Archive for the ‘Islamofascism’ Category
Americans, You’re On Your Own: Obama Golfs, Napolitano Duffs, The Press Carries Water
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
The Obama administration reacted to the terrorist attack on Christmas day with its usual aplomb: that is, they are tone deaf and in denial yet again.
President Obama has blithely continued his vacation, which even displeases liberals:
Some things are too important to delegate to a subordinate, or manage through a blackberry.
It’s December 27th, and people are getting ready to travel for New Years Day. They’re going to get patted down, sniffed and searched. They will not be able to get up for the last hour of their flight. And God knows what else.
They will be inconvenienced, in a way that I’m sure every sane human being on the face of the Earth hoped that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab had been.
And even if it were only for appearances – even if it were simply to make people know the Commander-In-Chief was in front of whatever buttons and levers are at his disposal to act and react to threats to this nation – the President should have been inconvenienced as well.
And the underlings are saying crazy, unbelievable baloney:
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says investigators did not have enough information to keep a terror suspect from boarding a flight bound for Detroit and that the system worked as it should have.
The bomber was banned from Britain. I don’t think the security worked as it should.
Just in case you’re a little unnerved about the governments non-response response, the press is here to sooth you. Marc Ambimber does it best:
There is a reason why Obama hasn’t given a public statement. It’s strategy.
Here’s the theory: a two-bit mook is sent by Al Qaeda to do a dastardly deed. He winds up neutering himself. Literally.
Authorities respond appropriately; the President (as this president is want to to) presides over the federal response. His senior aides speak for him, letting reporters know that he’s videoconferencing regularly, that he’s ordering a review of terrorist watch lists, that he’s discoursing with his Secretary of Homeland Security.
But an in-person Obama statement isn’t needed; Indeed, a message expressing command, control, outrage and anger might elevate the importance of the deed, would generate panic (because Obama usually DOESN’T talk about the specifics of cases like this, and so him deciding to do so would cue the American people to respond in a way that exacerbates the situation.
Ooooh, strategy…. Sounds so official and mysterious and important…or the President doesn’t think terrorism is a big deal and really, he preferred to go golfing. Or that.
This reaction demonstrates more weakness. Being a President is as much symbolism as it is substance. I would like to remind our political betters, the nuanced ones, on the left that all of America rallied behind President Bush for his handling of 9/11. They liked tough words. They liked tough action.
Americans are more terrorism-savvy now, but this sort of thing alarms everyone. This is another confirmation that we are, in fact, at war. Ignoring the war while on the fourth tee does not mean that it is not happening.
The President and his underlings look ineffectual or worse, uncaring. The American people won’t get the relentless pictures portraying an indifferent Bush after Katrina because the press still loves Obama. But the American people are wise to that too as the approval ratings show.
Worst of all, this weakness emboldens America’s enemies. They know President Obama doesn’t have the stomach for war. They know he’s trying to appease Muslims. But again, his condescension reins. This war was never with Muslims generally (America saved countless Muslims in Iraq and they know it), it was with terrorists (rich terrorists) and the states that support them specifically. But the left conflated this reality and fed the bile which fed the enemy propaganda machine.
So, is the President willing to back-pedal yet again? If his golfing is any indication, no. His administration has decided to pretend. The moment is already lost.
Americans are left with a fear greater than fear of terrorists: That America lacks leadership and experience. No suicidal jihadist provokes as much fear as a weak President.
Americans, you’re on your own.
TSA: It’s Called Profiling, Do It–UPDATED
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
So, the TSA’s brilliant plan is to torture (in the liberal use of the word) all passengers to give us more of an illusion of safety. We weren’t safe before. Any moron would know that. And most people flying get that which is why they think about their own safety when boarding a plane. People take mental note now, of passengers, and go on with life–ready to act if necessary.
The solution to the terrorist problem is profiling. And then, actually use the profile.*
That’s right. Profiling. If a psychotic band of Christian, blond, blue-eyed teenage girls joined a death cult intent on killing people with laser beams blasting from their bras, guess what? I’d say search every blond teenage girl and leave the rest of the passengers stuck with airline travel alone.
