Debka:
Obama thaw on Israeli settlement construction follows Iran setback, Saudi brush-off
The Obama administration signalled a new mood of compromise on settlement construction just ahead of the key talks in New York between Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak and prime minister's adviser Yitzhak Molcho and US envoy George Mitchell Tuesday, June 30.
While the Israeli delegation was still airborne, the US state department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We've been working with all the parties to try and come up with... an environment conducive to the resumption of negotiations. I'm not going to prejudge what happens tomorrow."
Asked by reporters if that meant the US administration was ready to compromise and accept a suspension of settlement activity instead of a total halt, Kelly said that some level of flexibility was part of the negotiation process.
"Working our way to our resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to compromise. Let's just see what happens."
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "I don't want to get ahead of some very important meetings tomorrow between Ehud Barak and George Mitchell, except to say that we're optimistic about making progress."
DEBKAfile's political analysts attribute this large crack in US president Barack Obama's unswerving push for a total halt on settlement activity on the West Bank to four new developments:
1. The prospect of direct US-Iranian dialogue on the nuclear issue has vanished into the blue yonder as relations go from bad to worse in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election. A tough US stance against Israel as a bargaining chip with Iran is no longer relevant.
2. Saudi Arabia has made it clear that even if the Netanyahu government surrenders to the US demand for a total halt in settlement activity, Arab concessions will not be forthcoming. There will be no visas for Israeli tourists or permission for Israeli airliners heading east to transit Saudi skies.
The Obama administration had factored Arab reciprocity into its campaign to halt Israel's settlement activity. When it was denied, the White House saw no point in continuing to lean on Israel.
3. More and more former Bush administration officials are challenging the administration's insistent denial of Bush administration understandings with Israel on settlement expansion to accommodate natural growth. These officials emphasize that the understandings exist both orally and in writing.
4. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, backed by government and popular majority, stuck to his guns and resisted Barack Obama's demand to halt settlement activity of any kind.
Monday, June 29, the Washington Post offered three reasons for the White House's decision to ease up on its "absolutist" position:
"First, it has allowed Palestinian and Arab leaders to withhold the steps they were asked for… Second, the administration's objective… is unobtainable… No Israeli government has ever agreed to an unconditional freeze and no coalition could be assembled… to impose one. Finally, the extraction of a freeze from Netanyahu is, as a practical matter unnecessary… both the Palestinian Authority and Arab governments have gone along with previous US-Israeli deals by which construction was to be limited to inside the periphery of settlements near Israel - since everyone knows those areas will be annexed to Israel in a final settlement…"
In view of the US administration's newfound flexibility on the settlement issue, Israeli government circles see the tables turned and the American squeeze deflected to coercing the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table.
Egypt has set July 7 as the deadline for the warring Palestinian factions - Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and the Islamist Hamas which rules Gaza - to get their act together and achieve a united national front ahead of peace talks with Israel.
Netanyahu, after accepting the two-state principle, pulling Israeli troops out of four Palestinian towns, thinning out West Bank roadblocks and making his point to Washington on the settlement freeze, is ready to invite the opposition Kadima party and its leader, Tzipi Livni, to join a national unity government under his rule.
Foreign minister Avigdor Liebermann and his nationalist Israeli Beitenu party might present an obstacle. Therefore, some political circles in Jerusalem assign the anonymous leak to the media Monday, June 29, which cited French president Nicolas Sarkozy as bluntly advising Netanyahu when they met at the Elysee last week to get rid of Avigdor Lieberman and replace him with Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, as a prod for Lieberman to step aside.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence
Debka:
First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence
Millions of sympathizers around the world looked forward to seeing Iran's protest movement using the Internet for the first online coup in history. Instead, the Iranian Islamic regime turned the tables: Its Internet police, arguably the largest in the world, pushed "control," "halt," "delete" and "send" buttons to activate a deadly weapon for suppressing the movement, as soon as it took to the streets to protest the June 12 election which was believed to have given Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a false victory.
By Sunday, June 28, when the Guardian Council was to hand down its final verdict on their complaints, the street rallies had petered out.
Part of the reason, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report, was their organizers' heavy reliance on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social sites to orchestrate their protest movement. They did not at first appreciate that Iranian intelligence Internet experts, operating from secret headquarters established months ago, were using their communications to shoot them down.
According to our sources, that headquarters is located at the telecom center on Sepah (Khomenei) Square in Tehran. It was built for the Shah in the 1970s by the Israel construction contractors Solel Boneh and designed by Israeli intelligence and telecommunications experts.
The high-end apparatus, installed in late 2008 by the German Siemens AG and Finnish Nokia Corp. cell phone giant, gave Iranian intelligence the most advanced tools anywhere for controlling, inspecting, censoring and altering Internet and cell phone messaging. Those tools were being used weeks before the poll to identify penetrations by alien spy services, their local agents and dissident activists.
This system is capable of conducting "deep packet inspection" of every type of text and video communication in all parts of Iran on three tracks:
1. Like other advanced electronic spy systems in the world, this one uses such keywords as attack, weapons, cash, data, explosives, meeting, demonstration, resistance, protest, etc. to alert Iran within milliseconds to feeds of interest by computer or phone - mail, signals or visuals.
In a flash, intelligence analysts get a fix on the sender and the electronic addressee which are then placed on a surveillance list for further monitoring. Once identified, the sender or receiver and their connections are closely shadowed by field agents.
2. By "deep packet inspection," the secret controllers can cause delays in online data transfers, which surfers may attribute to glitches connected with their providers. The more targets under surveillance, the more online transfers are slowed down.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the day after the presidential poll and resulting street outbreaks, Iran's Internet control and tracking supervisors took over the 10 leading service providers in the country. Their first action was to slow down incoming and outgoing cyber traffic from 1,500 to 54 kilobytes to make sure that not a single byte by Internet or cell phone to or from protest leaders escaped their notice.
Tehran has vented its ire on Britain because it is accused of providing the organizers of the dissident movement with London telephone numbers to circumvent the deliberate slowdown of online traffic from inside the country. These numbers gave anti-government activists instant, direct links through Western Internet providers for getting their messages out to the world. Iran suspects they were laid on by British intelligence.
Eventually, the British lines became jammed by overload.
3. Iranian intelligence made cynical use of the large amount of electronic and personal data accumulated on anti-regime elements. Instead of detaining their prey at once, Iranian intelligence invaded their computers and cell phones to plant false leads for smoking unsuspecting activists out in the open and keeping them under inspection.
Within a few days of their protest, Mir Hossein Mousavi and the bulk of his supporters, realizing their electronic campaign had been taken over by the regime to hunt them down, disappeared from the streets of Tehran.
Wednesday, June 24, when the extent of the damage the Iranian Internet invasion had inflicted on American interests was brought home to him, US secretary of defense Robert Gates ordered a special cyber defense system set up to protect the US armed forces' 15,000 Web sites, which encompass seven million computers. Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, was put in charge of getting the new system up and running by the end of 2010.
Tuesday, June 23, a group of US senators led by the Republic presidential candidate John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman initiated legislation to fund a cyber defense system capable of combating Internet assaults like the one mounted by the Iranian government.
First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence
Millions of sympathizers around the world looked forward to seeing Iran's protest movement using the Internet for the first online coup in history. Instead, the Iranian Islamic regime turned the tables: Its Internet police, arguably the largest in the world, pushed "control," "halt," "delete" and "send" buttons to activate a deadly weapon for suppressing the movement, as soon as it took to the streets to protest the June 12 election which was believed to have given Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a false victory.
By Sunday, June 28, when the Guardian Council was to hand down its final verdict on their complaints, the street rallies had petered out.
Part of the reason, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report, was their organizers' heavy reliance on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social sites to orchestrate their protest movement. They did not at first appreciate that Iranian intelligence Internet experts, operating from secret headquarters established months ago, were using their communications to shoot them down.
According to our sources, that headquarters is located at the telecom center on Sepah (Khomenei) Square in Tehran. It was built for the Shah in the 1970s by the Israel construction contractors Solel Boneh and designed by Israeli intelligence and telecommunications experts.
The high-end apparatus, installed in late 2008 by the German Siemens AG and Finnish Nokia Corp. cell phone giant, gave Iranian intelligence the most advanced tools anywhere for controlling, inspecting, censoring and altering Internet and cell phone messaging. Those tools were being used weeks before the poll to identify penetrations by alien spy services, their local agents and dissident activists.
