I don’t think that I can really say anthing about the 9th anniversary of the 911 attacks, beyond the humor and sociology in this picture:
I find this really, Really funny.
I think that I would have always found this funny, but it’s not an amusement that I would have felt comfortable sharing until very recently, and now, it’s the sort of thing that I would email to friends.
I’m not sure what it all means, but then again, I rarely am sure.
H/t Dc at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Some terrorist torched construction equipment at the sight of the future mosque in Murfreesboro, TN, and when parishioners came by to survey the damage, someone took shots at them.
What should happen right now is that the FBI and ATF should flooding the zone and go full patriot act on anyone they catch.
It’s what Clinton should have done on the abortion clinic bombers who later became assassins, because arresting white folks for terrorism is icky, and besides, Barack Obama is afraid that people will think that he is a Muslim if he goes after white terrorists.
National treasure Jon Stewart wants to know:
He goes and supports the right of an Islamic center to be built a few blocks away from the former World Trade Center (aka Ground Zero):
President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”
After weeks of avoiding the high-profile battle over the center — his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said last week that the president did not want to “get involved in local decision-making” — Mr. Obama stepped squarely into the thorny debate.
“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.
But, he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”
I am stunned. I did not figure that he has the guts to do this.
I am pleasantly surprised, but I expect to see him walking this back in some manner or another over the next few days, because, after all, that’s how he rolls.
Hopefully, I am wrong about this.
So says Barack Obama on the Omar Khadr military tribunal:
Military commissions were one of those Bush/Cheney policies which provoked virtually universal outrage among progressives and Democrats back in the day when executive power abuses and rule of law transgressions were a concern. The Obama administration’s claim that the commissions are now improved to the point that they provide a forum of real justice is being put to the test — and blatantly failing — with the first such commission to be held under Obama: that of Omar Khadr, accused of throwing a grenade in 2002 which killed an American solider in Afghanistan, when Khadr was 15 years old. This is the first trial of a child soldier held since World War II, explained a U.N. official who condemned these proceedings. The commission has already ruled that confessions made by Khadr which were clearly obtained through coercion, abuse and torture will be admitted as evidence against him. Prior to the commencement of Khadr’s “trial,” the commission ruled in another case that the sentence imposed on a Sudanese detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi — convicted as part of a plea bargain of the dastardly crime of being Osama bin Laden’s “cook” — will be kept secret until he is released. What kind of country has secret sentences?
I get it. Barack Obama and His Evil Minions™ know that this is wrong, but they don’t want to spend the political capital or make the political risks to stop this.
This is worse the Bush and Cheney, because they saw torture and kangaroo courts as an independent good, but the Obama administration is doing this because they are worried about attacks that are happening anyway.
I will repeat what I said earlier, I am so writing in “Howard Dean,” in the 2012 general, and I don’t care if some it’s some recombinant DNA Chimera combination of Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, I am voting for whoever opposes him in the primary.
This is just evil, and should this ever see justice in the Hague, everyone in the chain of command today, right to the very top, should be put in the dock.
Or maybe Franz Kafka.
You see, last month, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights were retained by Nasser al-Awlaki, “the father of Obama assassination target (and U.S. citizen) Anwar al-Awlaki,” to get a court injunction to keep him from being killed by the U.S. government..
The government’s response was declare Anwar al-Awlaki a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” which meant that lawyers could not represent him without a special license from the government.
George W. Bush never asserted a right to assassinate American citizens, and they never used Treasury Department anti money laundering legislation to prevent lawyers from representing someone pro bono in a case to prevent their assassination:
Left with no choice, the ACLU and CCR this morning filed a lawsuit on their own behalf against Timothy Geithner and the Treasury Department. The suit argues that Treasury has no statutory authority under the law it invokes — The International Emergency Economic Powers Act — to bar American lawyers from representing American citizens on an uncompensated basis. It further argues what ought to be a completely uncontroversial point: that even if Congress had vested Treasury with this authority, it is blatantly unconstitutional to deny American citizens the right to have a lawyer, and to deny American lawyers the right to represent clients, without first obtaining a permission slip from Executive Branch officials (the Complaint is here). As the ACLU/CCR Brief puts it: “The notion that the government can compel a citizen to seek its permission before challenging the constitutionality of its actions in court is wholly foreign to our constitutional system” and “[a]s non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights, Plaintiffs have a First Amendment right to represent clients in litigation consistent with their organizational missions.” The Brief also argues that it is a violation of Separation of Powers to allow the Executive Branch to determine in its sole discretion who can and cannot appear in and have access to a federal court.
