The left and Osama bin Laden

So let me get this straight.

The Professional Left, the morons in the media, idiots like Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz and the rest, and all the other pearl-clutchers now APPROVE of waterboarding brown people at a military detention center outside of US legal jurisdiction, in order to gain information for clandestine raids into countries with which the USA is not at war to kill people without trial?

Do I have this right?

Because it seems that the same people who wanted to string Bush/Cheney up for “war crimes” not even three years ago, are now claiming that Obama is a virtuous patriot and fearless leader.

What now in Libya?

CBS News is reporting that despite advances made by the rebels, with the help of coalition air-strikes, the rebels are being pushed back:

Libya’s rebel forces continued to struggle against Muammar Qaddafi’s superior firepower on the ground, as the United States and other allies consider whether to supply them with weapons.

The rebels have given up nearly all the ground they have gained after allied airstrikes took out some of Qaddafi’s heavy weapons. Now government forces are changing tactics, leaving behind the armed military vehicles and moving in armed pickup trucks like the opposition does, reports CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark. That makes it difficult for coalition forces overhead to distinguish who’s who on the ground.

Faced with a series of setbacks after recent gains, the rebels now are starting to show their combat fatigue, reports Clark Outgunned and often outflanked in the field, they lack any sort of military strategy or leadership. They are eager to take ground, but are quick to flee when they face any real fighting. The reality is that a rebel military victory seems increasingly unlikely.

That’s just fracking great.  It seems the question that lingers in debating Obama’s War in Libya kinetic military action is what now?

The bogus humanitarian spin to this war is wearing thin as we learn more about its uncomfortable realities, and the nature of our ever-increasing involvement.

Libyan rebels include Al Qaeda fighters

This should come as no surprise to anybody:

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25″ men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”.

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad’s president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, “including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries”.

Was President Obama aware of any of this before he started a war with Libya?

The Frankfurt killings were an act of terrorism, Mr. President

Earlier this week, Rajb Karim, a Muslim working in the IT department at British Airways, was found guilty for plotting to blow up airplanes en route to the United States.  Reports indicated that he was a disciple of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and that he supplied the cleric with information available from his job.

From the story reported in the Guardian:

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said of Karim: “He is … an Islamic extremist, with close association to, if not membership of Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an organisation committed to the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, responsible for terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, and with links to al-Qaida. The defendant … believes terrorism, including murder of civilians, is permissible to establish, as he views it, a true Islamic state. [He] was anxious himself to carry out such an attack and determined to seek martyrdom.”

In February last year Awlaki wrote to Karim: “Our highest priority is the US. Anything there, even on a smaller scale compared to what we may do in the UK would be our choice. So the question is with the people you have is it possible to get a package or a person with a package on board a flight heading to the US?”

I’m bringing this up in light of today’s killing of two United States airmen in a military bus in Frankfurt.  The troops were on their way to Afghanistan, and the killer had an interesting choice of words:

When he opened fire, the gunman, identified as a long-term resident of Germany, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” according to sources. He fired nine times, killling two and critically wounding two others before the gun jammed and he was subdued by other passengers. While being wrestled into submission, the suspect shouted either “Jihad Jihad” or “Allahu Akbar,” sources said

Let’s not jump to any conclusions as to what this man’s motives were, however.  

From the New York Times:

An American military official, speaking on ground rules of anonymity, said that the United States was not ruling out terrorism, although it was unclear if the suspect was acting alone or with partners. “I don’t know if he’s tied to a group,” said the official. “But there is enough information at this point to indicate that he identifies with Islamist terrorist ideology.”

As the first story points out quite clearly, these extremists want us dead because we’re Americans.  They make it quite clear, that this is their intent.  They. Want. To. Kill. Us. 

These are pure acts of terrorism.  There’s no difference between what happened in Frankfurt and what happened in Fort Hood.  And unfortunately, there probably won’t be any distinction in the Obama administration’s reaction to today’s events.

Ignoring the fact that radical Muslim extremists are a significant part of the problem, or playing nice with them by not using terms like “Islamic terrorism”, or giving grandiose speeches in Cairo, will not abate their hunger for American blood.  They are what they are.

DNI Office walks back the idiocy

Rule of thumb in politics and diplomacy: when you have to walk back “clarify” previous statements, you’ve already blown your case:

The director of the Office of National Intelligence James Clapper today told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – which seeks Egypt to become an Islamic state ruled by sharia law – is “a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”

 The Muslim Brotherhood is quite obviously not a secular organization.

Jamie Smith, director of the office of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence later said in a statement to ABC News: “To clarify Director Clapper’s point – in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under Mubarak’s rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation – he is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.” 

Just a reminder of who the Muslim Brotherhood is:

This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is its law and jihad is its way. The MB whose Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, was created for the specific purpose of destroying Israel — the goal its charter says is a religious obligation. It is the organization dedicated to the establishment of Islamicized societies and, ultimately, a global caliphate.

