Tag Archives: Homeland Insecurity

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Islamoterrs Revving it Up…again

First there’s this:

Al Qaeda’s Goal: Cripple Amtrak’s N’east Corridor
Heightened Security In Place At Penn Station; Attack Could Paralyze Transit Between Boston, Washington
Cops, Feds Armed With M16s On Patrol For Forseeable Future

The world’s economic fears were violently pushed aside on Wednesday by another global threat — terrorism.

A massive coordinated attack was launched in Mumbai, India just hours after the FBI warned that Al Qaeda may be targeting New York’s subways and railroads.

If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at Penn and Grand Central stations.

“The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible,” said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

How serious could it be? As noted above, India is finding out – experienceing what is being called “India’s 9-11″.

Bombay terror attacks: Gunmen target tourists in rampage across city

Up to 100 people have been killed and around 250 more wounded in a series of co-ordinated terror attacks by gunmen in India’s commercial capital Bombay.

Britons were among dozens of hostages taken by gunmen in the attacks on hotels, cafes and a train station. Police said six foreigners had been killed in the violence.

Westerners were rounded up by men armed with machine guns and grenades at seven locations popular with foreign visitors, including three luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal, the Oberoi and the Trident.

B.O.’s initial response to this is less than impressive. Sort of a detached, academic sort of view…maybe reality will make a bit more impression in the light of the new day. One can hope, but the Chief won’t be holding his breath waiting.

National Insecurity

Obamanation, Abomination: same difference!

Obama Win Would Be Historic Tragedy

Thomas Sowell, arguably the leading black conservative thinker on the scene today, cogently summarizes problems that would result from B.O.’s ascension to the Throne election.

Some elections are routine, some are important, and some are historic. If Sen. John McCain wins this election, it probably will go down in history as routine. But if Sen. Barack Obama wins, it is more likely to be historic — and catastrophic.

Once the election is over, the glittering generalities of rhetoric and style will mean nothing. Everything will depend on performance in facing huge challenges, domestic and foreign.

Performance is where Obama has nothing to show for his political career, either in Illinois or in Washington.

Policies he proposes under the change banner are almost all policies that have been tried repeatedly in other countries — and failed repeatedly in other countries.

Sowell goes on to detail the specifics that rationally lead one to this conclusion…assuming that, unlike the libDonk left, your reason wasn’t blown out of your skull by too much personal experimental recreational pharmacology in the 60’s, or thereafter.

National Insecurity

How Our Ally Thinks…er…Ally? Come again?

The Saudi Guide To Piety

Because they are so clearly designed for the convenience of large testing companies, I had always assumed that multiple-choice exams, the bane of any fourth-grader’s existence, were a quintessentially American phenomenon. But apparently I was wrong. According to a report last week by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, it seems that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education finds them useful, too.

Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question from a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, “Monotheism and Jurisprudence,” in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish between “true” and “false” belief in God:
Q. “Is belief true in the following instances:
(a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.
(b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.
(c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.”

The correct answer, of course, is (c): According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn’t enough to simply worship God or just to love other believers; it is important to hate unbelievers, too. By the same token, (b) is wrong as well: Even a man who worships God cannot be said to have “true belief” if he also loves unbelievers. “Unbelievers,” in this context, are Christians and Jews.

In fact, any child who attends Saudi schools until ninth grade will eventually be taught outright that “Jews and Christians are enemies of believers.” They will also be taught that Jews conspire to “gain sole control over the world,” that the Christian crusades never ended…

The way things are going, we should be so lucky that the Crusades never ended.

…and that on Judgment Day “the rocks or the trees” will call out to Muslims to kill Jews.

If you go to the article, there’s unfortunately more. We’re supposed to be friends with these guys?

National Insecurity

Lib SCOTUS Judges Do Thier Own Thing

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Court says detainees have rights, bucking Bush

Logic? We don’t need no stinkin’ logic!

In a stinging rebuke to President Bush’s anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.