This system is capable of conducting "deep packet inspection" of every type of text and video communication in all parts of Iran on three tracks:
1. Like other advanced electronic spy systems in the world, this one uses such keywords as attack, weapons, cash, data, explosives, meeting, demonstration, resistance, protest, etc. to alert Iran within milliseconds to feeds of interest by computer or phone - mail, signals or visuals.
In a flash, intelligence analysts get a fix on the sender and the electronic addressee which are then placed on a surveillance list for further monitoring. Once identified, the sender or receiver and their connections are closely shadowed by field agents.
2. By "deep packet inspection," the secret controllers can cause delays in online data transfers, which surfers may attribute to glitches connected with their providers. The more targets under surveillance, the more online transfers are slowed down.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the day after the presidential poll and resulting street outbreaks, Iran's Internet control and tracking supervisors took over the 10 leading service providers in the country. Their first action was to slow down incoming and outgoing cyber traffic from 1,500 to 54 kilobytes to make sure that not a single byte by Internet or cell phone to or from protest leaders escaped their notice.
Tehran has vented its ire on Britain because it is accused of providing the organizers of the dissident movement with London telephone numbers to circumvent the deliberate slowdown of online traffic from inside the country. These numbers gave anti-government activists instant, direct links through Western Internet providers for getting their messages out to the world. Iran suspects they were laid on by British intelligence.
Eventually, the British lines became jammed by overload.
3. Iranian intelligence made cynical use of the large amount of electronic and personal data accumulated on anti-regime elements. Instead of detaining their prey at once, Iranian intelligence invaded their computers and cell phones to plant false leads for smoking unsuspecting activists out in the open and keeping them under inspection.
Within a few days of their protest, Mir Hossein Mousavi and the bulk of his supporters, realizing their electronic campaign had been taken over by the regime to hunt them down, disappeared from the streets of Tehran.
Wednesday, June 24, when the extent of the damage the Iranian Internet invasion had inflicted on American interests was brought home to him, US secretary of defense Robert Gates ordered a special cyber defense system set up to protect the US armed forces' 15,000 Web sites, which encompass seven million computers. Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, was put in charge of getting the new system up and running by the end of 2010.
Tuesday, June 23, a group of US senators led by the Republic presidential candidate John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman initiated legislation to fund a cyber defense system capable of combating Internet assaults like the one mounted by the Iranian government.
Nuclear Attacks In The U.S.?
A very important and informative post from Atlas Shrugs:
There is much more. Go read the whole thing.
I am unclear as to why the government chooses to keep this from the American people. The easy answer is that "we don't want people to panic". Understood, but blissful ignorance is not a strategy; wouldn't we be better off knowing and educating ourselves as to who the enemy is, the ideology that motivates him and what is his objective?
Before you read on, bookmark this page: Atlas Shrugs: WHAT TO DO IF A NUCLEAR DISASTER IS IMMINENT.
While the following explosive revelations are unnerving, it pales in comparison to the recent moves Obama has taken to dismantle the very safeguards we have in place to track terrorists. Further, law enforcement is now focusing on outreach, not investigation. We extend a hand, they chop it off.
This from a confidential source of mine, Jan P:
I once had a client “The Rule of Law consortium” headed by the late David Braunheim. The rule of Law Consortium had an AID contract to help former Soviet countries establish new, Democratic legal systems.
I was in their office one day when they came back from a seminar given by a former KGB agent. This agent said that 10 or 12 suitcase nuclear bombs had disappeared from Russia and were presumed to be in the hands of the Arabs. This article from 1997 claims that 100 were missing. The date of the story, 1997, is about the time that I heard about the seminar.
JFK Terminal Plot
The second attempt that I know of is the JFK terrorist plot. When the plot was announced to the public, we were told that the terrorists planned to blow up fuel tanks at JFK and that the fire would spread through the pipelines into Brooklyn. I have had enough science classes (college level) to know that this could not possibly happen.
Reports mentioned an Arab terrorist named Shukrijumah. Shukrijumah’s name came up in some news reports. I did research and found references to him on the island of Trinidad. At least one of them had Shukrijumah talking about having a nuclear bomb on the north end of the island. Some of those sites have disappeared.
Gerard group has an excellent piece: Focus on the CaribbeanThe terrorist was last seen in Mexico, where, on Nov. 1, 2004, he allegedly hijacked a Piper PA Pawnee cropduster from Ejido Queretaro near Mexacli to transport a nuclear weapon and nuclear equipment into the U.S. The plane's tail number was XBCYP.
An indirect source in Ha’aretz Bitahon b’ Artzot habrit said that at least one nuclear bomb was captured in the JFK plot.
Another source, whom I know personally, told me that at least one nuclear bomb was captured as part of the JFK Plot.
The JFK bust was covered here at Atlas extensively.
Excerpt from Atlas:
"He had a vision that would make the WTC attack seem small."
Kennedy Airport Terror Plot Thwarted
The official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the pipeline. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.
These Islamic terrorists have been tentatively tied to Jamaat Muslimeen -- "struggle for Islam" -- originating from Trinidad (the Caribbean is now a hot spot.) Places you least expect.
The JFK terror mosque here.
It seems that a Parliamentarian was involved in this plot. Yes, a government official.
One suspect, a U.S. citizen who is a native of Guyana and who once worked at the airport, was described by a source as "a very angry Muslim extremist."
In all, four individuals, including the former Guyana parliament member, Abdul Kadir, and Russell
Defreitas, a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana who worked as an airport cargo worker, have been charged with conspiring to attack JFK. (Photo: Abdul Kadir - on the left)
Also in custody are Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad held in Trinidad, and Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana. The United States is planning to seek their extradition.
Roslynn Mauskopf, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York: "The most chilling plot imaginable." The damage and carnage impossible to fathom. The devastation that would be caused is just unthinkable."
Plot spread from NY to Guyana and Trinidad.
" Huge concern about the fuel line. The feeding tube that feeds international commerce, airport, residences." "The Buckeye Pipeline (orginates from Allentown Pa.), a 40 million fuel line, runs from New Jersey to Nassau (JFK) ......" It is the central fuel line.
"This plot similar and different to ones in the past (the Lincoln tunnel planned blow up, the '93 stock exchange plot, the Financial District plot) . It is different as it is tied to the Caribbean. Similiar in that it is a self radicalized New Yorker plotting to betray his country with a catastrophic event."
The plot began in the US and then spread to Trinidad and Guyana, officials said.
The group had shown unusual persistence, seeking finance and expert advice and gathering photographic and video surveillance as well as satellite images, said Mr Mershon.
"This is a very determined group," he said.
"Look at the world through the eyes, through the prism of September 11th."One of the suspects (Defreitas - sp?) was quoted as saying: "the attacks would result in the destruction of the whole of JFK and destroy whole parts of Queens. Few people would survive."
"Even the twin towers can't touch it. This would destroy the whole US economy"
The complaint adds that an informant and Defreitas discussed the war in Lebanon in August 2006 and agreed, "Muslims always incur the wrath of the world while the Jews get a pass."
It was at that point, court records say, Defreitas shared with the informant "that he had a vision that would make the WTC attack seem small."
Jamaat Muslimeen (in Trinidad) is the terror group behind the JFK plot
Jihad In Trinidad INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 1/23/2007
FEDS TARGET NUKE PHANTOM NY Post
Al Qaeda's so-called nuclear whiz kid - a "tantalizing terror figure" with a $5 million bounty on his head - was the radical big shot investigators had hoped to snag in their 18-month JFK-plot probe, The Post has learned.
The name of "invisible hand" Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, reportedly the man Osama bin Laden tapped to lead a previous scheme to detonate nuclear bombs simultaneously in several U.S. cities, came up at several points in taped conversations during the probe, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
Shukrijumah grew up in Guyana, according to terror expert and author Paul L. Williams. Shukrijumah's late father, Gulshair, an Islamic scholar, once served as a temporary imam at Brooklyn's al-Farouq mosque, which is well-known in radical circles, Williams said.
The mosque has connections to a scheme to fund an al Qaeda-linked sheik as well as one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.
[...]
Some terror experts think 31-year-old Shukrijumah is among a handful of up-and-coming leaders of al Qaeda handpicked by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, to keep the terrorist network running.
Apparently hoping to be part of that network was suspected JFK-plot mastermind Russell Defreitas, 63.
Defreitas, a native of Guyana and former cargo worker at the airport, landed on the authorities' radar after approaching a drug dealer-turned-informant at a mosque at Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, allegedly seeking help.
[...]
Kareem Ibrahim, of Trinidad, and another suspect, Abdul Kadir, of Guyana, were in custody in Trinidad awaiting extradition hearings. Kadir is a former mayor of the Guyanese coal-mining town of Linden and a one-time radical member of the country's parliament.
