Wow. A voice of reason amid insanity. As Robert Spencer at JihadWatch said, he must be an islamaphobe.Khudayr Taher, an Iraqi Shi'ite writer living in the U.S. and a regular contributor to the liberal Elaph website, had a quite illiberal suggestion - he asked why Europe and America shouldn't deport their Muslim populations. He wrote:
"Countries have the right to defend themselves and assure their citizens' safety from terrorism. Likewise, it is clear that the source of the terrorist crimes in Europe and America is the Muslims who live in these countries.
"The security services cannot know people's intentions and sort out who is the noble immigrant and who is a terrorist criminal. [But] wherever there are Muslims, their presence has produced crimes of terrorism and murder.
"Among those Muslims in Europe and America who do not practice terrorism, most of them do not have loyalty and sincere attachment to these countries that have offered them all of the means of life in dignity - housing, studies, work, and citizenship…
"The legitimate question is this: Since the security services cannot sort out the good immigrant from the bad terrorist… why don't these countries deport all Muslims, of all races, from Europe and America, and [thus] find rest from the danger of terrorism, and protect their peoples?
"I, as an Arab Muslim immigrant, sincerely call on the countries of Europe and America to deport all Muslims from their territories - including myself, despite my love and my sincere attachment to the U.S…"
Md. State Board Approves County's Sex-Ed CurriculumRead the entire article here.
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 4, 2007; B06
The Maryland State Board of Education has ruled in favor of a sex-education curriculum adopted last month for use in Montgomery middle and high schools, finding nothing illegal in the new lessons on sexual orientation and condom use, school officials said yesterday.
In a 17-page June 27 opinion, the state panel declined to "second guess the appropriateness" of the curriculum approved by the Montgomery County Board of Education. Instead, the state panel said it could reverse the county's action only if it violated the law. And after reviewing more than a dozen claims alleged by curriculum opponents, the state board found no violation.
Take Action
Send an e-mail to the president of the Maryland Department of Education and to the Governor of Maryland.If you have children in public schools, ask the local superintendent if they have a sex-education program. If so, request an opportunity to review the curriculum.
Please forward this to your family and friends.
Send Your Letter Now!
The Cover-Up BeginsPoole has several central Ohio political pundits a-twitter, deciding whether they should play their Sergeant Schultz card about this appointment of this man, or whether they should come out and defend him. Sounds like we'll be hearing some "I know nuthink" coming outta their mouths soon.
Patrick Poole will be on Dirk Thompson show tomorrow, Saturday, at 5:15pm EDT on 610AM WTVN talking about this issue. Dirk has invited all three members of County Commission to participate, but none have taken him up on the offer as of yet.
If Watergate should have taught politicians anything, its that the cover-up ends up more damaging than the actual crime. Case in point: following up on the report yesterday about Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks calling for an immediate investigation in response to my article published earlier this week, "Hometown Jihad: The Somali Terror Apologist Next Door," today it seems that the County Commissioners have begun to rally around terror apologist Abukar Arman rather than answer the hard questions about who in fact recommended Arman for appointment to the Criminal Justice Planning Board, which oversees Central Ohio Homeland Security.
The Blogosphere for KillersWhat I've never understood is why we let media outlets like Al-Jazeera (or CNN, for that matter) report the propaganda they do. First, why don't we simply knock out the capabilities of Al Jazeera? Didn't we do that in WWII (the last war we really won) to stop the Nazi propaganda machine?
Tech-savvy terrorists use the Web for propaganda and incitement.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Thursday, July 12, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Living as we do now afloat the incoming and outgoing tides of media, perhaps the aborted London and Glasgow car bombings of a fortnight ago are worth another thought before these attempted mass murders drift away on the sea of bad memories. What about those doctors? The apparent complicity of U.K.-resident Muslim physicians in the attempted murder of innocent British civilians had many in the West asking why. The short answer is that these trained M.D.s somehow convinced themselves that these British people didn't deserve to live--that it would be morally good to kill them. That's insane. Why would they think that?
The best answer I have seen in a long time is found in a new study of Islamic media propaganda by a research team from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War of Images and Ideas" by Daniel Kimmage and Kathleen Ridolfo (with Radio Free Iraq correspondents, two of whom were abducted and murdered this year) is an astounding compilation of the high-tech methods being used by the insurgency in Iraq to propagate the ideology of the Islamic jihadist movement. This is the blogosphere for killers.
Indeed. Are you listening, Congress? How about you, Mr. Bush? Thank God for the blogosphere.The reach of insurgent and jihadist propaganda increases exponentially when it is picked up by Arab TV--Al-Jazeera, of course, or the Al-Rafidayn satellite channel in Cairo or even the Iraqi Al-Zawra, which claims to be operating from a satellite truck in Iraq.
In an interview this week, RFE's Mr. Kimmage said they have presented the media study to both the House and Senate intelligence committees and to government national security agencies. Reactions range from "wow" to "we already know all that." In any event, what would they do? This is propaganda on an unprecedented scale.If you are a young Muslim male, even a doctor, with a PC in Egypt, the Gulf states, Somalia, Morocco or Glasgow, as always with the Web you are marinating your mind in its content, and the content here is homicide on a mass scale. The answer--technical or political--is not obvious to me. But the one unacceptable answer is doing nothing.
AP: Report says al-Qaeda renewing efforts to sneak terror plotters into U.S.Is there any other kind of islam? Convert or die.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaeda is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.
The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an ever-more-worrisome portrait of al-Qaeda's ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks, even as Bush administration officials say the U.S. is safer nearly six years into the war on terror.
Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies:The document also discusses increasing concern about individuals already inside the United States who are adopting an extremist brand of Islam.
- al-Qaeda is probably still pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and would use them if its operatives developed sufficient capability.
- The terror group has been able to restore three of the four key tools it would need to launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas, operational lieutenants and senior leaders. It could not immediately be learned what the missing fourth element is.
- The group will bolster its efforts to position operatives inside U.S. borders. In public statements, U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ease with which people can enter the United States through Europe because of a program that allows most Europeans to enter without visas.
FOR THE RECORDJust so you know, Tony Snow, the Arkansan word for Chutzpah is Clinton.
