I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them - Isaac Asimov

Friday, March 12, 2010

The recent revelation that came out, after some massive stonewalling by the WH which obviously knew it was damning, that many of Obama’s top legal appointees, including Eric Holder over at Justice, seem to have a conflict of interest when it comes to terrorism, seems to have lit a fire in the legal community. Whether you feel that there are issues with the whole terrorists are enemy combatants that purposefully avoid any uniforms or identifications vs. terrorist are just criminals, you can not fail to grasp that there is something problematic with having the very people that are now in charge of preventing another terrorist attack being sympathetic to that cause. And before you lambaste me for saying this, remember that, as this Andrew C. McCarthy article points out, these attorneys chose to go represent people that wanted to destroy this country, and we should be able to ask why. Especially when, as I pointed out, several of these attorneys are now the ones making critical decisions on how to handle not just captured terrorists, but how and how timely we get intelligence from these captured terrorists that can protect Americans from another attack. Here is the money quote:

The Justice Department lawyers who represented al-Qaeda were volunteers. Of all the causes to which they could have donated their services, they chose our enemies. They are no doubt sincere in claiming they sought to vindicate principles, not terrorists. But the other stubborn fact is that, since they took the helm at Justice, counterterrorism policy has become much more terrorist friendly.

Anyone that tries to make the case that those people asking for clarifications and pointing out the conflict, are just ushering a new era of McCarthyism, demanding we ignore the consequences and impact of the policies implemented by, and the actions taken by these lawyers now making the decisions to treat terrorists like common criminals, or worse tries to make the case that these policy shifts have made us safer, is an outright liar or moron. Maybe even both. I can guarantee you that the people that say this is much ado about nothing and that anyone that points out that these lawyers once chose to defend terrorists, would be singing a different tune if we had a clear conflict of interest like this with some government appointee that had links to the private sector. There is no excuse, and this is based on their won words and actions, even when you think that capitalism is a bigger threat than terrorism, to pretend that there isn’t a clear issue here. The truth is that these lawyers have made us all less safe. We have been lucky so far, but that luck won’t hold.

Update: It now looks like Holder wasn’t as forthcoming about his whole role in this and is now being looked at for failing to turn over briefs that would have been cause for concern. Oh, I am sure they will say it was an oversight, in fact they already are, nut what a convenient oversight huh? This is the mastermind that wanted to bring the terrorist show trials to NYC after all. The point is that Holder and his posse have an agenda, and that agenda makes plays havoc with our security. The left’s way of silencing those pointing this out is to accuse them of wanting to slime the lawyers for defending terrorists when the point is that these lawyers chose to defend the terrorists to undermine those that took terrorism seriously and treated this like a war and them like combatants.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Liz Cheney’s group has come out with an ad I find highly disturbing:

It’s one thing to worry about a conflict of interest in the Justice Department.  But this goes a step beyond, tarring any lawyer who works on behalf of terror suspects as essentially a member of Al-Quaeda.  As such, it’s pure McCarthysim. 

The attorneys who challenged the Bush administration’s national-security policies saw themselves as fulfilling their legal obligations by fighting an unconstitutional power grab. At heart, this was a disagreement over process: Should people accused of terrorism be afforded the same human rights and due process protections as anyone else in American custody? But rather than portray the dispute as a conflict over what is and isn’t within constitutional bounds, conservatives argue that anyone who opposed the Bush administration’s policies is a traitor set to undermine America’s safety from within the Justice Department.

“Terrorist sympathizers,” wrote National Review’s Andrew McCarthy in September, “have assumed positions throughout the Obama administration.”

We can disagree about military commissions, civil trials and the extent of terror suspects’ rights.  But when you accuse those with whom you disagree of treason, you’ve crossed a line.

Even former military prosecutors have expressed views similar to those of the “Gitmo Nine.” Col. Morris Davis (retired) served as the former chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo Bay military commissions and has since argued that they should be abandoned. But initially, when the commissions were formed, he volunteered to be chief defense counsel. “I thought for the good of our system, they needed zealous representation,” says Davis. He dismissed the charge that having represented a detainee indicated “sympathy” for terrorist goals. “I don’t think that anyone, because they signed up to represent a detainee means they’ve signed up with al-Qaeda.”

Davis later points out that John Adams regarded his zealous defense of the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre as one of the noblest acts of his life (it’s a highlight of both the book and the mini-series).  We’ve had no problems with lawyers who defended Nazi war criminals or commie traitors.  But let someone advocate for a terror suspect and the world is ending.

