04/18/13

Video & Photos of Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects Updates below the fold

By: Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D.
The Jawa Report

The FBI has released a video of the main suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombing.

The FBI is asking for any information the public might have as to the identity or whereabouts of the suspect.

Here is the video:

Developing, expect updates.

UPDATE: White cap is the one suspected of planting a device, but both are suspected of working together. The FBI has posted 11 images from the surveillance video. I grabbed them before their website melted down and have posted them below.

White Cap

Black Cap

On a totally unrelated note: Did you notice that Infowars had a mic at the press conference? Who was the idiot who gave them press credentials? (HT:@intelwire)

Nine other images of the two suspects below. UPDATE: Please do not hotlink the images (unless you are on an mu.nu or .minx server). Feel free to grab the images, but if you’re going to republish them please re-upload them to your own server. Thanks.

Images and more still below with more updates.

“White Cap” Images [Update Matt Damon: Mens Polo Ralph Lauren Big Pony Sports Cap?]

White Cap

“Black Cap” Images [Update Matt Damon: Bridgestone Golf cap?]

Update by SH: Unconfirmed: US seeks information from Pakistan on list of names.

Pakistan’s intelligence agency has received two lists of names from U.S. officials seeking information believed to be related to the Boston Marathon bombings, sources in Pakistan have told Fox News.

The names on the lists have not been disclosed but include both Pakistani citizens and dual U.S.-Pakistani nationals, the sources told Fox News. U.S. officials want to know if any of those named had links to militant or religious extremist groups in Pakistan, the sources said [More]

Again, this has not been confirmed.

04/18/13

Congress Silent on Al Jazeera’s Expansion

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

After Florida broadcaster Jerry Kenney asked his member of Congress, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), to examine the strong ties between Al Jazeera and known terrorist organizations, he received a personal telephone call from the congressman promising action. But DeSantis has now told Kenney and other residents of Volusia County in his congressional district that he doesn’t plan on calling for any investigation unless the chairman of his committee wants to “spearhead it.”

A member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the vice-chairman of a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee, DeSantis told a town hall meeting sponsored by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that while he is “looking into” the deal and has talked to other members about it, there is no investigation underway and he would not initiate or call for one.

This weak response has greatly disappointed those who expected Congress to probe the curious deal between the Middle Eastern regime in Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, and former Democratic vice president Al Gore, who sold his Current TV cable channel for $500 million.

“Frankly, I am very disappointed at Ron’s lack of leadership on this,” Kenney told Accuracy in Media. “Here in Volusia County, we expect our representatives to represent us, not their committee chairman. He will have to do more than just take a cut in his pay and benefits if he wants to win re-election. Volusians are not easily impressed with political theatrics for long. He needs to ‘spearhead’ the hard problems confronting America and not just pick the softballs.”

The reference to a cut in pay has to do with the DeSantis proposal to reduce pay for members of Congress during the time of sequestration, or budget cuts. This got DeSantis on Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren program. He has also made headlines by criticizing Beyoncé’s and Jay-Z’s trip to Cuba.

Kenney noted that DeSantis, a decorated Navy veteran who supported operations at the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was deployed to Iraq, “knows firsthand the dangers of ignoring terrorism. Yet, he refuses to speak out [on Al Jazeera] in any meaningful way.”

Kenney has emerged as a major critic of the new “Al Jazeera America,” which will be headquartered in New York City and plans bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, and “other key locations across the United States.” He signed a January 9 letter to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asking for hearings into Al Jazeera’s ties to terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. Rep. McCaul has failed to respond to the request for hearings into Al Jazeera but has suddenly emerged, in the wake of the Boston bombings, as an expert on terrorism on the television talk shows.

Yet, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey says an investigation into Al Jazeera is clearly warranted because of its “foreign” nature and connections.

“There are many in Volusia’s conservative circles who are unhappy with Ron’s verbal tap dancing on this and other issues. I know he is new in office but he needs to start leading,” said Kenney.DeSantis was first elected on November 6, 2012.

