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers — Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka — and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.

Link

They are living among us, and we can’t afford the Left’s denials that the War on Terror even exists.

No matter what you think of George Bush’s politics, you can’t argue that he isn’t a decent and kind human being. I can’t imagine Obama ever doing this without a full herd of press lackeys tagging along to cover it.

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.

On Monday, the president is set to make a more common public trip – with reporters in tow – to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, home to many of the wounded and a symbol of controversy earlier in his presidency over the quality of care the veterans were receiving.

GIVING SUPPORT: Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid fly-fisherman, practices his cast with wounded troops from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during one of the half-dozen barbecues he’s hosted at his Naval Observatory home. (White House photo)

But the size and scope of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.

“People say, ‘Why would you do that?’” the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. “And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be – to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish.”

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching – balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin – that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

It’s long, but read it all.

Before anyone feels sorry for the terrorists locked up in Guantanamo Bay, or supports closing the facility and releasing the terrorists held there, they should read this and ask themselves if they really want these people running loose.

But the picture inside Guantanamo is often an ugly one. Some prisoners do all in their power to violate the guards.

“What they do is stuff that you and I would find despicable. They save up their bodily fluid, feces and so on, and then when the guard comes to deliver food, they get a feces cocktail thrown in their face.”

It’s something Zanetti says occurs almost daily, and weighs heavily on the guards, who are tasked with feeding and clothing the prisoners and tending to them when they are sick. Hospital staff get the worst exposure of all from the detainees, he said.

“You ensure that their life is as comfortable as possible while the detainees are trying to make the guards’ life as miserable as possible.”

Those daily doses of hatred are a stark reminder about some of the men locked up inside the camp, including Mohammed, who has claimed responsibility for decapitating Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

“We have more than our fair share of Hannibal Lecters around here,” Zanetti said.

Leave it to Carter to meet with a terrorist leader responsible for scores of Jewish deaths. It sickens me that he calls himself a Christian.

he Hamas terrorist organization has confirmed to WND plans are in the works for former President Jimmy Carter to meet the chief of Hamas on a trip this month to Syria.

Sources in the Gaza Strip office of Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, confirmed Hamas is in talks with Carter’s representatives about setting up a meeting during his trip, scheduled for later this month.

The Hamas sources said no concrete date has been set but that Carter has expressed interest in meeting Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal, who resides in Syria.

In a statement to Fox News today, Carter’s press secretary, Deanna Congileo, did not deny the former president was slated to meet Meshaal.

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We’re seeing more and more arrests and indictments like this, and it makes me wonder how long it will be before we’re suffering the same attacks and suicide bombings the Israeli’s have been dealing with for years. Probably, not long. Somehow, I don’t think our government will exercise the same level of restraint we expect from Israel though.

A federal grand jury indicted two U.S. citizens on Wednesday on charges of plotting “violent jihad” and undergoing paramilitary training in northwest Georgia to prepare themselves for terrorist acts.

Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, born in Pakistan and a student at Georgia Tech, was arrested in March. Wednesday’s charges superseded an earlier indictment against him, adding three counts of material support of terrorism and a foreign terrorist organization.

FBI officials in April arrested Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, born in 1986 in Bangladesh. He was also added to the indictment.

Both men developed contacts with other supporters of jihad, traveling to Toronto, Canada, and made video clips of “potential terrorist targets” in Washington including the Capitol building, the indictment said.

“Ahmed, Sadequee and another person known to the Grand Jury engaged in physical and rudimentary paramilitary training including activities with paintball guns in northwestern Georgia,” said the indictment filed at Atlanta district court.

It said Ahmed traveled to Pakistan to get paramilitary and religious training with the aim of fighting in
Kashmir, while Sadequee went to Bangladesh in part to support jihad.

The case is one of several in which U.S. justice officials have prosecuted suspects whose alleged plots were in their very early stages.

Here are some of the headlines I’ve seen this morning concerning the war in the Middle East.

Blair in push for peace in Middle East
Big power diplomacy to stop the fighting in Lebanon ground into gear yesterday as Britain and other European states pushed hard for the deployment of an international intervention force on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Arab world fed up with Hizbullah
With the exception of the Palestinians, the Arab world appears to be united in blaming Iran and Syria for the fighting in Lebanon. Until last week, Arab political analysts and government officials were reluctant to criticize Hizbullah in public. But now that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his top aides are in hiding, an anti-Hizbullah coalition is emerging not only in Lebanon, but in several other Arab countries as well.

Diplomacy Gains Traction in Mideast Crisis
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Diplomatic efforts to end Israeli-Hezbollah fighting gained traction Monday, with Israeli officials saying they would agree to halt fighting if their two captured soldiers were returned and Islamic guerrillas withdrew from the border.

New York Jews rally in support of Israel
Thousands of American Jews clogged the streets leading to the United Nations building here in a massive show of support for Israel on Monday afternoon. The turnout was particularly impressive for a weekday and one of the hottest so far this summer.

Americans, Europeans Begin to Evacuate Lebanon Amid Mideast Conflict
Lebanon — Westerners fled by land, sea and air as Israel launched three waves of bombings on southern Beirut and on a Lebanese army base in the early hours Tuesday.

Congress Considers Resolutions Supporting Israel
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are preparing to vote this week on resolutions backing Israel and condemning Hezbollah, which last week kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, sparking violence across the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iran parliament speaker: No part of Israel safe
Iran’s parliament speaker warned Tuesday that no part of Israel is safe during Hizbullah’s battle with Lebanon – a statement made despite Iran’s claim that it is not aiding the guerrillas in their fight.

Here are more headlines and links concerning the war in the Middle East.

Hezbollah Rockets Hit Nazareth
By Sher Zieve – Hezbollah rockets are reported to have struck upper Nazareth, Sunday night. Reports are that the attacks also hit 5 other close by towns.

Israel strikes back after Haifa attacked
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — The Israeli military and Hezbollah traded deadly attacks for a fifth straight day on Sunday, with the Lebanon-based militants striking Haifa and other towns deeper inside Israel.

U.S. Evacuation Teams Arrive in Lebanon
U.S. security teams landed at the American embassy just outside Beirut on Sunday to plan the evacuation of some of the estimated 25,000 U.S. citizens living in war-torn Lebanon.
Witnesses said two helicopters flew in from over the Mediterranean and landed on the embassy grounds, located on a fortified hilltop in the north Beirut suburb of Aukar.
“The arrival of the teams is an important first step in facilitating the safe departure of Americans who want to leave Lebanon,” the embassy said in a statement.