The Chief likes the statement made by Jon over at SD Politics about this:

I think the dissenters are likely correct. This is an example of the courts stepping in to superimpose their policy preference for that of the president and Congress. While granting habeas corpus rights and access to civilian courts to enemy combatants might be good policy (emphasis on “might”), that doesn’t mean that the Constitution demands it.

Why might these people not have such rights? First, terrorists have no legal rights, not even under the Geneva Accords. Why? First, they are not soldiers. They do not fight for a nation, therefore they are not signatories to the Geneva Accords and cannot claim protection. Their very method of action, not wearing uniforms and targeting civilians, violates international law. By not fighting for a nation and not wearing a uniform they do not even have the rights of POWs, rights granted to legitimate soldiers, which terrorists are not.

Remember all the depictions in old war movies, with partisans, spies, infiltrators, etc. were subject to summary execution?
This actually happened frequently…with both sides.

The precedent for this for the United States goes all the way back to the hanging of British Major Andros, who was involved in carrying communications while in civilian clothes in the Benedict Arnold case of treason.

The rule has been: no uniform, no legal rights – life, and death is tough! The GITMO crew is getting off easy!

G-d help us from more liberal SCOTUS Judges…which brings us back again to the matter of the upcoming Presidential election: Obamanation, Abomination; same difference!

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Google: Sauce for the Goose, not for the Gander

YouTube won’t take down all Islamist videos

A classic case of sauce for the ChiCom goose not being good for the US gander:

Google has refused a request from U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ind.-Conn., to remove videos produced by terrorist groups from its video-sharing site YouTube.

“Senator Lieberman stated his belief, in a letter sent today, that all videos mentioning or featuring these groups should be removed from YouTube — even legal nonviolent or non-hate speech videos,” the statement said. “While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view.”< Yeah, right. That’s why they are complicit in helping build and maintain “the Great Firewall of China” restricting access to content deemed objectionable to the ChiCom dictators of the People’s Republic. Why be troubled by a little bug-bear like consistency, one way or the other?

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Border Breakdown Escalates

Violence in Mexico spills across U.S. border

“It’s almost like a military fight,” Ahern said Tuesday. “I don’t think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border.”

Why not? Oh, yeah…the MSM won’t report on the situation…it might generate a backlash against the feckless lack of border security that seems to be the administration policy!

As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Ahern said – from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports.

U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as people try to illegally cross into the U.S.

Where’s General “Black Jack” Pershing, now that we really need him?

Or more to the point, where’s someone in the Administration with enough integrity to live up to their oath of office… you know, the bit about “…defend…”??!!

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Terr Details Outed in Brit Trial

Terror suspects ‘planned nuclear station strike’

This si stuff coming out in a Brit terror trial currently underway:

Jurors were told their ambitions were “limitless” and they were shown chilling suicide videos in which one alleged plotter promised to leave body parts “decorating the streets”.

Prosecutors revealed that as well as discovering alleged plans to blow up transatlantic passenger jets, police found documents which suggested the gang had considered other targets in the UK. The jury was told that a computer memory stick found by officers concealed in the High Wycombe home of Assad Sarwar contained details of gas terminals, oil refineries, the national grid, and “power stations, including nuclear power stations”.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said the targets included Canary Wharf, a gas pipeline which runs between Belgium and the UK and companies which store and process hydrogen peroxide. “There was also information on Chernobyl, and on UK airports including Heathrow’s new control tower,” he said. A diary found in Mr Sarwar’s home listed oil and gas refineries at Bacton, Fawley, Correton and Kingsbury, it was alleged.

Mr Wright said: “The horizon in respect of Mr Sarwar’s terrorist ambition was, we say, limitless.”

A document about an Islamic ruling on the permissibility of self-sacrifice, including suicide and martyrdom, was also found on the memory stick, prosecutors said.

A couple of perhaps redundant observations come to mind.

First, this is what Islamofascist terrs do. No one should be surprised.

Second – it’s not necessary to be a “card-carrying member” of al Qaida, HAMAS, or any other group for that matter in order to plan and execute serious terrorist operations. THis is contrary to a common attitude, especially in the US Government, and MSM to soft-peddle any terrorist incidents lacking such a formal affiliation…like the Salt Lake mall shooter, or the self-proclaimed Islamoterr militant who drove his SUV into a crowd in N.C. to make his point.

