T

he prophet Muhammed would be tickled piggy-pink with this, as will the millions of subhuman terrorist swine who proudly carry his name, although the rest of the world will recoil in horror:

A Pakistani Federal Minister Monday said that militants were using kidnapped children as suicide bombers across the country.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik talking to newsmen here said that the militants were buying innocent children for few hundred thousand rupees and using them to carry out suicide attacks. (Kuwait News via ROP)

By way of contrast, the Son of God taught us:

Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me.” (Mark 9:36-37)

I’ve read that scripture a whole bunch of times, and I just can’t find anything there about blowing the child up.

Hat-tip: Infidels Are Cool

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Let’s hear it for objectivity! AP’s big story on “lone wolf” terrorists dutifully lists all three recent lone wolf killings: The jew-hating white supremacist in DC, the anti-abortion murderer in Kansas and even the “militant Muslim” in Arkansas.

Hooray. Here’s today’s lesson in objectivity: It is not comparable to fairness or balance. Let me illustrate.

The number of words in the story related to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad total 16: “A young man in Arkansas pulls the trigger outside a military recruiting office” and ”one a militant Muslim.”  Muhammed is never even named in the story.

Let’s contrast that with the number of words the article heaps upon racist angry white men.  It begins similarly with 19 words, “An elderly man enters a crowded museum carrying a rifle and begins shooting,” and “One gunman was a white supremacist.”  After a couple general paragraphs about the “lone wolf” phenomenon, the writers, Devlin Barrett and Eileen Sullivan, dedicate most of the remainder of the article – 17 paragraphs! – to James Von Brunn and other angry white men. Excerpts:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white supremacists, says the number of hate groups in the United States has risen 54 percent since 2000, fueled by opposition to Hispanic immigration and, more recently, by the election of the nation’s first black president and the economic downturn.

“Today the vast majority of domestic terrorist attacks are in fact lone wolf or so-called leaderless resistance attacks,” said the center’s Mark Potok. “There are very few ways to prevent them … short of assigning a police officer to every person in America.”

The number of angry white men in America is getting larger, said Chip Berlet, senior analyst with Political Research Associates in Somerville, Mass., a think tank that studies right-wing extremists.

In particular, the heterosexual, white, Christian men in America feel they’ve been pushed out of the way, Berlet said. Attacking the Holocaust Museum is a no-brainer, he said, because white supremacists blame Jews for the advancement of black people.

“The idea that blacks are put in positions of power by crafty Jews is central to their conspiracy theory,” Berlet said.

We are told that the number of angry white men in America is getting larger, but no studies are cited, no data is provided.  And, of course, the article does not provide any estimate of the number of angry Muslim men in our country. No experts on domestic jihad are cited, nor or any of the numerous recent examples of lone wolf or small group jihad or attempted jihad in America cited.  Certainly they outnumber angry white man violence.

To its credit, the Southern Poverty Law Center has published several articles on the links between radical Islam and white supremacy, but if Mark Potok mentioned this to the AP reporters, they didn’t include it in their article.

We are left with a picture of how white extremists think and enough fear about them to justify, in some “liberal” minds, increased invasions of their privacy of the sort they howled about when applied to domestic friends of Islamic terrorist.  We are not left with any greater understanding of the nature or size of the threat posed by lone wolf jihadists.

But hey, the article passed journalism’s objectivity test with flying colors simply because it clearly identified each of the three recent shooters.  Fairness should be the media’s standard, but reporters and editors conveniently opt for sloppy objectivity so they can justify intolerant, hate-stoking garbage like this.

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A

mong the unbounded wealth of things President Bush caught a lot of flak for was his insistence that there is an axis of evil up to nefarious stuff in our world. We haven’t heard the expression much lately, but now it’s back, in a new incarnation … and not out of the mouth of Republicans.

Memri provides this translation of an article by Khaled Imam, the editor of the Egyptian government daily Al-Masaa, in which the “axis” word is invoked again. Imam wrote the piece after Egyptian security forces announced the arrest of seven members of a terror cell that allegedly had carried out a February 22, 2009 terror attack in Egypt.

