Last night I went to bed on the planet Earth, but I woke up today in what seems to be a different location.

My time is limited tonight, so I’ll assume that my readers know the general outlines of the story about the proposed UAE management of six ports in the United States. For a recent roundup, see this recent news report about the affair. Many prominent Republicans have lined up against the President on this one, including the Senate Majority Leader and the governors of the states involved.

According to the latest word, President Bush has vowed to veto any attempt to stop the deal from going down. A veto! He won’t veto any pork, no matter how grotesque, nor would he veto an unconstitutional bill that suppresses political speech — but he’ll veto this one, in order to secure this plum for the Gulf emirs!

And, to top it all off, former President Jimmy Carter has come out in support of President Bush.

What the heck is going on?

This president is a lame duck, with no need to court Big Oil donors for the next election cycle. He’s butting heads with Republican Party stalwarts. I assume he has our national security as his highest priority. So what’s he doing?

I have a theory, an uneducated layman’s theory, that I’d like to run by our esteemed readers to see if any intelligence and national security experts want to weigh in.

The UAE, like Pakistan, plays a double game with the United States. They’re a “reliable partner in the War on Terror,” etc., etc., but their financial systems launder money for Islamist terrorists and there are any number of Al Qaeda sympathizers on their soil.

Suppose the administration has talked a few of the non-fundamentalist, non-terrorist emirs into serving as front men for a CIA operation. Set up the business, manage the ports, and wait for the terrorists to approach the company looking to get a few containers of “materiel” into one of our ports. Then wait for the deal to go down, and BOOM! Nab the shipment and the perps in a major sting.

Does that seem impossible? Go ahead and shoot it down if it doesn’t make sense, because I really want some knowledgeable feedback.

If that’s not what’s going on, I sure don’t understand it.

 
An alert reader (Update: Snarking Dawg has given permission to be acknowledged as my source) from New York writes that his local WNYW-TV FOX 5 News did a report on the “Islamberg” Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound near Hancock.

I just wanted to let you know that our local Fox news affiliate in NYC just did an extensive report on ‘Islamberg’ in upstate NY. Here is their website, WNYW-TV Fox 5 News, although there is nothing on it about the report just yet.

I wish I had known it was coming on so I could have taped it.

The reporter walked into the camp with a hidden camera. The place looked pretty barren with a few beat up trailers. There was a schoolbus which looked like it had been shot up. The reporter encountered 2 black Muslims who were actually kind of friendly. They said they did have guns and occasionally shot them off when celebrating weddings. Yeah right. The report mentioned the financial problems one of the leaders was having and how the IRS had confiscated his business.

The reporter confronted him with the recent internet report from the Northeast Intelligence Network… they laughed and said it was all a product of the Jew media. They also hinted that 9/11 was a part of some larger Jewish conspiracy. They brought up the tired misrepresentation that the Air Force was ordered to stand down on the morning of 9/11, apparently to allow the attack.

They also spoke with a couple of townspeople. One gentleman said prior to 9/11 he had seen them training in fatigues but said they had been relatively quiet since. A local sheriff said they basically keep to themselves and aren’t a bother.

The people that Fox 5 interviewed in the compound are followers of Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, the charismatic fundamentalist Pakistani Islamic leader, and founder of Jamaat ul-Fuqra. CP’s latest report on the group is here. It’s the same organization that has several compounds here in Virginia, as I reported last October.

The Islamberg people may be just regular folks like you and me, members of our great national rainbow coalition, misunderstood and misrepresented by the media, with their unfortunate anti-semitic comments taken totally out of context. But I wouldn’t bet on it. To recap the sheikh’s background, I remind you of the 2002 article in The Weekly Standard:

Fuqra’s founder and chief, the man [Daniel] Pearl sought to interview, is a rotund Kashmiri of Sufi background with long-standing ties to Pakistan’s Interservice Intelligence Agency (ISI), Sheikh Mubarik Ali Hasmi Shah Gilani. At least until President Musharraf’s decision last fall to support the American war on terrorism, the ISI sponsored terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Sheikh Gilani has rubbed shoulders at international terrorist confabs with gunslingers from Hamas and Hezbollah, their mullah backers, and Osama bin Laden. And he has trained fighters for the battlefields of Kashmir, Chechnya, and Bosnia.

Gilani launched his U.S. operations in 1980. Within ten years, Fuqra’s communes were billing themselves as havens where Muslim converts — many of them inner-city blacks, sometimes recruited in prison — could build new lives. At least seven such communities are active today, in Hancock, N.Y.; Red House, Va.; Tulare County, Calif.; Commerce, Ga.; York, S.C.; Dover, Tenn.; and Combermere, Canada. While some of these enclaves contain only rudimentary buildings and trailers, the California compound has 300 residents on a 440-acre spread, according to a recent report by a local ABC station. Residents deny any involvement with terror, but Fuqra has a history of getting into trouble with the law.

Over the years, at least a dozen Fuqra members have been convicted of crimes including conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud in the United States or Canada. And Fuqra members are suspects in at least 10 unsolved assassinations and 17 firebombings between 1979 and 1990. Nor is Fuqra’s criminal activity all in the past. In the last year alone, a resident of the California compound was charged with first degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy; another was charged with gun smuggling; the state of California launched an investigation into the fate of more than a million dollars in public funds given to a charter school run by Fuqra leaders; and two residents of the Red House community were convicted of firearms violations, while a third awaits trial.

I hope that local TV reporter knew what he was getting into when he walked into Islamberg. A reading of his tea leaves might show the Federal Witness Protection Program in his future.

Update: CP has a post up about this. He’s got a lot more detail than I do, because the reporter actually talked to him.

