I found a similarity between Senator Durbin's apology and Senator Kerry's opinion of Operation Iraqi Freedom (and maybe some media bias to go along with it). Please tell me what you think.

Posted by: Chris Short at 10:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jeff Quinton notified me that Dick Durbin has publicly apologozed. Ian from the Political Teen has the video. When I first saw the video, I thought, just like Charles Johnson seems to be thinking, wait, this isn't an apology at all. This is an I'm sorry I got caught and you took me wrong non-apology. However, after reading a more thorough account of his apology, the apology does seem genuine.

Ok, here is some of what he says. AP:

Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Illinois Democrat said. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

I'm sorry that you believe my remarks crossed the line.

Then he goes on to what seems to be a non-apology to the soldiers he offended:

They're the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them,"

And if that was all he said, then I would be forced to conclude, as Rob Porter does, that this was no apology at all.

However, at one point he does fess up and realize just how morally depraved his remarks were.

Via Will Collier this from Yahoo News:

During his apology, which Durbin delivered while looking directly into a TV camera broadcasting the proceedings, the senator said: "I made reference to Nazis, to Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I've come to understand that's a very poor choice of words."

He also reached out directly to Holocaust survivors, adding: "I'm sorry if anything that I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust, the greatest moral tragedy of our time. Nothing, nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy."

Further, iff Durbin is sincere or not is not important to me. What was offensive was not whether or not he actually believed his disgusting analogy, but rather that his made the analogy.

Durbin has apologized. I'm with Chris Short and Citizen Smash on this. I accept the apology at face value. Now let us see him try and undo all the damage that has been done.

UPDATE: Funny. No, very funny. And funny again!

Oh, and as long as we're talking Gitmo. Hey, Kos. Read this.

UPDATE II: No wonder I'm a RINO. I guess I'm going to feel the wrath of angry readers on this one. But look, seriously, this seems to be a legitimate apology. Trust me, I've said equally stupid things in the past and I hope that when I try to correct them and apologize people will be somewhat charitable. If Durbin's deeds in the following months indicate otherwise, we will hold his feet to the fire again. Until then, chill.

UPDATE III: I guess I disagree with Captain Ed and Ed Driscoll and think that M.H. King accepts the apology.

UPDATE IV 6/22/04: I knew I would be in the minority on this one, but that doesn't bother me. There is a solid argument against giving Durbin a pass. Further, just because I accept Durbin's apology does not mean that he should not be censured. I think he still should be censured. Whether or not he should resign or be forced out of his role as Minority Whip is inconsequential to me. That's just politics. I'm interested in people doing the right thing, not politics.

As you may recall, I was personally offended and outraged by his remarks. And now, I personally forgive him for offending me.

A lot of great points made below in the comments section and also by checking the fatwas issued below. Michelle Malkin also has a good roundup.

I'm also glad to see I agree with Dean Esmay.

Posted by: Rusty at 06:54 PM | Comments (45) | Add Comment
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A while back I cross-posted this long post about how the accusations of "torture" at Gitmo would soon rebound on the accusers, since most of America is just flippin' fine with fighting this war "the Chicago Way". And just as importantly, because what was alleged to be torture is no worse than what happens to new pledges in fraternity houses across America.

I had given some anecdotal support for this claim here, but now the lovely, the talented, the Malkin has poll data backing me up.

Gitmo's a loser for the left. "Set the terrorists free!" loses elections for them. Hopefully they won't learn this too quickly.

Posted by: seedubya at 03:15 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 It may be a loser for the US voters, but it's a BIG win for the propagandists in the ME.

Posted by: rabidfox at June 21, 2005 03:39 PM (CAVPy)

2 That poll also says the public is almost wholly unsupportive of the war. Does this mean we should end it now?

Posted by: Terrence at June 21, 2005 04:00 PM (7tpGj)

3 Both are good points. See-Dubya only invokes polls when they are favorable to his view.

Posted by: greg at June 21, 2005 04:02 PM (/+dAV)

4 Also, I think murder and rape go beyond frathouse pranks. I'm sure if your son were sodomized with a chemical stick, you'd feel the same way. But he's probably not brown, right? So sodomize away!

Posted by: Terrence at June 21, 2005 04:03 PM (7tpGj)

5 My daughter's a little brown, a little red and a little white, Terrence, you classless racebaiting fuck. Leave my family out of this.