Kadir was arrested as he boarded the plane to Venezuela - where his family said he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic religious conference in Iran.
ADNAN EL-SHUKRIJUMAH LAST SEEN IN TRINIDAD
Adnan el-Shukrijumah: The man commissioned to nuke U.S.
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah is a Saudi terror suspect with a $5 million bounty on his head. The FBI has been hunting him for over three years. He has been billed as the “next Mohammed Atta.”Adnan Shukrijunah the son of Saudi funded Wahabi cleric in Miramar, Florida USA was named by US law enforcement as 'Mohammed Atta's sucessor' based on information from Khalid Sheik Mohammed the 9/11 mastermind who was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Adnan is a former resident of Miramar, South Florida, where he attended computer and English classes at Broward Community College in 1997. A native of Guyana, El Shukrijumah's father, Gulshai, died in Miramar on June 2004.
Being the father of an aspiring dirty bomber with terrorist ties to terrorist going back 20 years, and having one's name on the Saudi payroll appears to have been a job asset for Adnan Shukrijumah's father Gulshair. After the Al Hirjah mosque next to his Miramar home supposedly asked him to step down, due to unwanted publicity, Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, the director of AMANA- The American Muslim Society of North America, ,and a Shukrijumah family friend offered "the Sheik' a place on the board of directors of the Shamshuddin Islamic Center.
In 2003 Gulshair intimated that losing his $500 dollar a month position as Imam at Al Hijrah would bring financial hardship to him and his family. He sniveled to the press that "I feel very said because I have done no wrong", and declared that "if my son is suspect in something it does not mean that I too am also suspect."
According to Michael Isikoff's and Mark Hosenball's April 2004 Newsweek investigative articles into Saudi government terror funding:
"The Florida based Imam (Gulshair Shukrijumah), has been on the FBI radar screen for some time."
"In response to the U.S. calls for tighter controls the Saudi government terminated payments to Gulshair El Shukrijumah, along with a number of other clerics being supported by the embassy."
Gulshair Shukrijumah collected $19,400 dollars in checks from the Saudi embassy between 2000 and 2003 . He also acted as interpreter for the 'Blind Sheik' Omar Abdel Rahman who masterminded the 1993 WTC bombings, as well as plots to bomb other U.S. landmarks, and instigated attacks abroad.
Shukrijumah, described as a pilot and bombmaker, and is also known by several aliases and nicknames, including "Jaffar the Pilot”, was among several suspected al-Qaeda figures who met in the northwestern province of Waziristan in Pakistan during March 2004, according to the Los Angeles Times and other publications. Pakistani officials said that meeting also was attended by Osama bin Laden lieutenant Abu Eisa al Hindi, an Indian convert to radical Islam and surveillance specialist living in Britain, Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani-American who arrived at the summit with cash, sleeping bags and ponchos and communications engineer Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, whose computer discs allegedly contained surveillance reports for a planned attack on buildings in the United States and Britain.
Accoridng to the FBI Report, two of the suspects arrested, Abdul Kadir & Abdel Nur, were members of Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM), based in Trinidad. Implicated in the JFK terror plot Jamaat Muslimeen LEADER YASIN ABU BAKR -
Yasin Abu Bakr when he bailed out of Trinidad jail, same bodyguard with the beard seen in both photos.
TERRORIST YASIN ABU BAKER TO GO ON TRIAL IN TRINIDAD ON JUNE 11TH 2007 The Guardian
JAMAAT al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr is expected go on trial later this month on terrorism and sedition charges. Bakr has been charged with sedition, promoting a terrorist act and inciting others to breach the peace stemming from his November 2005 Eid sermon at his Mucurapo mosque.
Case facts:
- Bakr charged with sedition and terrorism.
- Trial to start with legal submissions.
AL-QAEDA IN TRINIDAD LEADER YASIN ABU BAKR
Cops seize grenade, gun, ammo at Jamaat Muslimeen compound
Nov. 2005
Government's drastic anti-crime initiative paid off yesterday, when a large contingent of police and army officers from the Special Anti-crime Unit (SAUTT) and other sections of the Police Service raided the Jamaat al Muslimeen compound at Mucurapo Road.Washington DC, within the last two years
The same source as above told me about this attempt to attack Washington, DC with a nuclear bomb. Authorities got word about a plan to fly a bomb into the airport on Tangier Island and sent out a team to intercept the attack. There was a shootout at the airport. The terrorists were killed and the bomb captured. Tangier Island is in the Chesapeake bay about 90 miles south of Washington, DC.
My source said that her/his source was involved in the shootout and killed one of the terrorists.
Another source, involved with law enforcement, who would not put it in writing, was able to confirm the story. (This source also said that if Americans knew what was going on, they would panic.) An old friend with “connections” said that incidents occur that are immediately classified secret. He said that if the general population knew, there would be panic.
Boston
I saw a few stories about a failed nuclear bomb attempt on the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004 on the Internet. They, like so many other stories of this type, have disappeared. I mentioned this to an investigative reporter. He replied:
The incident in 2004 was at the Dems convention, not the GOP convention – and it involved a friend of mine.
He went on to tell me that the bomb was a dud and did not go off.
There is much more. Go read the whole thing.
I've Got A New Blog
I've headed it The Most Destructive Single Cause and it's about (now who would have thought so regarding the title?) feminism and a spawn of my two other blogs The Editrix' Roncesvalles and The Evil Style Queen. I am not a Renaissance polymath and I have found that if I try to cover too many topics at once it doesn't become a coherent overview of the woes of our times but an unstructured mess. I have weeded those posts that are germane to the topic of the new blog, even if only peripherally so, from my other blogs and put it there to give the new effort some substance to start with. Roncesvalles will now focus on the Islamisation of the West and its related phenomena,The Evil Style Queen's focus will return to, well, style. Feminism permeates every single aspect of our daily life and thus needs dedicated analysis and not just some blog entries, which are soon drowned by a flood of other information or laments.
Thanks to Blogger, one of the most unfairly badmouthed organisations on earth, for the excellent import- and export functionality without which I couldn't have done this.
Thanks to Blogger, one of the most unfairly badmouthed organisations on earth, for the excellent import- and export functionality without which I couldn't have done this.
Dems Cap & Tax Bill Requires All Homes to Meet Eco-Standards Before They Can Be Sold
From Gateway Pundit:
If you were thinking of selling your home, you might as well forget about it.
You'll have to spend thousands to help battle the global warming hoax first.
Under the new democratic cap and trade legislation all US homes will have to meet strict government eco-standards before they can be sold. This will cost homeowners thousands of dollars before the home can even be put up for sale.
CNS News reported, via Free Republic:The 1,400-page cap-and-trade legislation pushed through by House Democrats contains a new federal policy that residential, commercial, and government buildings be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency, leaving it up to the states to figure out exactly how to do that.More... 56% of Americans don't want to spend more on energy costs to green the environment.
This means that homeowners, for example, could be required to retrofit their homes to meet federal “green” guidelines in order to sell their homes, if the cap-and-trade bill becomes law.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a national policy for residential and commercial buildings. The purpose of such a strategy – known as the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) – would be to “facilitate” the retrofitting of existing buildings nationwide.
“The Administrator shall develop and implement, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, standards for a national energy and environmental building retrofit policy for single-family and multi-family residences,” the bill reads.
It continues: “The purpose of the REEP program is to facilitate the retrofitting of existing buildings across the United States.”
The bill leaves the definition of a retrofit and the details of the REEP program up to the EPA. However, states are responsible for ensuring that the government’s plans are carried out, whatever the final details may entail.
“States shall maintain responsibility for meeting the standards and requirements of the REEP program,” the bill says.
6 Mousavi supporters reportedly hanged
Jerusalem Post:
6 Mousavi supporters reportedly hanged
By SABINA AMIDI, SPECIAL TO THE JERUSALEM POST
As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Speaking after Iran's top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.
Underlining the climate of fear among direct and even indirect supporters of Mousavi's campaign for the election to be annulled, the sources also reported that a prominent cleric gave a speech to opposition protesters in Teheran earlier this week in which he publicly acknowledged that the very act of speaking at the gathering would likely cost him his life.
"Ayatollah Hadi Gafouri said that the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] never wanted [current supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei to succeed him. He even went to say that the Islamic republic died the day the Imam did," one source said.