…they were approached and spoke to a couple of the compound’s residents. Asking to see “the boss,” they were told he was in the city and wouldn’t be back until later, but then he showed up rather mysteriously. “The boss” was Hussain Abdallah, reportedly one of the early organizers of Fuqra in the United States and the guy that runs “786 Security” in Brooklyn. Abdallah said that his business had been raided by the IRS in Dec. 03 and the case was in process. The reporter said that a legal search of judgements or liens might turn something up. He owes something like $300K to the Feds and $40-50K to the state in taxes.

Go over and read the whole thing.

 
The Dinocrat and Planck’s Constant disagree on the invention inventory in the Muslim world. In his post “How does the modern world look when you have done nothing to help create it, and innovation is a threat to cherished beliefs?” (linked above) the former points to the paucity of Islam’s contributions to the world:

Americans have been messing around and creating things throughout the history of the nation. We take it for granted that people are fiddling around in their garages inventing oscilloscopes or wonder drugs or extreme sports. But what would it be like to live in a land where people invented nothing, where technology came to you as though from Mars? More than this: what if that constant progress and tinkering represented a threat to the sufficiency of the founding documents of your culture and religion? Judging by the numbers, that is apparently the current state of thought in some major Islamic countries. Take Saudi Arabia, which recently went six years without granting a patent.

“Au contraire,” says Planck’s Constant (that’s French for “hold it right there, bub”). He then proceeds to defend his argument with examples:

I have to disagree [with Dinocrat’s thesis]. There are many, many creative inventions in Islam, but they are unrecorded because most simply do not apply for a patent.

For instance, there is the very clever and portable Microsoft customer-service-center made from an old scissor sharpening platform.

Unfortunately for his clever notion, this is one case where the words are worth more than the picture.

Dinocrat gives us some appalling statistics:

• The Saudis only opened a Patent Office in 1990
• In 1996, they granted their first patent.
• In 2001, Iran had one patent (who needs patent when you have BOMB?)
• In 1997,the US had 111,805 patents
• In the last five years, Indonesia filed 30 patents.

In other words, says Dino, rather heatedly:

Remember this pathetic performance the next time some bonehead tries to argue cultural equivalency to you. How dare these people try to impose their ways on us, or dictate anything about the way we should live. Theirs is a formula for poverty, stagnation and misery. Imagine: over a billion people, and they have fewer patents in their entire recorded history than did the citizens of Utah last year.

I think that settles it, though I am sure there are a billion or so who would argue with me. Oh, I forgot: 11th Century breaking news — Arabs invent zero. 20th century — Arabs invent zero zilch. 21st Century — Arabs beg, borrow, steal incendiary devices, or improvise, using airplanes and bodies.

Imagine if they corralled all that effort into creativity? But how can you be creative when submission is your only tool? Oh, right: submission permits you to be murderously creative.

As long as you’re killing something — why create away, brother!

The Officers’ Club makes a good case for Iran’s ability to learn her lessons (oh, that she would learn to mind her manners as well). It’s hard to remember sometimes that these people are Persians, not just…not just what they’ve become since Mr. Carter was president. Perhaps it was his influence? (Yes, I know about the Shah and us. The Jimmah jump was simply a rhetorical flourish)

At any rate, the OC says Iran glommed onto seven notions that have carried her thus far. I would say these are listed by Mr. Munn in descending order. See what you think:

7. The media is your friend: Iran has been much better about laying out its case for acquiring nuclear technology than Saddam ever was…

6. Appeal to the “international community”. Like it or not, the people most directly threatened by a nuclear Iran are Europeans…

5. Use the economy, stupid. Yes, Iran threatened to put economic sanctions on itself if it was referred to the security council. That would be ridiculous if it weren’t so possible…

4. Build up the fanatic side of the military. Saddam’s “elite” Republican Guard proved to be the only thing standing between Baghdad and the 3rd Infantry partly because they were furiously devoted to the Hussein Regime and the Baath Party…

3. Divide and conquer. Iran knows that Europe poses no serious military threat to them, and that any action would require a NATO (read: US) action, their best bet is to make side deals to turn member countries against each other…

2. Deter War. Remember the media’s insane predictions of body counts before OEF/OIF? Imagine the media speculation about total war with Iran. Iran can shape this information operation by showing off its military at every opportunity…

1. Get that Nuke Tech! No country has ever been invaded that has possessed nuclear weapons. Saddam kept the capacity to acquire WMD, but never (I think) thought the imperialist cowboy president would get around his ingenious scheme of UN manipulation…

I’ve been trying to think of other lessons Iran has carried away as well, but I’m not coming up with anything. Take a stab at it — this is certainly a big piece of meat — but read the whole post and not just my snips.

And be sure to read the comments, also. They provide some clarification, and some counterpoints. I would like the readers of Gates of Vienna, that astute group of quibblers, to open the door and weigh in on this subject. It’s on everyone’s mind — when they’re not thinking about the bills or sex, anyway — so discussion is helpful.

Callimachus at Done With Mirrors

 
The Toledo Blade reports:

Federal agents padlocked a Toledo-based Muslim charity and froze its assets yesterday, citing a government investigation into possible links with Hamas terrorists. KindHearts, a $5 million-a-year charity with headquarters in West Toledo will not be able to access any of its funds or property while the investigation is under way.

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Of course, KindHearts has been under suspicion for awhile. The Militant Islam Monitor has been outing this organization for awhile, with headlines like this:

Kind Hearts for Terror : Arab American Chamber of Commerce helps ‘charity’ tied to Al Qaeda with Islamist fundraisers tied to Jihad recruiting

And here’s the trail they follow, from Pipes’ site in December last (have you noticed that Islamofascist news can be updated but it never really staledates? You just change names and amounts. The narrative remains the same).

I am posting this in full so you can get an idea of the convoluted connections among these groups and individuals. To cut any of it is to miss a great deal of the depth and breadth of the problem of Islamofascist-run “charities” in this country.