The capture of the terrorist cell associated with the explosions in a square near the Al-Hussein mosque [in Cairo] last February brought to light two new matters of utmost importance. The first is that this cell was discovered through the Internet; the second is that Al-Qaeda had for the first time carried out an operation inside Egypt. …

The fact that Al-Qaeda has entered the fray indisputably confirms the strong connections between this terrorist organization and Iran, Hizbullah, and extremists within the Palestinian resistance. This is a quadruple axis of evil, whose four components were melded together in a single crucible. It’s impossible now to tell which of them is hoisting the banner of international terrorism, which is bandying the slogans of Islam and instigating hate towards Israel, and which is extolling resistance in Lebanon or Gaza. The four have become one.

The target, too, has become one – namely Egypt, its land, its people, its history, its civilization, its economy, [and] its past, present, and future. Egypt – this gate of steadfastness, this bulwark against Iranian ambitions – is unfortunately the main, if not the only, target, and not Israel, as they claim.

This filthy, stinking, motley crew harbors evil intentions against Egypt, which is protected by the Lord, as well as by our outstanding armed and police forces… whose members are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Egypt’s security. We have the right to be proud of them and of our Egyptian identity, and to defend our national security in every way, both traditional and modern.

Two points. First, I’m very glad, after reading that prose, that we don’t have state-owned media in America. And leaving the more important for last, Imam’s piece shows again that there is indeed a global war on terror that must be fought, whether the current administration realizes it or not.

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U

nlike its earlier report listing returning vets and anti-abortion activists as potential terrorist threats, which circulated to police departments nationally before being withdrawn, the newest act of ridiculousness from the Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence & Analysis division was withdrawn within hours.

Norse mythology buffs can rest easy; they won’t be harassed by the local PD.

But why the rush with trying to make I&A’s Domestic Extremist Lexicon disappear? Perhaps because it listed some black groups as potential terrorists?

Yes, the black separatist movement was listed in the lexicon, along with the Norse mythology folks, as an extremist threat to be reckoned with.  True that; the separatists are a really big threat, especially now that America has elected a black president. The anger must be reaching a boil-over point among this community, which last did anything significant in the 1970s

Also a big threat, according to the report, white Norse mythology buffs. Give me Thor or give me death! When you see hefty gals with big horns on their helmets, give them plenty of leeway.

DHS couldn’t have pulled back from the document more dramatically.  Here’s the spokesgal:

“The lexicon was not an authorized I&A product, and it was recalled as soon as management discovered it had been released without authorization.  This product is not, nor was it ever, in operational use.”

Yes, but someone authorized it, and someone wrote it, and that someone wasn’t involved in assessing real threats, and we paid for the darn thing.  If this is the I&A work product, I’d rather they count paper clips.  Via WashTimes, here’s the GOP perspective:

Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the report “causes further concern that Congress needs to get to the bottom of exactly how DHS determines what intelligence products to distribute to law enforcement officials around the country.”

“Although we have evidence that some of the groups described in this and other DHS intelligence products are an active terror threat to our nation, I would be interested in knowing why this lexicon mentioning left-wing extremist groups was deemed inappropriate by DHS and recalled, yet a similar report focusing on veterans, antiabortion activists and anti-illegal immigration activists was fit for distribution and sent out by DHS to law enforcement agencies across the country.”

Watch it, Pete. You’re beginning to sound like some kind of rightwing extremist.

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S

o the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS/I&A) has looked at the right wing and assessed that it poses the most imminent terror threat to the U.S.  How then does it assess the radical left?

In short, they’re just a  bunch of cyber-pantywaists.

In a report titled very much like the controversial report on right-wing extremists, DHS looks at “the more prominent leftwing groups within the animal rights, environmental, and anarchist extremist movements” and finds that America is at risk … of cyber attacks.

