Graafr's Blog

Obama Defends Stimulus Despite New Jobless Data…Here Comes More Obama BS!

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:15:36 +0000

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By: Julie Mason
Examiner White House Correspondent

Feeling pressure to show results from massive federal spending amid the highest unemployment in 26 years, President Barack Obama defended his stimulus plan Monday, promising to “create or save” 600,000 more jobs in the next 100 days.

The White House later conceded those jobs would include some temporary, summer and part-time jobs, which economists regard as not stimulative to the economy.

The unemployment rate is 9.4 percent — well above what the White House predicted when it sold Congress on the stimulus bill.

“The reason that this wasn’t a $787 billion hundred-day plan economic recovery plan, why it’s a two-year recovery plan, is because we never expected this all to be solved in a hundred days, right?” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs rhetorically asked when pressed on the bad jobs numbers.

The White House had planned a multi front public relations effort Monday to showcase Obama focusing on the economy after nearly a week overseas.

Instead, the administration was on the defensive and struggling to justify its economic modeling and job creation claims — notably that Obama’s stimulus spending has already saved or created 150,000 jobs.

The administration pushed the $787 billion spending program as a way to create jobs, but about 1.6 million jobs have been lost since Congress approved the program.

“The president made the case that immediate stimulus funds were needed to produce jobs and turn the economy, yet as workers continue to lose their jobs, Americans are beginning to wonder what we paid for,” said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

Asked to account for the administration’s job creation claims, Jared Bernstein, economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and a key member of the administration’s stimulus team, said the 150,000 number is an estimate based on a January report he authored with White House economic adviser Christina Romer.

That same report, used by the administration to sell Congress on the stimulus plan, warned that without the federal spending, unemployment could reach 8.5 percent by now, on its way to a high of 8.8 percent in 2010.

The report predicted that with the stimulus spending, unemployment would peak at 7.8 percent this year, before trending downward. Unemployment for May was measured at 9.4 percent.

That means White House predictions about the dire consequences of not passing the stimulus have been exceeded — even with the stimulus spending.

“Our forecast at that time was right in the middle of every other forecast,” Bernstein said. “And in fact, if we had had a forecast that was much worse than that, we would have been an outlier — we also would have been correct, it turned out.”

Obama was among several administration officials struggling to justify the employment numbers.

“This was the fewest number of jobs that we have lost in about eight months, so it was about half of the number lost of just a few months ago,” he said. “And it’s a sign that we’re moving in the right direction.”n

Fact Sheet: Prosecuting and Detaining Terror Suspects in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:14:30 +0000

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I. Terror Prosecutions in the Southern District of New York

Since the 1990s, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has investigated and successfully prosecuted a wide range of international and domestic terrorism cases — including the bombings of the World Trade Center and U.S. Embassies in East Africa in the 1990s. More recent cases include those against individuals who provided material support to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, as well as against international arms trafficker Monzer al Kassar and the Somalian pirate charged in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.

Major Historical Cases in SDNY:

1993 World Trade Center Bombing: After two trials, in 1993 and 1997, six defendants were convicted and sentenced principally to life in prison for detonating a truck bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring hundreds more. One of the defendants convicted at the second trial was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the attack.

1994-95 Manila Air Plot: Ramzi Yousef and two others were convicted in 1996 for plotting to plant bombs aboard a dozen U.S. commercial aircraft that were timed to go off as the planes were flying over the Pacific. The defendants were sentenced to substantial prison terms. Yousef concocted the plan with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay and has been indicted in SDNY for the Manila Air conspiracy since 1996.

1995 “Blind Sheikh” Trial: Ten defendants associated with a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., were convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center, United Nations headquarters, and various bridges, tunnels and landmarks in and around New York City. The lead defendant, Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh,” was sentenced to life in prison, while his co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging between life and 25 years.

Bin Laden Indictment and Embassy Bombings Trial: Shortly after the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, SDNY indicted Usama Bin Laden and approximately 20 alleged al-Qaeda loyalists for conspiring to murder Americans worldwide. Many of the defendants were also charged for their roles in the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in East Africa, including three defendants who were convicted after a six-month trial in early 2001. Those three defendants, and a fourth al-Qaeda member who was tried with them, were all sentenced to life in prison.

Recent Cases in SDNY:

James Cromitie et al.: On May 20, 2009, four individuals — James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen — were arrested on charges arising from a plot to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Bronx, N.Y., and to shoot Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles at military planes located at a the National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. On June 2, 2009, all four defendants were charged in an eight-count indictment and face potential life in prison, if convicted.*

Oussama Kassir: On May 12, 2009, Oussama Kassir was convicted of charges related to his participation in an effort to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon and his operation of several terrorist Web sites containing instructions about how to make bombs and poisons. Kassir was found guilty of all 11 charges against him, including providing material support to al-Qaeda and distributing information on explosives and weapons of mass destruction.