I believe the following is by William A. Mayer & Beila Rabinowitz, but follow the Militant Islam Monitor link (above) to pick up other sites, since I have not hyperlinked everything in this long piece:

Kind Hearts for Terror

‘Charity’ under law enforcement scrutiny schedules new fundraising tour in U.S. with Al Qaeda linked Jamaat Tableeghi missionary/ recruiters from abroad.

The gloating by radical Islamist organizations in the United States that a Senate Committee investigation into 26 Islamic charities is has exonerated them appears to be premature. According to an article in an Ohio paper: “.The Senate Finance Committee is done reviewing Internal Revenue Service records it requested two years ago, but that “does not mean that these groups have been cleared by the committee,” chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement Tuesday.

” Grassley said the committee will continue to examine the charities’ operations, reversing a statement he made two weeks ago that the committee “did not find anything alarming enough that required additional follow-up beyond what law enforcement is already doing…

According to Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the scrutiny is ongoing and one article singled out the Kind Hearts ‘charity’ base in Toledo Ohio as a group which is of special interest to law enforcement. The same article also mentioned another salient fact: That it was none other then Jihad Smaili, a lawyer from Cleveland who testified in front of the Senate Committee hearing. “KindHearts’ lawyer, Jihad Smaili of Cleveland, said testimony before the Senate Banking Committee this summer amounted to unfair “guilt by association,” he told The Plain Dealer. “

Smaili acknowledges that some of the testimony before the Senate Banking Committee raised mistakes KindHearts had made. An employee of a charity closed by the government worked for KindHearts until he was charged with conspiracy, aiding a terrorist group and money laundering..” What the article failed to mention is that Jihad Smaili is the brother of Khalid Smaili who is the director of Kind Hearts.
When journalists tried to reach Khalid Smaili for comment they were told he was in Lebanon. Which begs the question as to if he plans to come back, since Kind Hearts is simply a continuation of the Global Relief Foundation, which was closed down by the Department of Treasury for ties to Al Qaeda. A look at the Kind Hearts website shows why law enforcement might take more then a passing interest in the Toledo Ohio based charity with the warm fuzzy name.

A banner headline on the KH website (since removed) recently announced that Zulifiqar Ali Shah,(the former president of the Islamic Circle of North America / Muslim American Society,linked to Al Qaeda) and CEO of the Universal Heritage Foundation, is coordinator for the Kind Hearts South Asia Division.

Shah ran a School for Islamic Studies in Broward, which launched the terrorist career of Jose Padilla – the dirty bomber wannabe set to go on trial together with Adhan Hassoun ( the man who raised the money to send him to Jihad training camp) It is believed that Jose Padilla and Adnan Hassoun met each other as the SISB mosque.
The co founder of the school, Mohammed Javed Qureshi, who, besides his role as co founder of a Saudi backed Islamic school, also supervised the Taco Bell where Padilla (and his wife) were employed. Last year Qureshi admitted that it was him and his wife who helped the Padillas convert to Islam. Hassoun ran the office of the Benevolence International Foundation ( an Al Qaeda funding front started by the jailed Arnaam Arnout, who married a Florida woman. The BIF offices which were convienently located across the road from Qureshi’s Taco Bell.

Shah was recently in Pakistan and the Kind Hearts website informs us that: “As announced by Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, KindHearts fully support Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistani Governments Relief initiatives, Junaid Jumshaid Foundation, Sahara Foundation, Al-Khidmat and other NGOs who are efficient and completely transparent for the accountability of their financial transactions, their Relief Work and Development projects to alleviate suffering of the survivors of this natural disaster.”

…an article entitled “Militants make mileage out of earthquake relief” revealed that the ‘relief funding’, was indeed literally ending up in the hands of terrorists, who were also using orphanages as recruiting grounds for new Jihadis. Not surprisingly a large part of Kind Hearts ‘charity’ funding goes to ‘orphans’.

Numerous newspaper accounts revealed that U.S. soldiers called on to help were working side by side with terrorists from the Laskar e- Taybaa and Jammaat and it’s Jamaat e Da’wa front. A manifestation of this was seen in a BBC television report, which showed that aid efforts were being hindered after confrontations broke out between Muslim aid workers and clerics who insisted that Muslim quake survivors could not be given food during Ramadan despite the life and death situation. The situation was so volatile that the workers had to promise that they would make sure the aid recipients would not break the Ramadan fast.

“…In the shattered cities and toppled villages of Pakistan’s earthquake zone, a new front has opened in the “war on terrorism”.

As the world played aid catch-up at the weekend, pledging US$5.8 billion ($7.9 billion) in assistance, and with the Prime Minister, John Howard, due to arrive in Islamabad today, Muslim extremist groups are basking in what Pakistani commentators say is a new-found legitimacy courtesy of their quick response to the disaster.

A stream of reports since the October 8 catastrophe, which killed more than 73,000 people and left more than 3 million homeless, suggest Islamic charities linked to extremists have taken over much of the relief effort across a wide area of northern Kashmir and adjoining areas..”

“…A prominent member of the JUD relief effort is Dr Amir Aziz Khan, arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links but later released.

Militants are also reportedly taking orphaned children under their wing for indoctrination in holy war in their extensive network of orphanages….”

“… All of which places the military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, in a tight spot.
His government acknowledges the JUD’s good works and denies it is exploiting the disaster.

Yet visiting the region with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on
Friday, he felt compelled to warn the victims to be wary of help from militants.
“If someone shows extremism here, you should rise up against it,” he said…

Which begs the second question as to if the United States government was reluctant to go after Kind Hearts because of the support it boasts of having from NGO’s and the Pakistani government, abroad, but from the U.S. based, Saudi backed, Arab American Chamber of Commerce, which lists Kind Hearts twice on their website once as a curiously named “appraiser resource” and on the business directory of their website.