Other criticisms from senior clerics over the regime's handling of the elections and subsequent protests included a report from a Persian news agency, which on Tuesday quoted a senior cleric from the city of Esfahan, Ayatollah Seyyed Jalaleddin Taheri-Esfahani, defending Mousavi against the regime's criticisms.
The ayatollah was quoted as saying: "Is it a case of justice to see that an honorable and modest Seyyed [a descendant of the household of the prophet Muhammad], who until the last moments of Khomeini's life was a dear and close companion of that grand leader, is now considered to be a rioter and an agent of arrogance who must be punished?"
On Monday, witnesses said thousands of policemen and Basij militiamen carrying batons were deployed in Teheran's main squares to prevent any recurrence of the opposition protests. Drivers who so much as shouted "Allahu Akbar" or beeped their horns had their windows smashed by the Basiji and riot police.
Women police, better known as the Sisters of Zeynab, are also now out in force, the witnesses said.
"Some people are still going out into the streets, but there is despair and sadness," said one source. "Now we are told that [pro-Mousavi] green bands are illegal, which is ironic because it symbolizes the color of Islam."
On Monday, the daughter of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, spoke a gathering of opposition protesters in Teheran's Enqelab Square, sources said. "Mrs. Faezeh Hashemi arrived and tried to give the people some words of encouragement," said one, "but the police broke up the rally within minutes."
He added, "My nephew saw one of these Sisters of Zeynab beat down an elderly woman with no mercy. When he tried to intervene, saying to her, 'Miss, she is like your grandmother,' the woman turned around to get a Basiji to deal with him."
Mousavi's Facebook page is still carrying messages aimed at quashing the notion that he is caving in. "He did not give in to the Guardians Council," runs one new message. "Mir Hossein Mousavi is not under house arrest, he is not about to leave the country, he is under strong pressure to end this, but he always said he will stand up for the people's will to the end! He is from and with the people."
Amid the talk of despair and quashed protests, one defiant reformist supporter told this reporter: "The regime wants the world to think they have won. Don't believe it... Even if this regime is about to collapse, they would not let anybody know until their final hour."
6 Mousavi supporters reportedly hanged
By SABINA AMIDI, SPECIAL TO THE JERUSALEM POST
As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Speaking after Iran's top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.
Underlining the climate of fear among direct and even indirect supporters of Mousavi's campaign for the election to be annulled, the sources also reported that a prominent cleric gave a speech to opposition protesters in Teheran earlier this week in which he publicly acknowledged that the very act of speaking at the gathering would likely cost him his life.
"Ayatollah Hadi Gafouri said that the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] never wanted [current supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei to succeed him. He even went to say that the Islamic republic died the day the Imam did," one source said.
Other criticisms from senior clerics over the regime's handling of the elections and subsequent protests included a report from a Persian news agency, which on Tuesday quoted a senior cleric from the city of Esfahan, Ayatollah Seyyed Jalaleddin Taheri-Esfahani, defending Mousavi against the regime's criticisms.
The ayatollah was quoted as saying: "Is it a case of justice to see that an honorable and modest Seyyed [a descendant of the household of the prophet Muhammad], who until the last moments of Khomeini's life was a dear and close companion of that grand leader, is now considered to be a rioter and an agent of arrogance who must be punished?"
On Monday, witnesses said thousands of policemen and Basij militiamen carrying batons were deployed in Teheran's main squares to prevent any recurrence of the opposition protests. Drivers who so much as shouted "Allahu Akbar" or beeped their horns had their windows smashed by the Basiji and riot police.
Women police, better known as the Sisters of Zeynab, are also now out in force, the witnesses said.
"Some people are still going out into the streets, but there is despair and sadness," said one source. "Now we are told that [pro-Mousavi] green bands are illegal, which is ironic because it symbolizes the color of Islam."
On Monday, the daughter of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, spoke a gathering of opposition protesters in Teheran's Enqelab Square, sources said. "Mrs. Faezeh Hashemi arrived and tried to give the people some words of encouragement," said one, "but the police broke up the rally within minutes."
He added, "My nephew saw one of these Sisters of Zeynab beat down an elderly woman with no mercy. When he tried to intervene, saying to her, 'Miss, she is like your grandmother,' the woman turned around to get a Basiji to deal with him."
Mousavi's Facebook page is still carrying messages aimed at quashing the notion that he is caving in. "He did not give in to the Guardians Council," runs one new message. "Mir Hossein Mousavi is not under house arrest, he is not about to leave the country, he is under strong pressure to end this, but he always said he will stand up for the people's will to the end! He is from and with the people."
Amid the talk of despair and quashed protests, one defiant reformist supporter told this reporter: "The regime wants the world to think they have won. Don't believe it... Even if this regime is about to collapse, they would not let anybody know until their final hour."
Darkness at High Noon
This is getting to be a hot topic. Finally.
American Spectator
Darkness at High Noon
By Brett Joshpe on 7.1.09 @ 6:07AM
In recent weeks, I have attended two lectures that discussed what could be the greatest existential threat to the U.S: EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, attacks. Although an EMP attack would utilize conventional nuclear weapons, it is an infrequently discussed aspect of our nuclear policy, and one for which we are woefully unprepared. Furthermore, the potential effects highlight the gravity and immediacy of the rogue nuclear threat.
The way an EMP attack would work is as follows. An attacker would launch a nuclear weapon into orbit. However, rather than hitting American territory and obliterating a city with scorching flames, the weapon would detonate above the Earth's atmosphere. Instead of seeing a mushroom cloud upon impact, we would simply be left in the dark. Almost all forms of electricity, including cell phones and other battery-operated devices, would cease to work; airplanes would literally rain from the sky.
Unlike past blackouts, such as the one that occurred in the summer of 2003 and left much of the northeastern U.S. without electricity, the lights would not come back on for years potentially. The U.S. would be plunged into a primitive state in which people scrounged for food and water to survive. Money would be worthless, our economy would revert to bartering, and one's most valuable assets would be guns and ammunition.
So, how likely or plausible is this sort of attack? More so than we would like. In 2004, the Electromagnetic Pulse Commission, which Congress established, issued a Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack." It concluded that "EMP is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces." The Commission issued another report in 2008 in which it concluded that "The electromagnetic pulse generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."
On May 6, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States also issued a report in which it addressed EMP, saying, "We note also that the United States has done little to reduce its vulnerability to attack with electromagnetic pulse weapons and recommend that current investments in modernizing the national power grid take account of this risk." The report also stated that "Prior commissions have investigated U.S. vulnerabilities and found little activity under way to address them," and "EMP vulnerabilities have not yet been addressed effectively by the Department of Homeland Security. Doing so could take several years."
The 2008 Commission report recommended that "The Department of Homeland Security should add content to Web sites it maintains, such as www.Ready.gov." It appears, however, that the DHS has neglected to do so thus far. Instead, it has included a short description of potential EMP effects in its "Are you ready? An in-depth guide to citizen preparedness" report. In the report, it actually misleads citizens into thinking that EMP is virtually harmless, saying that "Although an EMP is unlikely to harm most people, it could harm those with pacemakers or other implanted electronic devices."
If all of this is not enough to wake up members of Congress and a seemingly unaware public, then recent activity by American adversaries should. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Russia, China, and other countries have "penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system."
Furthermore, Iran and North Korea recently conducted long-range missile tests, and North Korea may launch another missile soon in the direction of Hawaii. Military experts also believe that Iran is specifically simulating an EMP strike, and an Iranian military journalist recently said that "If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults then they will disintegrate within a few years."
All of this highlights the poor timing of Defense Secretary, Robert Gates' proposed $1.4 billion cut in missile defense spending. And while our government has done little to address the EMP threat to date, it is, by most accounts, something that we have the resources for which to prepare. While it would cost several billion dollars to achieve preparedness for an EMP attack, it would likely cost less than what the U.S. government has already wasted on General Motors and Chrysler. It requires, however, a public that is aware and which demands action from Congress and the administration. The time for that action is now.
Brett Joshpe is co-author, along with S.E. Cupp, of the recent book, Why You''re Wrong About the Right: Behind the Myths: The Surprising Truth About Conservatives (Simon & Schuster). He graduated from Harvard Law School and is currently General Counsel of The American Civics Exchange.
American Spectator
Darkness at High Noon
By Brett Joshpe on 7.1.09 @ 6:07AM
In recent weeks, I have attended two lectures that discussed what could be the greatest existential threat to the U.S: EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, attacks. Although an EMP attack would utilize conventional nuclear weapons, it is an infrequently discussed aspect of our nuclear policy, and one for which we are woefully unprepared. Furthermore, the potential effects highlight the gravity and immediacy of the rogue nuclear threat.