“An editorial in The New York Observer, often called the paper of the liberal elite, described Mr. Clinton as ‘an untrustworthy lowlife who used people for his own purposes and then discarded them. How could they have been fooled so badly?’...[M]illions of Americans, including political hacks, media toadies, and grass-roots dupes, were unflinchingly loyal to Clinton throughout a scandal-drenched eight years, during which it was credibly charged or proven that he: seduced a 21-year-old White House intern, groped a visitor in the Oval Office, paid his way out of a pants-dropping charge, was credibly accused of rape, organized a White House hit team to assassinate the reputation of his accusers; took money from Chinese communist donors; entertained known criminals, drug dealers and arms smugglers at private White House gatherings; hid subpoenaed documents in the living quarters of the White House; rented out the Lincoln bedroom; sold seats on Air Force One; violated the War Powers Act; bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan; never uttered a word of regret for the 19 innocent babies and children who were burned to death at Waco; used the IRS and the FBI to attack political enemies; used taxpayer-paid lawyers and aides to defend himself against charges of sexual misconduct; lied under oath; lied when not under oath; shredded documents; suborned perjury; tampered with witnesses and obstructed justice... I remain hopeful that in time, the legacy of the Clinton presidency will be that its classic wretchedness awakened the American people from a soul-numbing, moral stupor.” —Linda Bowles
McPherson Chemical Labs at The Ohio State University is the location this weekend and next of an Al-Maghrib Institute seminar, Rays of Faith, being taught by Waleed Basyouni. Al-Maghrib is affectionately known as "Jihad U" for its promotion of Wahhabi extremism and Muslim Brotherhood activism. (See the FrontPage articles, "Jihad U", "Saudi Press Plugs Jihad U", and "Jihad U's Student Internship", for more on Al-Maghrib Institute.)Read the entire article here.
"According to Jimmy Carter and the Arab propaganda machine, the cause of the Middle East conflict is the Israeli occupation of Arab land. This is false.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its military forces from Gaza, which they had occupied to prevent terrorist attacks.
The day of the Israeli withdrawl, Hamas began launching rocket attacks against towns and schools inside Israel."
A military man addresses the leaders who betrayed himWell worth a read, particularly the section describing the NY Times: "Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer." As I've said before, these people are all traitors. In WWII we would have had these people on trial.
Thursday, July 05, 2007 10:01 PM
J.D. Pendry is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major who writes for Random House. He writes:
Jimmy Carter, you're the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the first Trade Center Bombing and our Embassy bombings emboldened the killers Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
ISNA’s Jihad Summer CampI can see it now, in the Y's summer program catalog. Read the entire article here.
By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com July 6, 2007
The deadline has already passed for you to submit an application to attend the Muslim Youth of North America’s Annual National Youth Training Program, operated by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which runs from June 30th through July 7th, that is if you are between the ages of 12-18.
The summer camp is being held at Camp-Y Noah of the YMCA of Akron in Clinton, Ohio, and features a number of well-known speakers. By “well-known” I mean controversial, not popular. In fact, the event’s speakers list reads like a “Who’s Who” of Islamic extremism.
Leading the list is ISNA Majlis Member, Jamal Badawi, who also sits on the board of the Canadian affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Both ISNA and CAIR were recently named by federal prosecutors as unindicted co-conspirators in a HAMAS terror financing trial currently underway in Texas (see my “CAIR Fingered by Feds”).
Badawi is also a close associate of Yousef Al-Qaradawi, who has been identified as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US government and banned from entering the country. Qaradawi has issued fatwas authorizing suicide bombings in Israel and attacks against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Badawi is currently listed as a member of the board of trustees of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research – two organizations organized and headed by Qaradawi. He also issues live fatwas for Qaradawi’s Islamonline.net website.
45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raidsAdditional info from Debbie Schlussel:
A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.
Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong "cyber-terrorist" gang.
They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.
One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.
"The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy." This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.
The message discussed targets at the base, adding: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."
It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.
Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
However, sources said it was "definitely spooky" that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.
Part of the inquiry into the London and Glasgow incidents will focus on whether al-Qa'eda has recruited doctors or other medical professionals because they are less likely to attract suspicion and can move easily around the western world.
The three "cyber terrorists" - a British national and two who had been given the right to live in Britain - are facing lengthy jail sentences after admitting using the internet to spread al-Qa'eda propaganda inciting Muslims to a violent holy war and to murder non-believers.
They had close links with al-Qa'eda in Iraq and believed they had to fight jihad against a global conspiracy by kuffars, or non-believers, to wipe out Islam.
The three are the first defendants in Britain to be convicted of inciting terrorist murder on the internet. They waged cyber-jihad on websites run from their bedrooms.
Tsouli promoted the ideology of Osama bin Laden via email and radical websites. He said in one message he was "very happy" about the July 7 bombings in London in 2005.
Tsouli, along with Tariq Daour, a biochemistry student, and Waseem Mughal, a law student, were intelligent, computer-literate men who promoted violent propaganda.
They created chat forums to direct willing fighters to Iraq and discuss murderous bomb attacks around the world. Films of hostages and beheadings were found by police.
Daour, 21, of Bayswater, west London, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, yesterday admitted inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside Britain. Moroccan-born Tsouli, 23, of Shepherd's Bush, west London, and British-born Mughal, 24, of Chatham, Kent, admitted the same charge on Monday.
They are due to be sentenced today. They also admitted conspiring together and with others to defraud banks, credit card companies and charge card companies. Daour had instructions for making explosives and poisons, the court was told. Police found instructions on causing an explosion with "rocket propellant'' and constructing a car bomb.
In one on-line conversation, Daour, asked what he would do with £1 million, replied: "Sponsor terrorist attacks, become the new Osama."
The three men outwardly appeared to be leading normal lives, studying and living with their parents. Tsouli had come to the UK with his family from Morocco in 2001.
Mughal had a degree in biochemistry from Leicester University and was studying for his masters.
Daour, who was granted British citizenship in May 2005, had applied to start a law degree.
Now, the British are changing their policy of recruiting and not scrutinizing Islamic medical professionals they've brought to their country. And they've pledged to tighten the system and crack down on this problem.Welcome to the newer, kinder, friendlier, multicultural Amerikka.
But, here in America, we're NOT doing the same. Michael "Serpenthead" Chertoff a/k/a "Mr. Burns" has sent ZERO directives to Citizenship and Immigration Services to re-evaluate medical visas for Muslim doctors. Unfortunately, many Muslim doctors come here on special visas to work in small towns and at big universities, when we actually have no shortage of either. And the DHS Serpenthead looks the other way, despite past front page stories on this in the Wall Street Journal.
