January 10, 2007
Jan 10 09:15 Intel Key in Hitting AQ in Somalia Jan 10 10:13 Chavez Gets a Visitor Jan 10 12:10 Americans Against Hate Chairman Defends Himself Jan 10 13:45 Ellison Named to Judiciary Committee Jan 10 16:06 Oil Prices Keep Dropping, Part II Jan 10 17:01 Captain Ed, Ralph Peters Agree
Prior Years: 2006
Intel Key in Hitting AQ in Somalia
That's the easy conclusion to draw after reading this AP article. Here's what the AP is reporting:
2:20 p.m.Now that we're in the 'era of bipartisanship', I expect Ted Kennedy, John Kerry , Harry & Hillary to hold a press conference saying that (a) President Bush is pretty effective in fighting the terrorists wherever they are and (b) his 'stay on the offensive' strategy is brilliant.
The U.S. military attacks against al Qaeda leaders in Somalia were based on credible intelligence, a Pentagon spokesman said today. He would not address whether the operations were continuing. Bryan Whitman would not confirm any of the details of the strike, which was conducted by at least one AC-130 gunship yesterday in southern Somalia, and he would not say whether the attack killed any specific members of al Qaeda.
The assault was based on intelligence "that led us to believe we had principal al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them," Mr. Whitman said. "We're going to remain committed to reducing terrorist capabilities where and when we find them." White House press secretary Tony Snow said he was not aware of any consultations with Congress before the assault.
The air strike yesterday was in the town of Afmadow, about 220 miles southwest of the capital of Mogadishu, Somali officials said. It was not clear immediately how many people were killed in the attacks, but Somali officials said there were reports that many were killed.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said, "Very clearly, the U.S. government has had concerns that there are terrorists, and al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, that were in Somalia." He added that "we have great interest in seeing that those individuals not be able to flee to other locations." Mr. Whitman said the U.S. conducts "all operations with the close cooperation of our allies in the region" but would not say if Somali officials gave permission for the raid. At the outset of a conventional conflict, such as the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon normally would publicly release some details.
The Somalia assault, however, was conducted by U.S. Special Operations Command and has been shrouded in secrecy. The military typically declines to reveal much about such missions by special operations forces, including the AC-130 gunships used in the Somalia attack, and Delta Force counterterrorism ground troops.
If the initial air attack was just one part of a broader, continuing special operation, the military would be even more reluctant to publicly reveal details out of concern for jeopardizing the mission, endangering the lives of U.S. troops and removing any doubt on the part of hostile forces about what they faced.
Back in the real world, it's great news that we're using all our capabilities to eliminate AQ cells wherever they're hiding. We'll have to wait to hear what the after action reports say about how successful this raid was but it's obvious that we aren't letting AQ rest wherever they are.
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:30 AM
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Chavez Gets a Visitor
Fresh off his inauguration, Hugo Chavez will be getting a visitor from the east soon. His guest's name: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be touring Latin America.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to kick off a four-day tour Saturday to Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whose leaders share his defiance towards the United States, media said.Remember Democrats saying that bin Laden would never have had relations with secularist Saddam? Unless we find out that Chavez is actually a militant Muslim, I'd say that this trip is further proof that radical Islamic leaders will accept help from anyone. This is further proof that they couldn't care less who their partners in terror are.
"Ahmadinejad will start his visit with a trip to Venezuela to hold official talks with his counterpart President Hugo Chavez," the Kayhan newspaper quoted a presidential statement as saying. Ahmadinejad visited Venezuela last September while Chavez has made numerous trips to the Islamic republic.
After his one day visit to Caracas, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to head to Managua to hold talks with the Nicaraguan president elect and former US foe Daniel Ortega.
Ahmadinejad's trip also highlights another John Kerry/Democrat foreign policy failure. History tells us that Democrats fought President Reagan over funding the rebels' fight against the Ortega's Sandinistas. If they hadn't stopped funding the rebels, we wouldn't now have a President Ortega.
I'd further note the error in the AP's reporting when they say that Ortega is a "former US foe." I'd bet that he's still a US foe.