As it is, this terror candidate was fairly obvious profile-wise. The UK Telegraph notes:
How can a Muslim student, whose name appears on a US law enforcement database, be granted a visa to travel to America, allegedly acquire an explosive device from Yemen, a country awash with al-Qaeda terrorists, and avoid detection from the world’s most sophisticated spy agencies?
Gee, why didn’t he make it easier and plaster a sign on his chest? But the thing is, TSA agents can’t be politically incorrect. Oh no! That might offend the sensibilities of middle eastern, Muslim garbed students everywhere. So granny gets X-rayed and searched and Abdullah, wearing Yemeni suicide bomber underwear makes it through he screening process unscathed.
After the Ft. Hood Muslim terrorist shooter basically trumpeted his intentions and was ignored by the military, I’d say it’s time to reevaluate our assessment of threat assessments.
It’s not enough to be on a watch list if no one is watching. It’s not enough to understand the terrorist profile if no one uses the profiling for fear of being called a bigot.
The enemy will get more subtle. Michael Haltman says:
Abdul Mutallab was charged today with trying to blow up an aircraft, and with willfully putting a destructive device onboard. The chemical that he had taped to his lower exteemities is PETN, also know as pentaerythritol. This chemical is reported to be one of the most powerful explosives, typically used in such devices as land mines.
In a test for future airport screening, the chemical was not picked up by magnetometers, and he was not forced to undergo a full body scan. The liquid that was used to attempt and ignite the chemical was below the ounce limit that would have prohibited it from be carried onboard.
I wonder how many old ladies or mothers were forced to do a full body scan. Why? Why the charade? We all know who is perpetrating these attacks. We cannot be blind to other possibilities. Still, for now, young Muslim, educated men seem to be the weapon of choice.
It’s called profiling. Do it.
*Please note that I get that this is an international flight. Still, shouldn’t America bear some responsibility for who we let fly into our country. We cannot rely on foreigners to value our lives like we value our lives. Also, this guy was a posterboy for terrorism. Obvious.
UPDATED:
And Donald Douglas skewers the left for their predictable, mindless response to this attack:
But even in the absence of evidence of al Qaeda’s ties to the Abdul Mutallab, we know the nature of al Qaeda’s threat has been transformed significantly since September 11, 2001. Audrey Kurth Cronin, an expert on international terrorism, and the author of “How al-Qaida Ends: The Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups,” has noted recently that al Qaeda today is a fractured organization with a decentralized leadership. The group is more of an idea than an actual entity. As such, there’s little doubt of the seriousness of the threat, since follow-on organizations will likely take up the initative where Osama bin Laden left off. Indeed, Kurth Cronin suggests that while al Qaeda’s capabilities have been significantly weakened, and Western leaders have indeed suffered from an over-emphasis on leadership decapitation, “Even in its diminished state, al Qaeda and its franchises remain armed and dangerous.”
Read the whole thing.
UPDATED AGAIN:
Kathleen has a new site KathleenMcKinley.com and also a link to the CNN interview with one of the people who subdued the terrorist. But really, I can’t help but noticing Fredrika Whitfield’s belt. Really, Fredrika? I mean if the First Lady jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you jump, too?
What Really Happened On Airtran Flight 297?
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009So what happened on this flight? Certain accounts are being called into question, but the notion that something happened on that flight is not in dispute. Rusty Shackleford says this:
If after 9/11 native Arabic speakers don’t get why the rest of us get nervous around them on an airplane then they are living in a fantasy world.
Yes, you make us nervous. Especially when you behave in ways normally considered rude. We tend to overlook rudeness to varying degrees depending on the context of the situation.
And the language you speak does add an extra layer of context.
I certainly don’t approve of racism. But I’m also quite aware that hijackers are thousands of times more likely to be Muslims than of any other religious identity. And that a great number of Muslim hijackers are also Arabs. Like, all 19 on Sept. 11th.
So, note to readers: Arabs speaking loudly and ignoring the requests of stewardesses are probably not hijackers, just assholes.
But note to native Arabic speakers: show a little self control and sensitivity. You make a lot of people very nervous when you behave rudely. Some might call this fear irrational and they may have a point. But no more irrational than, say, instructing passengers how to use the airplane cushions as a flotation device. The odds of being hijacked and surviving a crash long enough to need them probably being similar.
Yes this sucks. We don’t live in an ideal world. It could be much worse. Embrace the suck.