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse: On April 21, 2009, accused Somalian pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse was transported to the SDNY to face criminal charges stemming from his alleged participation in the April 8, 2009, hijacking of the Maersk Alabama container ship in the Indian Ocean. Muse is charged in a 10-count indictment and faces a mandatory life sentence, if convicted.*

U.S. v. Viktor Bout: On April 9, 2008, international arms dealer Viktor Bout was arrested by Thai authorities on a provisional arrest warrant based on an SDNY complaint, which charged conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Bout was later indicted for, among other things, conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to be used to kill Americans in Colombia. Bout has been in custody in Thailand since March 6, 2008, pending an extradition request by the United States.*

Monzer al Kassar et. al.: On Nov. 20, 2008, international arms trafficker Monzer al Kassar and a co-defendant were convicted after a three-week jury trial of all charges — including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; conspiracy to murder U.S. officers; conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles; and conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the FARC, a designated foreign terrorist organization — for conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of high-powered weapons to the FARC to be used to kill Americans in Colombia. Al Kassar, who had been extradited on these charges from Spain, and the co-defendant, who had been extradited from Romania (the first ever to the United States on terrorism charges), were sentenced to 30 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Another co-defendant, who was also extradited from Romania, was found guilty on similar charges, and awaits sentencing.

II. Terror Prosecutions Nationwide

Nationwide, the Justice Department and its U.S. Attorney’s offices have prosecuted many terrorism cases in recent months and years . Last year, Human Rights First published a comprehensive study on prosecuting terrorism in federal court from 9/11 through the end of 2007. The study, entitled: “In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Court,” found that federal prosecutors achieved a conviction rate of more than 90 percent in the set of terrorism cases examined by the report’s authors. The study examined a specific set of 257 defendants charged with terrorism related violations in the United States between 9/11 and the end of 2007. Of the 160 defendants from this group who had their cases resolved, 145 were convicted of at least one count, either by a verdict of guilty after trial or by a guilty plea.

Recent Cases:

Since Jan. 1, 2009, more than 30 individuals charged with terrorism violations have been successfully prosecuted and/or sentenced in federal courts nationwide, including the following:

Five Sentenced in Terror Finance Case: (Northern District of Texas) – On May 27, 2009, five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, once the largest Muslim charity in the United States, were sentenced for their role in funneling more than $12 million to the Hamas terror organization. Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi were each sentenced to 65 years in prison. Mufid Abdulqader was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Mohammed El Mezain and Abdulrahman Odeh were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Mohammed Warsame: (District of Minnesota) – On May 20, 2009, Mohammed Warsame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda, admitting that he attended al-Qaeda training camps, sent money from Canada to one of his former training camp commanders and continued to exchange messages with individuals associated with al-Qaeda once in Minnesota.

Ali al-Marri: (Central District of Illinois) – On April 30, 2009, Ali al-Marri pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda, admitting that he attended terrorist training camps, learned al-Qaeda tradecraft and was dispatched by al-Qaeda to carry out its terrorist objectives in America.

Five Sentenced in Fort Dix Terror Plot: (District of New Jersey) – On April 28, 29, 2009, five individuals — Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, brothers Dritan Duka, Shain Duka and Eljvir Duka and Serdar Tatar — received sentences ranging from 33 years in prison, to life in prison plus 30 years, for plotting to kill U.S. soldiers in an armed attack on the military base in Fort Dix, New Jersey. All five individuals were convicted at trial in December 2008.

Seven Plead Guilty in MEK Terror Case: (Central District of California) – On April 28, 2009, seven individuals – Roya Rahmani, Alireza Mohammadmoradi, Moustafa Ahmady, Hossein Afshari, Hassan Rezaie, Navid Taj and Mohammad Omidvar — who were engaged in fundraising activities on behalf of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a designated foreign terrorist organization, pleaded guilty to federal charges of providing material support to terrorists.

Wesam al-Delaema: (District of Columbia) — On April 16, 2009, Wesam al-Delaema was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring to murder Americans overseas, including by planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq and by demonstrating on video how these explosives would be detonated to destroy American vehicles. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2009.

Christopher Paul: (Southern District of Ohio) — On Feb. 26, 2009, Christopher Paul was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to use explosives against targets in Europe and the United States. Paul joined al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and conspired with others to target Americans both at home and abroad.

Four Plead Guilty in LTTE Prosecution: (Eastern District of New York) — On Jan. 27, 2009, four defendants — Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, Sahilal Sabaratnam, Sathajhan Sarachandran and Yogarasa Nadarasa — pleaded guilty to terrorism violations in connection with their efforts to acquire surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers and hundreds of assault rifles for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated terrorist organization.