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Enviroterrs at it Again

$2 million homes burn in ‘act of terror,’ developer says

Fire engulfed five luxury homes Monday morning at a subdivision north of Seattle in what could be a case of ecoterrorism, officials said.

Yeah. Like smallpox could be a case of illness.

A sign with the letters “ELF” was found at the scene of the fires in the “Street of Dreams” development in Woodinville, Washington, said Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County Fire District No. 7. “Built green? Nope black!” the sign reads, according to an image from CNN affiliate KING-TV in Seattle. The sign calls the homes “McMansions.”

Eastman did not say if the sign is believed to be from the Earth Liberation Front, which the FBI has called an ecoterrorist group.

Well, as the saying goes…if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Hmmmm. So much for the whole envirowacko “carbon footprint” thing!

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Big Brother: Alive and Well in U.S. Customs?

Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches

The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives before international travel.

Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Asian Law Caucus, two civil liberties groups in San Francisco, plan to file a lawsuit to force the government to disclose its policies on border searches, including which rules govern the seizing and copying of the contents of electronic devices. They also want to know the boundaries for asking travelers about their political views, religious practices and other activities potentially protected by the First Amendment. The question of whether border agents have a right to search electronic devices at all without suspicion of a crime is already under review in the federal courts.

The lawsuit was inspired by two dozen cases, 15 of which involved searches of cellphones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronics. Almost all involved travelers of Muslim, Middle Eastern or South Asian background, many of whom, including Mango and the tech engineer, said they are concerned they were singled out because of racial or religious profiling.

The Chief is what may be considered a “national security hawk”, BUT…this is chilling, and as reported, raises some VERY serious concerns about abusive exercise of governmental authority.

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Homeland Security? WHAT Homeland Security?

Iraqi officers go missing in U.S.

Here’s another heartwarming tale from cloud-cuckoo land:

Numerous Iraqi military and law-enforcement officials brought to the U.S. as part of special intelligence and training programs have run away and are seeking asylum in this country or disappeared altogether, The Washington Times has learned.

Huh?

Army officials yesterday confirmed that five Iraqi military personnel whom the Army had been training disappeared between 2005 and 2007. They did not know how many other Iraqis sponsored by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy may have done the same.

“Nothing that this command is aware of would suggest that any of those students who departed from their training or returned back to Iraq pose any threat to the United States,” said Harvey Perritt, civilian spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), which oversees all the schools the Army has in the continental U.S.

OK. So there is nothing “that would suggest that any of those…pose any threat to the US.”

Reassured? Don’t be!

“We don”t know the reasons why they elected not to return to Iraq,” he [Perritt] said.

Uh…Mr. Perritt (or is he really Parrot?)…point of order here: if you don’t know their reasons for taking it on the lam, then how can you say there’s no threat? (Darned ole pesky logic raising it’s ugly head again out of turn!)

On the other hand…maybe his assumption is that they can read a newspaper…and it it works for the Mexicans…why not for them, so what’s the big deal?  A valid point?  Are YOU willing to bet on it?  The Chief isn’t.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Extension of Corporate Ability to Sell-out US Sought by Admin.

Justice, DHS ‘still object’ to CFIUS order

National security and trade officials are deadlocked over provisions of a draft White House order aimed at bolstering the security aspects of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, The Washington Times has learned.

The interagency dispute over a draft executive order on the Treasury Department-led committee, known as CFIUS, took place during several interagency meetings over the past two months, but differences on the wording and authority remain unresolved, according to officials close to the debate who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

So what’s the argument about, really?

However, the official said that the National Security Council staff are ready to push ahead with the current order despite the objections from security officials and members of Congress from both parties.

Additionally, several members of Congress have asked for briefings on the executive order but have been put off by the White House, the officials said.