And I want to repeat that: terror suspects.  Thanks in part to the efforts of these traitorous lawyers, we’ve found out that many of the “worst of the worst” were, in fact, completely innocent of terrorism.  But to the Liz Cheneys of the world, we should lock up and torture anyone who might be a terrorist.  We should never even bother to find out if they’re actually, you know, terrorists.

(And please don’t come back with the bogus stats of those released who have “returned to fight” until you’ve read this and this.)

If lawyers defended accused child molesters, would Cheney brand them the “Neverland Nine”?  Or would she go after Manson’s defense lawyers and claim they want to murder people?  Actually, I don’t really want to know the answer to that.

This is not a trivial thing.  When you attack lawyers for arguing a case with which you disagree, you are attacking the rule of law itself.

Post Scriptum—In other Right Wing Terrorism Dementia news, you should read Matthew Alexander’s dissection of Marc Thiessen’s pro-torture book.  Alexander if a former military interrogator who helped get Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.  Thiessen is ... a form speech writer for Dick Cheney.  Read the whole thing.  And yes, as long as Liz Cheney and her ilk are wielding influence with the GOP, this issue remains highly relevant).

Post Post Scriptum—And while we’re on the subject: our weak, spineless President just sent another high-ranking AQ member to spend eternity with 72 people debating whether Captain Picard or Captain Kirk was better.

Monday, March 01, 2010

It looks like the movie “Hurt Locker”, yet another anti-military Hollyweird fantasy where the soldiers are all idiots or prone to stupid behavior, while loved by the Hollyweirdos precisely because of the portrayal, doesn’t play well with the troops that have done the real thing, and I am not surprised the troops, and especially those with the ordinance disposal units, laugh at this dumb movie.

Reporting from Baghdad, Los Angeles and Washington - Many film critics—and awards voters—have praised “The Hurt Locker’s” depiction of the U.S. military in Iraq, often singling out the bomb disposal drama for its authenticity. But as the film emerges as a favorite to win the best picture Oscar, a number of active soldiers and veterans say the film is Hollywood hokum, portraying soldiers as renegades while failing to represent details about combat accurately.

Truthfully, my first reaction was to actually wonder how the news this anti-US military movie, which I again am pointing out portrayed our troops negatively to suit the image Hollyweird has of the military, was causing a controversy and getting front page time. I admit that was not the least bit surprised about the movie’s negative portrayal, because that seems to be SOP for the left, which while it claims to have respect for the troops and to support our men and women in harms way, also seem to feel the military is an evil entity used by evil America. That this is being pointed out, and in the lefty rags of all places, is surprising.

My guess is that it is attributable to the fact that the CinC now has a (D) next to his name and his WH, despite the facts to the contrary, is now claiming Iraq as their victory. I have already pointed out that I expect much historical whitewashing and fudging to go on about the Iraqi conflict now that we have literally made all the idiots that said a military victory was impossible eat their own words. I am admitting that I didn’t expect it this soon.

I suspect that over the next decade many will rewrite the facts to create the illusion that the left wasn’t just violently opposed to us winning, but actively took measures to force us to lose in Iraq, just like was done after the fall of the USSR to hide the role the mostly pro-Soviet left played there and then. Today we have the majority of these people that were calling Reagan a warmongering nut that would start WW3, all saying that they were right there with Reagan, pushing for the military arms race and the line in the sand that finally broke the evil empire and ended the 70 plus year suffering of millions at the hand of the first collectivist paradise. That is when they don’t try to tell you Reagan’s role in the whole thing was minimal, and the lion share of the credit should go to Gorbachev, or some such other nonsense.

Anyway, I should also mention that it isn’t a coincidence that a movie that inaccurately and negatively portrays our military, like the Hurt Locker does, is up for so many movie awards. Hollyweird loves

Friday, February 26, 2010

Remember when good old BushChimpy McHitler was in charge and stories were reported about his fascist expansion of power? Well my bet is that most of you have no clue that The House of Representatives reauthorized the Patriot Act for one year Thursday by a vote of 315-97. Guess the fact that the people in charge now have a (D) next to their name suddenly this critical issue has lost both its criticality and its fascist appeal. We get told that…

Many lawmakers wanted to rewrite or even kill some of the most controversial provisions in the act. But Congressional leaders didn’t have the appetite for a major battle with the economy and health care reform swinging in the balance.