Posted by: See-Dub at June 21, 2005 04:22 PM (GQ7mI)

6 What is it with you and sodomizing brown-skinned guys, Terrence? Hmmmmm???

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at June 21, 2005 05:57 PM (0yYS2)

7 Hmmm -- you seem to get angrier at my comments than at our soldiers raping and murdering innocent people. I guess that's why we'll never see eye to eye. Cheerio!

Posted by: Terrence at June 21, 2005 06:25 PM (7tpGj)

8 Terrence, You do realise that those particular cases are isolated events? As no order was given for those actions, the responsibility belongs with the individual soldier -- much like if you did it on the street. When you tar all soldiers, and question their honor, you do tend to piss people off. You are happy to live under their protection but concider them butchers, and murders? please go live in France.

Posted by: dave at June 21, 2005 09:17 PM (fsJ2z)

9 "But he's probably not brown, right? So sodomize away! " Is it the belief in the left/anti-war crowd that all who disagree with them are racists? I suspect it is, which only helps to prove how out of touch they are.

Posted by: Defense Guy at June 22, 2005 08:17 AM (lVjfM)

10 If they were "innocent", they wouldn't be there. Isn't it AMAZING how many attack us again when we release them. We should just extract what info we need from them and then shoot them. We're supposed to be fighting a WAR, not holding a seminar.

Posted by: Scott in CA at June 22, 2005 09:41 AM (UVsOz)

11 You guys have been misinformed. check this out: http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/resources_files/Scant_Evidence_Cited_in_Long_Detention_of_Iraqis.html And here: http://www.duckdaotsu.org/abu_ghraib_free.html Lesson: membership at Abu Ghraib does not mean anything, other than you're brown and don't like the United States.

Posted by: terrence at June 23, 2005 12:59 PM (SEFvy)

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Sullie was kind enough to throw me a link last week in a rare show of solildarity with those who think clearly, understand that words mean things, and that the rhetoric coming out of the Left is dangerous to the lives of our soldiers. He now backtracks and says he supports Dick Durbin's disgusting and immoral comments.

It is this administration that has brought indelible shame on America, and it's people like Dick Durbin who prove that some can actually stand up against this stain on American honor and call it what it is. Good for him. Thank God for him.

Related graphic.

Hat tip Unconventional Wisdom who sent the TB with no *cough* link.....

UPDATE: Slublog also taking Sullie to task. And as long as we're on the subject of criticizing other bloggers, The Commissar takes Cousin Ollie to task here and Kevin Drum here........

Posted by: Rusty at 10:01 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Quick!! Somebody call the ACLU!!! Get Senator Durbin on the line!!!! Before Bush-Hitler's Rethuglican forces torture more innocent followers of the Religion of Peace!!!!!!!!

Via LGF this from the Miami Sun Sentinal:

Attorneys for two terrorism suspects tied to an alleged al-Qaida dirty bomb suspect are asking for the dismissal of a federal indictment against them based on a jailer's mishandling of a Quran and intimidating jail cell searches that removed handwritten papers in Arabic.

The defense claims the seizures from the cells of Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi in May and June amount to government misconduct and an unconstitutional intrusion on trial preparation.

Jailers also disrespectfully tossed Hassoun's Quran on his bunk and left 8,000 pages of trial papers in disarray, his attorney Kenneth Swartz said in motions filed Friday....

On the Quran, a jail officer took a piece of paper with Arabic writing, but Hassoun explained that he had copied an excerpt from the holy book and showed him the matching text. The officer returned the paper and tossed the Quran on the bed.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:26 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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Kos--"So we are stuck in an unwinnable war, with a Right Wing that's increasingly shrill as they hold on desperately to the what last straws they have ("they hate America!" "Last throes!")."

Kos--"The insurgency is becoming more deadly, more effective, and it's nowhere near being defeated."

Kos readers, see this for debunking of claims terrorists, who you, like the MSM, like to call 'insurgents' are getting more effective.

Kos--"Yet the same idiots who now claim Saddam's torture rooms gave them justification to invade Iraq (while ignoring torture rooms in allied countries, like Uzbekistan), they now claim torture by our side is no big deal."

What TORTURE asshole? We are not claiming 'torture is no big deal', what we are claiming is that almost every single case of 'torture' you cite is not, in fact, torture. Abuse, maybe, but not 'torture' you fool!

