Awful news out of Afghanistan….a soldier has been captured by the Taliban:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 2, 2009

Release Number 20090207-01

KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. Soldier, who has been missing since June 30th from his assigned unit, is now believed to have been captured by militant forces. We are exhausting all available resources to ascertain his whereabouts and provide for his safe return.

We are not providing any further details at this time in order to protect the welfare of the Soldier.

The media:

KABUL — Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said Thursday.

Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing Tuesday.

“We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return,” Mathias said.

Mathias did not provide details on the soldier, the location where he was captured or the circumstances.

Prayers are with him and for his quick rescue because I damn well know he is not being treated like a Gitmo prisoner. Read the rest of this entry »

The WSJ describes the Franken win perfectly. No need to actually win an election, just find all the fraudulent voters you can::

The unfortunate lesson is that you don’t need to win the vote on Election Day as long as your lawyers are creative enough to have enough new or disqualified ballots counted after the fact.

Mr. Franken trailed Mr. Coleman by 725 votes after the initial count on election night, and 215 after the first canvass. The Democrat’s strategy from the start was to manipulate the recount in a way that would discover votes that could add to his total.

Not a whole lot to be happy about with this win by Franken but at least now they own everything. They have a filibuster proof Senate. Either everything they have whined about for the last eight years gets fixed or they are outright liars. Scott said it best in the comments: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, this can’t make the Code Pink crowd and ACLU militants very happy:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the facility by the president’s January deadline.

President Obama should swallow his pride and just abandon his campaign promise, a position based upon partisan politics more than upon informed knowledge. It’s ok to admit a mistake; it’s ok to say “I was wrong before…” then go on to explain to the American public and his political constituents how his position has evolved and why Gitmo should remain open; or at the very least, why the January deadline just isn’t realistic. Not if it means compromising the safety of the United States.
Read the rest of this entry »

AP:

TEHRAN, Iran – A backstage struggle among Iran’s ruling clerics burst into the open Sunday when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the country’s most powerful men.

Threats Watch:

Folks, this is huge. Huge. A report from Saudi Arabia’s al-Arabiya, Iranian clerics seek supreme leader alternative, indicates that Rafsanjani is seeking to eliminate the Supreme Leader. Not just the man, but the position and role presiding over Iranian politics and the Iranian society.

Religious leaders are considering an alternative to the supreme leader structure after at least 13 people were killed in the latest unrest to shake Tehran and family members of Ayatollah Rafsanjani were arrested amid calls by former President Mohammad Khatami for the release of all protesters.
Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon’s second-in-command says North Korea’s missiles could threaten the continental United States if the reclusive rogue nation continues to develop its weapons.

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn agreed with an assessment by Sen. John McCain that the U.S. should be prepared for a “worst-case scenario” with North Korea.

Pentagon officials also told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that North Korea is working with other nations, including Iran and potentially Syria, to develop ballistic missiles.

Well, they called it “fear-mongering” when Bush Admin made this claim, so I guess it’s still “fear-mongering.” Unless…it’s true.

A couple of notable articles today…. one from ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER in the NYT’s today, documenting the migration of many AQ leaders and fighters from Pakistan to friendlier digs in Somalia or Yemen.

In communications that are being watched carefully at the Pentagon, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, the terrorist groups in all three locations are now communicating more frequently, and apparently trying to coordinate their actions, the officials said.

~~~

Somalia is now a failed state that bears some resemblance to Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, while Yemen’s weak government is ineffectually trying to combat the militants, American officials say.

The shift of fighters is still small, perhaps a few dozen, and there is no evidence that the top leaders — Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri — are considering a move from their refuge in the Pakistani tribal areas, according to more than half a dozen senior administration, military and counterterrorism officials interviewed in recent days.

Most officials would not comment on the record about the details of what they are seeing, because of the sensitivity of the intelligence information they are gathering.

Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, said in remarks here on Thursday that the United States must prevent Al Qaeda from creating a new sanctuary in Yemen or Somalia.

This truly can’t be much of a surprise. As I posted on April 16th, the Somalia pirates links to local jihad groups and their alliance with AQ is plainly out in the open. And since, in this economy, piracy seems to be the only job security for a desperate jihad group, Somalia is certainly a logical choice for their financial woes. Garnishing a percentage of the pirates booty shouldn’t be difficult to negotiate in exchange for favors, protection and arms.

And in fact, financial woes are playing a large part in the decision to shift AQ resources to Yemen and Somalia, according to CLEMENTE LISI in the New York Post today.

Read the rest of this entry »

Carlos Bledsoe/Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad/Abdulhakim Bledsoe/Human Pondscum gave an interview to the Associated Press, reported yesterday, in which he justifies the killing of Private William Andrew Long as not murder, “because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.”:

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

~~~

Muhammad told the AP he admitted to his actions to police and said he was retaliating against the U.S. military.

“Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally,” Muhammad said. He called it “a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military.”

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

He also said he didn’t specifically plan the shootings that morning.

“It’s been on my mind for awhile. It wasn’t nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know,” said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

~~~

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. “For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate,” he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

No! Certainly not! The U.S. military would never seize and destroy Bibles!

“U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don’t believe in turning the other cheek,” he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said “I didn’t know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did,” especially desecrating the Quran.

Muhammad isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, is he? But then, what crayon in the jihad movement coloring book is?

But he’s got a point.

Here are photos to support Muhammad’s assertions, showing proof positive that “U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women.”:
Read the rest of this entry »

Unbelievable!

[T]he Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan, according a senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “The administration has decided to change the focus to law enforcement. Here’s the problem. You have foreign fighters who are targeting US troops today – foreign fighters who go to another country to kill Americans. We capture them…and they’re reading them their rights – Mirandizing these foreign fighters,” says Representative Mike Rogers, who recently met with military, intelligence and law enforcement officials on a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan.

Rogers, a former FBI special agent and U.S. Army officer, says the Obama administration has not briefed Congress on the new policy…

Yup, lets return the days of treating terrorism as a crime rather then as a act of war. It worked out so well during the 90’s didn’t it?

Best way for our soldiers to win this thing? Kill the enemy instead of EVER capturing them. You capture them they may very well end up with a taxpayer funded vacation to a tropical paradise. Read the rest of this entry »

The farce known as the Obama administration is now trying to bribe a tourist destination to take the 17 al-Qaeda Uighers currently being detained at Gitmo.

Just when you thought they couldn’t do anything more idiotic, they prove us wrong:

The Obama administration is nearing agreement with the remote South Pacific island nation of Palau to resettle a group of Chinese Muslims now held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, The Associated Press has learned.

As they attempt to fulfill President Barack Obama’s order to close the Guantanamo facility by early next year, administration officials are looking to Palau to accept some or all of the 17 Uighur detainees due to fierce congressional opposition to releasing them on U.S. soil, officials said.

~~~

Asked Tuesday about discussions with Palau on the Uighurs, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly declined to comment beyond saying the United States is “working closely with our friends and allies regarding resettlement” of detainees at Guantanamo. He said the department would not comment on talks with individual countries.

Two of the officials said the United States was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

Hmmmm, almost sounds like a threat to me. Take the AQ members or we defend you no more. Read the rest of this entry »

The news outlets are a’hum today with 400 approx villagers from Upper Dir district’s Haya Gai area who formed a militia, and did their own vigilante mission thru five villages to hunt Taliban. Their complacence with Taliban muscle rule broke after a homicide bomber killed 33 during weekly prayer services on Friday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Charles Krauthammer tears into Obama on his speech today calling it “Abstract, vapid, and self-absorbed”

Absolutely perfect!

Moral relativism at its worst…

Which one gave this speech: Obama or Bush? (ironic that both were given in June too)

For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage. The forces of extremism and terror are attempting to kill progress and peace by killing the innocent. And this casts a dark shadow over an entire region. For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the Middle East.
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…and it’s offensive. Maybe not to those in Cairo and the Muslim universe, maybe not to anti-Americans overseas, maybe not to half the country who thinks like President Barack HUSSEIN (his decision- it’s cool and hip to include, now) Obama, but offensive to myself and fellow conservatives who see danger in a president who doesn’t defend America, but castrates it before the world.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mata has written a few posts on the murder on Army Private Long and it’s telling how silent Obama has been over his murder…..the exact opposite reaction over the murder of abortion doctor Tiller even though its obvious the killer of Long had religious reasons: (h/t Stop The ACLU)