Daily Archives: April 25, 2013

04/25/13

Dutch News Visits Omar Bakri in Lebanon Who Promises Revenge

Right Side News
From: Vlad Tepes

Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad “What do we want?” – “Jihad!”

Omar Bakri Mohammed lets us into his home in Tripoli, in Lebanon. At first glance a normal father but this man is the founder and spritual leader of the Shariah movement throught Europe. A hate preacher with close ties with the terrorist network of Al Qaeda.

“What do we want?” – “Jihad!!!”

Omar Bakri Mohammed knows our country well. He knows that his disciples together with other followers of Shariah4Belgium were arrested last week because they were accused of recruiting Belgian youths for the conflict in Syria.

Bakri says the arrests are an attack on Muslims and they have the right to strike back.

“Oh my God! You are really in a war against Islam, and we are still see you as the unfriendly neighbour and this is where you are playing with fire.”

Q: “What do we risk if we are playing with fire.”

A: “If you play with fire, you will burn yourself. You will get a shock and you start after that to suffer.”

But Bakri has a direct line to radical fighters’ groups in Syria. He is actively recruiting Muslims to join the fight. “These are not allowed to leave this country but, er, I will incite people to go to fight because as God says, encourage the believers.”

Bakri named his youngest son after Osama bin Laden. a tribute to the great leader. “Osama was born on the day it was announced that Sheikh Osama has passed on, maybe he’s the one who will be the Obama of his time. Osama will be with Obama.

So we will revenge.”

04/25/13

On the Edge

Arlene from Israel

No one from the upper military echelon of Israel is whispering in my ear, but the signs seem fairly unmistakable.

Yesterday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told the Security Council:

“The Iranian nuclear program continues to advance at the speed of an express train,” Prosor said.

“The international community’s efforts to stop them are moving at the pace of the local train, pausing at every stop for some nations to get off and on.”

An apt analogy, I thought.

While Secretary of Defense Moshe Ya’alon told Canadian Chief of Staff Gen. Thomas J. Lawson.:

“The diplomatic channel is not bringing the Iranian nuclear program to a halt and the economic sanctions have yet to stop the centrifuges. A viable military option is required, even if it is the last resort.”

I don’t know how the signals they are putting out could be much clearer.

If something is going to happen, it will have to be this year — if not in the next few months. Iran is edging close to its nuclear goal.

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What I hasten to point out, again, is that — minus those 30,000 pound bunker busters that the US will not even consider selling to us (along with means of delivery) — Israel does not have the capacity to take out Iran’s nuclear program in its entirety.

We do, according to the best sources I have, possess the ability to set it back three to five years. What is more, there are other ways to disable Iran seriously — ways in which Israel does have the capacity to act.

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As the time frame is of enormous importance, I continue to wonder if Israel will secure delivery of the new armaments that the US has just agreed to sell us in time for them to be of use in an attack on Iran. Could be that we’ll delay to the last moment, awaiting that delivery, or, conversely that we’ll act without that equipment. We are purchasing new re-fueling planes, for example, but already possess re-fueling planes, perhaps not as advanced but perhaps sufficient to the day; just as we already possess the capacity to take down radar, even if we are now being sold a better system of anti-radar missiles.

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It is, further, the case that some of the equipment we will now purchase from the US is almost certainly intended for action against our neighbors and not far-off Iran. I have in mind in particular the V-22 Osprey aircraft, which is designed as a troop carrier. Ground war will be the order of the day, for example, in Lebanon, when we battle Hezbollah, but not in Iran.

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Syria. I am watching a diplomatic dance that at one and the same time comes as no surprise to me and yet astounds me.

I wrote two days ago about the fact that the head of IDF Military Intelligence, Research Branch, Brig. Gen. ltay Baron, said that Assad’s troops have used lethal chemical weapons.

But the US does not know… Says Secretary of Defense Hagel:

“Suspicions are one thing. Evidence is another. I think we have to be very careful here before we make any conclusions, draw any conclusions, based on real intelligence.”

He denied that he was questioning the validity of the intelligence of other countries. Other countries? Israel.

What was important, insisted Hagel, is that “the United States relies on its own intelligence — and must.”

President Obama has said that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be a game changer. Now he has put out a statement saying that intelligence assessments (even by the US) are not enough. What he wants is “credible and corroborated facts.” This is the Obama — who has repeatedly shown an extreme reluctance to act — we’ve come to know over the last four years. He’d like to delay “knowing” what’s going on there as long as possible. No need for the US to act hastily, is there?

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As if matters in Syria are not already bad enough, we have this additional news about Europeans going to fight there (emphasis added):

“Gilles de Kerchove [the EU’s anti-terror chief] estimated the number in Syria at about 500.

“Intelligence agencies are concerned some could join groups linked to al-Qaeda and later return to Europe to launch terrorist attacks.

“The UK, Ireland and France are among the EU countries estimated to have the highest numbers of fighters in Syria.