Two Plead Guilty in Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers: (Northern District of Ohio) — On Jan. 15, 2009, Zubair Ahmed and Khaleel Ahmed pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in connection with their efforts to travel abroad in order to murder or maim U.S. military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

III. Detaining Terror Inmates in Federal Prisons

International Terror Inmates

There are currently 216 inmates in Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody who have a history of/or nexus to international terrorism. Sixty seven of these individuals were extradited to the United States for prosecution, while 149 were not extradited. Seventy two of these individuals are U.S. citizens (45 of them born in the United States, 27 of them naturalized). The “Supermax” facility in Florence, Colo. (ADX Florence), which is BOP’s most secure facility, houses 33 of these international terrorists. There has never been an escape from ADX Florence, and BOP has housed some of these international terrorists since the early 1990s. In addition to the ADX Florence, the BOP houses such individuals in the Communications Management Units at Terre Haute, Ind., and Marion, Ill., as well as in other facilities among different institutions around the country.

Among those convicted international terrorists currently serving sentences in BOP facilities are:

* Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Ramzi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Ahmed Ressam, the Millenium Bomber
* Wadih el-Hage, convicted of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa
* Richard Reid, convicted of attempting to ignite a shoe bomb while on a flight from Paris to Miami carrying 184 passengers and 14 crewmembers
* Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, convicted of plotting to assassinate the U.S. President as well as attack and destroy civilian airliners
* Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiring with al-Qaeda to hijack and crash planes into prominent U.S. buildings as part of the 9/11 attacks

Domestic Terror Inmates

In addition to those inmates with an international terrorism history or nexus, there are approximately 139 individuals in BOP custody who have a history of/or nexus to domestic terrorism. These individuals include:

* Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber
* Terry Nichols, convicted accomplice of Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing

Special Administrative Measures

Under the law, the Attorney General may direct the BOP to initiate Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) with respect to a particular inmate (including those being held pre-trial or during trial) when there is a substantial risk that a prisoner’s communications or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury to persons, or substantial damage to property that would entail the risk of death or serious bodily injury to persons. Generally, these measures can be initiated to prevent acts of terrorism, acts of violence, or the disclosure of classified information.

SAMs are specific to a particular inmate. The special administrative measures may include housing the inmate in administrative detention and/or limiting certain privileges, including, but not limited to, correspondence, visiting, and other communications, as is reasonably necessary to protect persons against the risk of acts of violence or terrorism, while still maintaining the inmate’s attorney/client privilege. The SAMs authorization automatically expires after one year, unless renewed or vacated.

* As of May 22, 2009, there were 44 inmates subject to SAMs, out of a total federal inmate population of more than 205,000.
* Of the 44 inmates subject to SAMs, 29 were incarcerated on terrorism-related charges, while 11 were incarcerated on violent crime-related charges (gangs, organized crime, etc.), and four were incarcerated on espionage charges.

*The public is reminded that charges contained in an indictment or criminal complaint are mere allegations, and that defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Ahmed Ghailani Transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York for Prosecution on Terror Charges

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:12:48 +0000

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
AG
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
Ahmed Ghailani Transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York for Prosecution on Terror Charges

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility since September 2006, arrived early this morning in the Southern District of New York to face criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the Aug. 7, 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.

After a thorough review of his case by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, Ghailani was recently referred for criminal prosecution in the Southern District of New York pursuant to a March 12, 2001 superseding indictment against him.

Ghailani was transferred from the custody of the Department of Defense to the Southern District of New York by the U.S. Marshals Service. He is currently in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which has housed numerous terror suspects over the years during their prosecutions in the Southern District of New York. Ghailani is expected to make his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court later today.

Ghailani faces 286 separate counts in the March 2001 superseding indictment. Among other violations, the superseding indictment charges him with conspiring with Usama bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda to kill Americans anywhere in the world, as well as separate charges of murder for the deaths of each of the 224 people killed in the U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya and various other offenses related to the bombings.

“With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.”

The chart below details the charges against Ghailani and the statutory maximum penalties. The public is reminded that the charges and allegations contained in the superseding indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Count(s)

Description of Charge

Maximum Penalties

Counts 1 – 6: Conspiracies to Murder, Bomb, and Maim

Conspiracy to Kill U.S. Nationals

Life

Conspiracy to Murder, Kidnap, and Maim At Places Outside the United States

Life

Conspiracy to Murder

Life

Conspiracy to Use Weapons of Mass Destruction Against U.S. Nationals

Death or life

Conspiracy to Destroy Buildings and Property of the United States

Life (mandatory minimum of 20 years)

Conspiracy to Attack National Defense Utilities

10 years

Counts 7 – 286: The Africa Bombings

Bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya

Death or life (mandatory minimum of 20 years)

Bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Death or life (mandatory minimum of 20 years)

Use and Attempted Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction Against U.S. Nationals in Nairobi, Kenya

Death or life

Use and Attempted Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction Against U.S. Nationals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Death or life

11–223

Murders in Nairobi, Kenya

Death or mandatory life

224–234

Murders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Death or mandatory life

235–275

Murder of U.S. Employees in Nairobi, Kenya

Death or mandatory life

276

Attempted Murder of U.S. Employees in Nairobi, Kenya

20 years

277–278

Murder of U.S. Employees in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Death or mandatory life

279

Attempted Murder of U.S. Employees in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

20 years

280–281

Murder of Internationally Protected Persons in Nairobi, Kenya

Death or mandatory life

282

Attempted Murder of Internationally Protected Persons in Nairobi, Kenya

20 years

283

Attempted Murder of Internationally Protected Persons in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

20 years

284

Using and Carrying An Explosive During the Commission of A Felony

10 years consecutive

285

Using and Carrying A Dangerous Device During the Bombing Of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya

30 years consecutive

286

Using and Carrying A Dangerous Device During the Bombing Of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Life or 30 years consecutive

Obama Plans Fence-Mending Speech To Atheists

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:11:42 +0000

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By: Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist | 6/8/09 5:14 PM

News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher.