And a question for my friends in the FBI offices in Detroit and Chicago, who I know read this site. When will you re-open your stalled investigation into the large group of Syrian medical doctors in Detroit who raised money for HAMAS and other terrorists? You know you have wiretaps and financial records documenting this, but you did nothing and shut it down. Why?
Will it take them killing their American patients or killing other Americans for you to finally do something?
Actually, I think you will never do anything, no matter what. The Agent Harry Samit episode (see also, here) speaks volumes.
And that's why you're Famous But Incompetent. The street level agents are good, but they're working for FBI supervisors who engage in PC Orthodoxy with the "Religion of Peace and attempted British bombings by Doctors."
Great. My mother-in-law lives about two blocks from this place. I drive by it about once a week, and I never see much activity. You can bet they're not havin' ham sammiches for lunch.Sunrise Academy's Fundraising Friends
An article in today's FrontPage Magazine, "Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built", reports that Sunrise Academy in Hilliard, the only full-time Islamic school in Central Ohio, has twice used Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and close personal friend of "Blind Shiekh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, for fundraisers for the school. Abdel-Rahman was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" and given a life sentence for his role in the 1993 WTC bombing, and Wahhaj appeared in court as a character witness for Abdel-Rahman's defense.
In March 2006, Wahhaj was brought in to help raise funds for Sunrise Academy's new sports complex, an event that was held at the Makoy Center in Hilliard (coincidentally, the same facility visited in November 2006 by First Lady Laura Bush for a fundraiser for Cong. Deborah Pryce). That fundraiser was apparently so successful that Wahhaj was brought in again by Sunrise Academy this past February to raise money for the school.
As the article this morning notes, this is not the first time that Wahhaj has been used by a Central Ohio organization for fundraising purposes. Back in March, it was reported ("CAIR's Blood Money") that CAIR-Ohio brought Wahhaj in June 2006 for another fundraiser, where he raised $100,000 for the "civil rights" organization, as noted in a CAIR press release.
Today's article offers quotes by Wahhaj to give readers an idea of Wahhaj's positions. In one he calls for Muslims to takeover America:
"[I]f only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we would elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us."In another, he outlines his vision for an Islamic supremicist society:
"I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area ... controlled by the Muslims?"Paul Barrett, an editor for Business Week and author of the recent book, American Islam: Struggle for the Soul of Religion, explains the kind of justice that would be administered in Wahhaj's Islamic America:
He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy.And having spent significant amounts of time with Wahhaj, Barrett describes how he rises to the defense of Osama bin Laden, saying that he wants to remain neutral on bin Laden's involvement in 9/11:
He says the al-Qaeda leader’s videotaped boasting about the attacks may have been a media ruse: “I’m just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, ‘Yeah, he did it. He’s a horrible man.’”Surely Sunrise Academy will claim that this is nothing but "guilt by association", but is their position really defensible? Wahhaj's extremist public statements and his associations and public defense of convicted terrorists are well known. Sunrise Academy can't claim that they weren't aware. And yet they publicly chose not only to voluntarily associate with Wahhaj, but they brought him in to represent their organization for fundraising purposes.
Let's not forget that Sunrise Academy was also the operational hub of Hilliard resident and Muslim Brotherhood operative Salah Sultan (see our recent post, "The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection"). Sunrise Academy has many associations they should feel guilty about.
Today's article promises more explosive revelations about the extensive network of Islamic radicalism in Central Ohio, which apparently extend into the corridors of political power. We can't wait to see what those articles reveal.
Verrry interesting. Good thing Michael Coleman has a drunk cheat for a wife, or we might be calling him Guv'ner right now and having to put up with more muslims in high places.Hometown Jihad: Getting by With a Little Help from His (Terrorist) Friends
By Patrick PooleFrontPageMagazine.com June 28, 2007
No one can deny that Ahmad Al-Akhras, CAIR National Vice Chairman and Columbus, Ohio-area resident, is connected. He is one of Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman’s closest advisors, which no doubt has helped Al-Akhras get appointed to the city’s Community Relations Commission, the Street Car Working Group, and named chairman of the Transportation and Pedestrian Commission. Al-Akhras makes his living working for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. And as one of the first five inductees to the Leadership Columbus Hall of Fame, he circulates among the rich and powerful of the Central Ohio elite.Some of his other friends, however, are not so fashionable; for instance, his friend Christopher Paul, who was indicted in April as part of an active al-Qaeda cell in Columbus. Paul was planning to kill Americans at European resorts and attacking US military installations overseas. Immediately after his arrest, Al-Akhras rose to Paul’s defense, as reported by the Associated Press:
“From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town,” Al-Akhras said Thursday. “They are a good family together.”He also told reporters that he knew Christopher Paul and that the “charges are out of character”, saying that CAIR would work to ensure that Paul’s constitutional rights were preserved. Al-Akhras may have spoken to reporters before getting the CAIR “Hey, we’re denying this time that we know the al-Qaeda guy” memo, because when CAIR-Columbus Executive Director Adnan Mirza spoke with the local NBC affiliate, mum was the official word:
Mirza said he did not know Paul, and that it’s likely that most other Muslims who attend his mosque [like Al-Akhras] don’t know him either.
This wasn’t the first time, however, that Al-Akhras had spoken publicly as a character witness for a Columbus al-Qaeda cell member. In June 2004, it was al-Qaeda operative Nuradin Abdi that Al-Akhras was defending. He told the Associated Press:
"What we know about him is unlike how he is portrayed," said Ahmad Al-Akhras, president of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
Al-Akhras’ friend Abdi was charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall, providing material aid to al-Qaeda, and falsifying virtually every element on his asylum application. Abdi is also accused on lying on a 1999 visa application to fly to Germany and Saudi Arabia, when in fact he was traveling to Ogaden, Ethiopia for terrorist training. Abdi’s trail on terrorism charges is scheduled for later this year.
But Ahmad Al-Akhras was ready in 2004 to issue his verdict in his friend’s case:
The (CAIR) group's leaders questioned the evidence and the timing of the announcement of charges against Abdi, noting that the FBI has dropped charges accusing others of terrorism.
"This may be one of the cases also that may not have enough evidence or there's no evidence at all," Al-Akhras said.