“‘Not all of them are radical when they leave, but most likely many of them will be radicalized there, will be trained,’ Mr. de Kerchove told the BBC.

“And as we’ve seen this might lead to a serious threat when they get back.”

“Across Europe, intelligence agencies have stepped up investigations, says the BBC’s Europe correspondent Duncan Crawford.

“In Britain and Belgium they have increased efforts to track how people are recruited.

“In the Netherlands, officials have raised the terror threat level there to “substantial” – partly over concerns about radicalized citizens returning from Syria.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22275456

Alarming in any event. But what I find interesting is that there is no mention in this BBC report of the background of the” Europeans” who are going to fight in Syria.

Any one want to take a guess?

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Oh joy. Oh goody. There has been talk about this before and now here we have it again:

The US is thinking about convening a Mid-east summit in June in Washington, at which President Obama, PM Netanyahu, purported president Abbas and King Abdullah would participate. Reportedly, Egypt, Turkey and some Arab nations might also be invited to participate.

And — horror of horrors — “the Administration is said to be contemplating a letter of invitation or ‘terms of reference’ for the summit that will include the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.” That initiative is a plan for Israel’s destruction.

The keyword here is “contemplating” — according to the “well-placed US sources” cited, the decision has not been made: “The Administration…has yet to decide whether it will convene the summit in any case, or only if Kerry achieves a breakthrough that will allow a resumption of peace talks.”

Kerry had better watch it or he’s going to end up looking like a fool again. But I suspect that’s his default position.

Kerry is much more eager to get “peace talks” going than the president: “Kerry, the source added, is ‘working night and day’ to get the peace process moving.”

Kerry discussed this plan with Abbas and the Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers when he was in Turkey recently. Obama will be talking to King Abdullah about it tomorrow, when he visits the White House, and Turkish PM Erdogan, when he visits in May.

Important to keep in mind that the source here is Haaretz, which is always delighted to promote a “peace process.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-seeks-to-convene-4-way-mideast-summit-in-june.premium-1.517473

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What we can be certain of is that PA officials will be dragging their feet. Writes Avi Issacharoff (emphasis added):

“’Forget about plan B, there is no plan B,’ a Palestinian official told me during a Sunday visit to Ramallah. ‘If you think they [Abbas and the Palestinian leadership] know what to do after Kerry’s attempt to renew the negotiations, you’re wrong.’“

Kerry has now met with Abbas in Istanbul, Riyadh, Amman, and Ramallah. “None of these meetings yielded noteworthy results.”

“Over one thing, one might find a rare consensus in Ramallah: ‘The question is not if Kerry fails, but when,’ a different Palestinian official told me, in his office. According to him, the secretary of state’s ruse to ‘tempt’ Abbas back to the negotiating table with economic gestures from Israel is completely misguided.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/theres-no-palestinian-plan-b-just-an-unrealistic-study-13/

What sort of self-deluded dunce is Kerry (a rhetorical question), that, after four — four! — unproductive meetings with Abbas he imagines he might move ahead with negotiations?

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Closing with very good news — or as good as it can be given the context:

On Tuesday, Waal al-Arjeh, who had been found guilty of the murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son, Yonatan, was sentenced by the Ofer military court to two life sentences plus 58 years. From a moving car, Al-Arjeh had hurled heavy rocks at the windshield of the Palmer car with intent to kill. Palmer lost control of the car after he was hit by the rocks; he and his baby son died when the car over-turned on an embankment.

This sentence — a legal victory — sets a precedent. It is hoped that it will also serve as a deterrent to others contemplating similar terrorism. But nothing brings back those who were killed.

Michael Palmer, father and grandfather of the victims, has had the courage to sit through the entire agonizing and lengthy trial. After he heard the sentence pronounced, he said, “Today justice was done, This was the hardest year and a half of my life.”

Credit: JOANNA PARASZCZUK

04/25/13

Sequester fraud in one picture

By: James Simpson
Examiner.com
Right Side News

UPDATE: Maryland’s Dan Bongino, today observed that DC-area airports have exempted themselves from the below-mentioned Sequester cuts! This coming on the heels of today’s announcement that some in Congress are looking to exempt themselves and their staffs from Obamacare. How does one describe such people?

April 25, 2013 A picture is worth a thousand words. The FAA made news this weekend as hundreds of flights were delayed due to cuts in air traffic controller hours, supposedly as a result of the Sequester. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood claimed that “We looked everywhere possible to avoid the kind of furloughs that are now taking place.” Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney added:

The fact is Congress had an opportunity, but Republicans made a choice. We made it clear that there would be these kinds of negative effects if Congress failed to take reasonable action to avert the sequester…

They are simply lying. There is no other way to describe it. The accompanying chart, courtesy Phil Kerpen, shows that the FAA has a larger budget now, after the sequester, than the President requested for 2013.