Riding the wave of Muslim approval after his historic speech from Cairo last week, President Barack Obama will reportedly travel to a major secular capital next week in an effort to “hit the reset button on relations with the Atheist World.”

“The president knows how it feels to be marginalized,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, “So he won’t be going there to lecture the Atheist World on morality or to try to impose American values on them, like the U.S. has done so often in the past.”

Administration sources say the president will talk about the contributions of atheists to American society, and he’ll quote from respected atheists like Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Jodie Foster.

The speech will also include some rather pointed rebukes to the Christian World for its oppressive treatment of atheists — including its efforts to evangelize them, make them the subject of prayer, and to characterize atheists as ‘people without God’, a negative stereotype.

“Most peace-loving atheists want nothing more than to be left alone to pursue sensory stimulus, pass along their DNA, and then to allow their carbon molecules to reunite with the soil,” said Gibbs, “but instead they bear the reproach of those who blame them for the actions of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and George Soros.”

The president believes the Atheist World and America share common values that he plans to highlight in his speech.

“Like most Americans, atheists want safety for their offspring, those charming little vessels of genetic code,” said Gibbs. “They want the right to elect representatives who will make laws guaranteeing survival of the fittest. They want freedom to speak whatever ideas the electro-chemical reactions in their brains happen to produce. Ultimately, they just want the liberty to exist until entropy draws their meaningless existence to a close.”

Examiner columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the family-friendly news satire site, and anchor of ScrappleFace Network News (SNN), seen on YouTube.

Examiner columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the family-friendly news satire site, and anchor of ScrappleFace Network News, seen on YouTube.

More Spending, Less Transparency Means Deep Trouble For U.S. Taxpayers..Take Notice.

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:09:25 +0000

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By: Darrell Issa
OpEd Contributor | 6/8/09 5:12 PM

In those last moments before the R.M.S. Titanic gutted its hull on a jagged iceberg 400 miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, her captain ordered a full reverse of all engines and a hard starboard turn. It was – as history records – too little, too late.

Contrast that with President Obama’s announcement today that his administration will ramp up federal spending in the next three months. As the government chugs into uncharted waters of record fiscal irresponsibility, it seems our captain is shouting from the bridge, “Damn the deficits, men. Full steam ahead.”

Or in his own words, “We’re going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around.”

Cue the music, Mr. President. Women and children first.

Today’s announcement was troubling, not only for the shell game the President is playing with jobs creation, but for his redundant and hollow promises about transparency.

The President claims that his $787 billion stimulus has already “created or saved” 150,000 jobs in the first 100 days of the administration, compared with the 345,000 jobs that were lost in May 2009 alone. Moreover, the Labor Department reported last week that unemployment has spiked to 9.4%, higher than any point since 1983.

Among the new jobs that Obama hopes to create are 125,000 youth summer jobs, 135,000 education jobs, and rehabilitation and improvement projects at 107 parks and 98 airports nationwide.

Vice President Biden, the man charged with monitoring the stimulus, promised to “get more dollars out the door, more shovels into the ground and more money into the pockets of workers and families who need it most.” Of course, this also comes on a day that the reports have leaked that the administration is contemplating a new tax on healthcare benefits and international travel.

You might call it “spreading the wealth around.” Just Democrat politics as usual – spending money the government doesn’t have to create a job that doesn’t last by incurring debt that doesn’t end. And in the process, raise a tax here and there.

Overburdened taxpayers are getting tired of waiting for the promised accountability too. When the President took office, he guaranteed “unprecedented transparency,” and his administration launched a website, Recovery.gov, in early March 2009 to make good on the pledge.

Now in its third month, the site is a major disappointment. Reports are lagging behind, and taxpayers cannot track recovery funds from beginning to end as the Obama administration promised.

So today the administration announced the creation of a new website, www.whitehouse.gov/recovery. How we’re supposed to expect anything different from the new site when the old site never provided real transparency is uncertain.

The new site does feature a nice YouTube video of Vice President Biden and a new “Roadmap to Recovery.” Any ordinary traveler would have plotted his course before it began. A man who makes a roadmap after 100 days of wandering is seldom called a leader. More commonly, we say the man is lost.