Obama’s positions on national defense and surveillance indisputably worse than those of George W. Bush’s.
Bootnote:
After stonewalling for weeks, the Treasury Department granted a license once the ACLU and CCR filed a separate lawsuit against the denial of such a license, probably because they want to assert the right again, even if it is just for a few weeks to f%$# with the ability of some guy to get proper legal counsel.
I am so writing in “Howard Dean,” in the 2012 general.
*George Orwell’s real name.
Answer: Al Qaeda’s number 3 guy:
Al-Qaeda’s third-ranking operative, an Egyptian who was a founding member of the terrorist network and a key conduit to Osama bin Laden, has been killed in Pakistan, according to a statement Monday from al-Qaeda that U.S. intelligence officials believe is accurate.
A U.S. official said there is “strong reason” to believe that Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri, was killed, apparently by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt within the past two weeks.
I’ve seen this episode before.
Obama would only replace him with someone even more hostile to the idea of the rule of law in the pursuit of terrorism cases.*
Money quote:
GREGORY: So, let me– let me unpack that a little bit. What you’d like to see happen is that Congress would pass a law that would say to judges, “Hey, look, in this environment, if we extract information that could be valuable intelligence about another terror plot, about who they’re involved in. Whether they’re connected to the Pakistani Taliban. We want to get all that without them lawyering up and still be able to use that against them in a court of law.” And you need more flexibility to do that, you think?
HOLDER: Yeah, we certainly need more flexibility. And we want the public safety exception to be consistent with– the public safety concerns that we now have in the 21st Century, as opposed to the public safety concerns that we had back in the 1980s.
GREGORY: So, that’s news. I mean, that’s an important development. Would you work with Congress to try to get that new law passed?
HOLDER: Yeah, we want to work with Congress to come up with a way in which we make our public safety exception more flexible. And again, more consistent with the threat– that we face. And yes, this is in fact the big news. This is a proposal that– we’re gonna be making and that we want to work– with Congress about.
GREGORY: So, a new priority for the administration.
HOLDER: It is a new priority.
It’s clear that Barack Obama has made a purely political decision to ape the worst aspects of the Bush administration, because he thinks that it will defuse criticism from the right, which it clearly hasn’t anyway.
This is venal, craven, and just plain un-American, as well as being stupid, because it does not work from a political perspective.
Would that we had some Democrats who were not a bunch of cowards.
H/t Crooks and Liars
*But remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar.
The 4 most knowledgeable journalists at Guantanamo Bay have been banned for “revealing” the identity of one of the witnesses, “Interrogator #1”.
The reason that I put “revealing” in quotes is because the individual in question’s name has been public knowledge for years:
Now the military has taken another great step toward enhancing the credibility of the proceedings by booting four reporters for violating a judge’s secrecy order. Their violation? Publishing the name of a former military interrogator who was a witness at the hearing. The Pentagon has now barred Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard, Globe and Mail reporter Paul Koring and CanWest news service reporter Steven Edwards from covering future military commissions at Gitmo.
And here’s the kicker: The identity of the interrogator had been widely reported before the trial. The name of the individual — known as “Interrogator No. 1″ in the courtroom at Gitmo — had been published during a 2005 court-martial in which he pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. And he had also allowed the use of his name in an interview with Shepard (!) in 2008.
BTW, it should be recalled that in the case in question the military is trying a child soldier.
Omar Khadr was 15 when the events in question took place.
Seriously, we have the gang that can’t shoot straight, or more accurately, the gang that is so concerned about managing the message that it’s making the “military tribunals” about as meaningful as Stalin’s show trials.
Welcome to our Gulag in the Caribbean.
As always.
Actually, he makes a number of them, with the big one being, “What are we going to do in this country when we get attacked by someone who’s not one of the Home Alone burgers?”
But there is the little point that he makes that I find far more trenchant.
He runs an ad put out by a Teabagger candidate running against Alan Grayson, Dan Fanelli, talking about profiling terrorists, and brings out two men, one swarthy and bearded, and one white and old, which asks “Where’s Waldo” which one is the terrorist?