The way an EMP attack would work is as follows. An attacker would launch a nuclear weapon into orbit. However, rather than hitting American territory and obliterating a city with scorching flames, the weapon would detonate above the Earth's atmosphere. Instead of seeing a mushroom cloud upon impact, we would simply be left in the dark. Almost all forms of electricity, including cell phones and other battery-operated devices, would cease to work; airplanes would literally rain from the sky.
Unlike past blackouts, such as the one that occurred in the summer of 2003 and left much of the northeastern U.S. without electricity, the lights would not come back on for years potentially. The U.S. would be plunged into a primitive state in which people scrounged for food and water to survive. Money would be worthless, our economy would revert to bartering, and one's most valuable assets would be guns and ammunition.
So, how likely or plausible is this sort of attack? More so than we would like. In 2004, the Electromagnetic Pulse Commission, which Congress established, issued a Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack." It concluded that "EMP is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces." The Commission issued another report in 2008 in which it concluded that "The electromagnetic pulse generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."
On May 6, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States also issued a report in which it addressed EMP, saying, "We note also that the United States has done little to reduce its vulnerability to attack with electromagnetic pulse weapons and recommend that current investments in modernizing the national power grid take account of this risk." The report also stated that "Prior commissions have investigated U.S. vulnerabilities and found little activity under way to address them," and "EMP vulnerabilities have not yet been addressed effectively by the Department of Homeland Security. Doing so could take several years."
The 2008 Commission report recommended that "The Department of Homeland Security should add content to Web sites it maintains, such as www.Ready.gov." It appears, however, that the DHS has neglected to do so thus far. Instead, it has included a short description of potential EMP effects in its "Are you ready? An in-depth guide to citizen preparedness" report. In the report, it actually misleads citizens into thinking that EMP is virtually harmless, saying that "Although an EMP is unlikely to harm most people, it could harm those with pacemakers or other implanted electronic devices."
If all of this is not enough to wake up members of Congress and a seemingly unaware public, then recent activity by American adversaries should. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Russia, China, and other countries have "penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system."
Furthermore, Iran and North Korea recently conducted long-range missile tests, and North Korea may launch another missile soon in the direction of Hawaii. Military experts also believe that Iran is specifically simulating an EMP strike, and an Iranian military journalist recently said that "If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults then they will disintegrate within a few years."
All of this highlights the poor timing of Defense Secretary, Robert Gates' proposed $1.4 billion cut in missile defense spending. And while our government has done little to address the EMP threat to date, it is, by most accounts, something that we have the resources for which to prepare. While it would cost several billion dollars to achieve preparedness for an EMP attack, it would likely cost less than what the U.S. government has already wasted on General Motors and Chrysler. It requires, however, a public that is aware and which demands action from Congress and the administration. The time for that action is now.
Brett Joshpe is co-author, along with S.E. Cupp, of the recent book, Why You''re Wrong About the Right: Behind the Myths: The Surprising Truth About Conservatives (Simon & Schuster). He graduated from Harvard Law School and is currently General Counsel of The American Civics Exchange.
Time to Throw the Bum Out
And if Congress can't find a way to do it then we should vote them out, too.
We should vote them out anyway, of course. . .
Newsmax:
Rasmussen Poll: Obama's Popularity Plunging
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 7:27 PM
By: Jim Meyers
The latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows that President Barack Obama for the first time has a negative approval index — more Americans disapprove of his job performance than approve.
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, pollster Scott Rasmussen also disclosed that, if the economy does not improve over the next year, Obama's numbers will deteriorate even further — and Democrats will suffer in 2010.
Rasmussen is founder and CEO of Rasmussen Reports and co-founder of the sports network ESPN. He has been an independent public opinion pollster for over a decade, and most major news organizations cite his reports.
Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella asked Rasmussen for an overview of the latest tracking poll.
"The raw numbers are pretty straightforward — 31 percent of Americans strongly approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job, 33 percent strongly disapprove," Rasmussen said.
"Before the last week we never had a circumstance where the number who disapprove outweigh the number who approve. So we're in new territory. Right now the approval index, at minus two, is as low as it's been.
"What we've seen in the last month is a growing number of people who strongly disapprove, and we're seeing it at a time when the president's honeymoon is coming to an end and people are beginning to look at the policies that he's promoting."
The closeness of the approve/disapprove numbers are "yet another indicator of how evenly divided our nation is," he added.
On specific issues, Rasmussen disclosed:
"When we talk about healthcare reform and the proposal the president is talking about, the country is fairly evenly divided. But those who have strong opinions tend to oppose the plan more than support it.
"On the cap-and-trade legislation [to reduce carbon emissions], 42 percent believe it's going to hurt the economy. Only 19 percent believe it's going to help.
"The takeover of General Motors is strongly opposed.
"Right now those things are weighing the president down. What's going to tell over the next year is how the economy performs. If a year from today, GM is doing great and throwing off profits and getting the taxpayers their money back, people will say we were wrong, the president was right, and it's great for him. But if GM is back asking for more bailouts, the president's numbers will be substantially weaker than they are today . . .
"If the economy responds negatively over the next year, it is going to hurt the Democrats in 2010.
"What the passage of legislation will actually do is bring ownership of the economy and economic performance more and more into Barack Obama's camp.
"Just over a month ago, 62 percent of Americans said that no matter what's happened in the last six months, George Bush is still more to blame for the economic mess than Barack Obama. That number fell to 54 percent, and the more of Obama's policies that are put in place, the more the blame or perhaps the credit will shift to the current president."
Rasmussen also found:
The country is evenly split between those who approve of the way Obama has responded to the disputed elections in Iran and the repression of demonstrations that followed, and those who disapprove and believe he has not been aggressive enough.
More Americans strongly oppose Obama's healthcare plan than strongly support it.
About 30 percent of Americans favor a single-payer healthcare system, but a majority will oppose it.
"Americans like the idea of healthcare reform in theory, in the abstract," Rasmussen said.
"Only 35 percent think this system is in good or excellent shape. But people like the coverage they get by themselves. Among the insured, 70 percent say their own coverage is good or excellent. Among all Americans, only 8 percent say their coverage is poor."
We should vote them out anyway, of course. . .
Newsmax:
Rasmussen Poll: Obama's Popularity Plunging
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 7:27 PM
By: Jim Meyers
The latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows that President Barack Obama for the first time has a negative approval index — more Americans disapprove of his job performance than approve.
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, pollster Scott Rasmussen also disclosed that, if the economy does not improve over the next year, Obama's numbers will deteriorate even further — and Democrats will suffer in 2010.
Rasmussen is founder and CEO of Rasmussen Reports and co-founder of the sports network ESPN. He has been an independent public opinion pollster for over a decade, and most major news organizations cite his reports.
Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella asked Rasmussen for an overview of the latest tracking poll.
"The raw numbers are pretty straightforward — 31 percent of Americans strongly approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job, 33 percent strongly disapprove," Rasmussen said.
"Before the last week we never had a circumstance where the number who disapprove outweigh the number who approve. So we're in new territory. Right now the approval index, at minus two, is as low as it's been.
"What we've seen in the last month is a growing number of people who strongly disapprove, and we're seeing it at a time when the president's honeymoon is coming to an end and people are beginning to look at the policies that he's promoting."
The closeness of the approve/disapprove numbers are "yet another indicator of how evenly divided our nation is," he added.
On specific issues, Rasmussen disclosed:
"When we talk about healthcare reform and the proposal the president is talking about, the country is fairly evenly divided. But those who have strong opinions tend to oppose the plan more than support it.
"On the cap-and-trade legislation [to reduce carbon emissions], 42 percent believe it's going to hurt the economy. Only 19 percent believe it's going to help.
"The takeover of General Motors is strongly opposed.
"Right now those things are weighing the president down. What's going to tell over the next year is how the economy performs. If a year from today, GM is doing great and throwing off profits and getting the taxpayers their money back, people will say we were wrong, the president was right, and it's great for him. But if GM is back asking for more bailouts, the president's numbers will be substantially weaker than they are today . . .
"If the economy responds negatively over the next year, it is going to hurt the Democrats in 2010.
"What the passage of legislation will actually do is bring ownership of the economy and economic performance more and more into Barack Obama's camp.
"Just over a month ago, 62 percent of Americans said that no matter what's happened in the last six months, George Bush is still more to blame for the economic mess than Barack Obama. That number fell to 54 percent, and the more of Obama's policies that are put in place, the more the blame or perhaps the credit will shift to the current president."