And lost is where the nation is — so long as President Obama pushes deficit spending to incalculable heights, encumbers the federal budget with more entitlement spending and repeatedly fails to provide the genuine transparency that he promised.

Man the bilge, boys. It’s going to be a long night.

Rep. Darrell Issa is a California Republican and the Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government.

‘The Muslim World’ One-way multiculturalism.

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:07:59 +0000

As recently as last summer, General Motors filing for bankruptcy would have been the biggest news story of the week. But it’s not such a very great step from the unthinkable to the inevitable, and by the time it actually happened the market barely noticed and the media were focused on the president’s “address to the Muslim world.” As it happens, these two stories are the same story: snapshots, at home and abroad, of the hyperpower in eclipse. It’s a long time since anyone touted GM as the emblematic brand of America — What’s good for GM is good for America, etc. In fact, it’s more emblematic than ever: Like General Motors, the U.S. government spends more than it makes, and has airily committed itself to ever more unsustainable levels of benefits. GM has about 95,000 workers but provides health benefits to a million people: It’s not a business enterprise, but a vast welfare plan with a tiny loss-making commercial sector. As GM goes, so goes America?

But who cares? Overseas, the coolest president in history was giving a speech. Or, as the official press release headlined it on the State Department website, “President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo.”

Let’s pause right there: It’s interesting how easily the words “the Muslim world” roll off the tongues of liberal secular progressives who’d choke on any equivalent reference to “the Christian world.” When such hyper-alert policemen of the perimeter between church and state endorse the former but not the latter, they’re implicitly acknowledging that Islam is not merely a faith but a political project, too. There is an “Organization of the Islamic Conference,” which is already the largest single voting bloc at the U.N. and is still adding new members. Imagine if someone proposed an “Organization of the Christian Conference” that would hold summits attended by prime ministers and presidents, and vote as a bloc in transnational bodies. But, of course, there is no “Christian world”: Europe is largely post-Christian and, as President Obama bizarrely asserted to a European interviewer last week, America is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Perhaps we’re eligible for membership in the OIC.

I suppose the benign interpretation is that, as head of state of the last superpower, Obama is indulging in a little harmless condescension. In his Cairo speech, he congratulated Muslims on inventing algebra and quoted approvingly one of the less bloodcurdling sections of the Koran. As socio-historical scholarship goes, I found myself recalling that moment in the long twilight of the Habsburg Empire when Crown Prince Rudolph and his mistress were found dead at the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling — either a double suicide, or something even more sinister. Happily, in the Broadway musical version, instead of being found dead, the star-crossed lovers emigrate to America and settle down on a farm in Pennsylvania. Recently, my old comrade Stephen Fry gave an amusing lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London on the popular Americanism “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade” — or, if something’s bitter and hard to swallow, add sugar and sell it. That’s what the president did with Islam: He added sugar and sold it.

The speech nevertheless impressed many conservatives, including Rich Lowry, my esteemed editor at National Review, “esteemed editor” being the sort of thing one says before booting the boss in the crotch. Rich thought that the president succeeded in his principal task: “Fundamentally, Obama’s goal was to tell the Muslim world, ‘We respect and value you, your religion and your civilization, and only ask that you don’t hate us and murder us in return.’” But those terms are too narrow. You don’t have to murder a guy if he preemptively surrenders. And you don’t even have to hate him if you’re too busy despising him. The savvier Muslim potentates have no desire to be sitting in a smelly cave in the Hindu Kush sharing a latrine with a dozen halfwitted goatherds while plotting how to blow up the Empire State Building. Nevertheless, they share key goals with the cave dwellers — including the wish to expand the boundaries of “the Muslim world” and (as in the anti-blasphemy push at the U.N.) to place Islam, globally, beyond criticism. The non-terrorist advance of Islam is a significant challenge to western notions of liberty and pluralism.

Once Obama moved on from the more generalized Islamoschmoozing to the details, the subtext — the absence of American will — became explicit. He used the cover of multilateralism and moral equivalence to communicate, consistently, American weakness: “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.” Perhaps by “no single nation” he means the “global community” should pick and choose, which means the U.N. Security Council, which means the Big Five, which means that Russia and China will pursue their own murky interests and that, in the absence of American leadership, Britain and France will reach their accommodations with a nuclear Iran, a nuclear North Korea, and any other psycho-state minded to join them.

On the other hand, a “single nation” certainly has the right to tell another nation anything it wants if that nation happens to be the Zionist Entity: As Hillary Clinton just instructed Israel re its West Bank communities, there has to be “a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions.” No “natural growth”? You mean, if you and the missus have a kid, you’ve got to talk gran’ma into moving out? To Tel Aviv, or Brooklyn, or wherever? At a stroke, the administration has endorsed “the Muslim world”’s view of those non-Muslims who happen to find themselves within what it regards as lands belonging to Islam: The Jewish and Christian communities are free to stand still or shrink, but not to grow. Would Obama be comfortable mandating “no natural growth” to Israel’s million-and-a-half Muslims? No. But the administration has embraced the “the Muslim world”’s commitment to one-way multiculturalism, whereby Islam expands in the west but Christianity and Judaism shrivel remorselessly in the Middle East.