Alluding to DeSantis’ signature on a letter criticizing Beyoncé’s and Jay-Z’s trip to Cuba, Kenny said, “He is doing a great job of cultivating his image as a conservative on the easy issues. Speaking out against Castro in Florida is as politically risky as kissing a baby. I wish he would live up to his campaign commercials and put the country before his political career concerns and tackle the hard issues.”

Referring to the Emir of Qatar providing $400 million to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Government, Kenney added, “Surely a TV network whose owner gave $400 million dollars to a terrorist organization should warrant as much of his attention as Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s vacation.”

Elizabeth C. Dillon, press secretary for DeSantis, told AIM that the Congressman “would support hearings and has spoken to other members of Congress serving on relevant committees regarding this issue.” However, she went on to say that he “is not a chairman of the relevant committee, and outside speaking to members on that committee about this issue, he does not get to set that committee’s agenda, or decide what they have hearings on. That being said, Congressman DeSantis will continue to monitor this situation and hopes that this issue is explored further.”

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, continues to expand its operations and has just announced the hiring of Edward Pound, described in press reports as a “veteran investigative journalist.” In fact, he has been serving in the Obama Administration as Director of Communications at Recovery.gov, a database of how and where tax dollars are spent as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the Obama stimulus program. Pound was also director of communications for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.

It is not known what Pound will investigate for Al Jazeera. His biography says he has also been:

  • President at Fund for Investigative Journalist
  • Investigative Correspondent at National Journal
  • Investigative Editor; Assistant Managing Editor, Investigations; Chief Investigative Correspondent at U.S. News & World Report
  • Chief Investigative Reporter at USA TODAY
  • Investigative Reporter at The Wall Street Journal
  • Investigative Reporter at The New York Times

A former producer for Al Jazeera, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who now works for the Huffington Post told the National Conference for Media Reform that his job was to “humanize” Palestinians, in order to counter the perception that Arabs and Muslims are terrorist threats.

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].

04/18/13

“Unobtainium” and Border Deception

By: Michael Cutler
Accuracy in Media

The “Gang of Eight,” aka the “Eight Gangsters,” are concocting Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. Purportedly this legislation is needed to address the presence of the officially-estimated population of 12 million illegal aliens.

While the legislation is referred to as being “Comprehensive,” there is nothing truly comprehensive about their approach, other than the fact that it would provide nearly all illegal aliens who are in the United States, or who will arrive in the months to come, with lawful status and ultimately, a pathway to United States citizenship. It would also increase the number of visas for many thousands of foreign workers and allow them to compete unfairly with American workers.

The “one time” amnesty of 1986 was supposed to involve approximately one million illegal aliens. Over 3.5 million actually came forward. If history were to repeat itself, Comprehensive Immigration Reform would involve between 30 and 40 million aliens.

And that is just one of the deceptions inherent in the coverage of the current debate. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was on ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday, and expressed concern that pledges to secure the border between the U.S. and Mexico won’t be kept, leading to a massive influx of illegal aliens.

“It looks like…it will give amnesty now, legalize everyone that’s here effectively today and then there’s a promise of enforcement in the future,” Sessions said about the proposed legislation. “Even if you pass laws today that appear to be effective, it doesn’t mean they’re going to be enforced.”

“And we have in this administration,” he added, a failure to enforce. So that’s a big deal right now.”

Another deception is the claim that the United States has just four border states. Any state that has a seaport or international airport is as much a border state as are those states found along America’s northern and southern border. Simply stated, there are 50 border states.

The “debate” over Comprehensive Immigration Reform has, by design, centered on whether the southern border is secure. It most certainly is anything but secure, but that is hardly the only problem in our current immigration system. While that border must be secured against the illegal, un-inspected entry of aliens and cargo, it is not a more serious problem than the fact that there are millions of illegal aliens present in the United States who ran across the U.S./Canadian border, jumped ship or stowed away on vessels, or violated their terms of supposedly lawful admissions into the United States.

It is certainly not more serious than the fraud permeating the immigration benefits program.

While attention is being intentionally drawn to the U.S./Mexican border, attention is purposely being drawn away from the myriad other abysmal failures of the immigration system.