At issue are the law’s implementing regulations, which critics in the administration say will limit the authority that national security agencies had to order “mitigation agreements” designed to curtail national-security threats from proposed foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies. Under the draft order, the Treasury secretary will have more power to resolve disputes when before the committee, while the White House National Security Council staff gets more authority in the appeals process.

In other words, these administration moonbat internationalist corporate lackeys want to smooth the path for a continuing program of literally and figuratively sellling out the US to the ChiComs, with minimal regard to the US’s own national security.

What’s the solution?

Rope. Tree. Traitors. Some assembly required.

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Border Agents’ Case Garners Support

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Pressure mounts to pardon Border agents

This case is a travesty of justice. Evidence that would have greatly benefitted the defense of these border agents doing their jobs were with-held from the jury by the feckless weasel prosecutor Johnny Sutton. (Piss Be Unto Him).

Top conservatives have joined ranking House leaders in their bid to pressure the president to pardon two jailed El Paso Border Patrol agents for the nonfatal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler in 2005.

In a letter to be delivered tomorrow to the White House, 31 major conservative petitioners joined a campaign being led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and presidential candidate, to ask President Bush to pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean before Thanksgiving.

The letter comes on the heels of the arrest of admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila on charges of trafficking marijuana while he was profiting from the federal-immunity deal as the star witness in the shooting case against the agents.

Will Dubya do the right thing in this case. One would HOPE so, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t, with his head so far up the fecal excretory orifice of the Mexican government that he can’t see the daylight.

The all too sad fact is that an appeal from “top conservatives” won’t be enough, for another reason than the one cited above: Dubya isn’t a consrvative…so why would he give tow hoots in a holler about what real conservatives think.

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Don’t Worry! No terrorist here!

Teacher who attacked base had death wish, FBI says

Wielding two butcher knives bought at Wal-Mart and vodka bottles to use as explosives, Tahmeed Ahmad chanted ”Death to America” and told Homestead Air Reserve Base guards he wanted to kill soldiers.

Sounds fairly straight-forward, right?

But Ahmad was no terrorist, authorities believe.

HUH?

Rather, the Miami Central High School math teacher wanted to ”commit suicide by cop” when he attacked military policemen stationed at the west gate just before midnight Sunday, the FBI said.

Hmmmm. Isn’t the middle-east crawling with terrorists who are wanting to commit suicide…with bombs, or in some cases attacking a checkpoint, or individual, knowing that it would end in the sure death of the perp? How come it’s terrorism when it’s over there, and not here?

GIVE ME A BREAK!

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Hezbollah Here Now

Police Prevent Terrorist Attack in Michigan

Federal authorities in Dearborn may have stopped a planned terrorist attack and mass murder before it happened. Police got a tip that a 26-year-old medical student was planning an attack, and when they stopped him in a Dearborn park, he had an AK-47 assault rifle and was dressed in black military style clothing. He also had black makeup on his face as he climbed into an SUV with the loaded weapon. The man was arrested and is facing several felony charges. Police say he has a website where he claims to be a member of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Any more questions?

National Insecurity

Same Judge, Same Case, Same Result: Same Sedition

Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act

A federal judge struck down a key part of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday in a ruling that defended the need for judicial oversight of laws and bashed Congress for passing a law that makes possible “far-reaching invasions of liberty.”

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero immediately stayed the effect of his ruling, allowing the government time to appeal. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said: “We are reviewing the decision and considering our options at this time.”

As an alternative philosophy the Chief would offer this tag from Cicero:

SILENT LEGES INTER ARMA. (In time of war, the laws are silent.)

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Your Tax Dollars at Work…or Not.

Homeland Security falls short, GAO says

The Homeland Security Department has failed to meet even half of its performance expectations in the four years it has been in existence, congressional auditors concluded in a draft report obtained by The Associated Press.

Predictably enough the response of the agency is ¡No problemo!

The department disagreed with the findings of the Government Accountability Office report, which was to be released Thursday, particularly with the way auditors defined and measured progress.