The American military is in the business of rescuing prisoners from torture chambers, not in the business of putting prisoners in them. Example here (hat tip: Tim at Opinion Bug).

These are fighting words. The kind of words that in previous wars would have been censored (yes, there used to be actual, real, honest to goodness censorship during WWII). The kind of words that would land you in jail during times of total war.

If I sound shrill, it's only because I am tired of Kos and company. While they claim there is nothing worse than a soldier dying they forget there is one thing worse: a soldier dying in vain. To claim the Iraq war is lost is to turn the self-sacrifice of our brave soldiers into a futile mockery. Kos even goes so far as to make the claim that the Afghanistan war may have been a mistake since the insurgency is still very much alive there. As if we hadn't already won the Afghanistan campaign.

Kos is a disgusting human being, with no realization that the GWOT will never be won in the conventional sense. There is no nation-state the terrorists belong to to sign a cease-fire with. The truth is that we have already won in Iraq and Aghanistan. What we are fighting now is not the same war. Now it is a war against terrorist forces.

Wait. Maybe Kos does understand this. Maybe he just wishes we would surrender?

[Yes, this post keeps getting longer the more I think about it]

Posted by: Rusty at 01:59 PM | Comments (66) | Add Comment
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By Demosophist

Honestly, I'm so naive. I figured the story about the Downing Street Memos that fueled the make-believe Conyers hearings was just another in the long list of controversies over interpretation that plague the ideological divide, like the fracas over "imminent threat." It never entered my head that the memos are actually no more real than the Rathergate fakes. What's a creative new word for "surprised," now that Sullivan has violated the term "gobsmacked?" Yeah I'm that, and then some.

Update: more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 10:17 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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The Islamic Thinkers Society are part of a vangaurd of fifth columnists who are enemies of the United States of America. While they may disclaim the methods which Osama bin Laden uses, they do not disclaim his goals. The group wishes to install Taliban like government in all Muslim countries unified under a single Caliphate. Eventually the group wishes to see a global Caliphate replacing the nation-state system.

We have documented the anti-American and pro-jihadi activities of The Islamic Thinkers Society over the past year. For instance, in April they were seen on the streets of New York with signs saying or depicting (as described by Kristine Withers):

US the real terrorist, oppose the war on terror, God hates the US because they have Homosexuals, restoration of the Caliphate, pictures of Abu Gharab, 9/11 pictures saying it was justified, etc.

They were telling me how wicked America and I was. A
member of the group was also telling me, "we will kill you", and "next time we will get all of NYC".

Oh Muslims! Do you know your enemy? Isn't it obvious?...

The so-called terrorists are the only people who truly fear Allah. ... They are the only worthy causes, and the mighty superpower only fears them

Now the group is claiming there is an organized smear campaign out to distort their peaceful message and give Islam a bad name.

But even as they attempt a propaganda campaign out to rehabilitate their name, they reveal the truly evil nature of their goals.

From their website, with commentary in brackets:

Our objective is to resume the Islamic way of life to which will fulfill the purpose of the aim. Our objective is to bring back the apparatus that was destroyed in 1924 i.e. Khilafah [ie, Caliphate which united Sunni Muslims until the end of the Ottoman empire]. Indeed it was the Khilafah that united the Muslim Ummah under one flag, one land, one border, and one leader [This, of course, is not true since Shia Muslims did not recognize the same succession of Caliphs as did Sunnis]. It was the Khilafah which served as the appartus to make sure that Tawheed ['unification', used here to indicate the oneness of faith in the umma, or Islamic nation, under a single religious head] manifested in all ascpect [sic] in the Muslim Ummah's affairs. Surely, anyone who accepts any other system than Allah's Shari'ah is worshipping the one who has put his laws in place of the laws of Allah [in other words, democratic lawmaking with it's assumption that power derives from the people is un-Islamic]. This is a major form of shirk and anyone who commits a major shirk has left Islam. [Remember, the maximum penalty for leaving Islam is death. Therefore, any Muslim who advocates Western style liberal democracy is a heretic, according to the Islamic Thinkers Society. This is essentially the same argument used by Osama bin Laden in his justification for attacking states like Saudi Arabia. It is exactly the same arguement used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi when he attacks the Iraqi government. It is exactly the same argument used when Ansar al-Sunnah beheads Turkish truck drivers. They are heretics and deserve death.].....

