An initial observation: America and much of the world is wrapped-around-the-axle regarding Harry Potter. I’m sure the series of books are fine and I’m happy for J.K. Rowling in a capitalistic sense; in the meantime, vacuous individuals focus on this senseless pap whilst ignoring two very important domestic points:
1. Decision:
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush signed an executive order governing interrogation of terrorism suspects, prohibiting cruel and inhumane treatment, humiliation or denigration of prisoners’ religious beliefs.
Not unlike a shabby episode of 24, let us postulate that American authorities discover some kind of nuclear device or a dirty bomb or other WMD event is set to activate within a certain period of time; in fact, time is of the essence. Prior to interrogation, must we not place a phone call to William Kuntsler, Gerry Spence, James Brosnahan? Must we not pick up the ACLU Red Phone to assuage our Leftist “feelings”?
In my opinion, bad language, sarcasm, a swift uppercut, some water-boarding, a nicely-cocked .44 Colt Anaconda or .50 Desert Eagle (and more) most definitely has a place on the toolbelt of American military and civilian interrogators.
You deal from a position of so-called Moral Superiority — whenever possible.
There are times that Moral Superiority must go out the door when your entire “way of life” or the continuation of Western Civilization is at stake.
Western Civilization has a difficult time understanding the way the world really functions.
President Bush: shame on you for folding — UNLESS — you are covertly sending a 180-degree message to your Alphabet Agencies and Nameless Agencies granting them authority to do whatever is needed, whenever it is needed. If this is only your public face, that is fine. But you’d best be supporting your private face, sir.
Let there be no error in terms of my beliefs: when the security and comfort of my country is at stake, I EXPECT certain persons to bleed in gushers and twist in horrific ways.
2. Decision:
Congressional Democrats today failed to include a provision in homeland security legislation that would protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leaders.
“This is a slap in the face of good citizens who do their patriotic duty and come forward, and it caves in to radical Islamists,” said Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Republicans wanted the provision included in final legislation, crafted yesterday during a House and Senate conference committee, that will implement final recommendations from the September 11 commission.
Mr. King and Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican, sponsored the provision after a group of Muslim imams filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against US Airways and unknown “John Doe” passengers. The imams were removed from US Airways Flight 300 on Nov. 20 after fellow passengers on the Minneapolis-to-Phoenix flight complained about the imams’ suspicious behavior.
Look, let’s keep it simple: either you want to win, or you want to lose. Why would you not want to provide protection to Americans who suspect a threat to their own domestic soil? There are already national “whistleblower” laws regards various violations — why not this? Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have, essentially, already said that they side with CAIR when one harbors various suspicions regarding those who would see our society fall. Why? I only offer this: money provided by CAIR. Reid and Pelosi are, then, whores and traitors.
Let me repeat: WHORES and TRAITORS.
Reid and Pelosi are saying that those who report suspicious activity should be sued. Demorats, for whatever illogical reason, want to lose this war on terrorism. Further, as far as they are concerned: there is no war. War in itself is an oppressive word.
Finally:
President Bush has the ability to commute the sentences of former USBP agents Compean and Ramos. He will not. In the meantime, because of his refusal, Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein is
making political hay in her advocacy of their commuted sentences. I’m mostly certain she is personally uncaring of their plight and her public spewing is for “display purposes only.”
BZ
I truly fear that it’s only a matter of when the terrorists will attack, BZ, not if, and am stating that nothing would ever prevent me from reporting suspcious behaviour to the authorities.
As for the Democrats…nothing they do or say is a surprise/shock any longer. They have shown themselves to care even less, if that’s possible, about the 2 most important issues facing us all at the moment…immigration and border security, and the welfare of our Troops.
Veritas et Fidelis Semper
Deborah: if I could provide a salve that would heal all, I would. But I believe then, as now, that the absolute HATRED of GWB overshadows EVERY miniscule thread of common sense the Democrats once possessed.
That is why Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman, JFK and RFK would/are considered OUTCASTS from the current Demorat Party.