How sneaky, to actually look for and expect measurable results! In spite of the hemming and hawing around in Cong hearings this week, HS Secretary Chertoff summed the situation up:

“But if you ask me is the job of keeping us safe done, the answer to that is no,” Chertoff said. “It is not done. And it may not be done within our lifetimes.”

OK. If that’s the case, quit dinking around, and let us carry guns to defend ourselves…wherever…including at airports, etc.

Dang! There I go, thinking again! Foolish error, when dealing with bureaucratic minds.

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Mex Pres’ Imperialism & Freewheeling Cross Border Trucks

Teamsters continue to battle Mexican trucks

The plan to let Mexican trucks operate throughout the United States has prompted a war of words and legal papers between the Bush administration and Jim Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Hoffa and his allies at the Sierra Club and Public Citizen have sued in federal court to stop the government from issuing permits to Mexican freight haulers. Their lawyers argued in court that Mexican trucks pose a danger on the roads and threaten increased human and drug smuggling. “Dangerous trucks should not be driving all the way from Mexico to Maine and Minnesota,” said Hoffa in a prepared statement. “What is it about safety and national security that George Bush doesn’t understand?”

The Chief has some more or less direct interest in this, since he lives 2.75 miles from an officially designated North American international trade route (I-29).

The government argued that stopping the trucks would unsettle a key trading partner in Mexico and delay U.S.trucks from operating south of the border.

So, the Mexicans could become unsettled. The point is…?

This goes right along with another item:

Calderon blasts U.S. immigration policies

President Felipe Calderon blasted U.S. immigration policies on Sunday and promised to fight harder to protect the rights of Mexicans in the U.S., saying “Mexico does not end at its borders.”

This reminds the Chief of the sort of things that Germany was saying in the 1930’s as it moved to implement “das Grossdeutches Reich“, or Greater Germany, incorporating large parts of Czechoslovakia, the entire nation of Austria, most of Poland, and targets on the then USSR up to the Urals. Indeed, Germany did NOT end at its borders…it kept marching as long as it could get away from it. One fears Mexico is moving in the direction of going for anything it can get, as long as we continue to “assume the position”. BOHICA!

Admittedly Calderon is no Hitler (yet), but imperialism is imperialism…and asserting claims of extraterritorial rights historically is one of the tried and true arrows in the imperialistic quiver.

He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: “Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

This is the Mexican version of the doctrine of “Once a German, always a German.”

“We strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government that have only persecuted and exacerbated the mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers,” he said. “The insensitivity toward those who support the U.S. economy and society has only served as an impetus to reinforce the battle … for their rights.”

Frankly, as far as the Chief is concerned the only right that ILLEGAL immigrants have, is to not let the door hit them in the ass on their way out.

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Moonbat Judge Halts Immigration Screening

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Judge Halts Illegal Immigrant Notices

The Social Security Administration has sent out “no-match” letters for more than two decades warning employers of discrepancies in the information the government has on their workers. Employers often brushed aside the letters, and the small fines that sometimes were incurred, as a cost of doing business.

But this year, those letters will be accompanied by notices from the Department of Homeland Security outlining strict new requirements for employers to resolve those discrepancies within 90 days or face fines or criminal prosecution, if they’re deemed to have knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

The judge’s ruling Friday temporarily prohibits the government from enforcing the new rules, which were scheduled to take effect Sept. 14.

This is just nutso. The suit was brought by the AFL-CIO, no doubt preferring new workers to organize, but ignoring the situation of their CURRENT workers who are losing jobs, having wages driven down, etc. due to the loose state of our borders.

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Terrs Taking Care of Business?

$1 Billion in suspicious stock activity reminiscent of pre-9/11 conditions

Unusually for the Chief, I offer the following intact blurb from NE Intelligence Network:

In the weeks preceding the 2001 attacks on America, there were very significant financial warning signs that something big – and bad – could be about to happen. Huge surges in purchases of “put options” on stocks of United Airlines and American Airlines, the two airlines used in the attacks, and “put options” on Merrill Lynch & Co., and Morgan Stanley, stocks of two financial services companies hurt by the attack were noted. Put options are essentially “bets” that a stock or stock index will drop on or before a certain date; the larger the drop, the bigger the gain for the purchaser of the option.