And so it goes. Like General Motors, America is “too big to fail.” So it won’t, not immediately. It will linger on in a twilight existence sclerotic and ineffectual, declining unto a kind of societal dementia, unable to keep pace with what’s happening and with an ever more tenuous grip on its own past, but able on occasion to throw out impressive words albeit strung together without much meaning: empower, peace, justice, prosperity — just to take one windy gust from the president’s Cairo speech.

There’s better phrase-making in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, in a coinage of Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Committee on Foreign Relations. The president emeritus is a sober, judicious paragon of torpidly conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, musing on American decline, he writes, “The country’s economy, infrastructure, public schools, and political system have been allowed to deteriorate. The result has been diminished economic strength, a less vital democracy, and a mediocrity of spirit.” That last is the one to watch: A great power can survive a lot of things, but not “a mediocrity of spirit.” A wealthy nation living on the accumulated cultural capital of a glorious past can dodge its rendezvous with fate, but only for a while. That sound you heard in Cairo is the tingy ping of a hollow superpower.

CIA Urges Judge To Keep Bush-Era Documents Sealed

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:16:22 +0000

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Al-Qaeda Could Use Contents, Agency Says

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Obama administration objected yesterday to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA detainees at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge that doing so would endanger national security and benefit al-Qaeda’s recruitment efforts.

In an affidavit, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta defended the classification of records describing the contents of the 92 videotapes, their destruction by the CIA in 2005 and what he called “sensitive operational information” about the interrogations.

The forced disclosure of such material to the American Civil Liberties Union “could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security by informing our enemies of what we knew about them, and when, and in some instances, how we obtained the intelligence we possessed,” Panetta argued.

Although Panetta’s statement is in keeping with his previous opposition to the disclosure of other information about the CIA’s interrogation policies and practices during George W. Bush’s presidency, it represents a new assertion by the Obama administration that the CIA should be allowed to keep such information secret. Bush’s critics have long hoped that disclosure would pinpoint responsibility for actions they contend were abusive or illegal.

Last month, President Obama said he would seek to bar the release of photographs being sought by other nonprofit groups that depict abusive interrogations at military prisons during the Bush administration.

Panetta argued that none of the 65 CIA documents immediately at issue, which the ACLU has sought for several years in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, should be released. He asked U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to draw a legal distinction between the administration’s release in April of Justice Department memos authorizing the harsh interrogations and the CIA’s desire to keep classified its own documents detailing the specific handling of detainees at its secret facilities overseas.

He said that while the Justice Department memos discussed harsh interrogation “in the abstract,” the CIA information was “of a qualitatively different nature” because it described the interrogation techniques “as applied in actual operations.”

The “disclosure of explicit details of specific interrogations” would provide al-Qaeda “with propaganda it could use to recruit and raise funds,” Panetta said, describing the information at issue as “ready-made ammunition.” He also submitted a classified statement to the court that he said explains why detainees could use the contents to evade questions in the future, even though Obama has promised that the United States will not use the harsh interrogation techniques again.

Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security program, said yesterday evening that it is “grim” and “troubling” for the Obama administration to say that information about purported abuses should be withheld because it might fuel anti-American propaganda. He said that amounts to an assertion that “the greater the abuse, the more important it is that it should remain secret.” Jaffer said the ACLU is convinced that the public should have “access to the complete record of what took place in the CIA’s prisons and on whose authority.”

Although the ACLU first sought CIA documents related to harsh interrogations in 2004, it moved in 2007 to have the court hold the CIA in contempt following disclosures about the agency’s destruction of the videotapes. The ACLU demanded as a remedy access to internal e-mails and other information that would reveal the contents of the videotapes and who participated, approved or endorsed their destruction.

Hellerstein has repeatedly denied CIA motions demanding that the case be dismissed, but has not declared the agency in contempt. Instead, he ordered the CIA to surrender some of the records and provide details of others it is withholding; the agency has responded mostly by giving the documents to the court under seal.

A federal prosecutor continues to investigate the destruction of the videotapes.

In total, the CIA has said that 580 documents are related to the ACLU’s 2007 request; Panetta said that his statement applies to all of the 65 documents selected so far by the court for potential release and that the CIA will in the future consider releasing “non-operational documents” in the larger set.

In two exhibits given to the court along with Panetta’s affidavit, the CIA said the material that must be withheld includes a photograph of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, known as Abu Zubaida, the first detainee that the CIA believed to be of high value; a lengthy handwritten summary of notes taken after reviewing the videotapes; a five-page account by a CIA lawyer detailing the agency’s policy and legal guidance about the destruction of the videotapes; an e-mail to CIA managers summarizing the opinions of others about the tapes; a six-page account by an agency employee of a discussion with an agency lawyer about the tapes; and a series of e-mails discussing what the CIA should say publicly about the destruction.