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:14 AM
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Americans Against Hate Chairman Defends Himself
Joe Kaufman, the chairman of Americans Against Hate and founder of CAIR Watch, has posted something on AAH's blog to refute claims made during Ibrahim Hooper's interview with Paula Zahn. Let's first review Hooper's claims:
ZAHN: But this is a warning in and of itself. No one had ever really heard of the achievement award. That was not such a big deal.Now let's look at what Joe has written:
HOOPER: Yes, exactly. The award itself wasn't significant. The significance was that a Muslim group was being legitimized by a politician and immediately the anti-Muslim hit machine went into gear, full speed. Guys like Joe Kaufman raging anti-Muslim bigots. Kaufman has written in favor of terrorist groups. He's written on the radical Jewish defense league Web site.
Let me state for the record, NEVER have I written in favor of Kahane Chai or Kach. And NEVER have I written anything for the Jewish Defense League or the group's website. These things NEVER happened. These are lies, and they are being told for one simple reason -- to discredit me and the good work that I and the group I represent have done with regard to the subject of terrorism, which includes that of CAIR.In the interest of full disclosure, I am a contributor to Americans Against Hate's blog. I also consider Joe to be a friend. With that said, I don't feel compelled to agree with everything that Joe says. When I agree with Joe, something I frequently do, it's because Joe has done his diligence as an investigative reporter who found the truth. Simply put, it's my opinion that Joe is an expert on terrorist networking on a par with Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson.
What I did do was write an article, six years ago, about slain Rabbi Meir Kahane, entitled 'A Kahane Legacy Lost.' The article was written for the Jewish Israeli Magazine, to which I was a writer and editor for. The piece centered around a planned speaking engagement of Kahane's at my university, which was to take place in November of 1990. He was murdered 17 days prior to the event.
Kahane's assassination was the first instance of Islamist terrorism inside the United States. His attacker and those that plotted his murder were connected to the terrorist group that was responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. That group, Maktab al-Khidmat, would later be known as the predecessor of Al-Qaeda.
While all of the above is true, CAIR has intentionally resorted to lies and defamation, of both my character and my work. This signals the desperation of a group that knows it is on the way out.
Hooper didn't just disparage Kaufman. Before disparaging him, he went on this diatribe:
ZAHN: Let me go on to say what else Senator Boxer had to release in a news conference. She says it was a volume of things, not one single thing, that several CAIR council members had been indicted on terrorist-related charges. And she is certainly not the only senator who's been critical of your organization. Senator Schumer has accused your organization, saying it has ties to terrorism. And Senator Dick Durbin is saying CAIR is unusual, quote, "In its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect".Examine that last sentence closely. Hooper is saying that Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, who are now governed by the terrorist organization Hamas, are brutal. In other words, he's taken sides with Hamas. Not only did he take sides with Hamas but he said it only moments after saying that "We have repeatedly, consistently condemned terrorism in all its forms."
Do the all three have it wrong here?
HOOPER: First of all, let me deal with the issue of the former FBI official slamming CAIR. Notice the word former. No sitting FBI official has criticized CAIR. We work with the FBI repeatedly at the local and national level and we have for a number of years. This is a 12 year-old quote from a former official who worked in league with Islamophobes.
ZAHN: All right, but a lot of people who are critical of your group are critical of the fact that today that CAIR will not condemn Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.
HOOPER: We practically have a rubber stamp saying CAIR condemns blank act of terrorism. We have repeatedly, consistently condemned terrorism in all its form, including a tax on Israeli civilians by Hamas, by Hezbollah. We have condemned it repeatedly.
ZAHN: But condemning an act is a very different thing that condemning these organizations as terrorist organizations.
HOOPER: We are not going to submit to pro-Israel litmus tests that these groups seek to impose on American Muslims. No Muslim is going to pass this test to being pro-Israel.
ZAHN: That's what you say is at the core of this, there is no truth to any of these allegations about accepting money from groups that are closely associated with Hamas, associated with Hezbollah?
HOOPER: Ridiculous.
ZAHN: You know terrorism experts like Steven Emerson found a paper trail.
HOOPER: Yes, I would put the terrorism experts in quotes. This is the same guy who said Muslims carried out the attack on the Murrow federal building in Oklahoma City building in 1995. And we see what happened after that.
ZAHN: Do you think the goal really is to silence American Muslims?