Having given these few evidences, is just to show the importance of having an Islamic State where it will serve as the mechanism to protect & nurture the Muslim Ummah with the correct understanding as well as the correct practicality of Tawheed. [Like most utopians, Salafists like the Islamic Thinkers Society believe that with the renewing of the Caliphate and the subjegation of the Islamic world to a single authority, the Caliph, will usher in a golden age. Like the Communist utopians before them, though, such a state would obviously be horribly oppressive.] This all goes towards purifying Tawheed as well as fulfilling the aim of every Muslim which is to do ibadat to Allah s.w.t. This is what we, as part of Islamic Thinkers Society strive for. To create the ideal Islamic society, where the furqan(criterion) for the individuals as well as the rulers will be the Qur'an & Sunnah [sayings of the Prophet] and the Qur'an & Sunnah only [that is to say, not only are individuals required to follow Islam as a form of personal adherence to righteousness, in the way that other religious people might, but legal authority must be derived from the Quran as well. eg, all forms of government other than Taliban like states based on Islamic Law are illegitimate] . As always, our struggle is intellectual & political. [First, they disclaim violence...but then....] To us, this is a matter of life & death. A matter of jannah [paradise, eg, heaven] & jahannam [hell-eg, those opposed to the Salafist paradigm are heretics and going to hell]. It requires seriousness, dedication, & sabr [uncomplaining dedication].

Hat tip: Aaron over at Internet Haganah.

Posted by: Rusty at 01:44 PM | Comments (39) | Add Comment
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What's wrong with this picture? When WWII was declared the overwhelming response of the German community was to condemn en masse the Nazi front of the German Bund. Even though Japanese Americans were treated far more poorly than the Germans, the response from that community was to enlist in the Army in an effort to prove their loyalty to the nation and ease the oversuspicious among us.

How does the Muslim community respond to any and every indictment against suspected terrorists? By screaming intimidation and ethnic profiling.

Via the California Mafia we learn that two indictments have been handed down in the Lodi al Qaeda ring and how the Muslim community responds to finding out about the traitors living among them. Sacramento Bee (subscription):

Two Lodi men accused by the government of connections to terrorist training in Pakistan were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Sacramento.
Humid Hayat is charged with two counts of making a false statement to FBI agents, and his father, Umer Hayat, is charged with one count of making a false statement to FBI agents.

The indictment says Hamid Hayat was lying when he denied being with any type of terrorist organization and denied attending any type of terrorist training camp.

The indictment says Umer Hayat was lying when he denied having any first-hand knowledge of terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

And which two groups are filing the complaint? Come on....do I really have to even say?

Also on Thursday, a coalition of Muslim civil rights groups and other organizations announced they were filing complaints of "intimidating tactics" against the FBI along with a formal request for records of its investigation into possible terrorist connections in Lodi....

The tactics involve denial of medical treatment, threats of arrest or deportation to coerce people, and denied access to legal representation, said Basim Elkarra of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Sacramento Valley.

"This must be done in the way that respects people's rights," said Mark Schlosberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Our Lodi al Qaeda cell archives are here and continually updated.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I've said a lot of idiotic things in my life, but at least I usually have the class to apologize. As I've written an umpteen bajillion times, to make comparisons between [insert perceived problem here] and Communist and/or Nazi attrocities is immoral. First Dick Durbin makes this idiotic comparison (hat tip to dozens of readers and other bloggers, but I grabbed the quote from Frank J.):

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. ..... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

And one time my sadistic Scoutmaster, who would make Stalin's head of the KGB Lavrenti Beria blush, made us camp next to the Colorado River out by Needles, and it was like 100 degrees at night!

The only thing more morally inept then comparing what is happening at Guantanamo to the tens of millions of people killed in the gulags, is to not back down once you've been called on it.

Via Bill Quick this news that Dick the Dick Durbin won't back down from his disgusting comments:

CHICAGO Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says he won't apologize for comments comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Nazis and Soviet gulags.

News of the Democrat's comparison created a buzz around the Internet today, fueled by sound bites of yesterday's Senate floor speech on radio talk shows. By this afternoon, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna asked Durbin to apologize.

Durbin says the Bush administration should apologize for abandoning the Geneva Conventions.

