01/13/15
Daily Archives: January 13, 2015
01/13/15
01/13/15
Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees!! – 01/13/15
It’s time once again for the Watcher’s Council’s ‘Weasel Of The Week’ nominations, where we pick our choices to compete for the award of the famed Golden Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations!
Here are this weeks’ nominees…
Barack Hussein Obama, Defender Of Islamism, President of the 57 states and fluent Austrian speaker!!
The Noisy Room: Barack Obama and his Administration for prioritizing the fighting of Islamophobia. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher Market slaughters in Paris, France. Once again, Obama came to the defense of Islam and terrorism, not the victims:
There are some individuals that are using a peaceful religion and grossly distorting it, and trying to use its tenets to inspire people around the globe to carry out acts of violence. And we have enjoyed significant success in enlisting leaders in the Muslim community, like I said, both in the United States and around the world to condemn that kind of messaging, to condemn those efforts to radicalize individuals, and to be clear about what the tenets of Islam actually are. And we’re going to redouble those efforts in the days and weeks ahead.
According to Breitbart, here are his 5 other greatest Islam defense remarks:
2009…
My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives. My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.
and…
So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.
2010…
When I became the NASA Administrator, [President Obama] charged me with three things. One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.
2012…
[A] crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well — for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them…. The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.
2014 – Kerry for Obama…
[Our effort] has to start major efforts to delegitimize ISIS’s claim to some religious foundation for what it’s doing and begin to put real Islam out there and draw lines throughout the region.
In the ‘Audacity of Hope’, Obama is famous for the quote: “I will stand with the Muslims if the Political Wind shifts in an ugly direction.”
At the rally in Paris in commemoration for those who died this week, Barack Obama was noticeably absent. Over 50 world leaders showed – Obama ostensibly sent Eric Holder, who was not seen at the vigil, march or the rally. Plausible deniability, but if a politician goes to a wake and no one sees him, did he really go? Obama is dining and golfing… Holder is probably meeting with Islamists.
Ask Marion: My nomination for the weasel of the week is President Obama… yes again… this time for not joining the other leaders of the Western world in Paris to stand in unity against radical Islamic terrorism. Guess he is still recovering from jet lag after his two week Hawaiian holiday vacation?
President Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry were noticeably absent as most of the world’s leadership stood together in unity and linked arms against terrorism and for freedom. At a time when the US looks ever weaker after our president has spent 6-years apologizing for American exceptionalism and continues to appease those who would oppress anyone who chooses not to accept their radical ideology, our president needed to be part of the united coalition in Paris. Radical Islam is at war with us. They are attacking us and the rest of the Western world on all fronts and President Obama is still cutting deals with the Muslim Brotherhood and inviting them to the White House.
This is what happens when we don’t vet our candidates and vote for people we do not know or understand.
Noted Author And Wealthy Left Wing Fantasist JK Rowling!!
Bookworm Room: I’m giving my Weasel of the Week nomination to J.K. Rowling. She’s a brilliant writer, but when it comes to world issues, logic, and politics, she’s proven herself to be an uneducated, illogical, and possibly racist moron.
When Rupert Murdoch correctly tweeted that Islamic terrorism stretches around the world and that it needs a reformation from within, Rowling sent several inane tweets in response:
“I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I’ll auto-excommunicate.” [See tweet here.]
“The Spanish Inquisition was my fault, as is all Christian fundamentalist violence. Oh, and Jim Bakker.” [See tweet here.]
“Eight times more Muslims have been killed by so-called Islamic terrorists than non-Muslims.” [See tweet here.]
By tweeting this nonsense, Rowling ignored the fact that Murdoch has never justified any of his actions by saying that he was following Biblical mandates; that Christian reformation resulted in rejection of the Spanish Inquisition; that American Evangelicals, rather than distancing themselves from Bakker by announcing that he wasn’t a Christian, instead denounced his conduct, calling it unbecoming for a Christian; and that citing to Muslim internecine massacres as an excuse for not castigating Muslim violence sounds remarkably like saying “It’s all good when the brown people kill each other.”
Secondary Weasel nominations go to all the Progressives around the world who actually thought Rowling said something intelligent, and lionized her accordingly in social media.