HOOPER: It's to delegitimize, it's to marginalize, it's to silence anyone who would speak out against the state of Israel and it's brutal policies towards the Palestinians.
Perhaps Mr. Hooper could explain how you can side with Hamas while "repeatedly, consistently [condemning] terrorism." If he can, he's far smarter than I am because I don't know how you can support terrorists while simultaneously condemning them.
Notice Mr. Hooper's constant attempts to discredit Mssrs. Emerson and Kaufman, his repetitive name-calling and his anti-Israel rhetoric. Notice Hooper's recalling a prediction that Steve Emerson made about who destroyed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, acting as though Emerson didn't have a basis for thinking that Islamic terrorists had destroyed it. He acts as if the first World Trade Center bombing didn't happen. He acts as if Emerson's statements, made in the first hours after the Murrah bombing, were unjustified and unreasonable.
Last but not least, notice what he didn't do: he didn't offer a bit of proof that Joe Kaufman's claims about Basim Elkarra were false. Here's what Kaufman said about Elkarra:
As Executive Director, Basim Elkarra has defended someone that trained for jihad in a Pakistani terrorist camp; he has defended an imam that urged a Pakistani crowd to wage attacks on America; and he has defended an imam that was attempting to build an Islamic school for the purpose of teaching children how to commit violent acts against Americans. As well, Elkarra has described Israel as a "racist" and "apartheid" state, and he has moderated an event that featured a Hamas operative who spent five years in an Israeli prison and who is currently on trial in the U.S.In fact, you look closely, all he's done in response is respond with name-calling.
That's hardly the reaction of a man with the facts on his side.
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 12:11 PM
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Ellison Named to Judiciary Committee
That's what this AP article says. Here's what the article says:
Rep. Keith Ellison has been named to the House Judiciary Committee, a panel that has oversight over issues such as civil liberties, immigration and courts.It's worth noting that John Conyers is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Conyers is the man who drafted a resolution that gives Muslims special civil-rights protections immediately after the imams were banned from US Airways Flight 300. Conyers was also CAIR-Michigan's Man of the Year in 2005.
In a prepared statement, Ellison, (D-MN), called the selection an honor and privilege.
"I look forward to pursuing a progressive agenda in the committee, including the restoration of American citizen's civil liberties that have come under increasing attack over the past six years," said Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress.
What's fascinating to me is that CAIR's two biggest shills are on the committee that will codify CAIR's profiling wishes into law. Conyers will write the legislation banning profiling and Ellison will likely co-sponsor and vote for that legislation, both in committee and before the full House. I'm not basing my prediction on my opinion. Rather, I'm predicting this because of what's on the historical record:
Working with Conyers, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats have introduced legislation to end racial profiling, limit the reach of the Patriot Act, and make immigration safe and accessible.It doesn't take Nostradamus to predict what's likely to happen based on this information.
This is historical news in another sense. For the first time, CAIR's Man of the Year and CAIR's Congressman are working on the same committee. Coming to think of it, it isn't unreasonable to think of Nancy Pelosi as CAIR's Speaker:
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), and other Congressional Democrats were joined yesterday by national leaders of the Muslim American community in a roundtable discussion on issues of mutual concern to Democrats and Muslim Americans. The discussion centered on working together to defend civil rights and to restore civil liberties.That sounds like Ms. Pelosi's endorsement of CAIR's anti-profiling policy wishes, doesn't it? It isn't unreasonable to think that Ms. Pelosi is CAIR's Speaker.
"This discussion is only the first in an ongoing dialogue between Congressional Democrats and Muslim Americans," Pelosi said. "We share a fundamental principle, the belief that diversity is the backbone of our communities. Generations of Muslims have made positive contributions in every aspect of American life. We must now work even more closely to navigate through the challenges we face as a nation."
The good news for airline passengers is that Americans will ignore whatever anti-profiling laws CAIR's shills vote into law. Congress can afford not to profile at airports because they fly chartered airplanes. Real people still have to pay attention to that.