Dick Durbin ought to be immediately censured by the U.S. Senate for his disgusting remarks. Any comparisons to the mass murders committed by the Soviet Communists is an insult to the memory of the tens of millions who died.

Paul says Durbin should resign:

Dick Durbin is ignorant of history, a complete jackass, and owes everyone in uniform an apology -- then he should resign.

Baldilocks agres Durbin should resign.

Mike over at Froggy Ruminations has the same idea, "I want DurbinÂ’s job, and I want it now."

UPDATE: Charles Johnson notes that Al Jazeera resoundingly approves of Durbin's remarks. An important note here is that the jihadis fight because they actually believe that the U.S. is no different than the Nazis. Durbin's idiotic words do not help in the war on terror. It's the kind of stuff the jihadi propogandists like to use, "See, even your Senator Durbin believes you are just as bad as the Nazis......" Nice going, jackass.

Related:
The Gulag Archipelego vs. Amnesty International's 'Gulags'
Hithchens: AI's Broken Moral Compass
The Horrors of the Gulags
Amnesty International Calls for Arrest of Bush, Bono to be named Czar of World
MSM Ignoring Real Human Rights Abuses

Posted by: Rusty at 10:58 AM | Comments (28) | Add Comment
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I looked over the account of the suspected twentieth hijackerÂ’s (wait? wasnÂ’t that Moussaoui? Or is he now the 21st hijacker?) interrogation at Guantanamo. Someone leaked a document to Time, which ran to publish its breathless handwringing gotcha scoop. (The whole story is only available to Time subscribers; but hereÂ’s a press release; here are excerpts from the log; and hereÂ’s Brother LileksÂ’ incomparable japery.) I canÂ’t compete with Lileks on this one, but let me throw a thought at you:

Time got played. If this thing wasnÂ’t leaked by Karl Rove himself, it shoulda been.

YÂ’all remember that movie, the Untouchables? Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and Malone (Sean Connery), couple other guys go after the oily, brutal Al Capone, played by Robert DeNiro. And the Untouchables quickly realize that the regular methods of police work just donÂ’t apply to this war. When they go on a raid of a liquor warehouse, Capone is tipped off and clears his booze out. And he tips off the media so when Ness opens what he thinks is a crate of liquor bottles, and he pulls out a parasol, a cameraman is there to record his mistake. A picture of Ness looking stupid is on the front page the next day.

It’s funny, when you think about it, how the press were portrayed in that film: they were staunchly anti-crime and kept hassling the cops to end this horrble crime wave–while at the same time they never missed a chance to make the cops look stupid and Capone look ten thousand feet tall and unbeatable. Though they would deny it, they were complicit in Capone’s power. They fawningly took down every single word he said at press conferences, printed his lies, and laughed at his jokes. It was easy to do that. Capone would kill you, the cops wouldn’t. It was easy for the press to swim with that current. Swim against it, prick the ego, tarnish the myth, look too deeply into the abyss, and you would sleep with the fishes.

Sound familiar?

Anyway, Ness is dejected about being set up and at some point early on in the movie, Malone, the gruff Irish beat cop, gives him one of the greatest movie speeches ever:

If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way because theyÂ’re not gonna give up the fight until one of you is deadÂ…Do you want to know how to get Capone? YouÂ’ve got to do it the Chicago Way. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one oÂ’ yours to the hospital, you send one oÂ’ his to the morgue. ThatÂ’s the Chicago way. And thatÂ’s how you get Capone.

The first step in their Chicago-way pursuit of Capone is an interception of a liquor shipment at the Canadian border. Ness shoots a bootlegger outside a small cabin while the other Untouchables, with the help of the Canadian mounties, win a huge firefight nearby. One of the bootleggers is captured alive and brought to the cabin, where he refuses to translate the ledger that conceals Capone’s accounts. Malone grows frustrated with the interrogation and walks outside, picks up the dead bootlegger and slams him against the window of the cabin. He puts his pistol in the dead body’s mouth and yells, “I’ll give you to the count of three to tell me what I want to know!”

Of course the dead bootlegger, he say nothin’, and Malone blows the dead body’s head off, spraying the horrified captive inside with gore. He falls all over himself trying to talk. Malone comes in and says “And don’t let him clean himself until he tells you everything you want to know.”

At this point the prim captain of the Canadian Mounties puffs up and tells Malone indignantly, “I do not approve of your methods!”