Rasmussen also found:
The country is evenly split between those who approve of the way Obama has responded to the disputed elections in Iran and the repression of demonstrations that followed, and those who disapprove and believe he has not been aggressive enough.
More Americans strongly oppose Obama's healthcare plan than strongly support it.
About 30 percent of Americans favor a single-payer healthcare system, but a majority will oppose it.
"Americans like the idea of healthcare reform in theory, in the abstract," Rasmussen said.
"Only 35 percent think this system is in good or excellent shape. But people like the coverage they get by themselves. Among the insured, 70 percent say their own coverage is good or excellent. Among all Americans, only 8 percent say their coverage is poor."
A Real Warm Fuzzy to Start Your Day
And one we at IBA have been warning about for a long time.
". . .the Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan's western frontier have ties to elements of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence. . ."
D'uh.
Maybe we Infidel Bloggers should be working for the Intelligence services.
Nah. . .
I just wish it were anyone but Murtha involved here. . .
Human Events:
EXCLUSIVE: Pakistan Nukes At Risk
by Rowan Scarborough
07/01/2009
Taliban terrorists know where some of Pakistan's nuclear weapons are stored based on information from allies inside the country's national security forces.
A military source tells HUMAN EVENTS the Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan's western frontier have ties to elements of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence. The ISI helped put the Taliban in power in Afghanistan in 1996s. Its agents have helped it carry out attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
It is through these contacts that the Taliban and its extremist allies know the locations of some nuclear warheads. Pakistan is believed to have about 60 atomic bomb and missile warheads. They are mostly kept around the capital of Islamabad, in districts where army control is at its tightest. Some missiles are mobile and are periodically moved to different locations.
A U.S. official downplayed the chances that Taliban or al Qaeda can steal nukes, saying Pakistan has effective controls. Any knowledge the terrorists have on the arsenal is not sufficient to allow them to gain access, the official asserted to HUMAN EVENTS.
But the military source said extremists have sources within Pakistan's nuclear security units. The real problem, the source said, is that if nuclear-armed India believes terrorists have access to those weapons, it could spark a new conflict between the two countries.
"Short-term our greatest threat is the Taliban gaining access to those weapons," the source said.
Alarm over the prospect of Islamic terrorists seizing nukes heighten this spring, as Taliban forces briefly controlled territory close to the Pakistan capital. Some experts saw the beginning of an Iran-style revolution, in which the government collapses under the weight of extremists outside and inside the army and intelligence service.
Since then, government forces have mounted a concerted counter-insurgency operation in the so-called ungoverned areas of Pakistan. Fears of a nuclear takeover waned for a while. And Obama administration officials have gone out of their way to assure the nation that Pakistan's nukes will not fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden.
But last week, Rep. John Murtha, a powerful force on national security issues in his role as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said he did not share the administration's confidence.
In terms of international threats, the prospect of the Taliban-al Qaeda axis taking over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal "is absolutely what I look at and worry about the most," he told defense reporters, according to the Global Security Newswire.
Murtha said he has discussed the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Adm. Michael Mullen, Joint Chiefs chairman, as well as Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Leon Panetta.
"We think we know where the weapons are," Murtha said. "I don't know that we know, but they think they know."
"One thing for sure, we've got to be prepared if it goes the wrong way, to [secure] those sites," Global Security quoted him as saying. "And we have contingency plans, obviously, to do that."
At a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, a lawmaker asked Mullen about contingency plans to secure Pakistan's nukes. He declined to answer.
At a May 19 Pentagon briefing, Gates' press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said, "We are comfortable with their security measures, and I'm sure that our planners take whatever requisite action is required to ensure that that the arsenal in a country that is obviously in the midst of a great deal -- that finds itself with a great deal of challenges right now that they have some visibility on where such weapons are located."
Three days before Murtha spoke, al Qaeda's No. 3, Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, told the al Jazeera news network his group would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the United States.
"By God's will, the Americans will not seize the Muslims nuclear weapons and we pray that Muslims will have these weapons and they will be used against the Americans," he told al Jazeera.
In his memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," former CIA Director George Tenet said al Qaeda has an intense interest in obtaining and using weapons of mass destruction.
"Our intelligence confirmed that the most senior leaders of al Qaeda are still singularly focused on acquiring WMD," he wrote. "Bin Laden may have provided the spiritual guidance to develop WMD, but the program was personally managed at the top by his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Moreover, we established beyond any reasonable doubt that al Qaeda had a clear intent to acquire chemical, biological and radiological/nuclear weapons, to possess not as a deterrent but to cause mass casualties in the United States."
How would the Taliban-al Qaeda alliance know the location of some Pakistan nukes?
For one, A. Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, was exporting the technology through an illicit network to help some of the world's worst dictators build such weapons. His operatives surely have some knowledge of the military arsenal and have contacts with extremists themselves.
What's more, HUMAN EVENTS reported last August that elements of Pakistan's army aide the extremists by providing them with weapons and training. Rogue army officers surely have some knowledge of their country's nuclear arms.
"Pakistani government and the military in particular are not monolithic," said a senior U.S. official told Human Events. "In some areas, there's very good counter-terrorism cooperation with us. In other areas, there is plenty of room for improvement. There are elements within the government and military that might have some links to militant groups in the region. That is a matter of concern."
The New York Times reported that members of Pakistan's spy agency helped militants who bombed the India embassy in Afghanistan. The Times said there are intercepts of Pakistani ISI agents speaking directly to the terrorists.
Mr. Scarborough is a national security writer who has written books on Donald Rumsfeld and the CIA, including the New York Times bestseller Rumsfeld's War.
". . .the Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan's western frontier have ties to elements of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence. . ."
D'uh.
Maybe we Infidel Bloggers should be working for the Intelligence services.
Nah. . .
I just wish it were anyone but Murtha involved here. . .
Human Events:
EXCLUSIVE: Pakistan Nukes At Risk
by Rowan Scarborough
07/01/2009
Taliban terrorists know where some of Pakistan's nuclear weapons are stored based on information from allies inside the country's national security forces.
A military source tells HUMAN EVENTS the Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan's western frontier have ties to elements of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence. The ISI helped put the Taliban in power in Afghanistan in 1996s. Its agents have helped it carry out attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
It is through these contacts that the Taliban and its extremist allies know the locations of some nuclear warheads. Pakistan is believed to have about 60 atomic bomb and missile warheads. They are mostly kept around the capital of Islamabad, in districts where army control is at its tightest. Some missiles are mobile and are periodically moved to different locations.
A U.S. official downplayed the chances that Taliban or al Qaeda can steal nukes, saying Pakistan has effective controls. Any knowledge the terrorists have on the arsenal is not sufficient to allow them to gain access, the official asserted to HUMAN EVENTS.
But the military source said extremists have sources within Pakistan's nuclear security units. The real problem, the source said, is that if nuclear-armed India believes terrorists have access to those weapons, it could spark a new conflict between the two countries.
"Short-term our greatest threat is the Taliban gaining access to those weapons," the source said.
Alarm over the prospect of Islamic terrorists seizing nukes heighten this spring, as Taliban forces briefly controlled territory close to the Pakistan capital. Some experts saw the beginning of an Iran-style revolution, in which the government collapses under the weight of extremists outside and inside the army and intelligence service.
Since then, government forces have mounted a concerted counter-insurgency operation in the so-called ungoverned areas of Pakistan. Fears of a nuclear takeover waned for a while. And Obama administration officials have gone out of their way to assure the nation that Pakistan's nukes will not fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden.
But last week, Rep. John Murtha, a powerful force on national security issues in his role as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said he did not share the administration's confidence.
In terms of international threats, the prospect of the Taliban-al Qaeda axis taking over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal "is absolutely what I look at and worry about the most," he told defense reporters, according to the Global Security Newswire.
Murtha said he has discussed the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Adm. Michael Mullen, Joint Chiefs chairman, as well as Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Leon Panetta.
"We think we know where the weapons are," Murtha said. "I don't know that we know, but they think they know."
"One thing for sure, we've got to be prepared if it goes the wrong way, to [secure] those sites," Global Security quoted him as saying. "And we have contingency plans, obviously, to do that."
At a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, a lawmaker asked Mullen about contingency plans to secure Pakistan's nukes. He declined to answer.
At a May 19 Pentagon briefing, Gates' press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said, "We are comfortable with their security measures, and I'm sure that our planners take whatever requisite action is required to ensure that that the arsenal in a country that is obviously in the midst of a great deal -- that finds itself with a great deal of challenges right now that they have some visibility on where such weapons are located."