It also said that one of the documents summarized “details of waterboard exposures from the destroyed videotapes,” referring to a simulated-drowning technique that Obama and his appointees have said amounted to illegal torture.

Although the CIA frequently redacts sometimes extensive portions of the documents it releases, Panetta said he had “determined that no meaningful segregable information can be released from the operational documents at issue.” Some, he said, were covered by attorney-client privilege, and nearly all contain personal information about CIA employees and others that would, if disclosed, “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
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Panetta also said he wanted to emphasize that his request was “in no way driven by a desire to prevent embarrassment for the U.S. government or the CIA, or to suppress evidence of any unlawful conduct.” He said his only purpose was to prevent harm to U.S. national security and to protect intelligence sources and methods.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Justice Dept.: 1st Gitmo Detainee Arrives In US

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:15:12 +0000

View Intelligence Report’s blog

By DEVLIN BARRETT
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 9, 2009; 6:45 AM

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities have brought the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States, flying him into New York to face trial for bombing U.S. embassies, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

The department said Ahmed Ghailani arrived in the early morning hours Tuesday. U.S. Marshals took custody of Ghailani from his military jailers and brought him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Ghailani is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court later Tuesday.

“With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press release. “The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.”

Ghailani’s trial will be an important test case for the Obama administration’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo in seven months and bring some of the suspects to trial.

Ghailani was indicted in 1998 for the al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks which killed more than 224 people, including 12 Americans.

U.S. officials charge Ghailani began his terrorist career on a bicycle delivering bomb parts and rose through the al-Qaida ranks to become a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden.

Ghailani, a Tanzanian, was in his twenties when prosecutors say he helped terrorists build one of the bombs that destroyed U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

He left Africa just before the bombings, according to investigators.

After the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ghailani worked for al-Qaida as a document forger, trainer at a terror camp and bodyguard to bin Laden, according to military prosecutors.

He was categorized as a high-value detainee by U.S. authorities after he was captured in Pakistan in 2004 and was transferred to the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba two years later.

Since his capture, Ghailani has denied knowing the TNT and oxygen tanks he delivered would be used to make a bomb. He also denied buying a vehicle used in one of the attacks, saying he could not drive.

Now, the Obama administration is trying to put him into the U.S. criminal justice system, despite claims by Republican critics that doing so would endanger American lives. Some lawmakers have opposed bringing any Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for trial, even in heavily guarded settings.

Last month, President Barack Obama said that preventing Ghailani from coming to U.S. soil “would prevent his trial and conviction. And after over a decade, it is time to finally see that justice is served, and that is what we intend to do.”

Relatives of those killed in the embassy attacks have supported the decision to bring Ghailani to the U.S. for trial. Many of those relatives say that since the 2001 terror attacks, the earlier victims of al-Qaida have been forgotten.

Yet the president faces pressure from across the political spectrum on his plan to close the detention center. Democrats have said they want to see the president’s plan for closing the base before approving money to finance it, and Republicans are fighting to keep Guantanamo open.

The decision to try Ghailani in New York also revives a long-dormant case charging bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership with plotting the embassy attacks that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands, including many who were blinded by shards of flying glass. The attacks prompted then-President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missile attacks two weeks later on bin Laden’s Afghan camps.

Four other men have been tried and convicted in the New York courthouse for their roles in the embassy attacks. All were sentenced to life in prison.

FBI Director Defends Use of Informants in Mosques

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:14:03 +0000

* View Intelligence Report’s blog LOS ANGELES — FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday defended the agency’s use of informants within U.S. mosques, despite complaints from Muslim organizations that worshippers and clerics are being targeted instead of possible terrorists. Mueller’s comments came just days after a Michigan Muslim organization asked the Justice Department to investigate complaints that the FBI is asking the faithful to spy on Islamic leaders and worshippers. Similar alarm followed the disclosure earlier this year that the FBI planted a spy in Southern California mosques. “We don’t investigate places, we investigate individuals,” Mueller said during a brief meeting with reporters in Los Angeles. “To the extent that there may be evidence or other information of criminal wrongdoings, then we will … undertake those investigations,” Mueller added. “We will continue to do it.” He called relations with U.S. Muslims “very good,” but acknowledged disagreements without providing specifics. The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been asked to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make. The FBI’s Detroit office has denied the allegations. In the California case, information about the informant who spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine came out at a February detention hearing for a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, an Afghan native and naturalized U.S. citizen named Ahmadullah Niazi who is accused of lying on his citizenship and passport applications about terrorism ties. Local Muslim leaders say they suspected since at least 2006 that the FBI was trying to infiltrate Muslim organizations in the area. “History disputes Mr. Mueller’s statements, at least in Southern California,” said Shakeel Syed, executive of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. “It doesn’t alleviate anything. It only continues to show the sheer arrogance demonstrated by the bureau in holding Muslim community members, clerics, mosques, as suspects,” Syed said. He is among community leaders in court seeking government records of surveillance. FBI agents and prosecutors say spying on mosques is one of the best weapons to uncover lurking terrorists or threats to national security, but it has posed a politically and legally thorny issue with Muslims who see themselves as unjustly monitored. “The FBI needs to do what it needs to do, certainly,” Syed said. But the agency is “trying to incite and entrap” law-abiding people. Mueller also said that there will be no change in the FBI’s priorities in the new administration. “I would not expect that we would in any way take our foot off the pedal of addressing counterterrorism,” he said. “My expectation is that we’ll see an uptick in terms of resources devoted toward our domestic criminal responsibilities, but we will not … relax our responsibilities when it come to counterterrorism or counterintelligence,” he added.