Fast forward to the present day, and we have the same type of trading that took place in the days that preceded the 9/11 attacks – but on a larger scale. Nearly $1 billion of “put options” have been purchased, basically betting that Standard and Poor’s 500 index will fall significantly by the third Friday in September. A large number of these options have also been purchased calling for 50% decline by September 21, 2007. For example, a 5% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average would be the current equivalent of about 670 points. A decline of 11% would equal about 1,470 points in today’s market. Obviously, larger drops, such as a 50% decline, would cause an unprecedented market collapse. Money would be made for the purchaser(s) of the put options – but the same purchaser(s) stand to lose over $1 BILLION in the investment if the market remains relatively static through September 21, 2007.

The questions are: who can stand to lose $1 BILLION, who will gain in the wake of such a devastating collapse, who are the investors, and what do they know that we don’t?

Sounds sort of alarming to ME, but hey, what do I know about high finance? (Not a whole lot!)

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Homeland Insecurity – It’s Real!

DHS hid data from probers

The Chief has had one of his blog categories labeled sarcastically as “Homeland Insecurity”, to tag those situations where moonbattery overcomes rationality in cases involving so-called Homeland Security.

Department of Homeland Security administrators — fearing additional scrutiny — concealed from federal investigators information-sharing breakdowns that left the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists, internal DHS memos and e-mails show. The documents obtained by The Washington Times lay out how officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) deliberated telling the Inspector General’s Office that DHS agencies failed to share data before opting to withhold their concerns.

“We better be ready to provide evidence and name names because this type of statement is the height of the post-9/11 criticisms,” former Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Council Dea Carpenter noted in an e-mail to officials within her DHS agency last year. The e-mail preceded the removal of references to information-sharing failures in the mammoth department from the third and final draft of a memorandum Mrs. Carpenter wrote for Inspector General Richard L. Skinner. Mr. Skinner had begun a probe into USCIS information-sharing shortcomings at the request of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, who had received numerous complaints of internal problems in the agency.

Sadly, it’s another clear case of government ‘crats doing what they do best: covering their…donkeys.

National Insecurity

“The Company” Needs Reorganization

Tenet’s Pre-9/11 Efforts Faulted

The Chief NEVER had any faith in this holdover Clinton appointee from the get-go. After all, he was part of the same establishment as Jamie Gore-lick who was responsible for the so-called “wall of separation” between the CIA, FBI, etc. that prevented their sharing and coordinating intel/counter-intel information. I never saw that Tenet ever had any problems with this…it’s no wonder that the CIA fell off the cliff when it (attempted) its operations under these conditions.

Former central intelligence director George J. Tenet and his top lieutenants failed to marshal sufficient resources and provide the strategic planning needed to counter the threat of terrorism in the years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a long-secret CIA report released yesterday.

Despite promises of an all-out war against terrorism in the late 1990s, leaders of the spy agency allowed bureaucratic obstacles and budget shortfalls to blunt the agency’s efforts to find and capture al-Qaeda operatives, said the report, by the CIA’s inspector general. It also faulted agency leaders for failing to “properly share and analyze critical data.”

The executive summary of the formerly Top Secret report is available in PDF format here, direct from the CIA!

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Bureaucratic Malfeasance in Office:

U.S. agents accused of aiding Islamist scheme

A criminal investigations report says several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees are accused of aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain.

What’s that bit about “aid and comfort to the enemy…”?

The confidential 2006 USCIS report said that despite the severity of the potential security breaches, most are not investigated “due to lack of resources” in the agency’s internal affairs department.

The Chief would recommend revival of the pillory in the case of those ‘crats eho couldn’t be bothered to crack down.

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More Border Problems – with Islamoterrs!

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More Trouble on the Rio Grande

Terrorists teaming with drug cartels

This is definitely a DUH moment. Given the state of the alleged border, the only surprise to the Chief is that this hasn’t turned up sooner than this.

Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. “Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function … all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists,” said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which multiple Middle Eastern drug-trafficking and terrorist cells operating in the U.S. fund terror networks overseas, aided by established Mexican cartels with highly sophisticated trafficking routes. These terrorist groups, or sleeper cells, include people who speak Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew and, for the most part, arouse no suspicion in their communities.

Unfortunately, there are more gory details in the article. Fortunately, this report is not passing completely without notice.

Hearings urged on DEA report

A Texas congressman today demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terror networks overseas. Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, said the Drug Enforcement Agency document — first reported in today’s editions of The Washington Times — revealed startling evidence that Islamic radicals are camouflaging themselves as Hispanic persons while conducting business with violent drug-trafficking organizations.

“I have been ringing the bell about this serious threat of Islamic individuals changing their surnames to Hispanic surnames for three to four years,” Mr. Culberson said. “Unfortunately, Homeland Security’s highest priority is to hide the truth from Congress and the public. I just hope we’re not closing the barn door after terrorists have already made their way in.”

It couldn’t hurt, and could even help.

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Immigration and Infrastructure

Steel firm owner jailed
Illegal aliens had bogus SS numbers

The owner of Tarrasco Steel, a company that supplied workers on the Biloxi Bay Bridge, was arrested and charged with hiring illegal immigrants on projects in three states. Some had improper welding certification.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jose S. Gonzalez, 32, at his office in Greenville Thursday, according to a news release. Tarrasco Steel was hired as a subcontractor for rebar installation services to major bridge projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The federal government considers those bridges as critical infrastructure, and they were part of routine inspections of facilities that if damaged could pose a threat to national security and public safety.

“There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, and who do not possess valid welding certifications, are employed in the construction of bridges in our communities.” said Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Customs Office of Investigations in New Orleans, in a news release. (Emphasis added.)

Another reason to be controlling the border…as if we needed any more!

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Afghan Roads Come to N. America?

Landmines discovered in Ontario creek

The big question about two live landmines found in a countryside culvert running under Inadale Drive between Strathroy and Mt. Brydges, Ontario yesterday is who put them there? Appearing to be attached to timers, the landmines were likely of the type used to blow up tanks, according to Strathroy-Caradoc police.

Police yesterday swarmed a country creek where children cool off in heat waves like the one this week as Canadian Forces explosives experts detonated the landmines. The creek would be a huge draw for children in the weatherman’s extreme heat alert on Ontario’s Simcoe Day long weekend.

“One mine was discovered by two teenaged girls Friday. They called police, and a second mine was found yesterday morning, only one metre away from the first.” (London Free Press, (London, Ontario) and Sun Media, August 5, 2007).

Of course there’s no terrorism link.

Culture Wars

Something to Ponder

1 Comment

On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs

This is something that the Chief had first encountered a while back in one of Bill Whittle’s essays at Eject! Eject! Eject! The proposition seemed to make a whole lot of sense at the time, and it still does, as the nightly sound of coyotes howling around the countryside here at the Chief’s home location reminds.

Greywolf, posting at Mudville Gazette also commented on the premise of the article, and helpfully linked to the original source, an essay by a LTC (RET) Dave Grossman.

This is really good stuff, worth the read, and worth some serious thought. Just a little bit to hopefully whet the mental appetite:

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.”…

“Then there are the wolves,” the old war veteran said, “and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy.” Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

“Then there are sheepdogs,” he went on, “and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.”

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed

That kernel is the basic premise of the whole discussion, which leads to this conclusion:

And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes. If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be “on” 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself…

“Baa.”

This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

The Chief heartily concurs.

Uncategorized

Donk Congs Reverse Course After Public Flap

Congress to Protect Citizens Who Report ‘Flying Imams’-Type Suspicions

After nearly a week of intense, behind-the-scenes wrangling, congressional negotiators late Tuesday agreed to include in the pending Sept. 11 security bill sweeping liability protections for citizens who report to authorities suspicious activity they fear might be linked to terrorism.

This is the provision that Pelosi, Reid, et al had thought they killed off last week, at the behest of the trial lawyhers, and the illegal immigration support lobby.