From the witness I spoke to, Dr. Keith Robinson, the only people comfortable on the flight were the Arabic speaking men. They engaged in questionable behavior on the flight. They yucked it up at the baggage claim, as if the whole experience was humorous. The people on the flight seemed traumatized, according to him, and his job is to intervene in crisis situations.
Certainly, airlines want to avoid lawsuits. The TSA wants to avoid hijacking situations. And Americans don’t want to be perceived as being intolerant, even when they’re nervous (which is rational).
This seems like a cocktail for disaster.
Another Terrorist Dry Run: Part II Interview With Witness Dr. Keith Robinson–UPDATED
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Yesterday, I shared the account given by Tedd Petruna about Air Tran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston Hobby. Today, I interviewed Dr. Keith Robinson, Corps Commander of the Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps, as he actually took the flight, with the Arab men after Tedd and many other passengers got off the plane, once it was clear that both the TSA and Air Tran were going to allow the threatening passengers to stay on the flight.
Over at RedInk Texas, you’ll see how distorted the actual news accounts were of this incident. This incident was not just a matter of an unruly passenger refusing to hang up on a phone call. The whole flight crew refused to fly and had to be replaced.
Air Tran 297 is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Recall the Flying Imams controversy where the men sued the airlines and passengers and won a settlement from the airlines.
This circumstance occurred shortly after Major Hasan killed twelve soldiers at Fort Hood. The passengers were sensitized to a terrorist threat before the flight.
Dr. Robinson gave his first-hand account [find link here], typing up his impressions during the flight:
The flight crew hurriedly walked past me leaving the plane with their baggage. The flight
attendants were emotionally shaken, red faced, in tears and were sobbing. A new flight crew
was ordered for the flight. All remaining passengers awaited their next crew, unsure of the
ultimate destiny of this flight.
When I boarded the plane the air was tense and filled with emotion. Many of the passengers
were obviously upset and at wits end. Often passengers would look back then forward to
assess any change in the suspicious activities of the 10 hostile Middle Eastern passengers.
Although my seat was 22D I moved to the back of the plane to gain a better view of any actions
that might take place in front of me. Some of the Middle Eastern men were in the Business
Class area and the remainder was seated in the back of the plane. They spoke only Arabic and I
did not understand what they were saying although a strange burst of laughter would erupt as
they spoke.
His conclusion from the plane flight was thus:
Obviously, in Atlanta the officials from Air Tran had been placed in a difficult ethnic position that directly resulted from the inappropriate, threatening actions of these 12 Middle Eastern men. And, obviously vacillating between appropriately removing these men permanently off the plane and sequestering them for the threats they made toward these passengers on the flight…or taking the “politically correct” action of taking them off, questioning them and then putting most of them back on the plane…Air Tran took the easy way out and put most of them back on board. As in most dilemma situations both parties are never equally affected by the resulting action. By putting 10 of the men back on the plane, Air Tran decided that it was better to emotionally traumatize each and every one of the remaining passengers on Air Tran Flight 297 for the remainder of the flight. They had a chance to remove the offenders…but didn’t.
Please listen to the podcast for a 45 minute detailed account. The first many minutes are Dr. Robinson giving his background. He gets into the meat of the experience around the 20 minute mark.
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When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
UPDATED:
They seemed to make every effort to draw attention to themselves, which makes me think it’s unlikely this is really a terror-deal, or even a dry run for terror. Perhaps “probing,” but again, they seemed to really go out of their way to get some TSA lovin’.
Not necessarily terror, then, but the demonstrations of a thin-skinned bunch determined to fuck with the legitimate fears of infidels. And prove some stupid point. And maybe get a nice fat lawsuit out of it too.
I wrote recently — about the shootings at the Texas army base — that it is the ambiguous and contradictory orders, the confused and deliberately confusing orders from the policymakers and bureaucrats, that force those attempting to execute their intentionally-baffling non-policies to err on the side of not rocking the boat and not getting fired.
I don’t see anything changing this. Even after 14 people were killed at that army base, it’s not going to change.
Thanks to rockhead.
He also links to the Canadian Free Press (notice how many stories they’ve been breaking recently?):
On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet. The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of values. Interestingly, one airline official told me “we don’t want to become another flight 300,” which is a reference to a very similar scenario that took place aboard US Airways Flight 300 exactly three years ago.
