Iran has renewed efforts to supply advanced weaponry to Hamas and the IDF is concerned that the terror group will try to smuggle long-range Fajr missiles into the Gaza Strip.

According to the latest intelligence assessments, Iran, which was responsible for writing Hamas’s military doctrine, has already launched an internal probe to determine how the plan it had created for Hamas failed to cause more IDF casualties.

Further, Hamas is torturing those Fatah members who may have collaborated with Israel:

Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of Fatah activists on suspicion of “collaboration” with Israel during Operation Cast Lead, Fatah members in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

They said the Hamas crackdown on Fatah intensified after the cease-fire went into effect early Sunday morning.

The Fatah members and eyewitnesses said the detainees were being held in school buildings and hospitals that Hamas had turned into make-shift interrogation centers.

Fatah, if you recall, is another force on the Palestinian Legislative Council along with Hamas (who has the current majority). Fatah was founded by Yassar Arafat in 1957, and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, is the leader of Fatah.

Still and all: “Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousins; me, my brother and my cousins against our nonrelatives; me, my brother, my cousins and friends against our enemies in the village; all of these and the whole village against the next village.”

Bushwack at American & Proud featured a recent post wherein he made a very salient note with regard to Saudi Arabia, now that Gaza has been torn due to the actions of Hamas. He noted that King Abdullah of SA has pledged to donate $1 billion dollars to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

I make two notations, and then an extended comment:

Why did the Gaza Strip have to become decimated before Saudi Arabia stepped up to the plate and, second, why haven’t any of the Middle Eastern countries come to the aid of the so-called Palestinians, as I’ve asked before, and donated land for them to settle away from Israel?

And as I wrote at American & Proud:

I’m sorry, but to me this reeks of toying with the families of these men, and it does not possess the waft of true sincerity. Methinks this was a very last minute “oh, what the hell,” on the part of President Bush.

Granted, we must take what we can get with regard to the mistreatment of these two men — as contrasted to our treatment of Illegal Invaders to this country. Citizens vs. non-citizens.

However, I should care to define a commuted sentence, and executive clemency:

commutation n. the act of reducing a sentence resulting from a criminal conviction by the executive clemency of the Governor of the State, or President of the United States in the case of federal crimes. This is not the same as a pardon which wipes out the conviction or the actual or potential charge (as when President Gerald R. Ford pardoned ex-President Richard M. Nixon even without charges having been officially made–a rare instance). A pardon implies either that the conviction was wrong, that there has been complete rehabilitation of the party, or that he/she has lived an exemplary life for many years and deserves to have his/her name cleared in old age. Commutation implies the penalty was excessive or there has been rehabilitation, reform, or other circumstances such as good conduct or community service. Commutation is sometimes used when there is evidence that the defendant was not guilty but it would prove embarrassing to admit an outright error by the courts. (See: executive clemency, pardon)

To me, the singular point is that President Bush believed the USBP agents were in fact guilty and deserving of their punishment. Many persons were rallying for Mr. Bush to become involved in commutation from the very first day of the sentences. Yet, he chose to wait until his very last day in office for commutations.

For a man who has heretofore shown much consideration and even love to the warriors who fight for this country, I think it shameful that he could not find it within his heart to lend more consideration to those who fight on our borders. The border forces, both civil and military, strive to accomplish the same set of goals as those who fight in far-off lands: to keep this country safe. The difference being, Ramos and Compean — oddly enough, both of Mexican stock themselves — were tasked with keeping our nation safe domestically. Does this make the task any less daunting, any less important? I think not.

While I will agree that, overall, Mr. Bush kept this country safe since 9/11, I am sorely conflicted about many of his works during the past two terms. I won’t rehash what many before me have done, some for a week or more. Nor will I stand up and stick a pin in his likeness. I will say, however, that when all the political prairie winds were convergent, when the stars were in alignment and the tides proper, today’s administration failed to take advantage of a power situation — and oh yes, Congress as well, they’ll not be excused! — and take this nation to an entirely higher level.

It hurts me to say and know that, in truth, when I rail against the recent massive and disporportionate and illogical spending of taxpayer dollars in bailouts and such, the GOP certainly can be said to have blazed that trail.

Good luck, America, come tomorrow.

We all shall certainly need it in every form of every blessing.

I made a few prototype mugs from the above logo, handed a couple out to my family. As a brief query, anyone interested in BZ logo stuff?

Here’s a photo of one of the mugs. I have five left. Just curiously sticking a digital toe in the water.

On December 18th of last year I wrote that Mexico posed the largest immediate threat to United States security.

Forbes magazine also wrote, in part:

This year, through mid-November, there have been 4,300-plus drug-related deaths in Mexico, compared with 2,500 in 2007. Edgar Millán Gómez, who oversaw the joint efforts of the army and federal police, was assassinated in May in his home in Mexico City. Roberto Velasco Bravo, a federal chief of criminal investigations, was shot in the head a week earlier. The narcotraficantes have infiltrated the highest levels of law enforcement, including, allegedly, Mexico’s principal link to Interpol and its former senior drug czar. Mexico, once again, is battling the ever powerful gangs. “It has been a fierce bloodbath,” says Felipe González González, president of the Senate public security commission and former governor of the central state of Aguascalientes. “We have more dead than you have in Iraq.”

A Texas Republican said, about Mexico and the execrable Meridia Initiative:

What about help from the Mérida plan? “The money is going to the wrong side of the border,” contends Congressman Ted Poe (R–Tex.). “With the infiltration of law enforcement and so many corrupt officials in Mexico, we don’t want that equipment used against us.”

More pointedly, because of all this instability, the US military is now warning of a possible massive disintegration of Mexico with, naturally, concomitant dire consequences for America:

EL PASO – Mexico is one of two countries that “bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse,” according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

A report from the USJFC places Mexico’s instability right alongside that of Pakistan. Ponder that for a moment, if you will. To continue:

The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”

Also consider this: how much finger-pointing, sphincter-clenching and butt-covering will ensue should Mexico explode, literally, in our faces? And how much better we’d be had the border fence been created years earlier and our immigration laws actually enforced all along?

This is a powderkeg that is ready to detonate on every level imagineable: politically, economically, societally.