Murderous Islamist Thugs The Kouachi Brothers!!
The Glittering Eye: These murderers of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and editorial staff are hard to match for sheer perfidy and are clearly the weasels of the week.
Progressive Whack Job Sally Kohn!!
Nice Deb: I nominate Sally Kohn for being one of the first leftists out of the gate to make absurd equivocations, attack strawmen, and expose her own gross hypocrisy in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo slaughter in Paris, last week.
In a double whammy of stupidity, she tweeted:
Christians or Jews killing in name of religion = Extremists
But Muslims killing in name of religion = All Muslims??!
Come on…
Fallacy #1 She seemed to be suggesting that Christians and Jews commit terrorist attacks in similar numbers as Muslims.
Fallacy #2 She was also suggesting that a significant number of conservatives were accusing all Muslims of being terrorists. When I asked her who was doing that — name names, she ignored me.
She also put her gross hypocrisy on display with this tweet:
It is not inconsistent to believe in free speech AND be against insulting other people’s faith traditions. #CharlieHedbo
It took conservatives approximately two seconds to find examples of Kohn insulting other people’s “faith tradition” on Twitter here and here:
Those tweets are just a small sample of the irritatingly inane weasel-speak coming from Kohn in the past week.
Islamist Shill and terrorist Groupie Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CAIR
The Right Planet : Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), hijacked a press conference at a vigil for the Charlie Hebdo victims killed by Islamic terrorists in Paris last week. Awad used the opportunity to pump the tried-and-true meme CAIR always regurgitates every time an act of terror is committed by Muslims–namely, that Muslims are the true victims, never mind the real victims.
Author, Hard Left Feminist Termagant, Conspiracy Fantasist And Israel Basher Naomi Wolf!!
Simply Jews: I nominate Naomi Wolf, with one of her more unhinged “moments of truth”. Naomi Wolf, lately famous for her conspiracy theories, wasn’t able to keep her mouth shut even in an event like the recent Paris murderous spree by Islamic terrorists, producing one of her inanities on the spot.
Well, there it is. What a despicable group of Weasels… ANY OF THEM COULD WIN! Check back Thursday to see which Weasel walks off with the statuette of shame!
Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.
And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council and the results are posted on Friday morning.
It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere and you won’t want to miss it… or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.
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01/13/15
Do Not Be Fooled by Recent Struggles. Russia Poses a Direct Threat to America and Her Interests.
By: Benjamin Weingarten
TheBlaze
While the media spikes the football in the face of a Russia hobbled by U.S. sanctions, the decline of the ruble and collapse in oil prices, Vladimir Putin’s protectorate poses a direct threat to America and its interests that we ignore at our own peril.
In the 15 years since Vladimir Putin ascended to his position as de facto czar, Russia has executed a long-term strategy that the West has failed to recognize and effectively counter under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the West thought it had defeated the Soviet Union. But unlike in a hot war, the victor did not annihilate its enemy, nor did the enemy’s leaders ever face the gallows.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in fact resembled a corporate reorganization more than the fall of an empire, as heads rolled and the state spun off assets (many later to be “reclaimed”), but the company and its culture endured.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1991 signified the end of Communist rule in Russia.
In the face of difficult circumstances, Russia, understanding the mindset of its “former” foes, made the brilliant decision to join the West through economic and diplomatic “cooperation.”
This convergence strategy gave the outward appearance of a liberalizing Russia, but consistent with its historical adeptness at subversion and subterfuge, proved a clever way to rebuild, gain leverage over and embed itself within its enemies.
Russia opened itself to trade to raise capital and procure technology that it could use to exploit its natural resources, rebuild its military and enrich Vladimir Putin and his cronies.
In so doing, Russia developed energy pipelines that not only provided it with wealth, but power over not just its “near abroad” — which could literally be made to freeze were it not compliant — but Western Europe. Stated differently, it brought America’s NATO allies into Russia’s orbit.
Russia also allegedly stole a significant amount of information and technology.
Perhaps most terrifying of all, Russia embedded itself in a world business and financial architecture that it could penetrate and exploit.
