WaPo: Decision to read rights to EunuchBomber “myopic, irresponsible … dangerous”

As usual…great post Captain.

We are in the best of hands if having people that are absolutely scary stupid in charge is your idea of “leadership”

Everyday it becomes more and more obvious that Obama has “political” partisans running the show instead of “policy” experts.

……more “smart power” please.

Baxter Greene on January 23, 2010 at 4:08 PM

The underwear bomber wasn’t supposed to succeed (although he himself did not know it) except to the extent his act was designed to force non-believers to have the privates of their women poked before boarding a plane. They are playing a fun little game with us.

pc on January 23, 2010 at 4:03 PM

Do you have any facts to back up your opinion that someone who was trained by al-qaeda to carry out this type of attack really did not want to succeed in blowing up a plane with hundreds of Americans on it.

…God knows the last thing al-qaeda wants to do is kill Americans…..

………yea right.

If the idea was for him to fail…al-qaeda would not have spent the time and resources training him on how to “succeed” with his mission,the could have sent any flunkie on a plane to fail.

……would like to see you back up this “meant to fail” theory with some facts or links…..you know…for credibility reasons.

Baxter Greene on January 23, 2010 at 4:24 PM

Kill the cause when you deemphasis the title given the criminal.
pc on January 23, 2010 at 4:26 PM

Changing some arbitrary title is not going to mean anything to a suicide bomber or to the other jihadist he!! bent on our destruction.

Baxter Greene on January 23, 2010 at 4:31 PM

I believe first and foremost 9-11 was designed to distract

put up a bogey man in Afghanistan we were forced to chase.

Terrorism and misdirect

, a guy who wanted to be picked up
pc on January 23, 2010 at 4:31 PM

Look, it is obvious that you have thought a lot about this but I have to say that when I see opinions littered with assumptions of “misdirection” and “distraction” to keep us from seeing and acting on the “real” what?????….

……it wreaks of conspiracy theories.

Your use of the Cheney meetings ( a favorite of the liberal community that is supposed to show how we are being sold out for oil….but seems to omit all the other meetings and money being made by democrats and their deal making) as some catalyst does not hold water.
Businessmen,politicians,and world leaders have been “meeting” on energy needs and how to secure them for decades.
What’s especially ironic is that the UN and many world leaders and activists have been pushing their own “green energy” needs that stand to control hundreds of millions of lives and rake in trillions of dollars from the masses omitting anything Cheney was endorsing.

I believe first and foremost 9-11 was designed to distract and ultimately destroy the bush presidency by throwing a huge Xfactor into his already decided upon legacy for his presidency.

9/11 was planned and meant to be carried out before Bush was even elected President(Atta was not ready when Osama wanted to pull the trigger).This information was derived from the plotters of 9/11 themselves.

Every President has been doing his part to keep the Iraqis weak and ready for eventual takedown.

I am not sure where this comes from….
….we actually backed Saddam to a point when he was at war with Iran…..
………Then we eventually went to war to take out Saddam in the first Gulf War but Bush 1 went with the UN and other
nations in making the huge mistake of allowing Saddam to remain in power…

…….We eventually took Saddam out in Operation Iraqi Freedom that was undertaken due to a major shift in how to deal with terrorism after 9/11,braking the UN resolutions,and the fact that Saddam did not uphold his surrender agreement from the first Gulf War.

The abstractness in dealing with Saddam had more to do with no leadership not wanting to get to deeply involved in the crazy mess that makes up the middle east than as some type long,well thought out grand scheme.

They acted pre-emptively and put up a bogey man in Afghanistan we were forced to chase.

9/11 was no “distraction” and Osama was no “bogey man”.

Please read up in the history and evolution of Osama and how he ended up in Afghanistan.
His adherence to strict militant muslim fundamentalism lead him to many countries to where he eventually ended up in Afghanistan.
This was one of the few countries that would take him and which also adhered to his religious beliefs.

The attacks of 9/11 were a escalation of attacks that Osama had carried out during the Clinton administration.

Osama met little to no resistance from the international community so he continued to plan bigger and deadlier attacks to gain power for al-qaeda and show that they could defeat the “Great Satan”.