Rockets hit Haifa, Tiberias, Safed, Karmiel, Acre
A barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon hit the Haifa region Monday afternoon.
A rocket hit a building in Haifa causing it to collapse. Two people were evacuated by medical personnel and others have been trapped beneath the rubble.
Two of the rockets landed before the city’s warning siren was sounded.
Rockets landed in Tiberias and adjacent Lake Kinneret beaches, Acre and Safed as well. In addition, rockets were fired for the first time on communities in the southern Golan Heights.

Hezbollah Appears in Control of Lebanon
Hezbollah and its backers, not the government, now appear in control of Lebanon’s fate.
After moderating their stance in recent years, the guerrillas surged back to the war front with a surprise attack on Israel and a sophisticated arsenal, leaving Lebanon’s politicians and army looking nearly powerless. The government seems paralyzed over how to deal with Hezbollah, whose Shiite Muslim fighters have had near autonomy in the south for more than a decade.

Syria vows to respond directly to any Israel strike
Syria has warned it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel’s offensive on neighbouring Lebanon.
The warning Sunday coincided with a similar threat by Damascus’s key ally Iran, and came amid rising fears that the Middle East is being dragged deeper into the spiralling conflict sparked by the capture of Israeli soldiers by militants linked to Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran heaps praise on Hezbollah fight against ‘tumour’ Israel
TEHRAN (AFP) -Iran has rallied behind allies Hezbollah and Syria, praising the Lebanese Shiite militant movement’s battle against “infected tumour” Israel and warning the Jewish state against widening the conflict.

Ground troops enter southern Lebanon
A government spokesman said Monday afternoon that IDF ground forces have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hizbullah bases along the border in order to push the terrorist group out of rocket-firing range.
In addition, the IDF has denied Lebanese news reports that an Israeli F-16 jet was downed near Beirut. Virtually all Lebanese news agencies were showing unclear video footage of what was claimed to be the downed jet.

Things could escalate rapidly in the Middle East.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world that would bring a “fierce response,” Haaretz reports.
“If the Zionist regime commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iranian state television as saying in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel has blamed Syria and Iran for the Hezbollah rocket attacks on towns and cities in northern Israel. In recent weeks, Israel has buzzed the palace of Assad with fighter-bombers as a warning against hostile actions.
Ahmadinejad has called repeatedly for the destruction of Israel – or for moving the Jewish state to Europe. Iran is believed to be developing a nuclear weapons program and has long-range missiles capable of striking the Jewish state.
Hezbollah rockets today rained down on northern Israeli towns as the Jewish state’s warplanes carried out strategic strikes against the Hezbollah’s infrastructure and the Beirut International Airport. A total air and sea closure was imposed over Lebanon.
Hezbollah threatened to use longer range rockets against the major northern port city of Haifa, in which case military officials tell WND Israel would likely launch a major ground invasion inside Lebanon.
The fighting today was instigated by a well-orchestrated Hezbollah attack against Israel’s northern border yesterday in which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and three others were killed.

Original Link.

And more problems from North Korea.

PUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) – North Korea stormed out of talks with South Korea on Thursday and Seoul froze food aid to its impoverished neighbor, as regional fissures over how to deal with Pyongyang’s missile tests widened.
Pyongyang also appeared to have stood up to its closest ally, Beijing, which has sent a “friendship delegation” to North Korea.
“So far they don’t seem to be interested in listening, much less doing anything,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing. “I think the Chinese are as baffled as we are.”

Original Link.

Here are the latest headlines concerning the developments in the Middle East.

US says Israel has right to defend itself
ROSTOCK, Germany (Reuters) – The United States, reacting to escalating violence between
Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, on Thursday urged restraint on both sides but said Israel had a right to defend itself.
In a widening of reprisals after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers in a border clash, Israel aircraft attacked Beirut airport and blockaded Lebanese ports.
“We are urging restraint on both sides, recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself,” a U.S. administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon braces as Israel responds to attack
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon braced for spiraling violence on Thursday a day after Israel vowed a severe response to Hizbollah attacks in which two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight killed by the Syrian-backed group.
A statement issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet after an emergency meeting on Wednesday night said that Israel held the Lebanese government responsible for the attacks and for the safe return of the seized soldiers.
But it offered no details about what type of action would be taken.
Hizbollah’s bold attack drew Olmert into a second crisis over captured soldiers. Israel is engaged in a military offensive in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants captured a soldier on June 25.
Israeli aircraft attacked the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Gaza City on Thursday, causing a fire in the building, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting.
Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the soldiers had been seized to force Israel to release prisoners, but Israel state says the attack was an act of war and that it would not swap prisoners.
“You don’t negotiate with terror organizations,” Gideon Meir, senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, told Reuters.

Syrian VP blames Israel for escalation amid worry over Israeli retaliation
Syria’s vice president blamed Israel for the escalating violence in Lebanon and Palestinian territories Wednesday, and Arab countries worried over possible Israeli retaliation against Syria after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by its ally, Hezbollah.

Ahmadinejad: World will soon witness the demise of Israel
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 12 – Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the world will soon witness the demise of Israel, the government-run news agency Fars reported.
“In the near future we will witness the rapid collapse of the Zionist regime”, Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the north-western city of Jolfa.
“The nations of the region will record the names of states that support the Zionist regime alongside the Zionist’s crimes”, he added.
Ahmadinejad caused an international furore last year when he publicly declared that the Holocaust was a “myth” and said that Israel must be “wiped off the map”.

Well, as most of us suspected, the North Korean governement isn’t going to stop being crazy and is preparing to carry out more missle test. And on top of this, China has introduced a non-binding resolution at the U.N. against North Korea. A binding U.N. resolution doesn’t carry any teeth, so I guess a non-binding one isn’t even worth the paper it’s written on.

TOKYO (AFP) – North Korea could be preparing for new launches of mid-range missiles following last week’s tests, with activity detected at its bases, a report has said citing Japanese government sources.
US and Japanese satellite photos show that mid-range Rodong missiles had been set up on launch pads at a base in southeastern North Korea, but were later removed, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.
Fuel tanks could be seen near the launch pads, the report said.
The report said the satellite photos were taken after last week’s tests of seven missiles, but did not give a specific date.
“We think North Korea can launch missiles whenever it wishes,” the top-selling daily quoted a government source as saying.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Sunday suggested Tokyo would have the right to launch a pre-emptive strike to protect its citizens from a missile launch by Pyongyang.
He said there were “visible signs” of activity at a North Korean missile base from which North Korea launched a Rodong missile last week.
Japan submitted a draft binding resolution in the United Nations Security Council that would impose sanctions on North Korea over the missile tests.
But on Monday, the Security Council put off a vote on the resolution to allow more time for Chinese diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

Original Link.

Even ignoring the Biblical aspect of the withdraws, we have already seen that it hurts Israel security rather than helping it.

KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ, Israel – A group of prominent rabbis is calling on President Bush to refuse political and financial support for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria, stating the withdrawal is against U.S. interests, and that it violates basic tenets of Jewish law.
“U.S. interests are being impacted by Israel’s proposed retreat from terrorist strongholds in Judea and Samaria. In addition, as rabbis our obligation is to teach, guide, and lead our congregations to conduct their daily lives in accordance with Jewish Law. This holds especially true in a matter of life or death threatening the residents of Israel,” stated a letter sent to Bush and signed by leaders of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1200 rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.
Congress members include some of the most esteemed Orthodox rabbis in the Jewish world.
Olmert is attempting to push through a withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, mountainous territory that is within rocket firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel’s international airport. The territory is also commonly called the West Bank.
The rabbis point out in their letter to Bush that villages slated for withdrawal from Judea and Samaria are mentioned throughout the Torah.
They state a withdrawal from the area violates Jewish law because an evacuation will lead to massive violence.
“There is a clear definitive ruling in the Jewish Code of Law ‘Orach Chaim’ Chapter 329 which rules that it is strictly forbidden to give up even one inch of a Jewish border town to foreigners because it will lead to bloodshed. How much more so regarding retreating from holy land that enemies bent on your destruction have already stated will be used to launch attacks against Jews,” states the letter to Bush.
The rabbis wrote to Bush that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer has already impacted regional U.S. interests and that Olmert’s proposed Judea and Samaria evacuation will have “disastrous” consequences for the American-led war on terror.
“Israel’s 2005 retreat from Gaza has been perceived as a cave-in by the role-model of counter-terrorism. It paved the road to Hamas’ electoral victory and upgraded the posture of Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, thus providing friendly platforms for Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and the pro-Saddam elements. The Gaza retreat has established the largest terrorist base in the Middle East, threatening accelerated anti-U.S. terrorism.
“Bolstering the Palestinian profile by enforcing a withdrawal in Judea and Samaria constitutes a present and immediate lethal danger to pro-U.S. regimes in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states and will establish an enormous terror sanctuary threatening US troops in the Gulf area. It would also undermine Israel’s posture of deterrence, which is critical to the enhancement of regional stability.”
The rabbis urged Bush against “morally or financially supporting Israel’s disastrous withdrawal plan.”

Original Link.

This is an interesting development. I like it though.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian cabinet ministers and legislators from the Islamic Hamas, increasing pressure on militants to release a captured Israeli soldier and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel’s largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory.
Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Israeli security officials said Eliahu Asheri’s body was found buried near Ramallah. They said he was shot in the head, apparently soon after he was abducted Sunday.
Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces detained Palestinian deputy prime minister Nasser Shaer and three other cabinet ministers, as well as four legislators in Ramallah. Two others were arrested in the town Jenin they said and Israeli news media reported a roundup of Hamas legislators in Jerusalem and other locations. More than 30 legislators were detained, Palestinian security officials said.
Army Radio said the arrested Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier. Israel had refused earlier to trade prisoners for the soldier’s release.

Original Link.

Oh this was just choice. As if anyone was willing to believe that pali terrorist actually could carry out a threat like that. Anyway, suckering teens into blowing up innocent Israelis is more their speed anyway.

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – A threat by a militant group to use biological and chemical weapons if Israel invades the Gaza Strip is probably a bluff, an expert here said on Monday.
The Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades (the militant wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction) said it would surprise Israel with new kinds of weapons if Israel invaded the Gaza Strip.
“With the help of Allah, we are pleased to say that we succeeded in developing over 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons…after a three-year effort” the group said in a leaflet distributed on Sunday.
“We say to Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz: Your threats of invasion do not frighten us. We will surprise you with new weapons you have not faced until now,” they said. “As soon as an [Israeli] soldier sets foot on Gaza land, we will respond with a new weapon.”
The group said that it would declare “open warfare without limits” if Israel invaded the Gaza Strip.
But Israeli counter-terrorism expert Dr. Ely Karmon described the statements as “wishful thinking.” They already indicated that they had chemical weapons in 2003, he said.
It’s “psychological warfare,” said Karmon. Hamas tried to put chemicals in explosive belts worn by suicide bombers and it didn’t work, he said.

Original Link.

This is the security Israel got in return for evacuating their territory. Also, who in their right mind is going to believe a slimy pali terrorist anyway?

On Wednesday, Israel informed Hamas Authority leader Haniye that he himself could be the next target of Israeli missiles if the Kassam rockets don’t stop. According to some reports, Haniye ordered them stopped.
At the same time as Ismail Haniye was supposedly ordering Hamas terrorists in the field to lay down their rockets, Hamas administrators were preparing a ceasefire offer to Israel: Israel must stop all targeted killings of terrorists, and Hamas will cease its rocket fire. However, Hamas is not the only terrorist group in Gaza, and in fact Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Resistance Committees have not agreed to stop their attacks on Israel.
After firing more than 100 rockets from Friday through Tuesday, Hamas was, in fact, quiet yesterday. Only one Kassam was fired in the course of the day – an Islamic Jihad affair that landed close to a strategic infrastructure just south of Ashkelon. The rocket caused no damage.
Israeli officials have implied all along that Israel would not initiate an escalation in hostilities, but would only respond to attacks by the terrorists.

Original Link.

The operational commander of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, is toast, courtesy of two 500lb laser-guided bombs. Al-Zarqawi was an experienced tactician who directed the terrorist operations and was no figurehead. Yes, he will be replaced, but finding a replacement as adept and skillful as Al-Zarqawi will be no easy task. This is a win for the Iraqi people and for the armed forces (Task Force 145 in particular) that tracked down this monster and permanently ended his respiration. Yet Democrats just can’t be happy.

Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.
“This is just to cover Bush’s [rear] so he doesn’t have to answer” for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. “Iraq is still a mess — get out.”

There are more quotes from the loony left there at the WATIMES article. Michelle Malkin has Rep. Stark’s contact info for anyone wishing to drop him a line.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer can’t stand all this good news. Their main page led off with main detractions. Here’s a screenshot:

Congratulations to our troops and to the Iraqi people. A big, juicy raspberry to our liberal media and politicians! PPBBbbb!!!!

As this is being posted late Saturday night (PDT), this is actually old news. Therefore, I won’t spend much time on it. However, we shouldn’t overlook that Canadian authorities have arrested 17 homegrown would-be terrorists who were loaded to the gills with explosives. What do this Canadians have in common with other terrorists around the world today? Yup, they’re Muslims. The “religion of peace” suffered from bombus interruptus thanks to the Canuck Mounties. Good on ya, eh?

Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects, apparently inspired by Al Qaeda, who obtained three times the amount of explosive ingredients used in the Oklahoma City bombing, officials said Saturday.

The FBI said the Canadian suspects may have had “limited contact” with two men recently arrested on terrorism charges in Georgia. About 400 regional police and federal agents participated in the arrests Friday and early Saturday.

“These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. “As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism.”
…
Alvin Chand, a brother of suspect Steven Vikash Chand, said outside the courthouse that his brother was innocent and authorities “just want to show they’re doing something.”

“He’s not a terrorist, come on. He’s a Canadian citizen,” Chand said. “The people that were arrested are good people, they go to the mosque, they go to school, go to college.”

I’ve been frustrated for quite some time with the relative silence coming from the White House in the face of skewed anti-Iraq War criticism. The anti-war crowd has been playing fast and loose with the facts and spinning the story with little opposition. It was refreshing to see presidential aide Peter Wehner throw a big stick in the spokes of that spin machine with this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. Here is a brief excerpt, but the whole article is a must-read!

Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations–the president misled the country in order to justify the Iraq war; his administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments; Saddam Hussein turned out to be no threat since he didn’t possess weapons of mass destruction; and helping democracy take root in the Middle East was a postwar rationalization. The problem with these charges is that they are false and can be shown to be so–and yet people continue to believe, and spread, them….

The Bush administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments. Earlier this year, Mr. Gore charged that “CIA analysts who strongly disagreed with the White House . . . found themselves under pressure at work and became fearful of losing promotions and salary increases.” Sen. Kennedy charged that the administration “put pressure on intelligence officers to produce the desired intelligence and analysis.”

This myth is shattered by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s bipartisan Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq. Among the findings: “The committee did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with administration policy, or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to do so.” Silberman-Robb concluded the same, finding “no evidence of political pressure to influence the Intelligence Community’s prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons programs. . . . Analysts universally asserted that in no instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of their analytical judgments.” What the report did find is that intelligence assessments on Iraq were “riddled with errors”; “most of the fundamental errors were made and communicated to policy makers well before the now-infamous NIE of October 2002, and were not corrected in the months between the NIE and the start of the war.” …

Seattle Post Intelligencer (P-I) columnist Robert L. Jamieson has taken a header off the deep end. Jamieson has always been a liberal moonbat, but his most recent column reaches new levels in moral equivalency. In his column, Jamieson targets Washington State senatorial candidate Mike McGavick (R), and McGavick’s proposal that Iran be barred from the World Cup soccer tournament if it refuses to give up its nuke program. McGavick is challenging incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell (D). RJ quotes McGavick’s reference to South Africa being banned from Rugby competition due to its apartheid policy, then takes his long walk off a short pier:

The trouble with McGavick extending rugby logic to Iranian soccer is one of perspective.

South Africa’s government policy was morally reprehensible, inhumane and lethal. Apartheid also was sanctioned and embraced across South African society, from the elite to commoners.

Iran has no such repugnant policy. It has not implemented any diabolical plans, unless you count its push to become a nuclear power like the United States, China and other members of that club.

Admittedly, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has invoked language that is tough, defiant and downright ugly at times.

That just puts him in good company.

In many parts of the world, President Bush doesn’t exactly come across as a honeyed voice of reason, either.

Most irksome about McGavick’s plaintive cry on the pitch is how Americancentric and huffy he sounds. He seems to suggest that because America doesn’t like Iran’s nuclear saber-rattling the rest of the world should join us on some soccer-sacking sortie.

The aspiring senator is broaching dangerous territory by mixing sports and politics in this instance.

If it were up to a vote of World Cup nations, the United States — not Iran — may get the boot first.

Other countries could point to our bungled and legally questionable invasion of Iraq, as well as our continuing, imploding occupation there. A recent poll of more than 91,000 people in 50 countries by the Pew Research Center found that anti-American sentiment is at its highest level ever. Much of the antipathy is no doubt a reflection of American foreign policy and our lost art of diplomacy.

Iran has no such repugnant policy?! It has not implemented any diabolical plans?! Jamieson isn’t forgetting that Ahmadinejad has stated that Israel should be “wiped off the map.” He isn’t forgetting that He has threatened violence against U.S. and Israeli interests. He simply doesn’t care! To Jamieson, Ahmadinejad’s statements don’t make him dangerous – they’re just unique little peccadillos that we should chuckle and shake our heads at. After all, Iran wants nothing more than equality with other nations. Right? Yea, right! And perhaps the rain we’ve had lately in Seattle has caused some facts to leach from Jamieson’s head. For instance, Jamieson intimates that the desire to prevent an Iran nuke program is simply an American desire. Uh, Bobby? That’s an issue that most nations are united on. That’s why the IAEA, the UN, and the EU are so heavily involved! Perhaps you should try getting your news from some other source than the Seattle P-I. And what is so WRONG about being Americacentric?! McGavick is an AMERICAN! It comes natural for Americans to be Americacentric. Well, not for all Americans, apparently. Jamieson is a loyal citizen of the People’s Socialist Republic of Seattlestan. His thinking is a little Seattlecentric.

Read Jamieson’s article, and make sure you give him some feedback: robertjamieson@seattlepi.com

Uh-oh. We may have to actually start considering Israel’s enemies terrorists. When they migrate to the U.S. and start plotting attacks on Americans, Washington and the media suddenly consider them real bad guys. (this was sarcasm for those who aren’t familiar with our politics here). I just hope we don’t live to regret ignoring them for years while they killed Jews.

Also interesting, but not that surprising, some of the terrorists are here as part of the United Nations. I guess the U.N. would provide perfect cover for terrorists.

The Hezbollah terror group – one of the most dangerous in the world – may be planning to activate sleeper cells in New York and other big cities to stage an attack as the nuclear showdown with Iran heats up, sources told The Post.

The FBI and Justice Department have launched urgent new probes in New York and other cities targeting members of the Lebanese terror group.

Law-enforcement and intelligence officials told The Post that about a dozen hard-core supporters of Hezbollah have been identified in recent weeks as operating in the New York area.

Sources said the activities of these New York-based operatives are being monitored by FBI counterterrorism agents as part of a nationwide effort to prevent a possible terror strike if the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program spins out of control.

Additional law-enforcement attention is being centered on the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, where there have already been three episodes in the last four years in which diplomats and security guards have been expelled for casing and photographing New York City subways and other potential targets.