DHS/I&A assesses that cyber attacks are attractive options to leftwing extremists who view attacks on economic targets as aligning with their nonviolent, “no-harm” doctrine and tactic of “direct action.” (emphasis added)

The companion report on the rightwing went back nearly 20 years to cite examples of real action by the militias, but this report does not mention any leftists with “violent, harm doctrines.”  Ted Kaczynski isn’t mentioned, nor is the Weather Underground, which would be pretty hard to overlook given Bill Ayres’ prominence in the presidential campaign.  Also not mentioned are the violent leftists from Puerto Rico’s liberation movement, which got a pretty pointed message in FBI Director Louis Freeh’s 2001 testimony to Congress on domestic terror:

Acts of terrorism continue to be perpetrated, however, by violent separatists in Puerto Rico. Three acts of terrorism and one suspected act of terrorism have taken place in various Puerto Rican locales during the past three years. These acts, including the March 1998 bombing of a super-aqueduct project in Arecibo, the bombings of bank offices in Rio Piedras and Santa Isabel in June 1998, and the bombing of a highway in Hato Rey, remain under investigation. The extremist Puerto Rican separatist group Los Macheteros is suspected in each of these attacks.

Instead, the report mentions three incidents between 2005 and 2007 when leftwing animal rights whackos hacked into computers, launched email attacks or overwhelmed servers, targeting companies that were related in one way or another to animal testing.  And we are duly cautioned:

DHS/I&A judges that the cyber attack option will become increasingly attractive to leftwing extremists as companies’ reliance on cyber technologies grows.  DHS/I&A also assesses that these extremists will improve their cyber attack capabilities by keeping pace with emerging technologies and overcoming countermesasures that develop over the period of this assessment.

Duck and cover!  Even the readily prone to violent anarchists don’t get much attention in the report.  In its appendix on leftwing extremists, it says of the groups:

Anarchist groups seek abolition of social, political, and economic hierarchies, incluidng Western’style governments and large business enterprises, and frequently advocate criminal actions of varying scale and scope to accomplish their goals.

That’s it.  You know, if I recall correctly, al-Qaeda frequently advocates criminal actions of varying scale and scope to accomplish theri goals.  But don’t worry about the anarchists; DHS just lumps them in with the animal lovers in a big, happy non-violent movement of cyber losers.

Not mentioned anywhere in the report is the Earth Liberation Front’s attacks on homes, resorts, forestry research centers and construction sites.  The group has burned millions of dollars in property, destroyed the valuable work of forest scientists and continuously put lives at risk.  That the haven’t killed anyone yet is a testament to luck, not a non-violent doctrine.

Contrasting the rightwing and leftwing reports, we see a hyper-awareness of risk from the right and a passive blowing off of risk from the left.  This could be passed off as an accurate assessment of the two movements, but before we make that call, let’s go back to Freeh’s testimony:

Anarchists and extremist socialist groups — many of which, such as the Workers’ World Party, Reclaim the Streets, and Carnival Against Capitalism — have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States. For example, anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused much of the damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle. …

A distinct but related [to ALF, the Animal Liberation Front] group, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), claimed responsibility for the arson fires set at a Vail, Colorado, ski resort in October 1998 that destroyed eight separate structures and caused $12 million dollars in damages. In a communique issued after the fires, ELF claimed that the fires were in retaliation for the resort’s planned expansion that would destroy the last remaining habitat in Colorado for the lynx. Eight of the terrorist incidents occurring in the United States during 1999 have been attributed to either ALF or ELF. Several additional acts committed during 2000 and 2001 are currently being reviewed for possible designation as terrorist incidents.

I realize that the report I read focuses on the radical left’s cyber capabilities and that there may be another assessment into their more violent efforts. DHS/I&A does’t list its studies on its page of the DHS site.  But this is the document that suddenly became available yesterday as criticism of the DHS/I&S assessment of rightwing extremists took off, so I’m assuming it’s the best they’ve got.

Neither report focuses on a major threat to America.  The rightwing extremist report is just leftist paranoia; it has very little evidence within it.  The leftwing report details a more imminent threat, but says it’s just some corporate computers that are at risk.

I suggest DHS/I&A spend its time and our money on more meaningful research into threats against America.  They could start by reading Violent Islamic Extremism, the Internet, and the Home Grown Terrorist Threat, a report of the Senate’s homeland security committee.  Here’s the very first paragraph of that report:

This is the first in a series of reports by the Majority and Minority staff of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Committee) on the threat of homegrown terrorism inspired by violent Islamist extremism. The Committee initiated an investigation into this threat during the 109th Congress under the leadership of Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME). The first hearing on the homegrown threat considered the potential for radicalization in U.S. prisons, including an examination of the activities of Kevin Lamar James, an American citizen. While in prison, James adopted a variant of violent Islamist ideology, founded an organization known as the Assembly for Authentic Islam (or JIS, the Arabic initials for the group), and began converting fellow prisoners to his cause. Upon release, James recruited members of JIS to commit at least 11 armed robberies, the proceeds from which were to be used to finance attacks against military installations and other targets in southern California. James and another member of the group eventually pled guilty to conspiring to wage war against the United States.