This was no “distraction”, this was an act of war that Osama had declared on us with his fatwa in the 90′s.

The symbolism of hitting our financial center (Twin Towers),our defense center(Pentagon),and our political center(White House…plane ended up in Shanksville) was purposely done to send a message to Islamist around the world that they could hit and defeat the greatest power of the western civilization.

Our government fears the economic disaster they can inflict.

I agree with this. I think every country has to evaluate the risk/reward ratio when it comes to foreign policy.

This is one of the reasons we will fight in the middle east but don’t send any troops to Rwanda or Darfur.

Waging war is about defending the rights of people and the interests of their country.

If the radical Islamist take over the Middle East and the oil, they control a huge amount of the energy resources that power the western world (which is why Osama’s first main goal was to take over in Saudi Arabi then from there to crush the west financially by breaking them through energy).

Remember…a lot of the same people that went around whining about “no blood for oil” are the same people crying about unemployment,high prices,and no jobs.

Think what state the economy would be in if Osama controlled the oil fields with oil going for over $300.00 a barrel.

The Western world would have been gutted.

Windmills or keeping cows from farting would not have helped us a bit.

Look,,,there are many sub-plots or other specific causes that the jihadist use as reasoning for their acts of terrorism, but the bottom line is that their quest for the New Caliphate is predicated on the destruction of Western Civilization….period.

When can either capitulate….go around waving the peace sign and making witty bumper stickers or we can do what is necessary to destroy them before they destroy us.

I chose the latter.

Baxter Greene on January 23, 2010 at 5:32 PM

They hate all of us, they don’t care who is President. The Won (the Lost) is obviously not immune, I believe he already has more attacks than the Bush administration after 9/11.

2ipa on January 23, 2010 at 5:55 PM

Not quite but if Obama keeps on this path of putting politics before country then we will see the successful policies instituted by Bush torn asunder,making us sitting ducks for the jihadist.

B.C. researchers find decline in global terrorism, question previous data
1 day ago

VANCOUVER — A group of researchers from Simon Fraser University says global terrorism is on the decline, despite previous data and public perceptions that suggest otherwise.
The university’s Human Security Report Project says fatalities from terrorist attacks around the world have, in fact, decreased by 40 per cent since 2001.

Are We Safer?

On the stump, Barack Obama usually concludes his comments on Iraq by saying, “and it hasn’t made us safer.” It is an article of faith on the left that nothing the Bush administration has done has enhanced our security, and, on the contrary, its various alleged blunders have only contributed to the number of jihadists who want to attack us.

Empirically, however, it seems beyond dispute that something has made us safer since 2001. Over the course of the Bush administration, successful attacks on the United States and its interests overseas have dwindled to virtually nothing.

Some perspective here is required. While most Americans may not have been paying attention, a considerable number of terrorist attacks on America and American interests abroad were launched from the 1980s forward, too many of which were successful. What follows is a partial history:

1988
February:

Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Higgens, Chief of the U.N. Truce Force, was kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah.

December:

Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York was blown up over Scotland, killing 270 people, including 35 from Syracuse University and a number of American military personnel.

1991

November: American University in Beirut bombed.

1993

January: A Pakistani terrorist opened fire outside CIA headquarters, killing two agents and wounding three.
February: World Trade Center bombed, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.

1995
January:

Operation Bojinka, Osama bin Laden’s plan to blow up 12 airliners over the Pacific Ocean, discovered.

November:

Five Americans killed in attack on a U.S. Army office in Saudi Arabia.

1996
June:

Truck bomb at Khobar Towers kills 19 American servicemen and injures 240.

June:

Terrorist opens fire at top of Empire State Building, killing one.

1997
February:

Palestinian opens fire at top of Empire State Building, killing one and wounding more than a dozen.

November:

Terrorists murder four American oil company employees in Pakistan.

1998
January:

U.S. Embassy in Peru bombed.

August:

Simultaneous bomb attacks on U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed more than 300 people and injured over 5,000.

1999
October:

Egypt Air flight 990 crashed off the coast of Massachusetts, killing 100 Americans among the more than 200 on board; the pilot yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he steered the airplane into the ocean.

2000
October:

A suicide boat exploded next to the U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39.