U.S. officials apparently got a kick out of a Zarqawi tape seized last month by US troops. In the video, a less than intimidating Zarqawi fumbles with an automatic weapon and then looks confused and calls for help when the gun jams. With weapon firing again, the tennis shoe clad terrorist leader fires a few bursts at something off camera, and then burns his fellow terrorist’s hand as he hands the gun off barrel first and wanders away. He looked like a bumbling idiot, not the fierce, battle hardened terrorist you would expect. No wonder they have to resort to suicide bombers in any war they fight. They’re incompetent with a gun, but they’ve got the blowing themselves up thing down pat.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is shown wearing American tennis shoes and unable to operate his automatic rifle in video released Thursday by the U.S. military as part of a propaganda war aimed at undercutting the image of the terror leader.

The U.S. command showed the footage to reporters at a time when it is stepping up operations against al-Qaida in Iraq and making overtures to other Sunni groups. The Americans hope to isolate religious extremists from insurgents they believe are more likely to cut a deal to end the war.

The clips were part of a longer video that U.S. troops seized in a raid last month. Al-Qaida in Iraq militants posted an edited version of the same video on the Internet April 25 _ but without the embarrassing segments.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S. command, mocked al- Zarqawi as the previously unseen footage showed a smiling al-Qaida leader first firing single shots from a U.S.-made M-249 light machine gun. A frown creeps across al-Zarqawi’s face as the weapon appears to jam. He looks at the rifle, confused, then summons another fighter.

“It’s supposed to be automatic fire. He’s shooting single shots,” Lynch said. “Something is wrong with his machine gun. He looks down, can’t figure out, calls his friend to come unblock the stoppage and get the weapon firing again.”

A terror alert like this right after an Osama tape and a Zarqawi tape, doesn’t sound good. I’m just hoping that the Democrat’s leak of the NSA wiretapping program hasn’t put us all in danger of a mass transit attack.

ABC News has learned that the Department of Homeland Security has alerted U.S. mass transit officials to “suspicious videotaping” of European rail systems that point to a continuing terrorist interest in targeting mass transit and “possible surveillance or pre-operational planning.”

According to a short unclassified infrastructure security “private sector note” released Tuesday, May 2nd, DHS says a 17 minute hand held videotape by one foreign national detained in November in a major European city included footage of several stations, two routes and the interior of one “subway car.” None of the footage was of tourist attractions. Information from a second suspicious videotaping, also in November 2005, was factored into the one page private sector note.

“Two incidents of suspicious videotaping of a European mass transit system in the last 120 days provide indications of continued terrorist interest in mass transit systems as targets, and potentially useful insight into terrorist surveillance techniques,” DHS said.

The contents of the 17 minute tape that appeared suspicious included the recording of station signs from inside a moving train, shooting footage of the rail car and station platform ceilings and recording trash can and stairwell locations. This footage seems to mesh with known techniques and elements of prior casing reports of planned and executed terrorist plots including the London bombing and plots against the New York City subway system.

The Department of Homeland Security stresses that there is no specific or credible threat information at this time to suggest an an attack on U.S. rail systems, a spokesman said.

Moussauoui, one of the 9/11 terrorists who didn’t get his virgins that day, will get life in prison instead of the death penalty. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. He deserved the death penalty for his part in the murder of 3,000 innocent Americans, but he’ll probably suffer more by languishing in prison for decades, after failing to kill any infidels and make it to paradise. He’ll be doing time in one of the roughest prisons in the U.S., and I’m guessing he won’t be too popular among the other inmates.

Convicted Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on Wednesday for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Reading the jurors’ verdict outside the Alexandria court house, Edward Adams, the court’s public information officer, said the verdict only indicated that the jurors were “not unanimous in favor of a sentence of death.”

The jurors had deliberated over Moussaoui’s fate for seven days, having previously decided that Moussaoui’s role in the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil made him eligible for the death penalty, despite not having played a direct role in the plot. Prosecutors had argued that had Moussaoui divulged to authorities what he knew of the plot, the attacks could have been prevented.

This is proof that the Democrats don’t care about national security. They only care about politics and their hatred of George Bush. Osama Bin Laden recently put out another video taped threat promising attacks on civilians and new attacks on the U.S. The Democrats response is to blame Bush, and cut funding for the surveillance program that has stopped numerous terrorist attacks in the past and is absolutely necessary if we’re to stop attacks in the future. If these people take power again, we’re in deep trouble.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday he is considering legislation to cut off funding for the Bush administration’s secret domestic wiretapping program until he gets satisfactory answers about it from the White House.

“Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,” Specter, R-Pa., told the panel. “If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”

Specter said he had informed President Bush about his intention and that he has attracted several potential co-sponsors. He said he’s become increasingly frustrated in trying to elicit information about the program from senior White House officials at several public hearings.

No one wants to divulge top secret information to you, Senator Sphincter, because you’d immediately hand it over to the New York Times, who will then promptly tip off our enemies.

A reminder that there ARE terrorists among us:

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a 23-year-old man of supporting terrorists by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan three years ago.

Hamid Hayat, a seasonal farm worker in Lodi, an agricultural town south of Sacramento, was convicted of one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying to the
FBI.

His attorney said she would seek a new trial. “Hamid Hayat never attended a terrorist training camp. This fight is not over,” Wazhma Mojaddidi said.

The verdicts came hours after a separate jury hearing a case against the man’s father deadlocked, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

The father, 48-year-old ice cream truck driver Umer Hayat, is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI about his son’s involvement in the training camp. Defense attorneys and prosecutors will meet in court May 5 to decide whether he will be retried.

Jihad Jr. faces a minimum of 30 years.

Islamic “Dissidents” (the media’s new term for Islamic terrorists) hit a tourist resort area in Egypt killing at least 100 Christians who were celebrating Easter (the Eastern church celebrates it later). How will the media spin this so that Christians are actually the ones being intolerant and waging a crusader war against Islam? Problem solved. Every news report I’ve seen so far, with the exception of Fox News, has simply left out the fact that the victims were Christians. In fact many of them left out the fact that the attackers were Muslim. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Three explosions rocked Egypt’s Sinai resort town of Dahab on Monday night, leaving at least 22 people dead and 150 wounded.

One blast hit a hotel, a second a restaurant and the third explosion rocked the resort town’s market area about 7:15 p.m. local time (1715 GMT).

Dr. Said Essa, head of the Egyptian rescue forces in the region, said at least 17 people were killed at the el-Khaleeg Hotel alone.

I just listened to an interview with a Lebanese Arab who has been translating the backlog of documents found in Iraq from Arabic into English and posting them on his website. The information he’s found in those records is stunning. I can’t for the life of me understand why Bush has let the Democrats dominate on the issue of Iraq and Saddam’s WMD. There is clear proof that Saddam not only had WMD, but collaborated with Al Qaeda and Bin Laden to attack the United States.