Yeah, sure. That’s why the MSM chose not to scream bloody murder about them not caring about it too: the usual BDS infected leftist tools in the MSM are too worried with helping the donkeys pass their government healthcare takeover and how to expand the public sector - it’s job creation, darn it! - at the expense of those of us that do work for a living. And that guy that ran against all things evil about Bush, and still blames Bush for everything that’s bad and takes credit for everything that Bush did that isn’t?

The Senate ok’d the package earlier this week. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

Yeah, I thought so.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Heh:

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday.

Codenamed the “Green Prince” by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence almost daily from 1996. He tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organisation, the Haaretz newspaper said.

Information supplied by him led to the arrests of some of the most- wanted men by Israeli forces, including Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader tipped as a potential president, who was convicted of masterminding terrorist attacks, along with one of Hamas’s top bombmakers, Abdullah Barghouti, who is no relation of the jailed Fatah chief.

Read the whole thing.  There’s also speculation that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the fat fuck who was killed in a Dubai hotel room, was sold out by an insider.

It’s amazing how easy it is to get these guys to turn on each other.  Yousef appears to have turned on religious and ethical principles.  You have to wonder just how many more are being turned by bribery or being caught by the Mossad in a hotel room with another man, three sheep and a Buick.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Yep, another Obama failure in the WOT:

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials. Most immediately, they hope he will provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader.

Even more interesting is this:

The New York Times learned of the operation on Thursday, but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who contended that making it public would end a hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort. The officials said that the group’s leaders had been unaware of Mullah Baradar’s capture and that if it became public they might cover their tracks and become more careful about communicating with each other.

The Times is publishing the news now because White House officials acknowledged that the capture of Mullah Baradar was becoming widely known in the region.

In other words, the White House decided not to take immediate political advantage of their capture.  This is a far cry from their critics, who use half-truths and rumors to bash the Administration ever day.  (And they’re already screaming that Baradar needs to be tortured).

The most significant development here may not be the capture of Baradar but the increasing cooperation of the Pakistanis.  Why exactly the Pakistanis are being more cooperative is debatable.  Part of it is self-preservation.  But it’s also possible that the Administration’s shifts in policy are helping.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Liberals were up in arms about the “evils” of the Bush administration, especially in regards to the efforts tied to GWoT. Evil American troops were ordered by Darth Vader to capture those downtrodden guys that are mad at capitalist America - explains why so many on the left empathizes with these guys, huh? – and stick them in those nasty “torture camps” like Club Gitmo. But because they were so successful at selling that idiotic meme, they painted themselves into a corner. Reversing course now brings with it the risk of looking like the idiots they actually are. Admitting that the holding facilities, while not a perfect solution, were the best option where no good one existed, simply is too painful. So instead of capturing them, since now that the leftists are in charge they can’t simply demand we “cut & run” because when the next attack happens we will all know to blame them and their idiocy for it, we are only left with the option of killing more terrorists. Case in point:

When a window of opportunity opened to strike the leader of al-Qaeda in East Africa last September, U.S. Special Operations forces prepared several options. They could obliterate his vehicle with an airstrike as he drove through southern Somalia. Or they could fire from helicopters that could land at the scene to confirm the kill. Or they could try to take him alive.

The White House authorized the second option. On the morning of Sept. 14, helicopters flying from a U.S. ship off the Somali coast blew up a car carrying Saleh Ali Nabhan. While several hovered overhead, one set down long enough for troops to scoop up enough of the remains for DNA verification. Moments later, the helicopters were headed back to the ship.

Now don’t get me wrong: most, if not all, of these bastards need a good killing. There are no compromises to be reached with them. It is us or them. They are not going to sit down with us and talk it out. Using drones to pop them when we can is a necessary step in curtailing their operations. But the largely unspoken fact is that since we aren’t willing to just wipe out everyone that lives in the swamps where these cockroaches are bred – thankfully so – we remain limited in our capability and responses. Our most important weapon, believe it or not, is intelligence. If we know what they are doing, hopefully, we can work against them. Thwart their efforts. Difficult under the best of circumstances, and even harder when you have these idiots in charge as the panty bomber proved. Sure Big Sis Napoletano will tell you the system worked, but we all know we got lucky there.

There is a big problem with this intelligence gathering strategy, as the article itself points out. No, it isn’t that we make more terrorists when we are aggressive and kill terrorists like the leftist idiots would like you to believe: it is that we are not gathering as much intel as we could because we are trying to avoid capturing terrorists. All because back when Bush was in charge, their BDS didn’t let these leftist tools see the difficult choices and options, leading them to denounce any and everything that was done by that administrations as not just bad but criminal. That stupidity has literally left them with no options of where to put prisoners now that they are in charge. Not unless they want to show how farcical and stupid their objections were in the first place. Nobody wants these bastards because they are real dangerous. They demonized Gitmo and are now looking like they were talking out of their rear ends when the promise to close it by went bye, and they are now left with no end in sight. So we are left with no options. If we are in the dark about what the enemy is doing, it makes it easier for them to do it.