And it just keeps on intensifying from there.  The contrast between what’s in the Senate report and what’s in the DHS/I&A report on rightwing extremism plays up just how bad the latter report was – hysteric, biased and, most frighteningly, indicative that DHS has its priorities all wrong. 

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I

was in LA all day … well, driving to and from, and in LA, so I got an earful of talk radio reports on the DHS “right-wing extremism” report with no keyboard at the ready, so here I find myself trying to figure out how to write about something that already generates nearly 20,000 hits on Google’s blog search.

That’s part of it: Those 20,000 blog hits mean this report won’t sink into a sea of media inattention, as would have happened a few years back, and that’s very good, indeed.

Anyone who didn’t see this coming doesn’t understand “progressive” thought, because the movement, to which our president subscribes, is all about repressing and vilifying those who don’t align with the carefully defined groupthink.  We saw enough of it during the Bush years, but back then their charges and actions couldn’t gain real traction since they were out of power.  But now that Congress and the White House are progressive, they have all the traction they need.

You’ve read it elsewhere, but allow a quick venting:  Veterans who fought for America are now enemies of America who need to be watched?!  Law enforcement also better watch people who reject federal authority?!  How much federal authority, precisely, needs to be rejected?  Just excessive new federal authority, or do we get busted for not currying to good ol’ FDR-era overstepping?  The report’s not clear, so we’re not in the clear. Opposing unabated abortion or immigration might be a sign of right-wing radicalism?!  Sorry, Bub, but last time I checked, I wasn’t plotting the radical fall of our country even though I seem to fit the profile.

I have a confession to make.  That’s my car there, with the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag on the back.  Just arrest me and throw away the key.  I’m obviously not a patriot.

Well, enough ranting.  Here’s the thing:  We cannot allow the authors of this report and those who delegated it and signed off on it to slink about in protective anonymity.  We need to know if the perpetrators of this Obamination are direct Obama appointees, and if so, what else they are working on.  We need to know if the report was prioritized over reports on more significant threats, like, you know, jihadists or maybe that radical legalize pot bunch … if they could ever get their act together, they could be really dangerous.  (But you could stop them with Twinkies and Doritos.)

The GOP can’t be afraid of this issue; they must push for release of documents and identification of the perps, because Lord knows, the NY Times, which was so intent to debilitate our foreign surveillance programs and out Scooter Libby, won’t.

Hot Air offers up a couple names for this phenomenon of expansive liberal fascism:  fauxrage and Obamateurisms.  I don’t think so.  My rage isn’t faux, any less than their rage at Bush was faux, and this isn’t amateur; it’s just the letting loose of the progressive hounds.

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D

o you think you’ll hear much about this on the floor of the UN the next time the regularly scheduled Israel-bashing session comes up on the calendar?

A Palestinian attacker wielding an axe has killed an Israeli boy and wounded another in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, police say.

The incident took place in the Bat Ayin settlement south of Bethlehem. The attacker is reported to have escaped.

Doctors said the fatality was a 13-year-old, while a seven-year-old boy was being treated for serious wounds.

The military wing of Islamic Jihad and Imad Mughniyeh Group said they carried out the attack, Israel Radio reports. (BBC)

Barbarians! 

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T

errorists … no wait, let me look up the right word … uh, man-caused disaster causers … may soon be released by our Atty Gen onto our shores, in a move that’s just sure to increase our safety.  (Why didn’t Bush think of that?  He was sooo concerned about terror … uh, man-caused disasters.)  Here’s the report:

Some of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners could be released into the United States while others could be put on trial in the American court system, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday. …

Holder told reporters at the Justice Department that the administration’s review, made on a case-by-case basis, would determine whether the prisoners need to be put on trial or whether they can be released.