I’m starting to think our government is completely incompetent. Why haven’t these documents been translated by someone in the intelligence agencies? According to Kirby Wilber on KVI his contacts in the CIA were stunned to learn about this proof. I understand that translating documents from Arabic is difficult. Ben speaks Arabic, and I know it’s a difficult language, but if a Lebanese American can translate and publish them, surely the CIA can find someone to do it for them.

If Republicans lose seats in the ’06 elections, it won’t just be because of their performance in Congress. It will also be because the President hasn’t gotten the truth out about Iraq and the war. Just a portion of the documents translated and posted on this website would make the Democrats, the anti-war radicals, and every other critic of the war look like fools. Unfortunately, I don’t think Bush is ever going to get a clue and become more aggressive in defending his policies and his handling of the war on terror. Someone in the Republican party better grow a backbone and start getting the truth out or the swing voters will have no choice but to believe the Democrat’s lies.

March 2001 Document: Saddam Regime Recruits Suicide Terrorists to Hit US Interests

March 2003 Top Secret Memo: TRANSFER OF SPECIAL AMMUNITION (POTENTIAL CHEMICAL WEAPONS) Translation

Saddam Regime Document: SADDAM MET WITH HIS NUCLEAR GROUP IN 2002

This is just a small sample of the documents he’s translated. Be sure to check out the whole site.

Many in the MSM have tried to “mainstream” Hamas since they gained control of the Palestinian Authority. They want us to believe that Hamas really ISN’T a terrorist organization. After all, they primarily kill innocent Israelis – not Westerners. In the realm of the MSM, this is an important distinction. However, Hamas continues to prove they are NOT simply a political party. How many political party leaders make a point of meeting with Al Qaeda leaders?

In an another sign of the Palestinian leadership growing alliance with al-Qaida, Damascus-based Hamas head Khaled Mashaal recently met in Yemen with a representative of Osama bin Laden’s organization who is wanted by the US for his involvement in supporting and funding global terror, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

During a visit to Yemen two weeks ago, the local Hamas branch organized a fund-raising event to recruit financial aid for the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government. During the event, Mashaal met with Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani – suspected by the US as being a “loyalist to Osama bin Laden and supporter of al-Qaida” – who even donated 200,000 Yemenite rials to Hamas, the equivalent of a little over $1,000.

“This meeting reinforces the fact that Hamas and al-Qaida come out of the same ideological well-spring of global jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold, whose Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs carefully followed the meeting and recently published a paper on the Hamas-al-Qaida alliance. “They still share the same financial infrastructure to this day.”

At the fund-raising event, Zindani praised Hamas suicide bombers and called on his followers to donate money to assist the Palestinian people. “The Hamas government is the Palestinian people’s government today,” he told the crowd of several thousand. “It is the jihad-fighting, steadfast, resolute government of Palestine.”

In 2004, US authorities designated Zindani as a terror supporter and a spiritual figure for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Zindani, the authorities claimed, played a key role in the 2004 purchasing of weapons on behalf of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

“The US has credible evidence that Zindani, a Yemeni national, supports designated terrorists and terrorist organizations,” a statement released by the US Treasury Department said. “Zindani has a long history of working with bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders. In this leadership capacity, he has been able to influence and support many terrorist causes, including actively recruiting for al-Qaida training camps.”

Senior IDF officers have confirmed that al-Qaida has already established terror cells in the Gaza Strip and has begun working on creating a similar infrastructure in the West Bank. Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Harel, head of the IDF’s Planning Directorate, told the Post recently that al-Qaida was operating within the PA territories.

Acting on a tip, coalition forces stormed a house and found the three remaining “Christian” peace activists alive (the fourth, Tom Fox, had been executed earlier). These activists were part of the group Christian Peacemaker Teams. Did CPT bother to thank the soldiers who rescued their activists? No. In their press release, they stated that the activists had been “releases safely”, rather than freed or rescued. Moreover, they blamed the kidnapping on the very military forces that risked their lives to save them!

“We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq,” Pritchard said.

UPDATE: Apparently the outrage at CPT’s press release hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. They’ve added the following addenda to the press release:

We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda:

We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues. We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers.

We will continue to lift Jill Carroll up in our prayers for her safe return. In addition, we will continue to advocate for the human rights of Iraqi detainees and assert their right to due process in a just legal system.

Perhaps if these people weren’t so “overwhelmed”, they would have realized that the kidnappings and violence are merely an extension of the terrorist attacks that struck the U.S. before we were in Iraq. I wonder what the addenda would have read had the coalition forces been forced to kill the kidnappers to effect the rescue.

A terrorist on trial in Britain for plotting to blow up the biggest night club in London, attempted to buy a nuclear weapon. Do the people who think it’s unfair for Iran to be denied nuclear technology read things like this? If Iran had nukes, we wouldn’t be reading about the NEAR sale of a nuclear weapon, we’d be reading about the successful sale and detonation of of that weapon. Why don’t liberals get this?

One of the suspected terrorists on trial for allegedly plotting a nationwide bombing campaign has been linked to a nuclear weapon.

The Old Bailey jury was told that Salahuddin Amin had been involved in discussions to buy a nuclear bomb.

The prosecution said contact had been made with the Russian mafia in Belgium, from whom they wanted to buy a radio-isotope bomb.

Yesterday, jurors heard the prosecution outline its case that the seven-strong gang – all British citizens – planned to blow up pubs, nightclubs, trains and also considered hitting the UK’s power infrastructure.

The gang had wanted to blow up “the biggest nightclub” in central London, prosecutor David Waters QC said.

In February, 2004, they were allegedly overheard discussing bomb targets.

Mr Waters said: “Jawad Akbar referred to attacks upon the utilities, gas, water or electrical supplies.

“Alternatively, a big nightclub in central London might be a target.”

The accused deny conspiring to cause explosions between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004.

Three of them also deny an additional charge of possessing an article for terrorism.

Mohammed Babar, a US citizen who pleaded guilty in New York to a role in a “British bomb plot”, is expected to give evidence against the defendants.

I feel the deepest sympathy for these poor terrorists… not. However, I do find this ironic and amusing. It seems some detainees at Guatanamo Bay find their current accomodations safer than the prospect of a trip home.

Fearing militants or even their own governments, some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from China, Saudi Arabia and other nations do not want to go home, according to transcripts of hearings at the U.S. prison in Cuba.

Uzbekistan, Yemen, Algeria and Syria are also among the countries to which detainees do not want to return. The inmates have told military tribunals that they or their families could be tortured or killed if they are sent back.

President Bush has said the United States transfers detainees to other countries only when it receives assurances that they will not be tortured. Critics say such assurances are useless. The administration has released or transferred 267 prisoners and has announced plans to do the same with at least 123 more in the future.

