Category: Terrorism

The Galleon Insider Trading Scandal Spreads

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So now, we are seeing more prominent people tied into this.

This time it’s, “Richard Grodin, formerly of SAC, one of the country’s most well-respected and largest hedge funds.”

What is going on here is that authorities used wire taps, a change in the area of securities fraud, and it looks like a double digit percentage of Wall Street was in it at some level.

My guess is that this sort of behavior is in fact endemic to the street, and that this is the tip of the iceberg.

My concern is that the wire taps might not be the part of a securities investigation, but instead were a result of a investigation of Raja Rajaratnam’s ties to the LTTE terrorists.

Considering the level of damage to our country done by the bankers, we should be going full PATRIOT act on them, because they make Osama bin Laden look like “My Little Pony”.

Insider Trading Wiretap May Be Result of Terror Investigation

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On top of his arrest for insider trading, Raja Rajaratnam now faces a civil suit over his alleged funding of the Tamil Tigers terror group.

Mr. Rajaratnam is a Tamil born in Sri Lanka, and he has given to organizations that have later been shut down and accused of funneling money to the LTTE, so it is hardly surprising that he was the subject of a wiretap.

My older post does not mention Tamil tiger link, but suggests that the introduction of wiretaps against Wall Street crooks is a good thing.

Unfortunately, it now appears that the wiretaps may not be a case of regulators choosing a tool to pursue fraud, but just an a terror investigation revealing a different crime.

Congress Passes Limits on Military Aid to Pakistan

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Basically, after the clusterf%$# that was support for Pervez Musharraf and His Evil Minions™ by George W. Bush and His Evil Minions™, where military aid to Pakistan went to parts unknown, Congress has placed restrictions on military aid to ensure that it will go to fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda, and not to building up the military for a war with India…And yes, maybe it will reduce graft a bit too:

Military payments to Pakistan must be in the interests of U.S. national security and mustn’t “affect the balance of power in the region,” according to a provision attached to the defense authorization bill passed yesterday by the Senate.

The restriction comes as the Pakistani army continues its biggest offensive against militants in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where 28,000 soldiers have been deployed to fight guerrillas blamed for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country.

It’s about fracking time that we made it clear to Pakistan that we would not be supporting another useless and bloody war with India.

The Problem is the ISI

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So, the Taliban has exploded another car bomb in Kabul.

The target was, here is a shocker, the Indian embassy.

One of the elephants in the room in that part of the world is that the ISI, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, like much of the military and intelligence establishment in that nation, viewed everything through the lens of an eventual all out war with India, and as such has aided, abetted, and directed the Taliban as a client organization.

I’m beginning to think that direct action against certain actors within the ISI might well be warranted…I’m suggesting snatch and grabs, not a Hellfire strike at their headquarters in Islamabad.

What the Republican Crazy Talk is About

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So I’m on the Stellar Parthenon BBS, and Unmutual notes that Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) is saying that, “The President Is an enemy of humanity.”

He muses that this kind of Batsh&% insane simply stupid:

Yep, continue this kind of idiotic rhetoric against the most popularly elected president in recent memory, surely that’s going to get you more supporters than reaching across the isle and actually trying to get stuff done.

I think that he is an optimist. This is not stupidity. This is done with a purpose.

The goal here is to get someone with the psychological stability of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the shooting ability of…well…Lee Harvey Oswald (he was a Marine) to whack Obama.

Seriously. There are two group of people speaking for the Republican party: Those who are batsh%$ insane, and want Obama dead, and those who think that his getting killed would be good for them in 2010.

I’m not sure which group scares me more.

Video below:

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi Returns to Libya

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But was he guilty in the first place?

Normally, I’d put this sort of question firmly into the tinfoil hat category, but a number of people believe Libya was not the perpetrator of the bombing, with Iran and the PFLP-GC being the most frequently cited alternative, and it appears this release was a quid pro quo for his dropping his appeal of his conviction. (See also here)

My guess is that the reality is somewhere in between, that al-Megrahi is the one who done it, but that the prosecution was handled by a bunch of PR glory boys, who screwed up various parts of the trial, and there was a very real worry that he would embarrass the British courts on appeal, so they cut a deal.

That’s my guess anyway.

I’m Shocked, Shocked To Find That Gambling Is Going On In Here!

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(Cue Captain Renault)

So, Tom Ridge tells us now that Bush and His Evil Minions™ manipulated terror alerts for political gain.

But he vehemently denied any such effort while he was in office, and delayed his resignation as head of DHS until after the election.

He knew that it was wrong, but he kept his mouth shut, and now he writes a book, and it’s supposed to make everything hunky dory….It does not.