Elliot Ness replies, “You’re not from Chicago.”

Now then. Check out the Time piece, where they have an actual log of what we do in Gitmo. Not what we tell the press, but the notes the US government keeps for its own use. The Nazis kept notes, you know, and it hung a bunch of them at Nuremberg. Ours exonerate us.

An interrogator sits on this guys head and reads him the news of the death of Al Qaeda figures. They call him worse than a dog, since dogs at least protect the innocent instead of killing them. They wake him up with pop music and they give him dancing lessons. They hang pictures of nekkid women on his clothes. They monitor his health and try to keep him hydrated despite his refusal to drink enough water. Blackjacks and rubber hoses? No, but they touched an inflated latex glove to his face.

This is, remember, the twentieth hijacker.

The man is being humiliated, not tortured. IÂ’ve had worse in high school. IÂ’ve had worse at church camp.

The tone of the memo is of professionals doing their best to get information from this guy without hurting him. They are exercising enormous restraint and care for his well-being. They even note how often he goes to the bathroom. I guaran-damn-tee you that better men who have done far less are being treated far worse right now, in Lompoc or San Quentin or Soledad prisons, right under the nose of the press and in the custody of the State of California. Bill Lockyer admitted as much in 2001.

This is the twentieth hijacker, and there are no rapes, no whips, no severed tongues, no battery cables, no kicks to the head. There are MRE Boxes with smiley faces placed on his head. And everyoneÂ’s going to realize this. Everyone sees that this is barely even a Chicago Rules interrogation.

Most people realize that the War on Terror must be fought the Chicago Way.

Most people, that is, except the press. TheyÂ’re not from Chicago. After being tricked into publishing this exoneration of Guantanamo Bay, however, they are holding a parasol.

UPDATE: Here’s another comparison between the Terror War and the hunt for Capone–this time looking at the multi-agency task forces and prosecution strategy.

UPDATE II: Now I remember where IÂ’ve heard about these tactics before.

UPDATE III: Geraghty at TKS agrees: this story is now a gift to the GOP.

(Cross posted from Patterico's Pontifications where I'm still posting till Thursday.)

Posted by: seedubya at 11:52 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Charles Johnson over at LGF points out this old post from the Free Republic. What is so interesting about this is that all weekend long I kept hearing media pundits bring out that old tired Chomskyian lie that the New York Times is some sort of right-wing propaganda machine. That kind of stupid arguement can only be sustained if you are so far to the left, as many reporters and academics are, that you think the Democratic party is right-wing.

more...

Posted by: Rusty at 10:17 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Thanks to Shawn at Bare Knuckle Politics for finally (we went back and forth trying to figure out how to do this) getting the video of The Islamic Thinkers Society of New York desecrating the American flag and openly supporting the enemies of the US hosted. You can view the video here or download it here. Our post about the fifth column that is The Islamic Thinkers Society of New York is here along with images from the video. But, trust me on this, you need to see the video and hear the words coming out of these people's mouths.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:23 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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Every one is getting a damn fatwa but me! Let me make my position on Quran desecration clear. I am for it.*

Congrats to Robert Spencer for gettting the fascists over at the Islamic Thinkers Society to notice him.

If you want to see what these guys really think, I encourage you to watch the five minute video of them desecrating an American flag. Listen carefully to the words they use. (They took the video link down, but I have it if some one can host it--too long for my server).

Thanks to Mike at WunderKraut for e-mailing me about this and about Malkin's link. more...

Posted by: Rusty at 09:55 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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I used to belong to Amnesty International. No joke. During my lunch break in high school I would sit under a big U2 poster writing letters to South Africa begging the release of this or that jailed activist. But not now, oh no, not now.

First the leader of Amnesty makes the disgusting and immoral comparison of Camp X-Ray to Soviet gulags (which I debunked here), next they decide to call on Noam Chomsky of all people to defend their position (check out the video link on the right of the page), and now John Leo (Via Mighty Righty who got it from Captain Ed with a big hat tip to Filthy Allah) notices something I had forgot: this is the same group that wishes the Zeropeans to nab top officials and try them for crimes against humanity.

Man, am I glad I let my membership dues go unpaid for so long.........I'm totally on for the The Bipartisan Anti-Inflammation Pledge of 2005, but I reserve the right to call people I disagree with 'ca-ca heads' at will!! Seriously, some words are bad, but others are fighting words.