This leads the doyenne of late night news to ask the question himself, “Which one? Doctor Kevorkian on the left, or the cast member from The Jersey Shore on the right?”
Stewart’s answer is that the terrorist who flew his plane into the IRS building in Texas looked an awful lot like Congressman wannabe Fanelli.
It appears that authorities are looking for a person of interest with extensive ties to Pakistan regarding the abortive bombing attempt on Times Square.
It is, of course, terrorism, whether it’s an Pakistani-American, or someone who can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower, because, after all, blowing up a bomb in Times Square is terrorism.
The question now is whether it was Mayflower type, or someone with ties to the Islamic world.
In either case, it was someone who did not know how to do it right, so we can pretty much cross off going to one of those al Qaeda training camps, because he clearly did not take IED making 101.
Thankfully, it did not go off, but it was sitting there smoking away:
The police discovered a car bomb in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.
There was no explosion.
“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth” Avenues on 45th Street, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.
The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”
………
The explosive materials were discovered about 6:30 by a mounted police officer who saw a box with smoke pouring from it in the back of the Pathfinder, Mr. Browne said. The officer called for backup, and the Fire Department and bomb squad.
The Pathfinder’s back window was broken out, Mr. Browne said, and the police sent in a “robotic device” to “observe it.”
Mr. Browne said gunpowder had been found in the vehicle, but not a high-grade explosive. The timing device was a clock attached to wires. The gasoline was in cans and there appeared to be two or three propane tanks.
Apparently, had it worked, it would have been more of a woosh (followed by a weenie roast) than a boom, but still, it’s unsettling.
The composition was gunpowder, unclear if they mean black powder or modern smokeless powder, cans of gasoline, and propane tanks, which sounds to my, “Haven’t blown sh%$ up since I was in my teens,” mind to be a pretty amateur operation.
Still, WTF?!?!?
Radical Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi has now been placed on the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) target list, which means that he can be killed if spotted. (See also here)
Based on the reports that I’ve seen in the media, it’s pretty clear that there is probable cause to apprehend him on suspicion of a number of crimes, but basically, the JSOC is a hit list.
There won’t be any efforts to capture him, this means that he’s going to be taken out by a Predator drone or suchlike, and I find this to profoundly troubling.
Glenn Greenwald makes the point that this is authorizing the killing of an American citizen on the decision of one man, the President, a power that even George W. Bush did not claim, and I agree, though I am not quite as strident in my views.
Additionally, this has the effect of legitimizing the use of lethal force by other governments against those whom they deem terrorists.
Under the rules adopted, I could see the Chinese assassinating Uighur activists, the Russians assassinating Chechen activists, or the Turks assassinating Kurdish activists, on US soil.
Also, from a purely tactical perspective, if you have a person who is willing to die to accomplish their mission, and al Qaeda does, then it is rather simpler to locate the President of the United States than it is to locate Anwar al-Aulaqi or Saddam Hussein.
This may have the effect of encouraging direct action against American officials.
Scott Roeder has been sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of doctor George Tiller:
Scott Roeder, the antiabortion extremist who murdered George Tiller, one of a handful of American physicians who performed late-term abortions, was sentenced to life in prison in a Wichita, Kan., courtroom Thursday and will not be eligible for parole for more than 50 years.
Here is hoping that he has a truly awful time in prison.
He will be 102 before he is eligible for parole.
It appears that the Hutaree, a right wing Christofascist militia group, and it should be noted one so crazy that it gave other Christofascist militia groups the heebee jeebees, has been the subject of raids by the FBI and the DHS, and at least 7 members were arrested.
One interesting bit here is that the other militia groups in Michigan have been falling all over themselves to help the authorities.
The indictment has been unsealed, and among the accusations are that they were intending to “levy war” against the United States, by killing law enforcement officers:
According to federal authorities, the group had identified a Michigan law enforcement officer as a potential target. Their idea was to kill that officer and when law enforcement officials from around the country came to the area for the funeral, they would attack the procession with improvised explosive devices and “explosively formed projectiles.” They hoped the attack would serve as a “catalyst for a more wide-spread uprising against the government.”
A scouting mission was planned for April and, if someone had stumbled upon the mission, the Hutaree decided they could be killed, according to the indictment.