Mr. Ridge, as I stated only yesterday, I do not take the term “treason” lightly, but it appears to me that your complicity in this affair, when you knew that it was happening, and you know that it was wrong, and you knew that it was damaging to the country, comes awfully close to that term.

Why Do Right Wingers Hate America

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Former CIA employee, and torture apologist, Michael Scheuer goes on Glenn Beck’s show on Fox, and says that Americans need to die from a terrorist attack:

Scheuer: The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. Because it’s going to take a grass-roots, bottom-up pressure. Because these politicians prize their office, prize the praise of the media and the Europeans. It’s an absurd situation again. Only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.

Beck: Which is why, I was thinking this weekend, if I were him, that would be the last thing I would do right now.

As Adam Serwer notes:

But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying subprime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Why should we listen to these people about anything. They hate America and Americans.

Gitmo Releases

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The US has sent 4 Uighur held at our gulag to Bermuda, which really pissed off the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, because, while they have home rule, they are supposed to consult with London over such things.

It sounds like the US threatened banking sanctions over their tax haven status, and the Bermudan government asked, “how high”.

Additionally, Mohammed El Gharani was freed, the Federal courts determined that there was no credible evidence against him, and in any case, he was 14 years old when captured (he is now 21) which should have meant that he was treated as an abused child, not tortured.

Palau????

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Seriously, I’ll always take pneumonia (Obama/Biden) over metastasized lung cancer (McCain/Palin) any day, but the cowardice we are seeing over the Guantanamo detainees, particularly the Uighurs, from both the White House and Democrats in Congress is truly revolting.

We abducted them with out evidence or cause, then tortured them at the request of the Chinese Communists, and held them for 7 years, and now, in order to wash their hands of a truly repulsive Republican talking point, Obama is bribing the government of Palau to the tune of $200 million, or about $10,000.00 for every man, woman, and child in that tiny pacific nation, so that he can ship them off to there, as opposed to bringing them to the US, where there is a large community, and they would have some sort of support structure.

This is truly an exercise in cowardice.

This Didn’t Start Happening Until Clinton’s 2nd Term

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In Washington, DC, a white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Museum and started shooting, killing a guard, Tyrone Johns.

Gee, I guess that the DHS report warning about a potential upsurge in right wing terrorism was a bit more than some sort of PC Jihad.

I’m wondering how the hell this guy only served 6½ years when he attempted to hold members of the Federal Reserve hostage only 25 years ago.

I guess they had to keep space open for the “War on Drugs”

Terrorists Running Wild in Big Apple

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Because, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was transferred from Guantánamo Bay to New York Cityto face trial on the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi embassy.

Oh, my god, a terrorist is running loose on the streets of the city….Only, he isn’t. He’s at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where other people who were tried and convicted of the same crime where held.

Why is Barack Obama letting the ‘Phants demagogue this issue?

Signs of the Apocalypse

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Richard Bruce Cheney has admitted that he was wrong:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that then-Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein collaborated with al-Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11 attacks.

Cheney said today that information by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda on Sept. 11 “turned out not to be true.” Still, Cheney said a longstanding relationship existed between Hussein and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Not only is he admitting error, he is doing so on a signature issue.

I have no clue as to what is going on. First, he embarks on his “human snarl tour,” in which he says that he is right about everything, and now he is backing off of his biggest lie.

Either there are wheels within wheels beyond my understanding, or he’s throwing small strokes, and I cannot figure out which.

Terrorists Strike in American Heartland

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Someone shot George Tiller, who ran Women’s Health Care Services, in his church in Wichita, Kansas.

It is yet another right-to-life movement murder.

There has been an arrest, but, unfortunately, there has been no movement taken against those people and organizations that offer material support to these terrorists, such as Kansans for Life, Priests for Life, Operation Rescue, former Kansas AG Phill Kline, Randall Terry, and Kansas Coalition for Life.

It is clear that the ties between these people and organizations, and people and organizations that aggressively engage in terrorism against law abiding medical professionals are far closer than those between the Holy Land Foundation, whose leaders just received 65 year sentences, and Hamas, and Hamas has never engaged in terrorism in the borders of the United States.

Heck of a Terrorist Plot You’ve Got There

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You know, those highly trained terrorists who were planting bombs.

You know, the ringleader, David Cromitie, who admitted to being stoned while planting what he thought were bombs.

And you have the full rundown of the “Newburgh 4”, which includes a cocaine addict, a schizophrenic who is borderline retarded, and the government informant, was facing deportation for what amounts to forging immigration documents, who ran a similar sting a few years back, allegedly attempted to pay another member of his mosque to join his merry band, and was described by independent observers as “the boss.”

I have no doubt that they will be convicted, that’s what happened to the folks down in Florida, but this does nothing for anyone, except perhaps the police and prosecutors who use unreliable informants for career climbing.