The lack of integrity in the adjudications process was the focus of clear concerns of the 9/11 Commission, and the 9/11 Commission staff noted it in their report, 9/11 AND TERRORIST TRAVEL: Staff Report of the National Commission onTerrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

This paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits:”

“Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.”

Page 47 of the above-noted report contained the following paragraph:

“Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida. Mohammed Salameh, who rented the truck used in the bombing, overstayed his tourist visa. He then applied for permanent residency under the agricultural workers program, but was rejected. Eyad Mahmoud Ismail, who drove the van containing the bomb, took English-language classes at Wichita State University in Kansas on a student visa; after he dropped out, he remained in the United States out of status.”

The “Eight Gangsters” expect that there would be no way to verify material facts contained in applications for Comprehensive Immigration Reform filed by “Undocumented Aliens.” They craft legislative prerequisites for aliens to deceive their colleagues and the American people. Aliens who game the system will be able to falsely claim they meet those requirement. For example, let’s examine the requirement that aliens must have been present in the United States for a designated period of years. Without a record of their entry into the United States, and without the means to conduct field investigations, an alien could easily enter the United States well after any cutoff date, while fraudulently claiming to have been here for years.

Engineers who are engaged in cutting-edge programs refer to materials that don’t exist but that would be essential to the construction of advanced design aircraft, spacecraft and the like, as being “unobtainium.” Where immigration is concerned, the term “unobtainium” could be used to refer to the verification of claims made in applications for immigration benefits. There is no way to verify information concerning material facts contained in those applications.

There has been no mention as to how the USCIS would process these amnesty applications. There are not enough personnel available to conduct face-to-face interviews with all of the applicants. Today, that beleaguered, inept and incompetent agency is processing alien “DREAMERS” without in-person interviews, and without the capacity to conduct field investigations to verify claims made in those applications.

Immigration fraud compromises national security and deprives hardworking Americans the opportunity to find decent jobs at a time when such jobs are already in short supply.

Yet fraud largely goes undetected and unpunished. Think of it as a case of “Mind over matter.” If the administration doesn’t mind, it would not matter if aliens lie on their applications with impunity, and, in fact, tacit immunity!

Aliens who succeed in gaming the system provide encouragement to other aliens, who are consequently emboldened to file their own fraud-laden applications, further exacerbating the backlog of applications, applying more pressure on the over-burdened system to move the applications still more quickly. It takes minutes to approve an application, but it may take hours or days to deny an application. The only way to clear the burgeoning backlog of applications is to approve nearly every application. This encourages more fraud and further compromises not only the integrity of the immigration system, but national security and the safety and well-being of all Americans as well.

Today, record numbers of Americans, especially young Americans and members of the American minority communities, are unemployed and underemployed. It is outrageous that the “Eight Gangsters,” such as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), are calling for more work visas for foreign workers as a “solution” to the immigration crisis. This is the equivalent of addressing drunk driving by raising the acceptable blood alcohol level for motorists. While fewer drivers would be legally drunk, the carnage on the highways would actually increase as more drivers drank more—with impunity!

As I noted at the conclusion of my prepared testimony for the hearing on immigration conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 20, 2013:

“Law enforcement is at its best when it creates a climate of deterrence to convince those who might be contemplating violating the law that such an effort is likely to be discovered, and, that if discovered, adverse consequences will result for the law violators. Current policies and statements by the administration, in my view, encourage aspiring illegal aliens around the world to head for the United States. In effect the starter’s pistol has been fired, and for these folks, the finish line to this race is the border of the United States.”

The true solution to the immigration crisis lies in addressing all of the failures that induced and enabled millions of illegal aliens to enter the United States and work illegally or, in all too many instances, acquire lawful status by committing fraud. More agents must be hired for ICE and they must be given the resources and leadership to do an effective job. Aliens must come to understand that those who commit fraud and other violations will be identified and face prosecution and deportation.

Rather than Comprehensive Immigration Reform, America really needs COMPILE (Comprehensive Immigration Law Enforcement)!

Michael W. Cutler is a retired Senior Special Agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.