On the diplomatic front, Russia became a U.S. “partner” in the “War on Terror,” a curious position given that Russia was and is a key ally of Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terror. Vladimir Putin of course was the first world leader to call President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001. We do not know all the ramifications of U.S. and Russian intelligence collaboration.
***
Despite a crumbling civil society rife with corruption, the suppression of dissent, rigged elections and the fact that the average life expectancy of a 15-year-old male is three years lower in Russia than in Haiti, Putin’s kleptocratic regime, aided by its powerful propaganda machine, and deceptive religious veneer, remains overwhelmingly popular.
This is in no small part due to the fact that during Putin’s reign, Russia has strengthened itself against a West it portrays as aggressive, which has actually remained largely asleep.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, poses to the press as he prepares for arm wrestling during his visits in the Seliger youth educational forum near Lake Seliger, some 450 kilometres (281 miles) northwest of Moscow, in the Tver region, Russia, Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Pool)
To wit, leaving aside foreign adventures in Ukraine and Georgia, under Putin:
- Russia’s has grown its economy eightfold, largely due to energy sector growth.
- Russia has dramatically increased its gold buying, potentially as part of an overall de-dollarization strategy, along with China and other anti-Western powers.
- Russia has achieved nuclear parity with the United States according to the State Department, thanks to our naïve participation in the New START Treaty.
- Russia has allegedly developed cyber-terror capabilities sufficient to cripple a nation, as it did Estonia back in 2007.
- Russia has developed a strong alliance with China in terms of military cooperation and energy, and more broadly the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, all in a bid to counter and apparently aggressively target NATO nations.
- Russia has strategically backed U.S. enemies such as Iran and Syria in the Middle East, while the U.S. has been mired in costly wars there for over a decade; the benefits of this strategy have accrued directly to Russia, as a result of increased oil prices; evidence suggests that Putin may also be playing both sides against the middle with Islamic State, to America’s detriment.
- Russia is allegedly funding anti-Islamization groups in Europe, several of which may be fascistic and anti-Semitic as well, which would fit the Middle East of strategy of backing those who sow the seeds of chaos to create a crisis to Russia’s benefit
- Russia has spent millions in lobbying dollars in Washington, D.C., the national security implications of which one can only imagine, while gaining legitimacy from the support of former prominent anti-Communist useful idiots, dupes or worse.
- Russian espionage, bent on “subverting and penetrating Western societies,” has metastasized to levels greater than during the Cold War. Russia takes a long-term approach to develop “shape-shifting” assets running what appear to be legitimate businesses or charitable organizations, while “Kremlin spies swim effortlessly and invisibly through suburbia, nightlife, think tanks, and consultancies in the West, exploiting the natural trust and collegiality of an open society.”
Layer these data points on top of Russia’s economic and diplomatic relations with other anti-American regimes around the world, and it is difficult to find any trouble spot for the West that you can scratch without finding a Russian apparatchik.
***
While conventional military strength, intelligence operations and economic warfare against the U.S. are potent weapons in Russia’s arsenal, two recent asymmetric operations alone indicate low-cost high reward tactics Russia could employ to greatly damage our nation and her interests: (i) The terror attacks in France, and (ii) The little-noticed second cyber-attack ever to cause physical damage in world history, after Stuxnet.
On terrorism, while it is likely not in Russia’s interest to directly attack the U.S., sponsoring jihadist proxies provides plausible deniability, and maximal gain at minimal cost.
Lest you think this scenario unrealistic, it was Putin’s own FSB that was alleged to carry out attacks on Russian citizens as a pretext for war in Chechnya in 1999. Russia in fact has a long history of support for terrorism, from Yasser Arafat and the PLO, to alleged ties to Al-Qaeda including senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Cyber-terror, to the degree to which it can be masked, could prove equally potent, with the potential to cripple critical U.S. infrastructure and sow chaos at minimal cost.
Again, Russia already has a template from its actions in Estonia, not to mention some of the recent attacks on American institutions alleged to have emanated in Russia.
***
America deludes itself if she does not wake up to the multi-faceted Russian threat.
Russia’s strategic thinking, abundant natural resources and associated economic leverage, defense and intelligence capabilities pose a challenge that sanctions notwithstanding, the West is currently ill-equipped to handle.