ACORN,EU,AND JOBS !!!!!!!

graafr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:00:19 +0000

If this dangerous organization is investigated by Congress who to date fails to do so then every one of them needs to be voted out. I’m talking about Acorn. The group of leaders are nothing more than liars, embezzlers of the taxpayer’s money billions I’m talking, and making a mockery of our rights to a fair and honest elections. It backfired in the 2,000 election when they tried to push (Global warming making millions on a pack of lies ) Al Gore. They succeeded in the 2008 election no doubt in my mind. Why does Congress refuse to investigate Acorn. But of course because the crooks there are connected with Acorn in some way, shape ,or form. No doubt in my mind. Look at the Liar in Chief lying as usual he has no connections with Acorn. When in fact he worked and train people of this dangerous organization. He even was a lawyer for them, training them techniques in having to do with voter fraud. Now that was reported on Fox. My hats are off to the eight Acorn workers that want to clean Acorn up.

After listening to the CEO of Acorn on the factor it was quite clear they don’t want to open there books. They talk about the one million dollars that was already embezzled and how she would fire any one doing anything illegal. That’s their excuse on all the charges that Acorn is facing in 14 states. Oh it’s only rogue employees. Nice but that won’t cut it this fraud is to big for a few bad employees as they claim. Then to find out later that this CEO has NO ONE yes I repeat no one working under her. Who is she going to fire herself, I don’t think so lets look at her bank accounts. Bet ya she crooked too. This organization is dangerous as I said before and needs to be cut off from taxpayer’s money. That’s where the gutless Congress people should be stepping in when our money is involved. Yea right just like they can’t find where are money went on the bailouts. I would like to see these spineless representatives connected to Acorn in the slightest way also go to jail. Congress just doesn’t get it and they call us dumb, I can’t wait till they get their marching papers. Then we will see who the idiots are.

Look at what happen to the EU this weekend in their elections. First projections by the EU show center-right parties will have the most seats — between 263 and 273 — in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties are expected to get between 155 to 165 seats.Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe’s largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere. Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain. Are they waking up now, TAKE NOTE.

Then if they can do it so can we in 2010. Bye Bye you no good for nothing taking up space crooks. Their probably will be a few that will still get their seats but we will get the majority of them. Just watch as the time for elections comes closer and the way your representatives will lie, say the sun rises and sets in you. Well it worked in the pass but it won’t this time that’s for sure. I’ve already started when talking to people show them how our governor who is running for the senate(R-FLA) Cristie has jumped on the Liar in Chief’s band wagon. He was going to do so much for our state. For example he was going to get home insurance premiums lower for us. I was paying $500 and it jumped to over $1,400. But what did he do nothing. The insurance companies threaten him that they would pull out of the State, so he dropped it and remains till this day in lala land. When Gov Palin campaign in Florida he didn’t say a word for backing her. And when it comes to Liar in Chief like I said he jumped on the bandwagon and has become a turncoat too, along with Specter. You know the saying to good old boys that’s what Washington is and we will put an end to the club. We should have done this years ago, but hey we didn’t but we will now.

That’s why Liar in Chief is trying to get everything done before 2010. Remember what he said in a speech that instead of 100 days he will have it done in 72 days and rest on the 73rd day. Well he sure is trying his best to have it done before 2010. Look at the Health care , he wants done and signed before August. The same with the judge, that in my opinion should have never been considered based on her bias record for minorities. That too the wants done before Oct. Just like all the bills keep everyone busy hand them thousands of pages and hold the vote the next day. Since when is it I’ll tell you what’s in the bill, you just approve it, and I sign it. That is the most slap shot way to vote on any bill without they proper investigations. That’s why I keeping track on how my reps. Voted and if they voted yes they are on my target list to go. And they are on it.

And finally as usual the Liar in Chief was in front of the cameras again. Once again is love affair with the media. This time he saying we are coming along and that within the next 100 days he will create 600,000 jobs. Okay let’s see in the month of May 600,000 people a week filed for first time unemployment. Hmmm I not that good in Math but that would be app. 20,000 jobs a day 2,400,000 for the month of May, and he’s going to have jobs of 600,000 in 100 days. Seems we will still be in the hole so therefore once again the Liar in spewing BS. I got the May figures from the FBN. That’s just wonderful you idiot. And they think we are stupid.