Anyway, here is what AI says (via Captain Ed again). It's not exactly a call for kidnapping, as Ed kinda makes it out to be, but it is the type of hyperbole that makes these guys look like the fools they are: more...

Posted by: Rusty at 03:25 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Multiple news agencies reporting that a fifth man has been detained in the Lodi, CA, al Qaeda cell investigation. Broadcast media is also reporting that the FBI expects to make more arrests. Further, search warrants have been executed on the Farooqia Islamic Center and the Lodi Muslim Mosque.

Reports also indicate that officials are backing off of earlier claims on the specificity of targets. Yesterday, an affidavit used to obtain the arrest warrant noted that potential targets included "hospitals and large food stores". The amended affidavit makes no such claim. Further, the FBI is backing off of the claim as to the location of the terrorist training camp and that photos of high-ranking US officials including President Bush were used for target practice.

Yesterday a number of pundits, including myself, questioned whether the fact that the US had intelligence reports indicating the location of jihadi training camps was evidence that Pakistan was being less than 100% cooperative in the Global War on Terror. Could pressure from the State Department, hoping to avoid a potential diplomatic fiasco with Pakistan, have forces the change?

Among the changes was the charge that one of the training camps was near Rawalpindi. Because Rawalpindi is the headquarters of the Pakistani military, it would be difficult to believe that the Pakistani military was not complicit in the camps.

I'm going to cross post this update here and in include it in my post from yesterday here. That earlier post will serve as an archive on this case.Fox News:

Five men, including two father and son pairs, have now been arrested as federal law enforcement officers try to determine whether they have uncovered a network of Al Qaeda (search) supporters in Northern California.

Father and son Umer and Hamid Hayat were arrested over the weekend in Lodi, Calif., on criminal charges. Three Pakistani citizens are also being held on immigration violations. Lodi is an agricultural community 40 miles south of Sacramento.

Two law enforcement sources have confirmed to FOX News that there is a connection between the Hayats and the Pakistani citizens....

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents also have arrested Mohammed Adil Khan, Shabbir Ahmed and Khan's 19-year-old son, Mohammad Hassan Adil, for immigration violations. All three are citizens of Pakistan and Khan is affiliated with the Farooqia Islamic Center near Lodi, Calif. Ahmed is a citizen of Pakistan who currently functions as the Imam of the Lodi mosque.

Those three men are expected to eventually appear before an immigration judge.

An FBI affidavit says Hamid Hayat first denied any link to terror camps, but then told agents he attended an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan for six months.

A law enforcement source confirmed to FOX News that search warrants have been executed at two mosques, homes of the Hayats, as well as that of the Lodi Muslim Mosque's imam. The case is now described as "ongoing investigation by the JTTF," the joint terrorism task force. FOX News was told that the connection between the Hayat's and Khan Ahmed "is more than just a meeting, there are many connections, here and possibly Pakistan."

Annika reports from CA: "The late local news on at least two of the tv stations here in Sacramento was very irritating. They seem much more concerned about the possibility of anti-muslim "hate-crimes" than they are about the possibility that some terrorists might have been PLANNING TO BLOW UP HOSPITALS AND SUPERMARKETS!

The media are on the side of the enemy. (That means you KCRA and News 10.)"

UPDATE: Evan Kohlmann has video of a jihadi training camp in Pakistan here.

UPDATE PM: From the Lodi News Sentinel:

One of two Lodi men suspected of having ties to an al-Qaida terrorist camp was once accused of attempted kidnapping in a case that ultimately led to a misdemeanor conviction and an order to attend anger management classes.

Umer Hayat, 47, was arrested in 2001 for allegedly assaulting two children. Hayat and his 22-year-old son, Hamid Hayat, are now behind bars, accused of lying to federal agents who were questioning them about their links to terror training camps in Pakistan.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:26 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Images from a video of the jihadis of the Islamic Thinkers Society below. This is the group that, at an earlier protest, had said about 9/11, "Next time we'll get all of New York,"

[UPDATE: You can view the video online here (with thanks to Shawn at Bare Knuckle Politics for uploading it) or you can download the entire video here (a little inconvenient becase of the wait time for free members, but the quality is better).