If Ahmad Al-Akhras’ record of standing up for his terror-linked friends is any indication, both Nuradin Abdi and Christopher Paul should be worried. Just ask Fawaz Damra, a former Cleveland-area imam who was deported to Israel earlier this year after being convicted in 2004 of deliberately concealing his ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group and two other terrorist organizations. During Damra’s trial, prosecutors showed a video of the imam raising money for Islamic Jihad.
That video evidence notwithstanding, Al-Akhras recently said in defense of his “longtime friend” Damra:
"We do not believe a word of what the government has said," said Ahmad Al-Akhras, Damra's longtime friend and a leader among Ohio's Muslims.
Then again, Ahmad Al-Akhras is the kind of guy willing to overlook someone’s faults and forgive past excesses, like planning to wage jihad against America and killing non-Muslims. In fact last September in his role as CAIR National vice chairman, he played host to former Iranian dictator Mohammed Khatami at an invitation-only CAIR dinner held in Washington DC in honor of Khatami.
The CAIR 2006 Annual Report features a picture of Al-Akhras and CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad giving Khatami a warm reception, despite the fact that Khatami was responsible for the torture and murder of Iranian pro-democracy activists and student demonstrators in response to the July 9, 1999 protests at Tehran University. As noted by Kenneth Timmerman here at FrontPage (“Just Say No to Khatami”), as Ayatollah Khomeini’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Propagation in 1984, Khatami oversaw the creation of the terrorist group, Hezbollah. Ironically, Khatami was in the US to deliver a speech at Harvard on the “Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence”. (Did I forget to mention that Al-Akhras also sits of the board of ACLU-Ohio?)
With such a high-profile social network, Al-Akhras wonders why he is a victim of harassment by the US government. He recently complained to the Cleveland Plain Dealer (“Do guards at the border cross a line?”) that he regularly gets stopped when he crosses the border:
"Either the government is wasting all this money or they really want to harass me. Either way it is sad," he said.
Well, if it isn’t because he maintains friendships with members of al-Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Iranian dictators responsible for the creation of Hezbollah, perhaps his troubles with immigration authorities might be due to being the second-highest official in an organization recently named as unindicted co-conspirator by federal prosecutors in a HAMAS terrorism financing trial in Texas (see my recent article “CAIR Fingered by Feds”).
Or it might be his public praise of the al-Qaeda-backed Islamic Courts Union terrorist organization, which when they took over Somalia last year and imposed a Taliban-style Islamization program, Al-Akhras wrote a letter to the Columbus Dispatch saying that such was a “positive change”. In that same correspondence he also stood up for HAMAS, decrying US sanctions against the terror group, saying:
Imposing unlawful, punitive and inhumane sanctions on the whole Palestinian population for electing their own government breeds terrorism.
The government they had elected at that time, of course, was HAMAS, which just launched a blitzkrieg strike against rival Fatah last week in Gaza and declared an Islamic state.
No one doubts Al-Akhras’ finely-honed public relations skills, however, such as his videotaped assault last summer of a Columbus-area independent journalist recording his speech in support of Hezbollah’s war against Israel in front of the US Courthouse in downtown Columbus (a story I covered here at FrontPage, “CAIR: Assault and Videotape?”). Even though the journalist twice assaulted by Al-Akhras pressed charges and provided video evidence, the Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer curiously decided not to pursue the case. I guess it pays to have friends in high places.
Maybe Ahmad Al-Akhras’ rich and powerful friends in the Columbus political circles could answer why he continues to be harassed by the US government. I’m sure it has nothing to do with his friends in al-Qaeda and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, his hosting a former dictator of an “Axis of Evil” terrorist state, his public statements praising the Islamic Courts Union, or his leadership in a HAMAS front group.
Meanwhile, the political persecution of Ahmad Al-Akhras mysteriously continues. He must get by with a little help from his friends.
I'm just saying...Why’s a Nice Guy Like You Doing a Terrorist Act Like This?
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com
April 18, 2007According to former Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Eddie Green, Kifah Jayyousi is “a great guy, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.” While Green was superintendent, Jayyousi oversaw the Detroit school district’s capital improvement program, which had a $1.5 billion budget.
Jayyousi is now charged, according to the Detroit Free Press, with “conspiring to kidnap, maim and murder by providing money, recruits and equipment for Islamic struggles in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya from 1993 to 2001.” He could get life in prison.
Christopher Paul, a martial arts instructor at a mosque in Columbus, Ohio, is also a terrific guy. Ahmad Al-Akhras, vice chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in Columbus, said: “From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town. They are a good family together.”
Yet now Paul, a Muslim, has been charged, according to Associated Press, with “providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.” He is accused of training with Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, training people for violent jihad attacks on targets in Europe and the United States, and more.
But another one of Paul’s friends, Hisham Jenhawi, was skeptical: “I don’t think it’s even close to his personality to act upon something like that. He’s a very kind person. You would meet him on the street and he would want to hug you with the heart that he has.” One of his neighbors, Mike James, added: “He seemed like a nice guy, always waving…”
This kind of thing is nothing new. A friend remembered Gokhan Elaltuntas, a Muslim who carried out a suicide bombing on a synagogue in Istanbul in 2003: “We went partridge hunting together. I still cannot believe how such a quiet person could have been involved in an incident like this.” A friend of Naveed Haq, the jihadist killer who murdered one and wounded five at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in July 2006, described him as “pretty much just a normal guy….He was the kind of guy when you talked to him he was always laughing.”
According to a Southern California friend of Raed Albanna, who killed 132 people in a suicide attack outside a medical clinic in Iraq in 2005, “He was into partying. We hit some pretty wild clubs in Hollywood.” Frank Lindh, the father of John Walker Lindh, a.k.a. Suleyman Al-Faris, the convert to Islam from Marin County who joined the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan fighting against American troops, has said: “In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest.”
Great guys all. Some partied and some embarked on a spiritual search, but they all ended up in the same place, committing acts dedicated to furthering the cause of jihad, or facing charges of having done so.
One clue to this phenomenon may come from jazz musician Tarek Shah, who recently pled guilty to providing martial arts and hand-to-hand combat with weapons training to Al-Qaeda operatives. In 2004 Shah told a man he thought was a fellow jihadist but who turned out to be an undercover agent, “I could be joking and smiling and then cutting their throats in the next second.”