So now, not only have we been forced to be more brutal – we now just kill – we are leaving a big intelligence gap that will come back to bite us in the wake of this all. But Bush was the cowboy moron….

Friday, February 12, 2010

But it looks like science, the real kind that is not immune to peer review and also isn’t based on concensus, has now allowed an airborn laser to shoot down a ballistic missile. It is quite funny to me that we achieve this technology feat when we have a president in the WH whose party called the idea crazy when introduced and still believes the best thing to do is to not have the capability to avoid being seen as antagonistic. Let’s hope we get this stuff out in the field for real sooner than later.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Just after one year of “Hope and Change” it looks like people are wising up that they got sold the same bill of loser collectivist goods of the Carter years, and pining for those bad days they told us we had when republicans were in charge. As reality clashes with fantasy and things like this, this, this, this, this, this, and this keep happening, the democrats continue to pretend that what people want is bigger government, a complete takeover of healthcare - 1/5th of the economy - by that big government, and a massive migration from jobs in the private sector to a fraction of the number of jobs lost there in the public sector. And that doesn’t tackle the complete collapse of the AGW scam which wanted to expand the government take over globally and other such stupid ideas. At least Clinton was smart enough to be saved by a republican takeover of congress in 2004. I doubt Obama, a true believer, will be able to make the same connections. After all, he was told he was the messiah and could walk on water.

As I said before, a few years of the democrats in power would be enough to make many see the light. I just didn’t think it could take but one year for that to happen. I could not believe that the democrats were really this inept and stupid, but they are hard at work proving me both right and wrong. Democrats are good at manipulating the news, with help of the complicit MSM, to attack their opponents when they are in power. Unfortunately now that they are in power, even with massive help covering up for them by the MSM, they can’t hide how inept they are. Reality has a way of destroying most collectivist fantasies, and what is happening isn’t anything new. The fun thing is that I get to bring out my latest find, a poster on some highway in the Mid West that tells the story better than anything else:

Give it time. The numbers are getting bigger and bigger, and all but the most hard core leftists are agreeing that for all his faults, and he had them believe me, Bush was heads and shoulders a better president than the current community organizer in chief….

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

The pastime of this WH must be to try and set the bar for stupid at a new high as often as possible, considering that the latest episode in this quest leaves one wondering if they really think we are this stupid. Check this out:

In a brief op-ed in USA Today, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan charges that critics who question the Obama administration’s decision to grant Miranda rights to accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are “serv[ing] the goals of al Qaeda.”

WTF?

This WH policies result in the terrorist getting a lawyer and his Miranda rights, just some 50 minutes after they bag him and while he is singing like a canary to boot, and those of us that point out how ridiculously stupid and reckless this act was, are the ones that are playing into al Qaeda’s hands? Do they seriously think most people can’t see this ridiculous and desperate act for what it is?  These morons seriously continue to make the argument that when we actually fight al Qaeda – you know kill the bastards - you make terrorists, while giving them Constitutional protections that allow them to clam up and not compromise other possible al Qaeda operations, works against al Qaeda? I am certain Bin Laden and Zarqawi are both cursing the evil American imperialists that gave the underwear bomber lawyers and allowed him to clam up long enough for them to get their people out of harms way, instead of milking him for intel and acting on it in a timely manner. Democrats live in bizzaro world.

I know! Blame Bush!

Monday, January 25, 2010

It looks like many now believe that the terrorists are gearing up for another attack and are pointing to Bin Laden’s own words for that. Despite the fact that “The Won” was supposed to fix all that anger evil Bush-Chimpy-McHitler had caused amongst the peaceful and tolerant muslim radicals, we keep seeing more and more stories like this one which shows how determined and hard the enemy has renewed their effort s to attack us. Now, I am not saying they did not try to get us when Bush was president, but they were not too good at it seeing as they went after our troops in Iraq and got massacred. Even in Afghanistan, where things are much harder and better for the enemy, the radicals were and continue to get clobbered. Maybe they are changing their MO now that it is obvious that fighting our troops is a death sentence and going back to trying more spectacular suicide attacks, but my guess is that they their likely motivation has more to do with the perceived weakness of any response to such attacks. After all, we are lawyering them up and giving these ununiformed enemy combatants that are at war with us our full legal protection to hide behind by treating them like common criminals, and too often, after the fact. And while I am not endorsing we throw away the Constitution and spy on our own citizens with drones like some are doing, we definitely should treat these people at war with us as such. I am not saying we should go as far as a Jewish friend of mine suggested – wrap the remains of every one of these bastards in pig skin and bury them upside down to deny them their illusion of heaven – we should stop making it so easy for them to come at us and try to kill us. After all, the Constitution was not a suicide pact, despite the best efforts of the idiots on the elft to make it so.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