Kind Hearts’ South Asian coordinator Zulfiqar Ali Shah, has returned from Pakistan and is embarking on US fundraising tour for Kind Hearts together with ‘two Islamist missionaries’ . Saeed Anwar – who is billed as “a famous cricketer” and Junaid Jamshed, listed a a “famous personality”.. Cricketeer Saeed Anwar, who was on the same team as Imran Khan (the player turned politician who started the Koran flush rumor which resulted in riots resulting in many deaths) is also connected to a group which is linked to terrorism -Tableeghi Jammat Islami an article informs us that:

“( Anwar )turned to religion and spirituality and took to the Tableeghi Jamaat (missionaries), who practise a stricter adherence to the codes of Islam than most.

Anwar’s influence spread among senior players such as Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam-ul-Haq and the group travel together regularly to Raiwind, a small town near Lahore, where the Tableeghis congregate for prayer and dialogue..”. Famous personality Junaid Jamshed was a pop singer in Pakistan who may also be tied to the Tableeghi Jamaat since he ” formally announced his decision to quit singing to be a full-time preacher.

Explaining his decision, he said, for years he had felt guilty of being a poor role model. Recently, he said, some young people, who had started with religious learning, had told him he had inspired them to seek careers in music.

Mr Jamshed said his family were a religious kind and that he had been the exception. He also said it had taken him nearly five years to arrive at the decision. That finally, he had listened to his heart. His family, he said, supported his decision..” Another website informs that ” Junaid gave up singing a few years ago, grew a beard and joined the Tableeghi Jamaat, saying singing did not fit into his lifestyle anymore.”

Zufiqar Ali Shah brings ICNA, MAS, and Al Qaeda into the Kind Hearts equation. Both Jamshed and Anwar are members of the Islamic Tableeghi Jamaat which has been described as : ‘Recruiting Ground For Al Qaeda Muslim Tablighi Jamaat missionaries proclaim their apolitical views and separation from politics and political causes. Yet Al Qaeda finds the organization’s associates a ripe recruiting ground for members.

According to Michael J. Heimbach , the deputy chief of the F.B.I.’s international terrorism section: “We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States, and we have found that Al Qaeda used them for recruiting, now and in the past…”

The terrorist affiliations of Shah , Anwar and Jamshed are more then enough reason to close down Kind Hearts and halt their fundraising roadshow in the United States.

Adding Khalid and Jihad Smaili to the equation is further proof that Kind Hearts (aka Global Relief) is not only fundraising for terrorism – it is being run and supported by potential terrorists and Jihad recruiters in the guise of Tableeghi Jamaat preachers.

Kind Hearts has also announced that the three men will return in 2006 for more fundraising in the United States after their recent effort raised more then 1 million dollars:

“…Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, the President of KindHearts’ South Asia Division, toured more than ten cities in ten days, along with Brs. Junaid Jamshed and Saeed Anwar, raising $1.5 million in checks and pledges. Donors are requested to contribute generously, so that together we can put solid, safe roofs over the heads of thousands of homeless children and families.

Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah will again be leaving for Pakistan on December 11, 2005. While there, he will visit KindHearts’ ongoing projects, and expedite financial aid that is imminently required because of winter’s arrival.

In March 2006, Brs. Junaid Jamshed and Saeed Anwar will return to the US, along with the Pakistani Cricket team’s Vice-Captain, Mohammad Yousaf (the former Yousaf Yohanna). Thought to be the backbone of the current Pakistani Cricket team, Mohammad Yousaf recently scored the highest number of runs of his career against the visiting English Cricket team in Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

This impressive trio of celebrities will be traveling across America and Canada during March 2006 to raise funds for the Brick Houses.[emphasis, Gates of Vienna] KindHearts invites all community leaders to contact our office to obtain a program list for their visit

By singling out Kind Hearts for continued scrutiny it is clear that the Senate Committee (and the groups lawyer himself), acknowledge that KH is tied to terrorism. The question is why the government is unable and/ or unwilling to act.and is so reluctant to clarify the status of the investigation and the groups under scrutiny.

The travesty of having the brother of the director of Kind Hearts testifying in his capacity as the group’s lawyer in front of the Senate Committee and admitting to what he terms “mistakes” such as money laundering and associates jailed for terrorism, shows that it is time to investigate why the government has failed to act. One can only speculate that the organisation claims of ‘supporting Musharraf’s efforts’ and indication that they are sanctioned by the Pakistani government are intended to warn the United States not to interfere with their activities.
Which begs four obvious but urgent questions:

If Kind Hearts is known to be the new face of Global Relief which was closed down by the United States Government because of terrorism funding why hasn’t the same thing happened to Kind Hearts?

Why were two ‘missionaries’ from Tableeghi al Jamaat, an organisation known as a recruiting grounds for Al Qaeda, allowed into the US in the first place?

How can the United States allow Zufiqar Ali Shah, the ex president of the Islamic Circle of North America, and president CEO of the Universal Heritage Foundation, who has been linked to Jose Padilla, Sheik Abdur Rahman Al Sudais and Jerusalem Mufti Ikrima Sabri, to fundraise and control millions of dollars in donations when it was recently revealed that funding for earthquake victims had found it’s way to the Kashmiri separatist terrorists aligned with the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

Has Kind Hearts’ director Khalid Smaili, who declined to be interviewed for an article about the terrorist funding charges directed at his ‘charity’ ever returned to the United States from his ‘holiday’ in Lebanon?

The fact that Kind Hearts is still fundraising with impunity after cloning Global Relief, (and brazenly uses the template of the GRF newsletter, which is a designated a terrorist funding entity), is epitomised by this cynical and mocking ‘caveat donateur’ at the bottom of their donations webpage’:

“…All fraudulent translations will be investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the law…”

Kind Hearts must be laughing all the way to bank – and the terrorists are sharing their glee.

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Well, that was in December. Now, two months later, Kind Hearts’ assets have been frozen and their doors padlocked. Maybe it’s no longer so amusing?