“For those who are in that second category, who can be released, there are a variety of options that we have. Among them is the possibility that we could release them into this country,” he said. (Reuters)

That’s such a swell idea!  We can show them our way of life and how open and tolerant we are, and it’s just sure as fleas on dogs to win them over to our side, where they’ll be nice, complacent citizens contributing to the national well-being.

Or they just might blow a bunch of us up.

Tough call – but apparently an easier call for Holder to make than the call to keep open the one place on the planet that’s perfect for these thugs, Guantanamo.  And if the Islamists every stop their war against us and agree to live in peace, we can let them go, just like we let go of our German, Italian and Japanese prisoners when WWII ended.

hat-tip: Infidels are Cool

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H

ere’s a headline you don’t see every day:

 Gunmen shoot Sri Lanka cricketers

But it’s not really surprising, given that the cricketers were on their way to Gaddafi Stadium.  In Pakistan.  Two plus two equals Islamist terrorists bent on jihad, and indeed the attack this morning on the Sri Lankan team, which was touring Pakistan after India’s team pulled out for security reasons, had the look and feel of the Mumbai attacks.  BBC:

Pakistani officials said about 12 gunmen were involved and grenades and rocket launchers have been recovered.

Officials said the incident bore similarities to deadly attacks in Mumbai in India last November.

Reports suggest 10 to 12 gunmen ambushed the team coach and its accompanying police detail on the Liberty Square roundabout in the heart of Lahore, as the convoy was on the way to the Gaddafi stadium for a Test match.

No terrorists were apprehended.  Five Pakistani police officers and the bus driver – who the cricketers described as heroic, saving their lives by continuing to drive under the hail of lethal bullets - were killed.  Ten Sri Lankan team members and coaches were injured, two seriously enough to be hospitalized.

One Pakistani official sought to shift blame away from Islamist jihadists, claiming without evidence that India was behind the attacks, in retaliation for the Mumbai attacks.  No word on why the Indians would have been so stupid as to kill Sri Lankan cricketers instead of Pakistani jihadists.

Inone of the greater understatements of the jihadist war against civilization, International Cricket Council president David Morgan said it would be “very difficult for international cricket to be hosted in Pakistan for quite some time to come.”  Indeed, it will be very difficult for the international community to consider Pakistan to be a country in control of itself for some time to come.

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Lawfare

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‘ve been doing a bit of Facebook “wallfare” over Guantamo with liberal blogger Dan Chmielewski.  He knee-jerks on the subject, seeing Gitmo as a blight on America’s honor, without giving much more thought to the consequences of closing it other than disputing the recent report that 61 detainees released from Gitmo have been identified to be back at work trying to advance jihadism. Dan probably wouldn’t agree with this assessment of Gitmo, from a post on Civilian Irregular:

Our Nation is at war, and JTF-Guantanamo serves as an integral component of OPERATION Enduring Freedom. We are the model organization for safe and humane enemy combatant detention operations, and for the collection and dissemination of strategic intelligence supporting the Global War on Terror. We operate under the watchful gaze of the Nation and the world. We are a strategic asset operated by a highly trained and patriotic team of military and civilian professionals, dedicated to supporting our Nation’s interests in the Global War on Terror.

The post goes on to describe two reasons for keeping detainees at Gitmo. The first is gaining intelligence, which we all can understand and which has been written about ad nauseum from all sides of the political spectrum. The other is lawism, a new term for me.

If it weren’t for lawfare we could execute them when their intelligence value has been exhausted. Lawfare, according to Colonel Charles Dunlap,

describes a method of warfare where law is used as a means of realizing a military objective. There are many dimensions to lawfare, but the one ever more frequently embraced by U.S. opponents is a cynical manipulation of the rule of law and the humanitarian values it represents. Rather than seeking battlefield victories, per se, challengers try to destroy the will to fight by undermining the public support that is indispensable when democracies like the U.S. conduct military interventions.”

We are struggling to find a way to combat lawfare without either providing terrorists with information they should not have, or stepping on the rights of American citizens.  We don’t have the solution, and we shouldn’t be forced to close Gitmo because of political deadlines until we have a viable lawfare strategy – and a strategy to keep ourselves safe from the damage these vicious animals can foist on us. Continue Reading »

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