As seems to constantly be the case with this kind of real news, Fox News seems the only one to report that the Marines wrapped up opperations in Iraq, and they did so because WE WON!

The U.S. Marine Corps wrapped nearly seven years in Iraq on Saturday, handing over duties to the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops as the U.S. turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi war to a growing one in Afghanistan. In Baghdad, meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Iraqi leaders amid growing tensions over plans to ban election candidates because of suspected links to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The White House worries the bans could raise questions over the fairness of the March 7 parliamentary elections, which are seen as an important step in the American pullout timetable and breaking political stalemates over key issues such as dividing Iraq’s oil revenue. The Marines formally handed over control of Sunni-dominated Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, to the Army during a ceremony at a base in Ramadi — where some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place.

If all goes as planned, the last remaining Marines will be followed out by tens of thousands of soldiers in the coming months. President Obama has ordered all but 50,000 troops out of the country by Aug. 31, 2010, with most to depart after the March 7 parliamentary election. The remaining troops will leave by the end of 2011 under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact.

Let me say that again: we won. One more time, because I know it pisses off the anti-American leftist twits that hate it when the US decideds it has had enough and gives a smackdown to their fellow travelers: we won!. If we had listended to the left - to the Harry Reeds and Nancy Pelosis of the world - we would have ended up with another Vietnam and a Middle East in chaos. Not to mention a much more active and willing Islamic radical movement. As is, they got a lot of courage and a new sense of purpose when Obama got elected and the left claimed this was a repudation of the Bush agenda. Well, considering how many more new attacks they are trying to get off, I think I prefer the Bush agenda much more…

Friday, January 22, 2010

Well, today is the anniversary of Obama’s promise to close Gitmo. The spin about why Obama and his team can not keep yet another core campaign promise started a while back. Obama, we are told, has slowly realized that Gitmo is a complicated issue, a temporary “best case” solution to a “worst case” problem, and is impeded from making good on his promise. Of course, Bush was an evil moron for coming up with what I believe is a brilliant solution to an impossible problem. Oh the left is still claiming they are going to shut Gitmo down eventually, but I believe that reality will kind of intrude on that fantasy. I am also going to predict that those NYC show trials that Obama’s team promised us would end in convictions are going to meet with some serious difficulties. The terrorists are at war with us. The left seems to think that if they pretend otherwise hard enough it will cease to be the case. Anyway, glad to see team Obama’s actions, not their meaningless talk, again making Bush look right and good on this whole GWoT thing. Think the MSM will point out that Obama failed on yet another big promise?

Talk about you big time scandals. I know I commented on one of Hal’s posts about this already, but I think that it deserves a post of its own. It now looks like the people that put the 2007 NIE report which downplayed the threat of the Iranian nuclear program are now going to admit they lied and are reversing their claims Iran’s nuclear program was long dormant. They are now admitting that their claims that the Iranian nuclear program was scuttled back in 2001 that caused such a furor when the 2007 intelligence report came out, was purposefully manufactured, for political reasons, to stop Bush from doing anything before he left office. Apparently the WH must be feeling the heat, now that they realized that the Messiah could not get the Iranian thugs to talk with him and the Iranians are going full speed ahead with their plans to build a nuke, and is trying to give itself some wiggle room, and the people that put the NIE together are falling on the sword to protect the left from the repercussions of this. Of course, the MSM isn’t likely to cover this much because it would put egg on their face as well. Our security is in great hands with these leftist twits. Thank god that so far all we had was a psycho head shrink that murdered dozens and a panty bomber that failed miserably, but odds are that the real players are going to get jiggy with it, and I certainly doubt the people running things now are up to dealing with anything coming our way. After all, their focus seems to be on mitigating political damage and fall out, and not on actually doing anything that would improve security. The American people should be incensed that the do-nothing collectivists prevented someone that would have done something from doing it.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Earlier this week, a story ran in Harper’s about an appalling incident in Gitmo.  My commentary is here.