This President is willing to put lives at risk and maximize inconvenience for travelers in a blatant effort to tar Republicans. It is a game of “I win, you lose,” designed to improve the prospects for Democrats in 2014. If Republicans stand tall and don’t give in to these tactics, Obama and his minions engage in this public defamation campaign. If Republicans cave, he demands more taxes, a violation of the “Fiscal Cliff” deal with Republicans, whose concessions included tax increases, and for whom further tax increase agreements would be disastrous. Of course it would be disastrous for the economy as well, but Obama and his crew have already shown they could care less about the economy.

Candidate Obama won his election through fraud, deceit and a “charm offensive.” Quin Hilyer at The American Spectator suggests that President Obama is now engaged in a “Harm Offensive,” meant to “..inflict as much pain or annoyance as possible on the American public.” He cites the Wall Street Journal, which today reported FAA employees saying, “the FAA management has stated in meetings that they need to make the furloughs as hard as possible for the public…”

This is the real game here, and the President and his administration of criminals is putting your lives at risk to play it!

It bears pointing out that the only reason Obama gets away with this is because the mass media let him. They could easily show, as reported on these pages earlier, that none of these damaging cuts need to be made. Instead we get the President’s dog and pony show. Simply disgusting.

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James Simpson, DC Independent Examiner

Businessman and freelance writer James Simpson is a former Office of Management and Budget (White House budget office) economist and budget analyst. Best known for his exposé on the Cloward Piven Strategy of manufactured crisis, his writings have been published in American Thinker, The New Media…

04/25/13

A Tribute to Howard Phillips

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

The death of Howard Phillips, 1941-2013, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, is a major blow to the conservative movement. He always stood for principle. He was a conservative first and last. He started a third political party when the Republican Party began drifting away from conservatism. A real family man, he is survived by his wife Peggy, six children, and 18 grandchildren.

Since there seems to be some confusion about the meaning of the term these days, it is important to define “conservative.” A true conservative, like Howard Phillips, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, believed and affirmed traditional moral and religious values, a strong national defense and economic freedom.

He was one of the early leaders of Young Americans for Freedom, the same group that attracted my political interest when I was in high school. Over the years you never found Howard getting “trendy” by signing on to liberal causes like the “gay rights” agenda. In fact, his newsletter, the Howard Phillips “Issues and Strategy Bulletin,” was quite blunt, referring to homosexual activists as “sodomites,” or “perverts.”

He gave government service a try and attempted to reform the government from within. As his bio notes, Howard resigned from the Nixon Administration when it failed to defund many of Lyndon Johnson’s so-called Great Society programs. He popularized the notion of defunding the left by drying up their sources of government support.

He was “right” in more ways than one.

As I went over my articles about his views and pronouncements over the years, I was struck by how right he was.

Howard opposed the first President Bush’s nomination of David Souter for a seat on the Supreme Court. He opposed Souter from the start, and is one of the few who had correctly analyzed his record and predicted how he would turn out. Staunchly pro-life, Howard discovered that Souter had voted to permit abortion at a hospital in New Hampshire on whose board of trustees he served. On that basis, Phillips opposed him. Souter’s pro-abortion record was an indication that he was liberal on other social issues. Howard was proven correct.

Phillips also predicted that Sandra Day O’Connor, a Reagan nominee, would turn out to be pro-abortion on the court. He noted that she was a pro-abortion member of the Arizona State Senate and a liberal judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. “She was chosen because of her gender and a desire to attract to the GOP the support of feminists,” he said. Again, Howard stood with principle.

When O’Connor gave a speech declaring that the court would increasingly make its decisions in deference to international law and foreign opinion, Phillips said she had violated her oath of office—swearing allegiance to the U.S. Constitution—and that she should be removed from office.

Howard didn’t make excuses for conservatives—even if it was Ronald Reagan—when they bowed to liberal pressure. And he held Republicans accountable when they voted for President Obama’s agenda. One of the regular sections of his newsletter was “GOP betrayals.”

When Republican Senators Susan Collins, Judd Gregg, Richard Lugar, Lindsey Graham, and Olympia Snowe voted with liberals to confirm Elena Kagan as President Obama’s second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Howard’s newsletter proclaimed, “Kagan will be Supreme Court’s first lesbian.” The headline was based on an article that appeared briefly on the CBS website that cited Kagan’s open homosexuality and “well known” female partner. White House pressure forced CBS to take the item down.

On foreign policy issues, he never trusted Communist Russia, China, or the United Nations. He supported Reagan’s policy of aid for anti-communist freedom fighters, known as the Reagan Doctrine, but denounced the George W. Bush Administration when it abandoned one of those freedom fighters, Jonas Savimbi, the legendary guerrilla leader of UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola).

A strategic thinker who understood the international communist threat, one of Howard’s books was Moscow’s Challenge to U.S. Vital Interests in Sub-Saharan Africa, written in 1987.

It was a highlight of my life when I was honored to receive the Andrew Jackson “Champion of Liberty” Award from Howard and the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance on September 17, 2008. The award was given on the Conservative Caucus 8th annual commemoration of Constitution Day.

Howard’s campaign to restore our Constitutional Republic continues.

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