What is amazing is the way all these insidious people are connected to one another and when you trace the red thread allllll the way back, where do you end up?

Why, Dorothy, look! First we were in Toledo and now here we are right in downtown Riyadh! Now how do you suppose that happened?

Shut up and button your burqa, girl.

Hat Tip: Lizardoid Center–ronaldusmagnus

My pneumonia (and subsequent prednisone psychosis) left me unable to post anything coherent, so my Watcher’s postings are late. The week of the 10th was particularly interesting because the council winner came out on top without having been able to vote that week.

With three points, Stratasphere took it away with an piece on the Democratic party’s contract with Al Qaeda. The way AJ describes it sure does make the whole stinky mess look like a Dem deal. Here’s what he thinks the Democrats will put on the plate to make themselves more attractive to voters:

…This year’s election offers the chance, after 4 years of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the Nation’s policies towards Al Qaeda. That historic change would be the end of government that is too focused in Iraq, too intrusive, and too obsessed with possible terrorist attacks. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the privacy of all peoples, including members of Al Qaeda here in the US.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Democrat majority will immediately pass the following major legislation, aimed at restoring the pre 9-11 mirage of security and world harmony and ending this Administration’s policies for National Security:

FIRST, we will finally kill the Patriot Act so that no member of Al Qaeda will fear using our libraries to access international websites, access their email, or do basic research on major US installations and population centers…

[…]

SECOND, We will enact legislation to release all Al Qaeda members now held in custody in the GITMO Gulag…

[…]

and so it goes, all the way down to Point Nine in their offering, which promises to impeach the Imperial Bush…don’t they just wish. I’ve been hearing this threat ever since Bush was elected — sorry, ever since Bush stole the election from the Democrats.

Great fisk of the Dem point of view, which, when it’s isn’t undiluted vitriol, is simply Looney Tunes. Until the incarnation of the present Democratic Party I didn’t know lemmings could sing in harmony.

Second place was taken by Shrinkwrapped. He is so unobtrusively eloquent. No flourishes or unnecessary words to get his point across. Who else but he could weave the following: “The Academy Awards, Pan-Sexuality, Narcissism, & Loneliness”? I will even forgive him for using the New York Times as his starting point — which is a big deal here, since I give the Old Grey Mare the same credibility I grant Aljazeera, which means little to none.

The following is a small excerpt from a large and wide-ranging essay. I recommend that you RTWT since the changing mores and perspectives of the rising generation of adolescents sounds more like the German youth of the ‘20’s than it does anything we’ve encountered before. But, of course, each generation thinks it invented itself. Perhaps this is necessary in order to invest in the future:

Hollywood has done its part to help “normalize” pan-sexuality and will celebrate their open-minded tolerance in March (one of the nominees for best Actress is for a film about a transsexual); whether you believe this was wise or not, it is hard to argue that such re-definition of what at one time was considered deviant behavior comes at a high price. There is also a vast difference between teaching our children tolerance and teaching that “anything and everything goes” and all sexual behavior is equivalent and represent mere “life style choices.”

From the Non-Council posts, The Anchoress placed first — and created, I think, a good neologism: “wellstoning.” Have you noticed that the various aberrant and vicious behaviors of the Left cause neologisms to come into being? There’s “borking” and “fisking,” and as soon as I say “wellstoning” everyone knows what it means. No explanation required.

In this case, The Anchoress describes what happened at Coretta Scott King’s funeral. An admission of bias: I stopped admiring this woman when I found out that she charged money for copies of the “I Have A Dream” speech. “Tacky” is the most charitable term I can think of for this kind of grasping behavior.

At any rate, Mrs. King’s funeral was finely and truly wellstoned. It was used as a platform to exhibit disrespect to a sitting President while he was a member of the congregation. It was used to revise history, to revile the Republicans, and to create an atmosphere of resentment and pandering. Ugly, ugly moment. As The Anchoress notes:

I’ve come to the conclusion that people who buy their own hype, who believe the press when the press over-does the gushing in order to push their own ideas, are weak-minded, or perhaps simply not very smart.

“Wellstoning” is a useful word. Can’t you just imagine how Ted Kennedy’s funeral will be wellstoned right into the ground?

Have you ever read One Cosmos? If not, you’re in for a treat. He’s not easy to classify so I won’t try, but I highly recommend his second place essay,
“The Pathetic Last Children of Nietzsche’s Pitiable Last Men.” Here’s one summation you won’t forget in a hurry:

The modern conservative movement is not just trying to preserve the traditional male element, but the traditional separation of the various spheres in general–civilized vs. barbaric, animal vs, human, adult vs. child–while the Democratic party is the party of mannish women (e.g., Hillary Clinton, Gloria Allred), feminized men (e.g., Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore), adult children (Howard Dean, John Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, et al), and even animal humans (PETA members who believe that killing six million chickens is morally indistinguishable from murdering six million Jews, radical environmentalists, etc.). And it is almost impossible to engage in rational debate with the adult child, who has the cynicism of a world-weary grown up but the wisdom of a child, or with the male-female hybrid, who possesses an emotionalized reason that is easily hijacked by the passions…

One Cosmos has a breadth, depth, and height of conveying knowledge that you’re not likely to find elsewhere. He is in his own category. I think he knows this, too.

It’s all still up at the Watcher’s. Go here, and see me in third place with Rightwing Nuthouse. Now there’s an interesting bedfellow…

 
William Tucker at The American Enterprise Institute — that den of warmongering corporatists — has an interesting idea for the brave MSM:

…the newspapers—they’re just incredible, huh? The New York Times has risked its neck by revealing that the Bush Administration has been monitoring overseas phone calls. Stogy old Commentary is comparing this to the isolationist Herald Tribune printing a story in 1942 telling the Japanese we had broken their code. Those neoconservative loonies think the Times ought to be prosecuted for divulging secrets in wartime! Well, it’s a different world, brother! Our press today will go to jail en masse rather than give up freedom of speech!