Three days before Murtha spoke, al Qaeda's No. 3, Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, told the al Jazeera news network his group would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the United States.
"By God's will, the Americans will not seize the Muslims nuclear weapons and we pray that Muslims will have these weapons and they will be used against the Americans," he told al Jazeera.
In his memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," former CIA Director George Tenet said al Qaeda has an intense interest in obtaining and using weapons of mass destruction.
"Our intelligence confirmed that the most senior leaders of al Qaeda are still singularly focused on acquiring WMD," he wrote. "Bin Laden may have provided the spiritual guidance to develop WMD, but the program was personally managed at the top by his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Moreover, we established beyond any reasonable doubt that al Qaeda had a clear intent to acquire chemical, biological and radiological/nuclear weapons, to possess not as a deterrent but to cause mass casualties in the United States."
How would the Taliban-al Qaeda alliance know the location of some Pakistan nukes?
For one, A. Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, was exporting the technology through an illicit network to help some of the world's worst dictators build such weapons. His operatives surely have some knowledge of the military arsenal and have contacts with extremists themselves.
What's more, HUMAN EVENTS reported last August that elements of Pakistan's army aide the extremists by providing them with weapons and training. Rogue army officers surely have some knowledge of their country's nuclear arms.
"Pakistani government and the military in particular are not monolithic," said a senior U.S. official told Human Events. "In some areas, there's very good counter-terrorism cooperation with us. In other areas, there is plenty of room for improvement. There are elements within the government and military that might have some links to militant groups in the region. That is a matter of concern."
The New York Times reported that members of Pakistan's spy agency helped militants who bombed the India embassy in Afghanistan. The Times said there are intercepts of Pakistani ISI agents speaking directly to the terrorists.
Mr. Scarborough is a national security writer who has written books on Donald Rumsfeld and the CIA, including the New York Times bestseller Rumsfeld's War.
The Islamic Saudi Academy — In The News Again
Previous IBA postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE.
Photo Credit: the Washington Post 
Not a flattering recent development, to say the least.
From this article at The Investigative Project:
Meanwhile, on July 13 at 6:00 PM, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing to consider allowing expansion of the Popes Head Road location of the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. When Fairfax Christian School held that same property, the Christian school was never allowed to expand nor even to rebuild one of the structures which burned to the ground in the early 1980's. Much of Popes Head Road remains a country lane, the reason given for previously denying expansion to Fairfax Christian School. Apparently, different rules now apply, never mind that the safety issues remain the same.
In fact, when the issue of the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy came before the Zoning Board this spring, the board unanimously approved the expansion over the objections of the neighborhood. The Zoning Board wasn't the least interested in the Wahhabist ideology being espoused at the Islamic Saudi Academy, and the board so stated.
Will the Board of Supervisors even care at the upcoming hearing that yet another graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy has shown himself to be something less that the supposedly wonderful students which the school graduates?
Furthermore, why is Fairfax County rolling over for a group whose 12th grade textbooks teach that it’s fine and dandy to kill homosexuals, adulterers, or anyone who leaves Islam?
As my best friend in Texas is wont to say about the Islamic Saudi Academy, "For all we know, Bin Laden is hiding in there in a burqa!"
Meanwhile, the ISA operates with impunity, just a few miles from our nation's capital.
Not a flattering recent development, to say the least.
From this article at The Investigative Project:
A Saudi Arabian man living in Tampa is being held without bond after being arrested June 4 for attempting to board a US Airways flight carrying a concealed weapon. Raed Abdul-Rahman Alsaif was trying to fly to Phoenix.Go HERE to read the entire article, which has embedded links.
According to a criminal complaint by Gregory J. Mertiz, Special Agent with the Transportation Security Administration in Tampa, Alsaif submitted three bags for screening to TSA officers. A Transportation Security Officer saw a large butcher knife inside one of the bags. The knife was "artfully concealed between the outside fabric and the expandable pull handles of the bag," the complaint said, and the weapon was stored in a way that would have been "accessible to him [Alsaif] in flight."
[...]
Raed Alsaif is a 2003 graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Alexandria, Virginia, the same high school that was the subject of a report in June 2008 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which alleged that ISA was using radical Saudi textbooks. According to the report, passages in the textbooks used at ISA justify violent actions and intolerance to the reader including killing Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, apostates (converts from Islam) and adulterers. School officials say they have deleted the offending passages.
In 2003, the same year that Alsaif graduated from ISA, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen and ISA graduate and valedictorian was arrested in Medina, Saudi Arabia on terrorism related charges. In 2005, Ali was convicted on nine counts including providing material resources to Al-Qaeda and conspiracy to assassinate President George W. Bush. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Alsaif has been previously arrested on drug charges and driving without a license in Hillsborough County.
In addition to his current concealed weapon charges, authorities found that Alsaif has been living in the country illegally....
Meanwhile, on July 13 at 6:00 PM, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing to consider allowing expansion of the Popes Head Road location of the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. When Fairfax Christian School held that same property, the Christian school was never allowed to expand nor even to rebuild one of the structures which burned to the ground in the early 1980's. Much of Popes Head Road remains a country lane, the reason given for previously denying expansion to Fairfax Christian School. Apparently, different rules now apply, never mind that the safety issues remain the same.
In fact, when the issue of the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy came before the Zoning Board this spring, the board unanimously approved the expansion over the objections of the neighborhood. The Zoning Board wasn't the least interested in the Wahhabist ideology being espoused at the Islamic Saudi Academy, and the board so stated.
Will the Board of Supervisors even care at the upcoming hearing that yet another graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy has shown himself to be something less that the supposedly wonderful students which the school graduates?
Furthermore, why is Fairfax County rolling over for a group whose 12th grade textbooks teach that it’s fine and dandy to kill homosexuals, adulterers, or anyone who leaves Islam?
As my best friend in Texas is wont to say about the Islamic Saudi Academy, "For all we know, Bin Laden is hiding in there in a burqa!"
Meanwhile, the ISA operates with impunity, just a few miles from our nation's capital.
Culturism, Affirmative Action, Marxism and Sotomayor
The Supreme Court overruled a decision by President Obama’s choice for that Court, Sonia Sotomayor. To get a promotion as a firefighter in New Haven Connecticut, you must pass a test. In one round of testing few Hispanics and no African Americans passed. As New Haven was afraid of a Federal lawsuit, they tore up the test results. White applicants sued. Sotomayer ruled against them.
The Court decided on the grounds of whether or not potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another. This 5 – 4 decision was a blow against Affirmative Action. And thus, liberals contended, knocks the legs out from the Civic Rights Act. Is this racial discrimination or not? Unfortunately, none considered the possibility that it might be culturist discrimination.
Culturism notes that some cultures study more. Thus some cultures have higher literacy rates. Thus some groups do better in school. Affirmative Action assumes that cultural differences do not exist and, therefore, all distinctions in academic and economic achievement are irrational and due to race. Using this logic America is unfair and racist. Social justice chants echo these sentiments. These lead to lawsuits, resentment, racial discord and – most importantly, no incentive for African – Americans to study harder. Taking a culturist view that black applicants need to study harder, would serve all concerned better.
Liberals claim that the tests are culturally biased. I am not familiar with the details of the test, but it seems that knowledge concerning fire-fighting procedures would likely be fairly objective. If ebonics versus standard English were the issue, black people should take this as proof that they need to master standard English. To expect China, the international business community and the majority of Americans to write tests in ebonics is silly. Refusal to acknowledge this fact does not provide a way forward. If pandered to, ebonics can only lead to ghetto-ization.
Marxism uses the same culturally neutral logic as Affirmative Action. In assuming that all differences in achievement are due to unreasonable bias, it also undermines values. Rather than hard work, anger at injustice becomes the way forward. It also undermines motivation. In the USSR the failure to understand human nature cost tens of millions of lives. In America it seeks to create equality from the bench rather than individual effort. The laziness of the human who has been given excuses undermined the USSR. Freedom leads to disparity. If we crush initiative in the name of equality we may follow the direction of the USSR.
In failing to consider the impact of cultural diversity, Sotomayer and her potential colleagues on the Court become dangerous. Following their logic, they will not stop blaming America until all people achieve at equal rates. As this culturally neutral outcome is impossible, such a stance can only lead to permanent discontent, resentment, and grievance. If Asians are beating whites in college admissions, or whites are beating blacks in passing fire-fighting tests, the answer is personal or cultural responsibility. Those groups need to study harder. This is the way to productivity. Equal opportunity does not lead to equal outcome. Culture is important. Replacing the lefts constant reliance on racist and Marxist thought with culturist thought is vital.