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:47 PM
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Oil Prices Keep Dropping, Part II
The AP is reporting that oil prices continue dropping at a rapid pace:
Oil prices fell Wednesday after the government reported swelling inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel. Crude oil stockpiles fell for the fourth straight week, according to a weekly inventory report by the Energy Information Administration. But inventories of refined products grew faster than market analysts had expected, pressuring prices lower.As I stated here, the year started with crude at $61.05. It's now at $53.89, a drop of $7.16 or almost 12 percent. I just was out shopping and saw that gas prices have now dropped to $2.07 a gallon in St. Cloud, which tells me that gas is below $2 a gallon in the Twin Cities.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery dropped $1.46 to $54.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after sinking to $53.89 in earlier trading. The contract touched $53.88 on Tuesday, a level not seen since June 13, 2005.
Oil prices have fallen by nearly a third since peaking at $78.40 last July and are down 9 percent so far this year.
Expect prices to continue dropping because we still have unseasonably mild weather here and because people have changed their driving habits to conserve.
The continuing moral of this story: MARKETS WORK!!! (if you keep socialists from meddling with them.)
Originally posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007, revised 11-Jan 12:39 PM
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Captain Ed, Ralph Peters Agree
Based on Ralph Peters' NY Post op-ed and Captain Ed's post, you'd have to say that the Somali operation undertaken by Delta Force was a major success. Here's what Col. Peters wrote:
With AC-130 gunships pounding terrorist hide-outs and training sites in the badlands near the Kenyan border, we may have nailed senior al Qaeda figures involved in bombing our embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam. At the very least, we killed some really bad hombres.Here's what Captain Ed focused on:
As always, terrorist propagandists will claim that only innocent civilians suffered, and media sympathizers will echo their nonsense. Fortunately, though, most pro-terrorist journalists and "human-rights advocates" are preoccupied just now with the awful mistreatment of poor, misunderstood Saddam Hussein.
And the devastation left behind by our gunships is only part of a very big U.S. win:For its part, the Kenyan government grew sick of Somalia exporting hatred, weapons and terror. Now Kenyan troops have sealed their border so al Qaeda's agents can't escape.
- Thanks to resolute military action by Ethiopia's government (quietly backed by Washington), the terror regime in Mogadishu crumbled overnight, collapsing the lie that extremist Islam is on the march to an inevitable victory.
- The speed of the Ethiopian advance cornered hundreds of hardcore Islamist fighters in a forlorn backwater, where they can be killed out of sight of their media defenders. And be killed they will.
- Islamist outrages and subversion inspired unprecedented cooperation between moderate Somalis, Ethiopians, Kenyans and Americans.
Far from being a growing threat, as America-haters insist, al Qaeda's on the run. Confident that they had a new refuge in Somalia, international terrorists instead find themselves scrambling to escape justice.
The US airstrikes have scored a success against one of their intended targets. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who planned the attacks on American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed over 200 people (mostly Africans), died in the US attack on Islamists fleeing Somalia in the wake of their collapse against the Ethiopians:The encouraging things we should take from Ed's and Col. Peters' analysis is that the combination of Delta Forces, Army Rangers and AC-130 gunships is a lethal weapon against terrorists and the terrorists know it. The thing I'd tell my readers is that, al Qa'ida's protestations notwithstanding, they're in a world of hurt down in the Horn of Africa.The suspected al-Qaeda militant who planned the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa was killed in an American airstrike in Somalia, an official said Wednesday.
"I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage," Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press. "One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead." ...
Mohammed allegedly planned the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.
He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel, 12 miles north of Mombasa. The missiles missed the airliner.
Mohammed is thought to have been the main target of an American helicopter attack Monday afternoon on Badmadow island off southern Somalia.
We also know that Ethiopia's forces exposed al Qa'ida as a paper tiger in its supposed Somali stronghold. We know that Ethiopian troops routed al Qa'ida terrorists from Somalia in pretty short order.
Here's another powerful observation from Col. Peters:
Fanatical dreams of re-establishing, and extending, the Muslim caliphate on the African continent are suddenly in shambles (although our enemies, from al Qaeda to the Saudi royal family, won't give up just yet). Far from impressing the world with its strength, extremist Islam just revealed its inherent weakness again...This is why we must not think of Iraq as a lost cause. We just need to employ the right tools with the right ferocity and precision to win decisively. It's just that simple.
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007 5:04 PM
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