Mr. Tucker reminds us not to forget the brave and the bold in Hollywood, their daring controversial films, their leading edge confrontational approach. Yessir, a brave bunch, rushing in where angels fear to tread. Well, actually, they go places no angel would be caught dead in. Funny thing is, wherever they go, the place is packed with mirrors. Hollywood never goes anywhere that doesn’t permit it to see its own reflection, any more than the media would go to places where it can’t hear its own echo.

As Mr. Tucker, puts it: “Yes, there’s nothing our good old courageous media won’t tackle, is there?” You could see his rhetorical question just coming down the line, couldn’t you? Okay, here’s the set up and a modestly proposed solution to the quaking fear of the MSM:

… It turns out not a single TV network and only two newspapers—the New York Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer—have dared publish the dozen Danish cartoons that have set off riots around the world. Even the New York Press, which once ran a whole column in which a writer described removing a boil from his scrotum, has chickened out. Four staff members quit in protest last week after the top brass backed down.

That guy with the boil? He just wanted you to know he actually has a scrotum, which is more than one can say for many of his confreres.

But here’s Mr. Tucker’s point about the sudden vast media modesty:

…everybody’s mumbling something about “respect for religion” and “not wanting to offend anybody,” but the real reason is transparent. They’re scared to death. Publishing portraits of rock stars posing as Jesus or putting naked movie stars on the cover of Vanity Fair—that’s all in a day’s work. Only a bunch of hillbillies down in Arkansas will be offended. But publishing a cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban—now that’s serious. Somebody might start throwing rocks or set off a bomb in the office.

Then Mr. Tucker offers a sensible Gallic shrug. Why bother trying not to offend Muslims? Our very existence is offensive, and their raison d’être is war. Endless war: with us, with each other, with whatever moves. What other culture do you know that shows its exuberance by going out in the street and shooting firearms into the air? Besides Texans, I mean. So, says Mr. Tucker, get used to it, because there’s not a damn thing we can do to change matters when it comes to Muslim explosiveness:

Nothing we say or do will make Muslims like us any better. Islam has been beating down the door of Western Civilization since the time of Charlemagne. They conquered Spain, took Constantinople in 1453, besieged Vienna in 1529 and again in 1683. The Turks blew up the Parthenon in 1687 and fighting between Greeks and Turks continued into this century. The Balkans became the “powder keg of Europe” once the Turks invaded.

And it isn’t just us. Islam is at war with every civilization on its borders. They’re fighting with India, with China, with African tribes in Sudan. Nor do Muslims ever stop fighting among themselves. The whole history of Islam is a story of a group of dissidents going out into the desert, deciding the religion practiced by the elites was not the “true Islam,” and crashing back upon the cities to seize power. The word “assassins” comes from a Persian cult whose members drugged themselves with hashish before carrying out suicide attacks. The Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda are just the latest of a long, long line.

Islam is a culture that has never learned to curb male violence. All it can do is export it.

This exporting of Muslim violence wouldn’t be so noticeable if the Europeans weren’t so flaccid and neutered. It’s much easier to explode in the middle of a city which gave up its manhood years ago.

However, Mr. Tucker things the multi-culti approach here is downright dangerous. And he figures there’s some safety in numbers. Here’s his solution:

In order to put some backbone in the press for the trials ahead, let’s pick a day—I nominate February 28th, two weeks from today—in which every newspaper in America and every TV news station in America will display the offending cartoons. For the faint-hearted there’ll be safety in numbers. It will inform the public and restore our self-respect. It certainly won’t ingratiate us with world of Islam, but what’s the difference? At least they’ll know they’re facing a united front.

And that makes all the difference in the world. Thugs respect courage; it makes them back off:

When the Germans overran Denmark during World War II, they immediately announced that all Jews must wear the yellow star. Instead of cowering in their homes, every man, woman and child in the country donned a yellow star, including the King of Denmark. It seems only fitting that we return the favor.

In order to make his suggestion more credible, he gives directions to his home, since he telecommutes to the office:

And if you’re planning to bomb The American Enterprise offices in retaliation for this column, please don’t bother. I hardly ever set foot in the place. I live at 430 4th Street in Brooklyn, right around the corner from the ice cream storeowner who was just sentenced to 18 years for smuggling $11 million to terrorists in the Middle East and two doors up from a fireman who was killed on September 11th. I’m home every day.

Now this is a great idea, but it doesn’t go far enough. Instead of just one day, the MSM ought to be printing, posting, or otherwise disseminating images of Mo in his various and hilarious disguises all year long. The devil hates ridicule (I gave up believing in devils in adolescence, when I gave up the God with the white beard. I still don’t believe in the latter, but Lordy, those Islamofascists sure do make you realize the deep truth of incarnate evil) but there’s nothing like a large, eternal dose of it to help the medicine go down. And the medicine is this:

We will not be cowed. As our famous war hero once (or twice) said: “Bring. It. On.” Let us make like Denmark and march out wearing our yellow stars, our crosses, carrying small statues of Buddha, and chanting “Om Mani Padme Hum.” Catchy little tune.

Let the newspapers carry a daily Mo cartoon, maybe right next to the weather. We could even assign a Muslim Mayhem prediction to the image: chance of explosions, thirty percent, let’s say.

If they need an image, here’s one from Disposable Wisdom (and apparently from the infamous Retecool.com) to start the stalwart press off on the right foot. Or the right hand and foot, depending on whether they’re standing tall or scooting away on all fours.

 

Hat tip: OS

 
Well, this is a surprise.

According to CNN,

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein told his Cabinet in the mid-1990s that the U.S. would fall victim to terrorists possessing weapons of mass destruction but that Iraq would not be involved, tapes released Saturday at an intelligence summit reveal.