Or they may be genuinely decent fellows. It was the Nazi genocide mastermind Heinrich Himmler who told a group of SS leaders: “Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, five hundred, or a thousand. To have gone through this and yet -- apart from a few exceptions, examples of human weakness -- to have remained decent fellows, this is what has made us hard. This is a glorious page in our history that has never been written and shall never be written…”
Were these SS mass murderers really decent fellows? To their friends and family, they probably were. After all, they weren’t interested in undifferentiated mayhem. They were adherents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that convinced them that the murders they were committing were for a good purpose. As far as they were concerned, their goals were rational and good, and the murders were a means to that goal. It was not just a noteworthy achievement, but a necessity, for them to remain “decent fellows,” for they were busy trying to build what they saw as a decent society. That their vision of a decent society included genocide and torture did not trouble them, for it was all for – in their view – a goal that remained good.
Today’s jihad terrorists are likewise the adherents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that teaches them that murders committed under certain circumstances are a good thing. And those murders, here again, are not committed for their own sake, but for the sake of a societal vision hardly less draconian and evil than that of Hitler, but one also that portrays itself as the exponent of all that is good – as the Taliban showed us. But the continued reference to such people as “terrorists” pure and simple, and the refusal of the media and most law enforcement officials to examine their ideology at all, only reinforces the idea that these people are raving maniacs, interested solely in chaos for its own sake. The society they want to build, and the means besides guns and bombs that they are using to build it, so far remain below the radar screen of most analysts. These people are just “terrorists,” interested only in “terror.” And so we’re continually surprised when they turn out to be nice guys after all. Decent fellows. Like the SS.
Group Responds to Cal Thomas' Muslim Remarks
July 5, 2007 - 5:03am
WASHINGTON -- Recent remarks from WTOP commentator Cal Thomas have sparked controversy in the Muslim-American community. Now, an Islamic advocacy group is responding to Thomas' commentary.In his weekly commentary on WTOP Radio Monday, Cal Thomas discussed the recent thwarted terror attacks in the United Kingdom.
"How much longer should we allow people from certain lands, with certain beliefs to come to Britain and America and build their mosques, teach hate, and plot to kill us?" Thomas asked. "OK, let's have the required disclaimer: Not all Muslims from the Middle East and southeast Asia want to kill us, but those who do blend in with those who don't. Would anyone tolerate a slow-spreading cancer because it wasn't fast-spreading? Probably not. You'd want it removed."
Thomas' commentary prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations to urge its supporters to contact WTOP and voice their concerns. WTOP received many calls and emails from both sides.
On Wednesday, WTOP invited Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesperson and Cal Thomas, to separately respond to Thomas' previous comments.
In his response, Hooper said Thomas' comments undermined CAIR's effort to promote mutual understanding and social justice.
"For him, I would imagine that his next step is the expulsion of the Muslim-American community," Hooper said. "We condemn extremism. We've condemned terrorism....We've issued dozens of condemnations on dozens of terrorism attacks."
CAIR works to create proactive campaigns to promote awareness about Islam and the Muslim community.
"But guys like [Cal] Thomas come along and want to say every Muslim should be suspect and should be treated in a certain way. That's not just and that's not the American way," Hooper said.
When negative incidents occur, such as the Danish cartoon controversy and the desecration of Korans at Guantanamo Bay, Hooper said CAIR focuses on educational campaigns and "things that really explain who Islam is all about so that they don't have to take their misinformation from Islamaphobes like Cal Thomas."
Hooper said he feels as though the extremists are becoming the unwanted face of Islam.
"We have a real PR problem. We have a real problem with a tiny minority of people who are misusing the faith of Islam to carry out acts of violence," he said.
While the organization tries to reach out to the extremists, Hooper said more often than not, "the people who do these types of things aren't going even to listen to me."
"But we still have a role to play in trying to convince these people that they're betraying the faith of Islam, and we just do as much as we can. We try and think every day of new ways to help in the fight against terrorism."
In response to Hooper's comments, Thomas said there is a history of "disinformation people" in the United States.
"We have always had disinformation people among us... saying that there's no real threat and the real threat are the people who are pointing it out, not the people who are plotting to destroy us. They have a problem. And if they're not listening to voices that claim to be responsible like Mr. Hooper, then they have a double problem," Thomas said.
According to Thomas, the U.S. needs to monitor Muslims more closely.
"As much as it offends our desire to be tolerant and open and free speech and association and the rest, as [New York Times columnist] Tom Friedman put it, we have a cancer among us and we better respond to it before it grows any further," he said.
Thomas also cited several "prominent liberal Democrat" U.S. senators who have expressed concerns with CAIR and its "extreme rhetoric" and "ties to terrorism."
"The truth hurts," Thomas said. "I'm not making this stuff up...we gotta connect the dots. It's a little late after things begin to explode."
(Copyright 2007 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
With "I'm American," the second video from the new album "Southern Born Killers," Stuck Mojo once again takes a stand for pride in country, self-respect and self-reliance. These themes have been a constant throughout the band's career. Following in the footsteps of the wildly successful video for "Open Season," Mojo once again takes a politically incorrect position by not being ashamed of the qualities that have made America great.You may download the entire "Southern Born Killers" album, for free, at the band's web site StuckMojo . us."I'm American"Happy Independence Day & enjoy (H/T to Little Green Footballs):
Well, That Didn't Work Out So Great
Iowahawk Guest Commentary
By Kahlid Ahmed, MDBoard Certified Gastroenterologist and former Jihad Associate, al Qaeda UKEver have "one of those days?" Sure, all of us go through the occasional rough patch, but I swear there are times when I think Allah must really have it in for me. I mean, I know the "Big Guy" is supposed to have a sense of humor, but do I always have to be the punchline?
Take for example this last week. A few mates and I had been planning a big martyrdom weekend for quite a while; it's something we first began discussing a few years ago in medical school back in Amman. We were sitting around the dorm eating pizza, cramming for a big anatomy final, when Ali said "you know, after graduation, we should get together for something really big." We talked about a fishing trip to Canada or something, but most of the guys thought that sounded pretty boring. Abdul suggested a golf weekend in Cancun, but the all-inclusives there can get pretty pricey in-season. Hassan (who's really into motorcycles) suggested renting Harleys and going to Sturgis for the Biker Rally, but we heard that crowd can get pretty rowdy.
Anyhoo, Achmed finally says, "how about packing cars with explosives and killing hundreds of random infidels in a coordinated series of gigantic fireballs?" And we're like, fuckin' A! Not only would we be it an awesome bonding experience (with plenty of Paradise poontang, LOL), we would be doing a valuable community service. Okay, so we high-fived and made a solemn promise that we'd target two years after graduation for the big weekend prank blowout.