Moreover, leaders in the West refuse to acknowledge either out of fear, ignorance, or political correctness (often a combination of the two), that Russian actions to back our enemies, end a dollar-based economy, terrorize those in its immediate orbit, while strengthening its control over Western Europe, all while flexing its muscle in U.S. airspace, indicate aspirations far beyond just rebuilding the Soviet Empire.
This file photo shows President Barack Obama with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Ireland in June 2014. Photo Credit: Evan Vucci/AP
Recent struggles if anything portend even more dramatic actions by the Putin regime — all likely negative for the West and freedom more broadly — by a leader who is now even clamping down on allies, while seeking propaganda victories to rally his people.
In order to effectively deal with Russia, as with the Islamic world, America must understand the country’s goals, strategies and tactics.
Only then can we devise a coherent plan to deter the threat, and with it, preserve Western civilization.
—
This piece was written to accompany the three-part series “The Root: Red Storm” on The Glenn Beck Program airing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 5 p.m. ET on TheBlaze TV.
—
Follow Ben Weingarten (@bhweingarten) and TheBlazeBooks on Twitter and Facebook.
Be sure to check out Ben’s Blaze Books podcast, consisting of interviews with leading conservative and libertarian thinkers, which you can find on iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.
01/13/15
Why Was Putin a No-show in Paris?
By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
With good reason, media attention has been focused on President Barack Obama’s curious absence from the Paris march against terrorism. Obama became a “Where’s Waldo?” character, whose whereabouts were unknown. Observers looked for him at the march of world leaders in France, hoping to spot him somewhere. But where was Russian leader Vladimir Putin? This may have been the bigger story.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a source of concern in Europe, may have been a factor in his absence. But it’s also true that Putin has documented pro-terrorist credentials that should have made him persona non grata at any such event. Instead, Putin sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Paris to represent his regime.
Putin was a KGB spy for many years and ran the FSB, the successor to the KGB, which trained the notorious terrorist once based in France known as Carlos the Jackal. Carlos, a name given to him because of his roots in Latin America, has been linked to communist-run international terror networks that always had an Islamic component and a strategy in the Middle East that includes the destruction of Israel.
The name “Carlos the Jackal” is well-known globally because he was the reported godfather behind such attacks as the murders of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, and the seizure of hostages at a meeting of the oil-producing countries, known as OPEC, in Vienna in 1975. But less well-known is the international terrorist support network organized by the Soviet Union and Cuba which backed him.
President Obama may want people to believe that Russia and Cuba are no longer involved in terrorism, but hearings conducted by Congress in the 1980s, such as “The Role of Cuba in International Terrorism and Subversion,” cannot be ignored. Castro was given a role in the “Liberation of Palestine” account made by the KGB, the hearings showed, as well as promoting communism in Latin America and Africa.
Before that, in 1974, the House Committee on Internal Security produced a report, “Terrorism: A Staff Study,” analyzing Soviet, Chinese and Cuban support for international terrorism.
Today, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) now runs the West Bank, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) continues to call Israel the “Zionist/Imperialist Project,” a typical Soviet term.
Tragically, the Senate and House committees or subcommittees on security and terrorism were dismantled and there is no such body in Congress today that specifically examines international terrorist activity and its U.S. support networks.
Former KGB officers and intelligence analysts say the PLO was created by the Soviet KGB, and that the PLO’s long-time chairman, Yasser Arafat, was an agent of the Soviet intelligence service.
Indeed, Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking defector from the former Soviet bloc, says KGB dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was living in London, was killed by the KGB because he spilled the beans on how Soviet intelligence spawned Islamic terrorism and trained al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
But there is another fascinating aspect to the story that brings this matter up to date. Although a Marxist terrorist for much of his life, Carlos converted to Islam and is now serving a life sentence in a prison in France. He announced in 2003 that he had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
While Obama seems preoccupied with the rights of terrorists and whether they are being treated properly, French Special Forces kidnapped Carlos in Sudan in 1994 using a practice known as “rendition,” a practice used by the Bush administration against terrorists that has only reluctantly been embraced by the Obama administration.