Inmates have told military tribunals they worry about reprisals from militants who will suspect them of cooperating with U.S. authorities in its war on terror. Others say their own governments may target them for reasons that have nothing to do with why they were taken to Guantanamo Bay in the first place.

A man from Syria who was detained along with his father pleaded with the tribunal for help getting them political asylum — in any country that will take them.
…

In this article by the Washington Post, their bias is evident starting with the headline and continuing throughout. The article headline is “Majority in U.S. Fears Iraq Civil War”, and the subtitle is “Poll Also Finds Growing Doubt About Bush”. Check out these excerpts from the article before we fill in the “unmentionable numbers”:

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war, and half say the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from that violence-torn country, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 80 percent believe that recent sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely, and more than a third say such a conflict is “very likely” to occur. These expectations extend beyond party lines: More than seven in 10 Republicans and eight in 10 Democrats and political independents say they believe such a conflict is coming.

In the face of continuing violence, half — 52 percent — of those surveyed said the United States should begin withdrawing forces. One in six favors immediate withdrawal of all troops, however, while about one-third prefer a more gradual return.
…
The survey highlights how support for the war in Iraq dissolved since the first months after the U.S. invasion. At the end of 2003, nearly six in 10 — 59 percent — said the conflict was worth the cost; today, 42 percent share that view. In the past nine months, the proportion in Post-ABC polls who say the United States should begin withdrawing its troops has increased from 38 percent to a 52 percent majority.

In the midst of all this, there was a hint of honesty:

The survey also found growing doubt that the Bush administration has a strategy in Iraq. Two-thirds of those interviewed said they do not think the president has a clear plan for handling the Iraq situation, the highest level of doubt recorded since the question was first asked three years ago. But an even larger share — 70 percent — questions whether Democrats in Congress have a plan for dealing with Iraq, suggesting Americans see neither party as offering a coherent exit strategy.

While this hints of honesty, it uses semantics to soften the blow. Notice that WAPO states that two thirds DO NOT THINK the president has a clear plan… but the larger share only “questions” whether Democrats in Congress have a plan for dealing with Iraq. Actually, the wording in the actual poll found that 70 percent DO NOT THINK Democrats in Congress have a clear plan for the war in Iraq. And only 65% of respondents felt that way about President Bush. This is slightly less than two-thirds as claimed by the WAPO (two-thirds would actually be 66.67%).
Notice this begrudging admission of facts and the way it’s worded:

In only one area — terrorism — does more than half of the public see Bush positively, and even here 46 percent disapprove while 52 percent approve. On every other issue tested in the poll — including the economy, international affairs and health care — Bush received negative marks.

Here are some excerpts from the actual poll that get little to NO mention in the article:

23. On another subject: as you may know, the National Security Agency has been investigating people suspected of involvement with terrorism by secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails between some people in the United States and other countries, without first getting court approval to do so. Would you consider this wiretapping of telephone calls and e-mails without court approval as an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?

Acceptable (Net): 54%
Unacceptable (Net): 46%

11. Compared to before September 11, 2001, do you think the country today is safer from terrorism or less safe from terrorism?

Safer: 56%
Less Safe: 35%
Same: 8%
No Opinion: 1%

13. Do you think the war with Iraq has or has not contributed to the long-term security of the United States?

Has contributed: 50%
Has not: 48%
No Opinion: 2%

The Washington Post has revealed its bias in choosing which poll results NOT to include in the corresponding article. Surprised?

Newsbusters has more.

First, I’d like to apologize for not blogging for several days. Ben and I have been very sick and basically had to check out for a while to recover. We’re not completely well yet, but are finally feeling well enough to get back to work. With that said, on to the news.

How much evidence will it take before someone in our government addresses the WMD that were likely transported to Syria before that Iraq war? More than one top official close to Saddam have admitted that Iraq’s WMD were transferred to Syria, yet the Bush administration continues to allow the Left to beat the “no WMD” drum. Several people have also testified to Saddam’s connections with Al Qaeda, and now a former Iraqi general and friend of Saddam’s is providing an even more detailed description of those ties.

I know the media makes it difficult for Bush to get anything but phony scandals in the news, but Bush could force this issue onto the front pages any time he wants to. Why isn’t he?

A former general and friend of Saddam Hussein who defected but maintains close contact with Iraq claims the regime supported al-Qaida with intelligence, finances and munitions and believes weapons of mass destruction are hidden in Syria.

Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s, spoke with Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com.

Known as the “Butcher of Basra,” al-Tikriti commanded units that dealt with chemical and biological weapons. He defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991.

Last month, Saddam Hussein’s No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, told the New York Sun Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria six weeks before the war started. Sada claimed two Iraqi Airways Boeing jets converted to cargo planes moved the weapons in a total of 56 flights. They attracted little attention, he said, because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in 2002.

Discussing Saddam’s support of terrorism, al-Tikriti said the dictator’s regime sponsored Palestinian groups with logistical and material support.

For a time, support for al-Qaida was limited, the former general said, mainly because al-Qaida’s aim was to create an Islamic empire while Saddam wanted a secular Arab nationalist empire.

“They only really came to terms in the mid ’90s due to the fact that both knew they shared the same short-term enemy,” the general said. “Once they came to terms on this, Saddam provided al-Qaida with intelligence support and whatever money or munitions they could provide.”

Don’t look for the MSM to report any of this, or for the liberals to give up thier WMD meme.

For more coverage of the intelligence meeting in Arlington where more evidence on Sadam’s WMD is to be revealed, check out Pajamas Media’s WMD files.

The U.N. is trying to start another torture scandal based on the claims of an Al Qaeda operative’s lawyer. Naturally, the U.N. is eager to believe their Al Qaeda allies over the United States government. So, how were these poor terrorists tortured this time? They were forced to eat in order to prevent starvation when they went on hunger strikes. I guess the military should have let them die of starvation and that would have satisfied the U.N. The problems seen in third world countries where there’s a U.N. peacekeeping presence are starting to make sense. It’s much better to let people starve to death.

The poor mass murderers were also left in solitary confinement too long. Now THAT’s tragic. Solitary confinement is used in prisons all over the United States and throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world, but the U.N. doesn’t call that torture. In fact, I don’t remember the U.N. making much of an issue out of Sadam Hussein’s torture chambers. I guess torturing, raping, and murdering innocent Iraqis is acceptable, but it’s definitely too harsh for an innocent terrorist to be in a prison cell all by himself for too long. He might get escared and suffer mental stress. It’s far better to let the terrorists go and shut down the prison so that the rest of us can suffer mental stress when they start blowing up our markets, schools, and public places.

A U.N. investigation has concluded that the United States committed acts amounting to torture at Guantanamo Bay, including force-feeding detainees and subjecting them to prolonged solitary confinement, according to a draft report obtained Monday.