I know how it usually goes with these kinds of fraternity things; what with starting up a medical practice, honor killing obligations, and starting a family, it's easy to lose touch with the old school buddies. But this thing -- our thing -- was serious, you know? Thanks to email we were able to keep in touch and keep the plan going. As luck would have it, we all won Achmedinijad scholarships to do our residencies in England for the National Health Service. We got our families together most every weekend for backyard cookouts and self-flagellation and TV football matches. Afterwards me and the other guys would slip out to the garage for cigars, and to pack shrapnel.
So okay, the big weekend arrives, and the guys come over to my place bright and early, everybody's jazzed about rolling up some kufr carnage. All the propane tanks and propellant and nail cannisters are ready to go. I look at Ali and say, "okay mate, back up your car to the garage and I'll start loading it up." He gets this dumbstruck look on his face and says, "my car? I thought Hassan was going to do the martyrdom." And then Hassan does a massive spit-take with his tea, and he's like, "whoa dude, I rigged the cell phones, I didn't agree to blow up. I thought Mohammed was going to do the blowing up." Then Mohammed's like, "don't look at me, pal, I thought I was just providing the spiritual guidance. Plus my car's in the shop for transmission work." From there it just descended into this big shouting match. Holy frickin' prophet, two years of planning this prank and now everybody wants to pussy out on the actual martyrdom.Long story short, we decided to draw straws. And guess who wins? Yep, yours truly, good old sucker Khalid, the same guy with a pile of charge card receipts for petrol and propane and hardware. The same guy who ended up having to host two thirds of the martyrdom planning parties at HIS house, because his good old college "pals" always have some convenient excuse about "kitchen remodeling" or "MI6 surveillance," and never lift a finger to help clean up the empty bottles or paper plates or the C5 mess. Well, you know what they say: no good deed goes unpunished. Then the other short straw get pulled by Bilal, and I'm like, oh, great. Now I'll be banging some celestial virgin with that wanker looking over my shoulder.
Wow. Hit the nail on the friggin head with this one. Must read - see the entire post here.
Pro-Family organizations endorsing the boycott of Ford include:
Cal Thomas Targeted by CAIR for 'Incitement'
This article was written by Susan Jones, senior editor at CNSNews.com
An Islamic advocacy group is urging its supporters to call a Washington, D.C., radio station to "express your concerns about the Islamophobic attitudes" expressed by conservative columnist and author Cal Thomas.In a commentary on news-talk WTOP radio Monday morning, Thomas discussed the car-bomb terror attacks recently thwarted in the United Kingdom. The eight Muslims arrested in connection with the plot include several physicians.
"How much longer should we allow people from certain lands, with certain beliefs to come to Britain and America and build their mosques, teach hate, and plot to kill us?" Thomas asked.
He also compared Muslims to a "slow spreading cancer" that must be stopped.
In its message to supporters, the Council on American-Islamic Relations described Thomas' remarks as "incitement." The message included the name and work telephone number of WTOP's vice president of programming.
In recent years, CAIR has issued a number of "incitement watches" which CAIR's critics view as efforts to squelch free speech.
On Tuesday, July 17, CAIR plans to host a panel discussion in Washington on "the increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric within the conservative movement in the United States."
The panelists will include David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, and Parvez Ahmed, CAIR chairman.
The discussion will focus "on the negative impact of [anti-Muslim] views on religious tolerance in America and on relations with the Muslim world," CAIR said.
Let's see, what's the treatment for cancer? Radiation! And lots of it!
UPDATE: Cal Thomas kickin' ass of the jihadists on Neil Cavuto (H/T, Atlas Shrugged):
Huckabee's Record: Anything But ConservativeWe must continue to weed these RINOS from the ranks of the GOP.
Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wants to be seen as — in his own words — an "authentic" conservative, but his governing record shows he does not live up to the image.
Despite Huckabee's campaign mantra, "I'm proud of my record as a fiscal conservative," by the end of his second term as Arkansas governor he had raised sales taxes 37 percent, fuel taxes 16 percent, and cigarettes taxes 103 percent.
These actions and others while in the governor's mansion in Little Rock helped ramp up total state tax revenues from $3.9 billion to $6.8 billion.
For doing so, Huckabee earned the failing grade of "F" on the Cato Institute's 2006 governors' fiscal report card. The Washington-based think tank awarded the candidate a "D" for his overall term.
He also received a failing grade from the tax watchdog group Club for Growth.
"Gov. Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative," Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said at the time of Huckabee's entry into the presidential sweepstakes, "but his 10-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation.
"To be sure, Gov. Huckabee's record displays an occasional deference to a pro-growth philosophy, but that is only a small slice of a much bigger picture," Tommey asserts.
Since entering the race, Huckabee appears to have become born-again on tax matters.
After initial hesitation, Huckabee signed the famous Taxpayer Protection Pledge against tax increases perennially sponsored by the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).
"The tax increases Huckabee supported as governor in Arkansas were a mistake and cannot be defended," Grover Norquist, president of ATR, told NewsMax.
"However, as a presidential candidate, he has clearly learned that tax increases are always a mistake and he has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge against tax increases. He has spoken in favor of a number of significant tax reductions that he would support. Elections are about the future."
Such confidence represents a sea change for Norquist, who once recalled Huckabee saying that he would only raise taxes if his arm were twisted. Norquist then quipped: "He has a history of allowing his arm to be twisted and twisting others' arms."
In the pre-pledge-signing days, Norquist — in an obvious reference to Huckabee's once scale-breaking weight — joked, "We like chubby governors and skinny budgets. Not the other way around."
Club for Growth's Toomey is not so impressed by Huckabee's affirmation to the ATR that he won't increase taxes as president.
"I'm glad to see he signed the pledge, but as a given matter, what politicians have done is a better indicator than what they say they're going to do," Toomey said. "His record clearly does not indicate a strong commitment to limited government."
In its "white paper" review of the candidate, the Club lamented that while governor, Huckabee "consistently supported and initiated measures that increase government's interference in markets, thereby impeding economic growth.
"He told the Washington Times he supports ‘empowering people to make their own decisions,' but many of his key proposals have done just the opposite."