BZ
07 21 07
BZ you are sadly on the money, as usual. I fail to understand the motivations of the dems. It seems as though they hate America. Why do they live here? And I am pretty pissed at our President too! He has caved on two very important issues: immigration and terrorism. Hey, I understand that compromises are necessary sometimes, but he needs to have a stronger backbone on these matters. Otherwise, I fear that our country will soon disappear like Atlantis…Excellent post!
One of the things that the President has proven to be absolutely unserious about is actually using the high seas laws to go after these ‘terrorists’ and put those that support activities against US Commerce on trial in Admiralty court. Those self-same laws were made *before* the Geneva Conventions and most date back even before the first Hague Conventions and are still on the books, thus adhering to the powers granted to Congress to make laws there and for the President to enforce them. The modern nomenclature of ‘terrorism’ does not fully identify the crimes that these individuals commit as part of organizations, and the laws were meant to bring down organizations that commit those crimes and those that support such organizations. We have suffered the PC blandness of ‘terrorism’ long enough and the view of America has always been to protect US commerce overseas via the High Seas Laws to uphold more than just navigation, but the safety of commercial traffic all the way to destination point.
There is a word and set of laws that describe those that attack on the High Seas or, by the laws, on land against owned destination points, the people who work in commerce and all facilities associted with such commerce. These are warcrimes of specific name and nature in the US Code. Those doing such have a very simple name: Pirates. To the US Piracy has very little to do with the Jolly Roger, parrots, rum, and swashbuckling, and everything to do with safety of commerce and those engaged in it. Legal commerce conducted between Nations the US has Treaties with offers the protection of the US Code to its Citizens overseas. That is why the Marines have waded ashore in god-awful hellholes to rescue US Citizens: that is the duty of Presidents, to uphold the Constitution. Somewhere around Richard Nixon, that stopped happening for some reason and we began to concentrate on embassy staff and dependents. Then not even that. And ‘terrorism’ was born as crimes against the Nation we would no longer enforce via the Admiralty or military.
Those four individuals each have background that needed to be investigated and fully…
Ziad Jarrah was convinced to stick around Germany and *not* go to Chechnya by a very shadowy figure that only shows up once in the 9/11 Commission Report and, from what I have seen so far and I have not gone deeply into it, no where else: Khalid al-Masri. On that train for that exact same reason were: Mohamed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh, Marwan al-Shehhi. Three of the four would become 9/11 hijackers, with Binalshibh now in Guantanamo. You would think for such a braggart that Khalid al-Masri would show up *somewhere* else… but no. Not in Chechnya or Russia where he claimed to come from, and Binalshibh has not connected anyone else to that name. So where does this guy come from at just the *right* time to talk a group of jihadis that want to go to immediate jihad in Chechnya away from that and to become part of one of the most deadly terror attacks conceived? These guys already knew KSM, bin Laden, Zawahiri and anyone else high-level enough to be in on the plot. The Germans picked up a man by similar name, but he matches none of the descriptions or background of al-Masri.
Hamza and Saeed al-Ghamdi joined sequentially in the plot, under Abdulaziz al-Omari, who was personally selected by bin Laden for the plot. Ziad Jerrah also knew Saeed al-Ghamdi before the plot and was integral to ensuring that he stayed in it. Note that Jerrah would not *be there* if not for Khalid al-Masri, whoever he is.
Ahmed al-Nami had a direct connection to the business section of al Qaeda and one of its financeers: Mustafa al-Hawsawi. He also had a connection to Saeed al-Ghamdi and Ahmed al-Haznawi (also in this quartet) in Germany, although not directly attached to the Hamburg Cell.
This is a tight collection of individuals tha would have been broken up or possibly swayed to other places if one man had not convinced a few key players to go on with what they were doing. It also depends a lot upon two brothers, of which one was very gregarious and the other was not, a common occurance with brothers.
These men all worked for al Qaeda, and it had committed numerous acts that fall under the Piracy laws far before 9/11: attack on the USS Cole, the foiled attack on the USS The Sullivans, the African Embassy bombings, and being part of a larger set of groups in the attack on the businesses of NYC in 1993 at the WTC bombing.