U.S. officials rejected the report, saying it was riddled with errors and treated statements from detainees’ lawyers as fact.

The report from five U.N. human rights experts also recommended the United States close Guantanamo Bay and revoke all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense.

It accused the United States of violating the detainees’ rights to a fair trial, to freedom of religion and to health.

The detainees at Guantanimo are each given a Koran and special effort was made to accommodate their religious customs. This has been widely reported. They must be referring to the terrorists’ loss of freedom to wage Jihad. The U.S. is denying these poor people their doe-eyed virgins. The horrors!

“The apparent attempts by the U.S. administration to reinterpret certain interrogation techniques as not reaching the threshold of torture in the framework of the struggle against terrorism are of utmost concern,” the draft report said.

The draft report, which follows repeated claims by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay that they have been mistreated or denied their rights, was delivered to the United States on Jan. 16. It was first disclosed Sunday by the Los Angeles Times.

American officials said the most significant flaw of the report was that it judged U.S. treatment of detainees according to peacetime human rights laws. The United States contends it is in a state of conflict and should be judged according to the laws of war.

Basically, the U.N. human rights nuts judged Guantanimo as if it were a regular prison and there is no war going on. Did they not get the memo that we’re fighting a war on terror?

In a country where people were once tortured or killed for simply saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, people are now surfing the internet, sending e-mail, and running their own political blogs. Iraqis are experiencing the internet – the last place on this earth where we still have real freedom of speech. . . . for now.

You’ll have to wade through the New York Times incessant pessimism and anti-war bias, but it’s good to see Iraqis enjoying some new freedoms.

On a recent rainy afternoon, Ahmad Nader Ali sat in a booth at the ShreifiNet Cafe, sending instant messages to his brother who lives in Finland on one screen window and his fiancée, Nour, on another. A tiny Web camera sat atop the computer, beaming live images of him to Nour’s home screen across Baghdad.

“Because of the situation, I’m not able to go and see her often,” said Mr. Ali, a confident 20-year-old with slicked-back hair who runs a men’s clothing store. “Everybody does it like this.”

Nearby, partially hidden by wood-paneled booths, were a dozen other young men staring intently at their screens, most chatting simultaneously on three or four different e-mail accounts. All of them were paying 1,500 dinars an hour — about a dollar — to escape the gray confines of Baghdad’s blasted walls for a while. Two heavyset men sat on a black faux-leather couch by the door, keeping a watchful eye on the street.

Three years ago, the Internet was virtually unknown in Iraq. Today, Baghdad has dozens of Internet cafes like ShreifiNet, which consists of three sparely decorated rooms with a total of 34 computers and a satellite dish on the roof. Most of the cafes also transmit wireless services to home Internet users in the surrounding area for a monthly fee; in parts of central Baghdad there are about 20 overlapping wireless networks.

The universal hunger to get online has made computer and Web services one of the few bright spots in Iraq’s stagnant economy. On Sinaa Street, the two-lane thoroughfare in central Baghdad lined with computer and software stores, business is brisk. Companies that install wireless networks and satellite dishes are also thriving, despite the irritation caused by frequent power failures. So are many Internet cafes.

“I have to work to persuade people to come to my clothes shop,” Mr. Ali said. “But you don’t need to advertise to tempt customers to come in here.”

Few people on earth have more incentive to communicate online (and indoors) than Iraqis, who risk their lives every time they go out for a quart of milk. The Internet can also be a way to get around the rising Islamization of everyday life. Young people caught flirting on the street even in Baghdad are sometimes chastised or even beaten by self-proclaimed Islamists, but no one can stop them on the Web. “If you look at the chat rooms, it is mostly young guys and girls,” Mr. Ali said.

Unfortunately, anywhere there is Islam, there will be human rights abuses and a loss of freedom. Let’s hope, in this case, the Iraqis’ new government will be able to protect them from the radical Islamists.

The WMD debate may not be over. More evidence that Saddam did in fact have weapons of Mass Destruction continues to be revealed, and people are actually listening. The investigation into Saddam’s WMD has been reopened and the rhetoric from the D.O.D. and the administration is changing (the intelligence community, however, still doesn’t seem to want to do their job). Rumsfeld is leaving open the possibility that the weapons may still be found, and those who are in the know, no longer seem so sure that the WMD case is closed. With thousands of Saddam’s documents left to go through and tapes being heard of Saddam before the war began, I’m starting to think the WMD question may become a factor in the ’06 election. If WMD are found after the Democrat’s relentless attacks on the President, they don’t have a prayer of regaining power. Maybe this was Bush’s plan all along.

Read the whole thing.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

The committee has already confirmed through the intelligence community that the recordings of Saddam’s voice are authentic, according to its chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, who would not go into detail about the nature of the conversations or their context. They were provided to his committee by a former federal prosecutor, John Loftus, who says he received them from a former American military intelligence analyst.

Mr. Loftus will make the recordings available to the public on February 17 at the annual meeting of the Intelligence Summit, of which he is president. On the organization’s Web site, Mr. Loftus is quoted as promising that the recordings “will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important – and controversial – weapons of mass destruction questions.” Contacted yesterday by The New York Sun, Mr. Loftus would only say that he delivered a CD of the recordings to a representative of the committee, and the following week the committee announced that it was reopening the investigation into weapons of mass destruction.

The audio recordings are part of new evidence the House intelligence committee is piecing together that has spurred Mr. Hoekstra to reopen the question of whether Iraq had the biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons American inspectors could not turn up. President Bush called off the hunt for those weapons last year and has conceded that America has yet to find evidence of the stockpiles.

Mr. Hoekstra has already met with a former Iraqi air force general, Georges Sada, who claims that Saddam used civilian airplanes to ferry chemical weapons to Syria in 2002. Mr. Hoekstra is now talking to Iraqis who Mr. Sada claims took part in the mission, and the congressman said the former air force general “should not just be discounted.” Mr. Hoekstra also said he is in touch with other people who have come forward to the committee – Iraqis and Americans – who claim that the weapons inspectors may have overlooked other key sites and evidence. He has also asked the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, to declassify some 35,000 boxes of Iraqi documents obtained in the war that have yet to be translated.

“I still believe there are key individuals who have not been debriefed and there are key sites that have never been investigated. I know there are 35,000 boxes of documents that have never been translated. I am frustrated,” Mr. Hoekstra said.

He added, “Right now, it’s not my job to investigate the specific claims. We are doing this a little with Sada. But we still don’t fully understand what happened in Iraq three years after the invasion, three years after we control the country. There are enough people coming to the committee, Sada is not the only one, saying, ‘you really ought to look under this rock.’ This gives me cause to take up the issue again.”