Here are some of those proposals:Recently, the National Review tore into Huckabee, charging that he was certainly not the poster child for smaller government.
- Raised the minimum wage in April 2006 from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour; encouraged Congress to take the same initiative on a national level
- Threatened to investigate price-gouging after 9/11 if gasoline prices went up too high
- Ordered regulatory agencies in Arkansas to investigate price-gouging in the nursing home industry
- Signed a bill into law that would prevent companies from raising their prices a mere 10 percent ahead of a natural disaster (Services like roof repair and tree removal were targeted)
"During his tenure, the number of state government workers in Arkansas increased over 20 percent. Under Gov. Huckabee's watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3 percent from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation, and the state's general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion," said the National Review.
Pardoning a Murderer
Meanwhile, the Arkansas Leader newspaper has hounded Huckabee every inch of the campaign trail.
One characteristic editorial chided the candidate for masquerading as a fiscal conservative at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where Huckabee received a warm reception:
"The delegates may not have known that he helped arrange the largest expansions of government-paid medical care in Arkansas history (largely paid by U.S. taxpayers), compiled a larger general-obligation debt than all previous governors combined, increased the number of government employees by 20 percent in only nine-and-a-half years, and conducted a liberal policy of criminal pardons and commutations."
That latter mention of a liberal policy of criminal pardons has long been an albatross around the neck of the former Baptist minister and president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Case-in-point: Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist who was released during Huckabee's tenure as governor and who subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered a woman in Missouri following his release.
In October 1996, Huckabee met privately with the parole board to talk about the Dumond case. Some members of the board have since stated that they were pressured to re-examine and vote in favor of Dumond's parole. Huckabee has denied influencing the parole board in any way, but acknowledges some responsibility for signing Dumond's parole.
Dumond's case had gained some celebrity status in the mid 1990s from critics of President Bill Clinton who felt the former Arkansas governor had been too harsh with Dumond because Dumond's initial victim was a distant Clinton relative.
Whatever nettlesome baggage he carries, Huckabee is banking that the electorate will concentrate instead on his message.
Huckabee declined to be interviewed for this story.
Today, not surprisingly a good part of the Huckabee message is about taxes.
"I want to completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. And do I mean all — personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment," Huckabee says. "Instead we will have the FairTax, a simple tax based on wealth."
And while on the subject of taxes, Huckabee has shrugged off the criticisms of those who charge him with having been a tax-and-spend executive while in office.
On stumps, he says that during his 10 1/2 years as governor, he cut taxes more than 90 times — saving taxpayers almost $380 million. He also points to how he doubled the child care tax credit and eliminated the marriage penalty from the tax code, while cutting welfare rolls by nearly 50 percent and balancing the state budget.
No surprises here. Tancredo, from illegal-immigrant overrun Colorado, said last year, if we suffer another terrorist attack on US soil at the hands of the islamist jihadists, to BOMB MECCA. That's who I want as president, someone with big, Rocky Mountain Oysters (that's cajones if you're from Juarez).Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo criticized two of his GOP rivals on their commitment to combat illegal immigration.
The Colorado congressman was in Ames, Iowa to open a campaign office and seek support for the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames.
Tancredo said he is running for president because no other candidate has as strong a commitment to illegal immigration as he does.
He said Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, has tried to make it a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants.
"He's now happy as a clam with the idea of securing our borders and going after immigration - it's great," Tancredo said. "It's wonderful. I don't believe a word of it."
Tancredo said Sam Brownback has blocked immigration reform efforts in 1996.
"He's been an open-border guy for years," Tancredo said. "During a 1996 debate on the issue, he was the primary opponent to most the reform issues. Now he's trying to, quote, modify his approach and say he's always been with us."
A telephone message to Brownback's campaign was not immediately returned.
Jarrod Agen, a Giuliani campaign spokesman, said Giuliani has long worked to get illegal immigrants removed from the country and called Tancredo's comments "inaccurate."
"Mayor Giuliani has made it clear that he is against amnesty and that one of his full commitments is to end illegal immigration in the United States," Agen said.
No surprise, given the French-style surrender of all of Europe to all things muslim.BROWN: DON'T SAY TERRORISTS ARE MUSLIMS
Tuesday July 3,2007
By Macer Hall, Political Editor
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.
However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness.
The sudden shift in tone emerged in comments by Mr Brown and Ms Smith in the wake of the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
Mr Brown’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language.
“There is clearly a need to strike a consensual tone in relation to all communities across the UK,” the spokesman said. “It is important that the country remains united.”
He confirmed that the phrase “war on terror” – strongly associated with Mr Blair and US President George Bush – has been dropped.
Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed by police investigating the latest attempted terror attacks. Mr Brown himself did not refer to Muslims or Islam once in a BBC TV interview on Sunday.Ms Smith also avoided any such reference in her statement to MPs yesterday.
I highly recommend subscribing. These fellas are true patriots, true Americans. It's good to know we have some of them remaining.INDEPENDENCE DAY 2007
Our Lives, our Fortunes, our sacred HonorOur nation began with these stirring words in the Declaration of Independence: “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Now, 231 years later, they still ring true.
We may envision the Founders as rash, rowdy rebels. Not so. Already accomplished in fields of endeavor, they were settled in character and reputation. They deemed their decision necessary, and their first thought was of “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” They were men of purpose and principle, who well understood the peril of choosing to declare independence from Great Britain. Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams, “Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants?”
The Founders reasoned that the colonials were compelled to the separation, outlining a detailed list of particulars describing the King of Great Britain’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” that could end only in an intended “absolute despotism” and “establishment of absolute tyranny over these states.” They appealed that the free citizens they represented therefore had both a right and a duty “to alter their former systems of government” and “to provide new guards for their future security.”
They further explained, “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” They had been patient, measured and restrained in responding to the incursions on their freedoms but could be so no longer.
The central passage of the Declaration’s opening is the document’s most famous, suggesting the form of government truly fit for a free people: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
The Founders sought liberty, not license—rather than a loosening of restraints, a freedom to pursue right. The objective was citizens’ safety and happiness, later called “the common defense,” “the general welfare,” and the “blessings of liberty.” The mottos of the American Revolution were “No King but King Jesus!” and “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
Given their experiences with a leader who had violated the laws supposed to control his own conduct as much as theirs, the Founders sought to avoid the instability of democracy or of oligarchy, in which one or a handful of people can overturn the foundations by a simple vote or decree. Fisher Ames warned, “The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” John Witherspoon referred to pure democracy as “very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.” The Founders ultimately chose a constitutional democratic republic—based on the foundation of the reliable rule of law, responsive to the people’s “consent of the governed” through representation of the citizens, predicated on the virtue of the people.