If we had not been so PC in our views and snuggle-bunny multi-culti with murderers, like Yasser Arafat, and had actually addressed these things with military law as was and *is* required by the US Code, we would have changed our outlook way back in 1979, 83-4 when the Presidents then decided that having a big old ‘Kick Me’ sign on America was just fine and dandy.
When I first looked at this I realized just how awesome the power of the Presidency *is* in this area for under Chapter 7 of the US Code is the full sweep of powers given to combat Piracy, and that is greatest under Section 386:
Sec. 386. Commissioning private vessels for seizure of piratical vessels
The President is authorized to instruct the commanders of the public-armed vessels of the United States, and to authorize the commanders of any other armed vessels sailing under the authority of any letters of marque and reprisal granted by Congress, or the commanders of any other suitable vessels, to subdue, seize, take, and, if on the high seas, to send into any port of the United States, any vessel or boat built, purchased, fitted out, or held as mentioned in section 385 of this title.
Remember that Piracy addresses the physical infrastructure of business and the Nation on land from Piratical attacks and that al Qaeda, from their time in Africa, had sought to purchase one or more 707 class aircraft and had at least 2 cargo vessels that they had at their call and waiting. Those vessels plus the organization running them, and all of its facilities were and are liable to be attacked under the US Code for their *actions*. Anyone supporting them can be brought in *also* for a far lesser penalty unless they resist those seeking to get them with force… in either case the Admiralty courts decide their fates, not US Civil courts.
The Piracy charges bring life imprisonment under them as statutory. Aiding is simply 3 years in the pokey, unless you resist being taken in, then that life term applies.
And the real kicker? All High Seas laws are applied to airspace outside US control. Hijacking a plane that anyone in the US has any interest in, whatsoever, and that is Piracy. And how many Pan-Am, American Airlines, United Airlines, and other airlines that have *any* US stock ownership have been involved in such incidents?
Yeah, nearly *all* of them, save the ‘State Owned’ sort.
I got another name for those that interfere in lawful transport and commerce in the freely navigable waters and airspace and interrupt US commerce: Pirates.
So why, praytell, do we *have* Guantanamo as a ‘holding’ facility? We need the equivalent of a ‘SuperMax’ there, with restricted interaction between inmates. Perhaps we can find some other flyspeck rock in the Pacific or Atlantic for this purpose… rent it from a tiny island Nation for a few billion a year.
But then I am very much for law and order.
Apparently, few others are in this day and age.
Good morning, BZ.
I agree with you. Worrying about the comfort of terrorists is absolutely absurd! We should be able to use any means necessary in order to obtain the information needed to prevent more American deaths.
Perhaps the Dems scrubbing the John Doe Protection Amendment will finally be their downfall. This is bound to piss off a lot of people, at least those who are paying attention.
I also agree regarding Feinstein. If Bush was for pardoning them, I’m positive Feinstein would be against it!
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/blackpope.htm
The Most Powerful Man In The World?
———————————–
BV,
To take your venting to a whole new level, this site will give you that expertise. Did you ever hear of the Black Pope? Or why Kennedy was really killed and by whom?
This site places a face and a name on the “Unseen Hand that rules this Nation’s government and Many others. To even attempt to counter the goals of this hidden cabal means sudden and certain death.JFK tried and failed.
A bit harsh on all those non-voting children that are wrapped up in Harry Potter, aren’t you? Besides venting your spleen, what have YOU done to change things? Have you , say, tested to become a Border Patrol Officer? Do you have a relative in the military defending this country? Have you been in the military defending this country?
I mean, it’s great to have an opinion about all there is, but what have you DONE to make a change in the system? Can ANYTHING be done by anyone to make the world a better place? You harp on the Democrats, but President Bush, a Republican, isn’t doing so much for the country….IF everything is SO wrong, what can we as a group of concerned individuals DO to make it right? Form a new political party? Write letters? It seems you are preaching to the choir, here, BZ. What can I as a concerned American DO?
You all have your hearts in the right place, but so far we are all just a herd of sheep going “baah, baah” WE are not actually DOING anything to run the wolves off. What’s the PLAN?? Like that C/W song, ” a little less talk and a lot more action”.
I’m an American, I agree with you. Now what. What can I DO?