I was first contacted about this incident two days after it happened by a passenger who was aboard AirTran Flight 297. Based on the allegations made by this passenger, we conducted additional research, interviews and investigation, all of which takes time to insure accuracy, and are now able to release our report of the incident that took place aboard that aircraft. Be prepared to be shocked, angered, and perhaps saddened by our national and corporate acquiescence to mafia-type tactics by Islamists who are engaged in a full frontal assault, and laughing about it.
It’s also hitting airline industry blogs.
Another Terrorist Dry Run
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Remember the flight from Atlanta to Houston that got turned around because of the guy who wouldn’t get off the phone? That’s not what happened. From the website Nobody Asked Me via Pierre LeGrand:
I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she was not there.
The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now….they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don’t ask me….I don’t make the rules, but I’ve studied). The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said “shut up infidel dog!” She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say “I got your back.” I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said “you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!” As I “led” him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, “You WILL do the same!” He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.
We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and told the agent “we and our crew will not fly this plane!” After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. 5 minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.
Again…..this is where I had had enough!!! I got up and asked “What the hell is going on!?!?” I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly. I said “I’m getting off this plane”. The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off. (now I’m mad!) I said “I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who’s time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I’m going through that door with you under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!” And I heard a voice behind me say “so am I”. Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same. Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got here at 12:30am.
Recall, this post from Michelle Malkin and her thoughts on Anne Jacobson about the James Woods incident where Mohammed Atta was in a “dry run” a month before 9/11.
This has happened before. It could happen again. Will a country so cowed by political correctness, like the Army was, be unwitting dupes in their own demise yet again? If people in the Army were afraid to call out a psychotic superior, will common citizens resist?
I don’t believe we can count on the “officials” here any more than we’ve ever been able to count on them. Americans must be self-reliant. They must stand up for common sense. They must resist the social pressure to ignore threats because it might offend someone to do so.
Thomas Freidman Admits There’s An Anti-American Narrative, He Just Let’s Himself Off The Hook
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Wow. After you get past the shock that a liberal admits there is an anti-American narrative, chew on the fact that the liberal Thomas Friedman still can’t admit how his own ideology feeds and nourishes the anti-American narrative:
Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes — the Taliban and the Baathists — and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.
The Narrative was concocted by jihadists to obscure that.
It’s working. As a Jordanian-born counterterrorism expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me: “This narrative is now omnipresent in Arab and Muslim communities in the region and in migrant communities around the world. These communities are bombarded with this narrative in huge doses and on a daily basis. [It says] the West, and right now mostly the U.S. and Israel, is single-handedly and completely responsible for all the grievances of the Arab and the Muslim worlds. Ironically, the vast majority of the media outlets targeting these communities are Arab-government owned — mostly from the Gulf.”
This narrative suits Arab governments. It allows them to deflect onto America all of their people’s grievances over why their countries are falling behind. And it suits Al Qaeda, which doesn’t need much organization anymore — just push out The Narrative over the Web and satellite TV, let it heat up humiliated, frustrated or socially alienated Muslim males, and one or two will open fire on their own. See: Major Hasan.
Let’s see, Bush is evil. The elevation of Abu Grahib. Newsweek publishing the flushed Koran accounts and Friedman is putting the blame on the Arab press?
You have got to be kidding me.
I’m not as inclined to let Friedman off the hook as Don Surber. This back pedaling looks a lot like a subtle defense of President Obama the day before he pushes the surge in Afghanistan. Asking for more troops on the backdrop of losing more troops, seems a lot like justification to me.
And it’s charity Friedman and the liberal elites would never have extended to George Bush. And, by the way, it doesn’t take a freaking genius to know that Hasan is a terrorist. It’s rather self-evident.
The KSM Show Trial
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009I keep thinking that the Obama Administration is smarter. It’s painful thinking that they’re this stupid:
Of all the infuriating aspects of the decision to transfer five 9/11 war criminals to civilian federal court, the one that grates most is the contention that the Obama administration is finally moving forward after “eight years of delay” — as Attorney General Eric Holder put it at his Friday press conference — during which the Bush administration managed to complete only three military-commission trials.