House Democrats, led by Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, sought changes in the immunity language but were ultimately overwhelmed by the Lieberman-GOP coalition on the conference committee.

Good for Sen. Lieberman. He always did “get it” on issues pertaining to the war.

“This is a huge win—a hard-fought victory for House Republicans and, more importantly, for the American people,” said Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. “In a post-9/11 reality, vigilance is essential to security. Despite the Democratic opposition to this important homeland security measure, I’m thrilled to announce that common sense has prevailed and heroic Americans who report suspicious activity will be protected from frivolous lawsuits.”

Couldn’t say it any more clearly than that!

Uncategorized

Surf’s Up! Oh – that’s a WATERboard, not a Surfboard. Oh well.

Some Tortured Thoughts on Torture

Ken over at South Dakota Politics shares some of his thoughts and concerns stimulated by the President’s recent order banning torture by the C.I.A. He (rightly) states his general agreement with same. Nevertheless, this posting raises several points of possible divergence with my reading on the situation.

First of all, waterboarding is an extremely unpleasant experience. Ken’s post describes the set-up and execution of same in detail.
It’ is also, as he notes, very effective at inducing the sharing of information without any physical damage (bloodshed, wounding, broken bones, etc).

There is another point concerning this type of interrogation that the Chief has never seen mention of: the US military is in the business of routinely torturing it’s own personnel during training exercises.

During the Chief’s naval career, he had a Commanding Officer who was a former carrier pilot. Pilots, air crewmen, and others who have a higher than usual probability or possibility of being captured must complete training that is referred to in the best tradition of military abbreviations as SERE, standing for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. In other words, it is a realistic and practical introduction, up close and personal, of what could be expected if captured by typical enemy forces.

After some preliminary orientation, the trainees are taken into a field environment, and are given the opportunity to try to escape being captured by the “Aggressor” or enemy force, which is very realistically enacted by fellow US personnel. Resistance is futile. Even if the trainee is a former Boy Scout, and able to evade, after a time loudspeakers direct “surrender”.

Then the REAL fun begins, with aggressive and hostile interrogation by the enemy “re-enactors”, INCLUDING at times direct application fo physical force (non-damaging beatings), unpleasant temperature exposures for extended periods, sleep deprivation, denial fo food and water, isolation, and other forms of unpleasantness INCLUDING WATER-BOARDING.

It was the stated opinion of the officer that virtually anyone subjected to this would eventually crack, and threat the purpose of the training was to prepare our guys so they wouldn’t be surprised by their poor treatment, and that if/when they did give in to the inevitable, it wouldn’t totally destroy their sense of worth to themselves, or to the nation.

This officer added in conclusion, that although the (then future) Chief was not in a category that ordinarily received SERE training, that he still had connections that could get me into that if I wanted to. I passed on the opportunity, but crazily enough, as I think about it I almost which I hadn’t…just to know that I could have faced it and survived. Oh well.

Note that none of these aggressive interrogations PERFORMED AS ROUTINE TRAINING IN THE US MILITARY were considered to be torture.

What DOES constitute practical torture? Check out Sen. John McCain’s (and others’) experiences.

So…where does this leave things? The Chief would submit that if it is something that we were willing to put ourselves through, then there should be no problem with using the same procedures on REAL enemies, especially in light of the circumstances of WW-IV/Great War on Terror, as so aptly described in Ken’s conclusion:

If a weapon of mass destruction were to go off on American soil, it would put the nation into a state of emergency such as it has never seen. The army and all police forces, state and federal, would proceed to do whatever they could to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, without bothering with such conveniences as due process.

And if it were made public that we could have stopped the disaster if only we had been willing to use more brutal means, I can assure you that both parties would immediately cleanse themselves of any scruples they might have had about torture. Nor would anyone who opposed the use of torture for state security have a chance to be elected dog catcher ever again. I am not telling you what should happen. I am telling you what will happen.

If you want to preserve a republic that can afford scruples about torture, you have to prevent the unthinkable from happening. And that may mean making some hard choices now.

Hear, hear!