In what Obama might describe as a violation of his terrorist “rights,” Carlos was reportedly injected with a tranquilizer, bound, stuffed into a sack, and transferred to France, where he was put on trial, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
Putin, in response to the Charlie Hedbo massacre, said through a spokesman, “Moscow strongly condemns terrorism in all its manifestations,” adding, “Moscow is sure that no terrorist acts can be justified.”
Moscow’s words need to be “parsed,” as the saying goes.
The American author Claire Sterling’s 1981 book, The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism, still stands as the authoritative analysis of the international terror networks that emerged in the late 1960s under the sponsorship of Russia and Cuba. Carlos was a key Soviet KGB operative in this effort.
Sterling identifies Carlos as someone who was under KGB control and running a terror network directly out of Paris in 1974 and 1975. He killed two French agents who tried to capture him and fled France, moving around in various Arab countries and what was then East Germany, where a young KGB spy by the name of Vladimir Putin would be based. Carlos continued carrying out attacks in France and other nations through his terror network.
Carlos was born in Venezuela as Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. His first name was given by his Marxist parents as a tribute to Soviet communist leader Vladimir Ilych Lenin. Carlos “studied” at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, notes Jill Dougherty, once CNN’s Moscow Bureau Chief.
In fact, according to former KGB officers, the “university” was essentially run by the KGB, which used it to recruit foreign students as agents or terrorists.
The authoritative Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, which was published in France, states categorically that Carlos worked for the KGB, carrying out terrorist activities on its behalf.
Carlos also “studied” at the Tricontinental Conference in Havana in 1966. A conference of this kind and scope, Sterling wrote, “had never been seen since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and the world would never be the same.” She noted that its “General Declaration” urged close collaboration between the Soviet-style “Socialist countries” and the “national liberation movements,” in order to mount “a global revolutionary strategy” against “American imperialism.”
This is the strategy that resulted in hundreds of acts of terrorism across Europe and in the United States through such groups as the Weather Underground and the Puerto Rican FALN.
Numerous reports put Carlos at the KGB-supervised Cuban terrorist training camp known as Mantanzas, where he “studied” guerrilla warfare, sabotage techniques and bomb-making.
Former KGB agents, including Alexander Litvinenko and Konstantin Preobrazhensky, confirmed published accounts that Carlos was in fact an agent of the KGB. The 1991 book, KGB: The Inside Story, by Christopher Andrew and former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, also confirms his terrorist training by the Soviets and Cubans.
Interestingly, when a TV movie was aired in 2010 about Carlos the terrorist, the Kremlin propaganda channel Russia Today (RT) ran a story saying his KGB connections were murky and had been “questioned” by the movie director. However, the director of the film did say, “He (Carlos) grew up in a Marxist family in Venezuela; his parents sent him to Lumumba University in Moscow; then he was expelled from the university for bad behavior. Then he re-emerges with a gun in his hand in Jordan at the side of the Palestinian from the PFLP, led by Wadih Haddad, who was a KGB agent. So what exactly were the KGB connections of Carlos? It’s a very difficult subject.”
The director was quoted as saying, “it is debatable whether Carlos the Jackal, a supporter of radical Islamism, had KGB connections.”
Such a claim only makes sense from the perspective of a network that serves Putin’s propaganda interests and wants to distance Moscow from the carnage the Soviets inflicted, with the collaboration of the Cuban communists, on Europe and the United States.
The KGB connections of Carlos went far beyond the PFLP. What’s more, the late Herbert Romerstein, an expert on security and terrorism, had noted that the “expulsion” from Lumumba University was a diversion. He said that Carlos had left Moscow with a letter of introduction from a representative of the PFLP stationed in Moscow, and had joined that Soviet-backed Arab terrorist organization.
Carlos is in prison, but Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the PLO, has a similar background. . Abbas, who is also president of the Palestinian Authority, did his Ph.D. work at the KGB’s Patrice Lumumba University, where he wrote a report claiming that there was no Holocaust, and that the Jews murdered during World War II were actually killed by Zionists working with the Nazis.
The Obama and Putin no-shows in Paris were eclipsed by the attendance of Abbas, who is now seen internationally as someone opposed to the terrorism his organization has sponsored and carried out for decades. It was a clever propaganda display that Putin must have enjoyed.
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