This is chutzpah writ large. The principal reason there were so few military trials is the tireless campaign conducted by leftist lawyers to derail military tribunals by challenging them in the courts. Many of those lawyers are now working for the Obama Justice Department. That includes Holder, whose firm, Covington & Burling, volunteered its services to at least 18 of America’s enemies in lawsuits they brought against the American people. (During 2007 alone, Covington contributed more than 3,000 hours of free, top-flight legal assistance to our enemy detainees.)
Read everything from Andy McCarthy about this. And listen to this podcast to get all the background from McCarthy.
There is no defense for moving the trial to federal, civilian court in NYC. Jim Geraghty pulls some testimony from Eric Holder’s testimony today:
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa): “I don’t think you can say that failure to convict is not an option, when we have juries in this country.”
Attorney General Eric Holder: I have thought about that possibility. Congress has passed legislation that would not allow the release of these individuals in this country. If there is not a successful conclusion to this trial, that would not mean that this person would be released into this country . . .
So, no matter what, KSM is going to be convicted and/or held? And how much money is going to be spent on the show trial?
Instapundit puts forth the theory that this is all a diversion to distract from the stealth care bill–Harry Reid is trying to bring the bill up for debate.
A distraction? An attempt to “regain moral stature”. A bone thrown to leftists?
The Tough Liberal: NY Is A-OK With Being A Terrorist Target–Updated
Monday, November 16th, 2009Glenn Greenwald and his sock puppet said this on Twitter today, articulating, the self-congratulatory meme within the leftosphere:
RT @AnonLib “Strange that being ‘tough on terror’ = publicly soiling yourself at thought of being in same state as an imprisoned terrorist”
Newsflash lefties: You can’t have it both ways. Either these guys are scary dudes wanting to kill everyone and have buddies wanting to do the same or they’re hapless criminals who aren’t terrorists at all–they’re just misunderstood criminals. If it’s the latter, there’s no reason to be concerned which really means only a lame-o would be afraid. Therefore, you can’t claim extraordinary courage and bravery out of one side of your mouth, while diminishing the threat of these hardly-dangerous petty criminals out of the other side.
At least people who see terrorists for what they are–homocidal maniacs driven by psychotic ideology–rationally see the implicit threat to other innocent Americans, too. It is not cowardly to note a threat and protect the innocent from it. It is smart.
Sending KSM and his terrorist minions to New York City doesn’t demonstrate the lefts’ bravery, it demonstrates their stupidity. They would put innocent citizens at risk while costing the state millions. Oh yeah, brave.
UPDATED:
And this goes for you, too.
UPDATED AGAIN:
Brian Faugham notes that Mike Lupica has turned against the terrorist transfer to NY for civilian trial:
Is it truly so hard to see – as Lupica does – that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is getting exactly what he wants – the attention of the world as he mounts his own defense? Recall: the first thing Mohammed said after his capture was that he wanted to go to New York to consult with his lawyer. Rather than keeping him buried in a cell, the White House is rewarding him with the show trial of the century – one which will allow KSM to make his case to the entire world. How does this further American interests?
The great irony in this is that this process began when liberals told us that the prison at Guantanamo Bay had to be closed because it was the greatest terror recruiting tool Al Qaeda had ever had. Thanks to Barack Obama and Eric Holder, they’re getting a better one.
And that’s why the libs like Greenwald are so disingenuous. They lick their chops at making Bush look bad and fail to recognize that they kill the country in the process and feed Al Qaeda along the way. Or, maybe they do see those implications and seek the destruction of their own.
Is Trying 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed The Dumbest Obama Idea Yet?
Friday, November 13th, 2009Trying the evil Sheikh in New York City under the American legal system is the dumbest idea ever in the history of dumb presidential legal ideas and that’s when compared to the biggest poop pile of dumb Obama ideas generally which are the worst in any American presidency ever.*
If you disagree, please share an example of a dumber Obama idea.
*I keep wondering if perhaps that I might be being hyperbolic here. Maybe I should rewrite that obnoxious run-on sentence and couch a little. Maybe I should say,”It seems most unwise to bring a mastermind terrorist to New York City, home of the injustice, try to seek a fair trial, give him the right to explore all evidence against him, fund his defense by the taxpayers, etc. Most, problematic, that.” But no. It’s just plain dumb. Or insane.