Hussein also can be heard speaking with high-ranking Iraqi officials about deceiving United Nations inspectors looking into Iraq’s weapons program, which his son-in-law, Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel, oversaw.

The tapes, which U.S. officials have confirmed are authentic, are part of a much larger cache of information on the nation’s weapons programs. Six translators listened to the recordings for CNN.

I don’t mean that the information itself is a surprise — every Iraq news junkie knew about the Salman Pak training camp, the suitcases of money going to terrorist groups all over the world, and the Iraqi connection with Ramzi Yousef and Project Bojinka and the first World Trade Center attack.

It’s the fact that it can be found through a headline on CNN’s website. Are they going to bury it after Sunday morning, so that very few people see it? Or have they changed their ways?

Watch and see if it shows up on the major networks or CNN in prime time newscasts. Keep an eye on the New York Times for any sign of it.

My guess it will be buried and consigned to the blogosphere, like all the others.

 
Longtime Gates of Vienna commenter Cato the Elder now has his own blog. Cato Sr. is not to be confused with just plain “Cato”, who also comments here frequently (rumor has it that the latter is the illegitimate fruit of the former’s misspent youth).

From the Elder’s first post I obtained something useful. The warning label at right is unfortunately going to be very necessary in the coming months.

So drop over to Cato the Elder’s place. Make sure you take note of the URL when you get there…

 
The winners of the Infidel Bloggers Alliance Mohammed Cartoon Contest are in. Who do you think that fellow on the right might be? Hmm…

I wonder if his camel was named “Curly”.

There were so many excellent entries that it was very difficult for Dymphna and me to pick our favorites. Thanks to everybody who contributed.

 
Or “Offence”, for our readers in Britain and the Dominions
 

Everybody who reads blogs has heard about the Great Mohammed Cartoon Caper. So I’m not giving any links in this post. You can find information on it anywhere; there are plenty of posts right here on the topic. Or you can close your eyes and click anywhere in our blogroll; you’ll probably find a post about it there.

This is just a rant. Saturday is Ranting Day at Gates of Vienna, and today is no exception.

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I’m an American. That means I have a Constitutional right to offend you.

You’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny. It looks like someone set your face on fire and put it out with an ice pick. There’s no father’s name on your birth certificate, just a list of suspects.

Etc., etc.

But CNN won’t show you the Mohammed cartoons because they don’t want to offend Muslims. OK, that’s their privilege. We all know they’re hypocrites, but it’s a free country and they have a right to hypocrisy.

But not offending people now has the sanction of law in certain circumstances. Try telling a dirty joke at work when the wrong ladies are listening in, and learn about the laws against sexual harassment. Try using certain slang words to describe Moravians or Tahitians, and you’ll get mandatory diversity training.

New rights have been discovered in the last few decades. The Right Not to Feel Excluded, or the Right Not to be in a Hostile Environment, for example. I must have an abridged copy of the Constitution in my pocket, because I can’t find them in it.

And when did our government get charged with the responsibility to prevent me from hiring whomever I please?

Suppose I run a business, and I hate Czechs. Why should I have to hire a bohunk, then? All those talented and well-educated Czechs are going to be hired by someone else, who will then compete successfully against me and force me into Chapter 11. That’s my own fault, right? But I should be free to act on my own stupid prejudices, if that’s what I want to do.

Now, going down to Little Bohemia in the middle of the night and torching Czech groceries: that’s another matter. But that’s already covered by the laws against arson and destruction of property. Slitting the throat of my neighbor from Prague is already a capital offense here in Virginia; there’s no need to find out if I’m motivated by racial hatred.

Hate crimes! People are entitled to hate whomever they wish; it’s their actions which are legal or illegal.

By custom and precedent, the law recognizes two exceptions to the right of free speech: (1) Shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater, and (2) using “fighting words.”

There are some people who see the Mohammed cartoons as falling under one or the other of these categories. Defaming the Prophet certainly has the effect of compelling the Muslim World to jam the exits so they can start torching cars and burning buildings out in the street. And it’s clear that many of them consider the phrase “screw Mohammed” to be fighting words.

But consider this: If I say, “Sandy Koufax was a lousy pitcher,” and you’re a passionate fan of Sandy Koufax, are those fighting words?

A judge and jury would examine the evidence, evaluate it according to the standards of a reasonable man, and conclude that you deserve jail time and have to pay my hospital bills.

The key words there are “reasonable man”. The law requires us to use common sense.

And the reasonable man, applying common sense, says there’s nothing wrong with displaying images of Mohammed in a newspaper, no matter how insulting they are.

It’s time for those who are offended by such things to get over it. And those who can’t, who react violently, should be dealt with severely. Case closed.

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And then there are the legions of people who mock Christ, the “artists” who cover Him with excrement, who juxtapose Him with Nazis, who ascribe homosexuality or bestiality or necrophilia to Him: I don’t have any problem with them. Bring ’em on.

Jesus can take mockery and insults. He can handle ridicule and bad taste. He can endure the taunts of Wiccans and atheists.

He’s seen a lot worse.

 
Last Friday, at the conclusion of a debate on Dutch television about the Muhammad cartoons, an animated cartoon was shown. It was made by Joep Bertrams, who won an award last year for being the best Dutch political cartoonist of 2005. See it here.

Go to site linked above, and then press the button that reads “Opnieuw afspelen.”

The title “Gevoelig” means “Sensitive.”

Hat tip: Brussels Journal.

 
In a post on Monday I helped publicize a grass-roots British project to counter the growing movement to suppress free speech in order to appease Muslims.

The efforts of all the people involved have borne fruit; we received an email this morning announcing that March for Free Expression has booked Trafalgar Square for Saturday 25th March.

They also sent us the following:

Statement of Principle

The strength and survival of free society and the advance of human knowledge depend on the free exchange of ideas. All ideas give offense to someone, and some of the most powerful ideas in human history, such as those of Galileo and Darwin, have given profound religious offense in their time.