The Court decided on the grounds of whether or not potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another. This 5 – 4 decision was a blow against Affirmative Action. And thus, liberals contended, knocks the legs out from the Civic Rights Act. Is this racial discrimination or not? Unfortunately, none considered the possibility that it might be culturist discrimination.
Culturism notes that some cultures study more. Thus some cultures have higher literacy rates. Thus some groups do better in school. Affirmative Action assumes that cultural differences do not exist and, therefore, all distinctions in academic and economic achievement are irrational and due to race. Using this logic America is unfair and racist. Social justice chants echo these sentiments. These lead to lawsuits, resentment, racial discord and – most importantly, no incentive for African – Americans to study harder. Taking a culturist view that black applicants need to study harder, would serve all concerned better.
Liberals claim that the tests are culturally biased. I am not familiar with the details of the test, but it seems that knowledge concerning fire-fighting procedures would likely be fairly objective. If ebonics versus standard English were the issue, black people should take this as proof that they need to master standard English. To expect China, the international business community and the majority of Americans to write tests in ebonics is silly. Refusal to acknowledge this fact does not provide a way forward. If pandered to, ebonics can only lead to ghetto-ization.
Marxism uses the same culturally neutral logic as Affirmative Action. In assuming that all differences in achievement are due to unreasonable bias, it also undermines values. Rather than hard work, anger at injustice becomes the way forward. It also undermines motivation. In the USSR the failure to understand human nature cost tens of millions of lives. In America it seeks to create equality from the bench rather than individual effort. The laziness of the human who has been given excuses undermined the USSR. Freedom leads to disparity. If we crush initiative in the name of equality we may follow the direction of the USSR.
In failing to consider the impact of cultural diversity, Sotomayer and her potential colleagues on the Court become dangerous. Following their logic, they will not stop blaming America until all people achieve at equal rates. As this culturally neutral outcome is impossible, such a stance can only lead to permanent discontent, resentment, and grievance. If Asians are beating whites in college admissions, or whites are beating blacks in passing fire-fighting tests, the answer is personal or cultural responsibility. Those groups need to study harder. This is the way to productivity. Equal opportunity does not lead to equal outcome. Culture is important. Replacing the lefts constant reliance on racist and Marxist thought with culturist thought is vital.
Great Post and Comments At Belmont Club
The post is very thoughtful, but the comments are killers. Check this out.
Spengler, at the Asia Times, tries to trace the outlines of Barack Obama’s elusive Grand Bargain and doesn’t think it will work. “In Obama’s imagination, a Sunni Arab coalition - empowered by Washington’s turn against Israel - would encircle Iran and dissuade it from acquiring nuclear weapons, while an entirely separate Shi’ite coalition with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would suppress the radical Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This was the worst-designed scheme concocted by a Western strategist since Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery attacked the bridges at Arnhem in 1944, and it has blown up in Obama’s face.” Put that way, it does seem unlikely.
But it raises the question of why, without assuming that the President is a fool, that Barack Obama should think it would work. The apparent answer from the Asia Times article, is that Obama calculated from static assumptions; he did not allow for the dynamics of the situation; didn’t work out what the Sunnis and Shi’ites — and Israel — would be doing while he was setting up his Grand Bargain. Spengler writes:
Offering Iran a seat at the table in exchange for setting a limit to its foreign ambitions - in Lebanon and Gaza as well as Iraq - seemed to make sense on paper. But the entity that calls itself revolutionary Islam is not made of paper, but of flesh and blood. It is in danger of internal collapse and can only assert its authority by expanding its influence as aggressively as it can.
After the election disaster, Iran’s revolutionary leadership urgently needs to demonstrate its credibility. Israel now can say, “A country that murders its own citizens will have no compunction about massacring its enemies,” and attack Iran’s nuclear capacity with fewer consequences than would have been imaginable in May. And if an Israeli strike were to succeed, or appear successful to the world, the resulting humiliation might be fatal to the regime.
Israel may not be Tehran’s worst nightmare. Iraq’s Sunnis are testing the resolve of the weakened mullahs. The suicide bombing that killed 73 people at a Shi’ite mosque in Kirkuk on June 20 and a second bombing that killed another 72 Shi’ites in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum most likely reflect Sunni perceptions that a weakened Tehran will provide less support for Iraqi Shi’ites. Although Shi’ites comprise more than three-fifths of Iraq’s population, Sunnis provided the entire military leadership and are better organized on the ground. America’s hopes of enlisting Iran to provide cover for its withdrawal from the cities of Iraq seem delusional.
In other words, even if Barack Obama believes that nothing in Iran has changed, everyone else seems have to have assumed the contrary. Everyone is recalibrating their actions in response to recent events in Iran. Israel is digging in its heels; the Sunnis are probing for Persian weakness and Teheran, weakened by internal dissension, may not be in a position to “provide cover for [American] withdrawal from the cities of Iraq”. This spells disaster for Obama’s calculations, which may have misfired even if events in Iran had not supervened. Spengler continues:
The prospect of civil wars raging simultaneously in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq is no longer improbable. The Israel-Palestine issue is linked to all of these through Iran, whose credibility depends on its ability to sustain such puppies of war as Hezbollah and Hamas. Whether or not the Israelis take the opportunity to strike Iran, the prospect of an Israeli strike will weigh on Iran’s proxies in the region, and keep Israel’s borders in condition of potential violence for the interim.
America’s great good fortune is that no hostile superpower stands ready to benefit from its paralysis and confusion.
But given time and the “strategic void” which Spengler accuses Obama of creating, events may draw Regional Power adventurers into opportunity as a moth to a flame. If things start to cascade then there will be trouble. As an airplane relies on corrections from its control surfaces to stay within its safe envelope, so has the global system long relied on measured, but timely and forceful interventions and signals from Washington. With the control cables disconnected or disdainfully unused, Spengler has set up a scenario where things spin out of control. That’s worrisome, especially if, as he says, there is no Plan B. Like all predictions, no one can say if his warnings will come true, though it might be useful to throw out little markers to see if things are headed that way or not. On reflection, Obama should have done the same thing too. No plan, it is said, ever survives contact with reality. There is no reason to believe a plan will unfold as designed, even if it is the President’s. The future is vouchsafed to no one. Nelson, sailing to an uncertain fate off Trafalgar wrote “something must be left to chance; nothing is sure in a sea fight above all. … But in case signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.” Nothing in history is written or foreordained; the trick of leadership is to know what to write on the occasion.
Now the comments:
gokart-mozart:Obama is underestimated by those who use the template of US Presidents acting in the national interest.
He HAS placed his ship alongside the enemy, and is firing broadside after broadside, dismasting the ship, holing the hull. His boarders are making ready the cutlasses and the handspikes.
Except his enemy is the United States of America, and her people. His only interest in foreign affairs is when a foreign enemy of the constitution gets in trouble, as with recent events in Honduras. Otherwise, he’s too busy with his fellow domestic enemies of the constitution, working on the plan to bring us down, so that white folks’ greed will no longer be able to run a world in need.
That’s the one true thing in his autobiography. The very day he heard Jeremiah Wright pronounce those words was the day his life path was decided. It’s just like the passage in Mein Kampf where another politician describes sitting in the cafe in defeated Vienna, seeing the oriental Jews in their caftans and robes in the streets. He said, “at that moment, I decided to become a politician”.
dan:
the most bizarre thing, i think, is the inability to make general inferences from general and obvious tendencies - tendencies which have the inertial force of nation-states with obnoxiously obvious ideological characters behind them.
everyone knows iran funds, arms, trains, runs political interference for hezbollah, that hezbollah is an iranian army; everyone knows iran supports hamas and funds, arms and trains terrorist operations and political subversion in iraq. everyone knows iran arms, launders money for and provides transit to the taliban and al qaeda. everyone knows there would be no iranian nuclear or ballistic missile programs without russia, nor a revolutionary guard without russian and chinese arms. and the long-term economic prospects of iran would be very much more in doubt without long-term energy contracts with China amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars.
so why does he expect that they will act any less aggressively if the USA reduces counterforce in the area? why does anyone? does he really believe in his absurd i’m-a-15-yr-old-trustfund-hippie leninist fairy tale about international relations? one doesn’t want to jump to the Manchurian Candidate conclusion, but it is hard to imagine how someone with his political skills could fail to make the inexorable inferences from these data.
Go read the rest over at Belmont Club.
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