It is an organization whose leadership says al-Qaeda’s emir, Osama bin Laden, is an honorable jihad warrior who was “close to Allah on high” in “resisting the occupation.” The same leader who insists that “the history of freedom is written not in ink [i.e., constitutions] but in blood [i.e., jihad].”

Awesome.

[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]

Religion of peace strikes again

A tragedy is unfolding again in Iraq, and this time it’s the genocide of Iraqi Christians:

Fresh death threats against Christians residing in Iraq are terrorising families and inciting them to flee, according to reports from ‘al-Hayat’ newspaper, which cites interviews from Iraqi security officials.

Seven hand written messages for which Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility were found in various locations throughout the city, Abdullah al-Nawafili, a Christian community leader in the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad confirmed.

“Threats of these types have been coming in over the past few days that push us to leave the country,” he said.

The messages were delivered to the Camp Sara neighbourhoods of Baghdad which is home to a predominantly Christian population as well as the districts al-Amin and Baghdad al-Jadid and were written on white paper resembling doctors prescription pads. “Leave Iraq immediately or you will be killed by us,” the notes read.

The response from the United States?  Near silence, and this only perpetuates the tragedy:

[...] without enormous pressure from his backers in the U.S., [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] has little incentive to turn his attention to this problem. And yet the U.S. and the international community thus far have barely managed to muster the most muted response to anti-Christian violence in Iraq.

[...]

What is needed is a firm condemnation by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacting specifically to al Qaeda’s explicit plans to rid Iraq of its Christian communities and warning the Iraqi government that there will be dire consequences to its continuing inaction on this urgent matter.

[...]

This silence cannot stand. Americans of all faiths must band together and pressure the State Department to do something about the wanton murder of Iraqi Christians before it’s too late and there are no more Christians in Iraq to protect. What is happening in Iraq is genocide, plain and simple. It must be stopped now.

The Anchoress has done a great job bringing attention to this horrible turn of events, along with Frank Weathers, who offers some ways to help.

As Advent approaches for Catholics, its second-nature for us to involve ourselves with the traditions of the faith and go about our business.  While we deal with the stresses of the season, and conveniently and vociferously complain (myself included), let’s not forget that there are those on the other side of the world, who are literally dying to practice the tenets of Christianity.

Toner cartridge bombs were meant to detonate over the eastern US

So says Scotland Yard.  As a lifelong resident of New Jersey of the “eastern seaboard” of the United States, I find this absolutely troubling:

The shocking reality of the terrorist printer cartridge bomb plot emerged today when Scotland Yard revealed that the device taken from a plane in Britain was timed to explode in mid-air over the eastern United States.

The bomb was found by police on board a cargo plane at East Midlands airport last month after detailed information was passed through intelligence channels to the UK and US from Saudi Arabia.

The Guardian understands that an alarm clock on a mobile phone attached to the printer bomb was set to go off at 10.30am BST. Tests revealed that if the cargo plane’s journey had gone to schedule, the device – in a package addressed to a synagogue in Chicago – would have gone off in midair over the eastern seaboard of the US.

The device found in the UK was one of two discovered after a Saudi tip-off. The other was at Dubai airport. Both were capable of bringing down an aircraft.

The bombs are believed by western intelligence to have been sent by the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and sparked fears that a new vulnerability in aviation security has been discovered by the terrorists.

Both bombs contained at least 300 grammes of the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN. The device found in Dubai had travelled on two passenger planes without being detected.

A heinous, blood-thirsty group of Islamofascists have been at war with the United States for over a decade, calling for the blood of innocent Americans, for the destruction of our interests all over the world.

The real disturbing part of all this is that our current government insists that we’re not at war, or rather, nobody is at war with us, and it is acting accordingly.  That’s the tragic part.

Times Square bomb plot

So much for the one-man operation theory:

Sources tell CBS News that multiple people have been taken into custody for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the Times Square bomb plot.

Authorities are not saying who the potential suspects are or where they are being held, but they say there were raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in different locations. It’s believed between four and eight people are being held, and there are reports that some of them may be related to the suspect arrested overnight in New York.

The Associated Press said that Pakistani authorities have detained at least one man in connection with the Times Square bombing attempt in New York, two intelligence officials said Tuesday.

The man, identified as Tauseef, was a friend of Faisal Shahzad, the American of Pakistani origin who is in custody in the United States over the failed attack, one official said. He was arrested in the southern city of Karachi, said the official, who like all Pakistani spies refuses to be named in the media.

Another official said several people had been taken into custody in Karachi since the failed attack Saturday.

Between these scumbags and the Christmas Day underpants bomber, the only thing that has kept us from disaster are two failed detonators and the courage of the FBI.

Just words?

Last week, President Obama acknowledged that the we are at war with Al Qaeda.

It has been confirmed that the Christmas day crotch-bomber was recruited, trained and provided support by Al Qaeda.

Am I missing something here?  Why is Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab still considered and treated as a criminal offender, and not an enemy combatant? 

Just words from the President?  You betcha…