The free exchange of ideas depends on freedom of expression and this includes the right to criticize and mock.

We assert and uphold the right of freedom of expression and call on our elected representatives to do the same.

We abhor the fact that people throughout the world live under mortal threat simply for expressing ideas and we call on our elected representatives to protect them from attack and not to give comfort to the forces of intolerance that besiege them.

The group’s email address is marchforfreespeech@googlemail.com, and the blog is marchforfreeexpression.blogspot.com.

So readers in the UK — and those planning a visit — will want to make a note of the date, March 25th, and the venue, Trafalgar Square. That’s in London: just hang a left at the White Cliffs of Dover and go about 60 miles — you can’t miss it.

 
There may be no worse affliction for a culture than its flaccid deflation in the face of bullies. When nothing is worth dying for, then life has no joy either. When the goal is to avoid getting killed, joy dies.

Celebrations in America are often based on old traditions, imported from Europe. Louisiana has Mardi Gras, and throughout the rest of the country Christian churches which follow the liturgical calendar closely also have a much quieter festival in the form of Shrove Tuesday, with pancake suppers and celebrations to mark the final day of the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany. At midnight, Ash Wednesday begins the penitential season that will lead to Easter.

Europe threw out the meaning behind the celebrations, but hey, that’s no reason to throw out the party, right? Especially the festivals which allow cultural transgressions with a certain impunity for making fun of important figures. For millennia, these carnivals have served as a vent for mayhem, making the rest of the year, with its daily, dull routines, more endurable.

At Brussels Journal there are two essays on the death and the dearth of Festival in Eurabia. In the first, “Dispatch from the Eurabian Front: The End of Carnival,” Belien describes the sad fear that infects the prospects of future festivals. Last year, after the carnival, those who are most compelled to obliterate joy — the “frothing fundos” as eteraz calls them — complained that the festival had made fun of Muslims:

After last year’s parade the organizers received a protest letter from the Arab League, stating that the event had been “insulting and offensive to Muslims and their culture.”

Well, yes. That was the point. They also make fun of the Pope and the King and any group deemed worthy of having a little air taken out of its tires.

Have you noticed that a “clash of cultures” really translates into a “rash of Muslims”? Europeans gather in crowds to celebrate; Muslims gather in crowds to complain, bully, or burn things down. I guess it comes down to this: whether your culture is rooted in Eros or Thanatos. You may guess which side is which here.

The real issue is freedom to celebrate who you are and what your history has been. It is a freedom that is disappearing in Eurabia, because above all, Islam obliterates other cultures’ histories:

…the most famous carnival celebration in Belgium is the one of the Flemish town of Aalst, 35 kms to the west of Brussels. Several groups parade through town in a pageant with floats, bands, and jesters, making fun of recent national and international events. The tradition goes back centuries, to mediaeval times. With carnival [mardi gras, as they say in Louisiana] approaching (28 February), the authorities are afraid that some groups might use the Danish cartoon crisis to dress up – God, or rather Allah, forbid – as the prophet Muhammad.

The carnival in Aalst is known for its disrespect of just about anything. This has never caused trouble in the past, though Aalst’s most popular group is a raucous, vulgar bunch of men dressed up as women, and calling themselves the “voil jeanetten” (“dirty faggots”). Mind you, the bawdiness and vulgarity is restricted to carnival, and these people are respectable, civilized, straight citizens throughout the rest of the year. Everyone, the participants and the public, know that the indecent and disrespectful behaviour is all in jest and until now nobody has ever taken offense.

Until now. Until the Muslims came and pooped on the party. The thin-skinned, the arrogant, the spoilers. Sometimes you wonder: does this inability to laugh at oneself go all the way back to Mohammed’s characterological deficits? Surely he was not known for his ability to jest about himself.

The parade and festival organizers haven’t given up hope yet. They’re meeting with town officials, trying to figure out how to have their ancient festivities without getting killed by The Grim Ones.

“Prohibit[ing] certain things might have the opposite effect,” Nicole Ringoir, the president of the organizing committee, told a Flemish newspaper. “Perhaps we should trust that the carnival revellers know how far they can go.” In other words: count on the fact that even dirty faggots fear for their lives.

That’s true. A bomb or two ought to settle things down.

Meanwhile, officials are caught between a rock and a hard place:

“We cannot censor the parade. During carnival the inhabitants of Aalst mock everything and everyone, including the Pope and the King,” Anny De Maght, the mayor of Aalst says. “I trust that our groups will know what limits to respect.”

As Mr. Belien sadly notes:

One thing is certain: in the coming age of Eurabia the mediaeval tradition of carnival will be abolished. I guess that is the price Europe will have to pay for “progress.”

Well, it is the price to be paid for dhimmitude. But maybe that’s how Eurabia will have to define “progress” from now on. The light of joy will get dimmer and dimmer until it finally flickers out.

As it is flickering now, even in Spain:

In 711 Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. They took Spain by force and remained there until they were thrown out during the reconquista in 1492. Every year, in a tradition that goes back to the 16th century, Spanish villages still celebrate the liberation from the Moors —emphasis added — (as the Muslims were locally called) during “Moros y Cristianos” festivals in which effigies of the prophet Muhammad – the so-called “la Mahoma” – are mocked, thrown out of windows, and burned.

Now the Spanish, having witnessed what happened to the Vikings recently, are wondering whether they can still continue their tradition of “offending Muslims.” The village of Bocairent near Valencia decided this year to discontinue the century old tradition of mocking and burning effigies of Muhammad. Bocairent does not want to risk becoming the target of suicide bombers.

Eurabia: death by a thousand cuts.

It is enough to make you weep, watching the light in the eyes of Europe dhimmi down and weasel out. It is a dark time in a darkling continent.