I had seen this story earlier at Jihad Watch, but didn't see the video until Michelle Malkin linked it. Michelle says "jump", I say "how high?" Also, you might want to follow her e-mail advice. Anyway, after seeing the video I'm disgusted. Since I know some people don't actually click the video links, I went ahead and took some screen shots of the video. If ever there was a clear 'fighting words' defense for assault, here it is.

Rob at Say Anything on the irony of it all (yes, this is true irony since words are being intentionally misused):

You know what I find amazing? The fact that the protesters are shouting about injustices done to Islamic people by the Americans, yet one of them about halfway through the video gets on the microphone and talks about how Islam is going to take over the world.

No freedom or liberty can be understood as anything but ordered and contextual. What this means is that what is thought of as a liberty in one context must be weighed against other liberties, and that sometimes these acts may be even considered criminal. From the Schenck (1919) case, for insance, comes the famous (if not discredited) example that people generally have the liberty to say whatever they wish, but they cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. The context of the theater changes the permissible action of shouting fire.

War also changes the context. We are in a war with jihadi inspired terrorists. In the context of war, embedded in the further context of a community which may have at least some minor percentage of those that are sympathetic to the cause, then advocating for the cause of the enemy ceases to be protected speech. In fact, this is a classic example of of the exception carved out in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969): "Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action"

I would argue that the word imminent ought to be dropped from the legal rule set up in Brandenburg. If 9/11 has taught us anything it is that terrorist acts may take years of planning. It has also taught us that our freedoms and liberties may be used against us in order to destroy those very liberties.

So, do I want flag desecration to be forbidden? No, of course not. What I do want is for incitement to take up arms against the US to be forbidden when the US is in a shooting war. more...

Posted by: Rusty at 04:11 PM | Comments (55) | Add Comment
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By Demosophist

In a storming article for Tech Central Station Frederick Turner, who would be the leading candidate for Philosopher Laureate of the United States, were there such an office, rains on the authors of the NYT story that revealed details of the private charters used by our intelligence services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turner asks: "Why would they do it?" And concludes that they might not be quite human: more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 12:47 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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By Demosophist

What I'd really like to know is how we can expect the Ummah to exercise reasoned judgment when our own press refuses to do so? In the words of the late Desi Arnaz: "Can somebody please 'splain that to me?"

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)

Posted by: Demosophist at 12:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Thanks to relentless villification by the press, desertion by the government he swore to uphold, and the ingratitude of the country he swore to protect, Lieutenant Ilario Pantano has resigned.

h/t Michelle Malkin:

Here are some of Pantano's comments upon announcing his resignation at a fish fry today:

Congressman Jones, You once shared a verse with me:
Greater love hath no man - than to lay down his life for his friends.
That spirit of sacrifice defines the soldier and Marine. And it defines you sir. You know in your heart and your soul what is right and you are willing to fight for it. Even if it is at great risk to you and your career.
As my family and I faced our darkest hours you fought for us, and in doing soÂ…You fought for every man and woman in the uniform, past present and future - not because of the opportunity to challenge the military, but for the opportunity to protect it from itself.
Day and night you appealed to any that would listen. You were tireless in your defense of me, and for that I will be eternally grateful.
My family and I want to thank you for your courage and your leadership.
First, I present to you my innocence, known to you and many many others from the outset, but proven finally by our justice system after a yearlong investigation and prosecution.
Congressman Jones, You werenÂ’t just brave to defend me. You were RIGHT.
And finally, from one warrior to another, I present to you my most cherished possession: my sword. My love of corps and country will never be broken or diminished, but now it is my love of family that I must honor most with my decision to resign.
I have taken up arms for my country and my corps in two wars and it has been my privilege to serve beside real heroes- some of whom are here today.
Even as I step aside it is my greatest hope that young men and women continue to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone beforeÂ… To push themselvesÂ…To rise to the challenge of becoming Marines. Our country needs you and we will always be grateful to you.
The Marine OfficerÂ’s sword represents the highest ideals of military excellence and professionally, one of my greatest achievements.
Honor, courage and commitment are principles by which we Marines LIVE AND DIE.
You, Congressman Jones, through your actions, have demonstrated that you live by those principles as well.
And I, for one am grateful that you do.
Thank you Sir, may God bless you and your family and may God Bless America.

cross-posted at Suzanne's Blog

Posted by: Suzanne at 11:52 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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