The colonists came to these shores with a learned tradition of liberty, and this new land offered a manner of living that further taught freedom. Our performance in upholding this heritage is mixed. We are divided as a nation, no longer pressing toward unity and allegiance to shared principles. Facile commentary lauds comity as the antidote for what the Founders derided as faction, applauding the elitist establishment fetish for bipartisanship. But they are exactly wrong. Indeed, bipartisanship today is more akin to factionalism than are those adhering to the two major political parties out of principle.
There remains one crucial question: What are we willing to risk to salvage the heritage our Founders handed down to us? Our warriors in the field have demonstrated that they stand in the direct line from our Patriot Founders—prepared to sacrifice all in service. Many activist citizens gave time, effort and resources to turn aside the Senate’s recent attempts to foist a dangerous change in immigration laws on the nation. But the United States as a nation is not as secure as at its tenuous beginnings.
The signers of the Declaration concluded their treatise, “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Do we citizens, inheritors of the Republic bequeathed us, still stand ready to hazard even half so much?
Quote of the week
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” —Samuel Adams
I was originally gung ho with the idea of Rudy at the helm, based on the way he handled himself after 9-11. Then I discovered his position on abortion (he supports it), gay unions (he supports them), open borders (he supported them as mayor of NYC). He's definitely a RINO, a dhimmicrat in disguise. No, thanks. Rudy and McCain should switch parties and join their real base.On the Fourth of July, 37-year-old Steve Dillard will launch a national web site called . . . .
Dillard, a convert to Catholicism, was also a vocal critic of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign. That's why he's going after Rudy Giuliani, who has had only limited success among Southern evangelicals because of the thrice-married candidate's support of abortion rights, and his statements in favor of civil unions for gay couples. 'We need to tend to our own house. And we need to hold Republicans to the same standard that we did John Kerry,' Dillard said recently. Many social conservatives are worried that a Giuliani victory in the Republican race for the White House would be followed by a decline in the party's emphasis on core issues that have rallied Christian conservatives to the GOP side since the early 1980s. '[Giuliani]is emblematic of a coming — or already existing — rift in the Republican party,' Dillard said."
The Catholic Report: Steve Dillard Formerly Of The Southern Appeal Blog Now Has His Catholics Against Rudy Website Up And RunningSteve was on MSNBC with Chris Matthews and subsequently sent me and other Catholic bloggers an e-mail discussing his strategy and campaign. As I stated in my book, I can't fathom the former NYC mayor winning the GOP nomination and winning the general election, because the Pro Life Movement would bolt. It is very sad that Rudy has so many ledership gifts but just can't seem to translate them to his views on life or his personal relationships. As I indicated here some months ago, one writer on the National Review website said, "hey if he can be that rude to his wife imagine the fear of God he could put into foreign leaders or bureaucrats." This is hardly the direction we need to go right now or at any time."
Gwynne Dyer: America overestimates terrorist threats while Europe deals with them
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 3:22 AM
By Gwynne Dyer
As terrorists go, last week's attacks featured The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. One of the would-be London bombers drove erratically down Haymarket St. -- presumably affected by the fumes from the gas cylinders and gasoline containers that were the heart of his makeshift car-bomb -- before crashing into a garbage bin, getting out and running away. Another parked his explosives-packed car illegally, so it was towed away. The third attack was at Glasgow airport on the following day, but nobody was hurt except one of the attackers, who set himself on fire.More-competent terrorists might have killed dozens of people, but it's safe to say that this incident will be taken more seriously in the United States than it is in Britain or anywhere else in Europe. An occasional terrorist attack is one of the costs of doing business in the modern world. You just have to bring a sense of proportion to the problem, as people in Europe do in general.
Most major European countries already had been through some sort of terrorist crisis well before the current fashion for "Islamist" terrorism: the IRA in Britain, the OAS in France, ETA in Spain, the Baader-Meinhof Gang in Germany, the Red Brigades and their neofascist counterparts in Italy. Most European cities also were heavily bombed in a real war within living memory, which definitely puts terrorist attacks into a less-impressive category. So most Europeans do not obsess about terrorist attacks. They know that they are likelier to win the lottery than to be hurt by terrorists.
Russians also are pretty cool about the occasional terrorist attacks linked to the war in Chechnya, and Indians are positively heroic in their refusal (most of the time) to be panicked by terrorist attacks that have taken more lives in India than all the attacks in the West since terrorist techniques first became widespread in the 1960s. In almost all of these countries, despite the efforts of some governments to persuade the population that terrorism is an existential threat of enormous size, the vast majority of the people don't believe it.
Whereas in the United States, most people do believe it. A majority of Americans finally have figured out that the invasion of Iraq really had nothing to do with fighting terrorism, but they certainly have not understood that terrorism itself is only a minor threat. "We have a threat out there like we've never faced before," said actor, former senator and potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson last month. "I don't think the (American people) realize that this has been something that's been going on for a few hundred years, and our enemies have another 100-year plan," Thompson continued. "Whether it's Madrid, whether it's London, whether it's places that most people have never heard of, they're methodically going around trying to undermine our allies and attack people in conventional ways, while they try to develop nonconventional ways, and get their hands on a nuclear capability, and ultimately to see a mushroom cloud over an American city."
There has been only one major terrorist attack in the United States since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and that one, on 9/11, is almost six years in the past. So how have Americans been persuaded that their duty and their destiny in the 21st century is to lead the world in a titanic, globe-spanning "long war" against terrorism?
Inexperience is one reason: American cities never have been bombed in war, so Americans have no standard of comparison that would shrink terrorism to its true importance in the scale of threats that face any modern society. But the other is relentless official propaganda: the Bush administration has built its whole brand around the "war on terror" since 2001, so the threat must continue to be seen as huge and universal.
Ridiculous as it sounds to outsiders, Americans regularly are told that their survival as a free society depends on beating the "terrorists." They should treat those who say such things as fools or deliberate liars, but they don't. So the manipulators of public opinion in the White House and the more-compliant sectors of the U.S. media will give bigger play to the British bombings-that-weren't than Britain's own government and media have, and they will get away with it.
Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