I expect to see more of this.
You tell me, if you post someone’s address on line, and suggest that people “drop by” and “express their thanks” in response to a Congressman’s vote on healthcare, the resultant threatening mail and a cut gas line are foreseeable.
In fact, it is predictable that threats and vandalism will result.
What isn’t predictable, I guess, is that the frothing at the mouth crowd would get the address wrong and so instead, this would go to the Congressman’s brother:
U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother received a threatening letter in the mail on the same day that someone apparently severed a gas line at the home in Ivy.
Two conservative Tea Party activists posted the address of the home on the Internet on Monday, mistakenly believing it was the home of the congressman. One of the activists urged others to “drop by” and “express their thanks” for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform.
Tuesday evening, Perriello’s brother’s family smelled gas and discovered the propane line of a gas-powered grill on their screened-in porch had been slashed.
In the mail, they found a letter addressed to the congressman that Perriello’s office described as “threatening.”
The FBI and local authorities are investigating.
This is shouting fire in a crowded theater, and it is clear that the vandal wanted a fire and possibly an explosion.
It’s a specific invocation to violence, and honestly it should be treated as such.
This was the equivalent of burning a cross on his lawn, and the intent is to terrorize.
Hopefully the authorities will use every legal avenue available to pursue both the people who are engaging in these actions, and those who are making specific invocations to pursue specific individuals.
As an aside, I think that whoever cut his brother’s gas line just took a dicey seat for the Democrats to hold, Periello won a squeaker only because of the Obama landslide, and made Congressman Tom Periello the favorite.
Basically, him a hero. Just campaigning normally will now be perceived by his constituents an act of bravery.
It appears that there is a group of Talibaptists in Amarillo, Texas who have decided to spend their time engaging in a concerted program of harassment and intimidation directed at the local swingers club.
I could lambaste them, but PZ Myers does so well at the above link that it’s not necessary.
I would note that their targets, in addition to swingers and strip clubs, includes:
And of course:
Unsurprisingly, the local Sheriff’s department has been unwilling to respond to this, though, according to the Texas Monthly, the state troopers have been actually doing their job after a fashion.
One of the worst of the anti-terror laws, adopted under Clinton, not Bush II, is the “material support law,” which makes it a crime to provide “material support” to any organization that is deemed a “terrorist organization” by the President (actually the Secretary of State).
The cases, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (08-1498) and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, are about what is a legitimate use of the law.
The case here is interesting because it appears that the law is criminalizing purely political speech:
CCR contends that the challenged provisions violate the First Amendment insofar as they criminalize the provision of forms of support such as the distribution of literature, engaging in political advocacy, participating in peace conferences, training in human rights advocacy, and donating cash and humanitarian assistance, even when such support is intended solely to promote the lawful and non-violent activities of a designated organization. Plaintiffs’ principal complaint is that the statute imposes guilt by association by punishing moral innocents not for their own culpable acts, but for the culpable acts of the groups they have supported. The statute does not require any showing of intent to further terrorist or other illegal activity. We also claimed that the statute was unconstitutionally vague, and that the Secretary of State’s power to designate groups was too broad, giving the executive too much discretionary power to label groups as “terrorist” and turn their supporters into outlaws.
As I see it, if a group sees the designation of another group as a “terrorist entity” as in error, the way that the current law is written, or at least enforced, actually publicly advocating for a change in that designation would be offering “material support.”
In this case, the Human Rights Project wants to train the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party, designated a terrorist group, in, “human rights enforcement and peaceful conflict resolution,” but the material support law forbids this.
So this law is preventing the provision of training in how not to be a terrorist.
As with most of the anti-terror laws out there, it invokes Joseph Heller’s most famous work.
A good description of the oral arguments is here.
Plead guilty and cooperate with authorities and provide intelligence:
Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi, an immigrant from Afghanistan who was living in Denver, has admitted he planned to try to set off explosives to kill Americans, most likely in New York.
He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to a terrorist organization.
His guilty plea may mean even more for the war on terror, since it appears Mr. Zazi has agreed to cooperate with federal officials.
Should have waterboarded him, that would have shut him up.
So, the FBI says that it’s case closed.
I’ve been following this for some time, and as I have noted before, I’m not certain of this.