2001
September:

Terrorists with four hijacked airplanes kill around 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

December:

Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber,” tries to blow up a transatlantic flight, but is stopped by passengers.

The September 11 attack was a propaganda triumph for al Qaeda, celebrated by a dismaying number of Muslims around the world. Everyone expected that it would draw more Muslims to bin Laden’s cause and that more such attacks would follow. In fact, though, what happened was quite different: the pace of successful jihadist attacks against the United States slowed, decelerated further after the onset of the Iraq war, and has now dwindled to essentially zero. Here is the record:

2002
October:

Diplomat Laurence Foley murdered in Jordan, in an operation planned, directed and financed by Zarqawi in Iraq, perhaps with the complicity of Saddam’s government.

2003
May:

Suicide bombers killed 10 Americans, and killed and wounded many others, at housing compounds for westerners in Saudi Arabia.

October:

More bombings of United States housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killed 26 and injured 160.

2004

There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

2005

There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

2006

There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

2007

There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

2008

So far, there have been no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.

Foiled Terror Plots Against America Since 9/11
Thursday , September 11, 2008

By Joseph Abrams and Jonathan Passantino

The following is a list of known terror plots thwarted by the U.S. government since Sept. 11, 2001.

• December 2001,

Richard Reid: British citizen attempted to ignite shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami.

• May 2002, Jose Padilla:

American citizen accused of seeking radioactive-laced “dirty bomb” to use in an attack against Amrica. Padilla was convicted of conspiracy in August, 2007.

• September 2002, Lackawanna Six:

American citizens of Yemeni origin convicted of supporting Al Qaeda after attending jihadist camp in Pakistan. Five of six were from Lackawanna, N.Y.

• May 2003, Iyman Faris:

American citizen charged with plotting to use blowtorches to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge.

• June 2003, Virginia Jihad Network:

Eleven men from Alexandria, Va., trained for jihad against American soldiers, convicted of violating the Neutrality Act, conspiracy.

• August 2004, Dhiren Barot:

Indian-born leader of terror cell plotted bombings on financial centers (see additional images).

• August 2004, James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj:

Sought to plant bomb at New York’s Penn Station during the Republican National Convention.

• August 2004, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain:

Plotted to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat on American soil.

• June 2005, Father and son Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat:

Son convicted of attending terrorist training camp in Pakistan; father convicted of customs violation.

• August 2005, Kevin James, Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson and Hammad Riaz Samana:

Los Angeles homegrown terrorists who plotted to attack National Guard, LAX, two synagogues and Israeli consulate.

• December 2005, Michael Reynolds:

Plotted to blow up natural gas refinery in Wyoming, the Transcontinental Pipeline, and a refinery in New Jersey. Reynolds was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

• February 2006, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi and Zand Wassim Mazloum:

Accused of providing material support to terrorists, making bombs for use in Iraq.

• April 2006, Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee:

Cased and videotaped the Capitol and World Bank for a terrorist organization.

• June 2006, Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augstine:

Accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower.

• July 2006, Assem Hammoud:

Accused of plotting to bomb New York City train tunnels.

• August 2006, Liquid Explosives Plot:

Thwarted plot to explode ten airliners over the United States.

• March 2007, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:

Mastermind of Sept. 11 and author of numerous plots confessed in court in March 2007 to planning to destroy skyscrapers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Mohammedalso plotted to a$$a$$inate Pope John Paul II and former President Bill Clinton.

• May 2007, Fort Dix Plot:

Six men accused of plotting to attack Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey. The plan included attacking and ki!!ing soldiers using assault rifles and grenades.

• June 2007, JFK Plot:

Four men are accused of plotting to blow up fuel arteries that run through residential neighborhoods at JFK Airport in New York.

• September 2007,

German authorities disrupt a terrorist cell that was planning attacks on military installations and facilities used by Americans in Germany. The Germans arrested three suspected members of the Islamic Jihad Union, a group that has links to Al Qaeda and supports Al Qaeda’s global jihadist agenda.

And of course the death of the most lethal al-qaeda terrorist,responsible for tens of thousands of deaths:
MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI.

The idea that the Obama administration wants to weaken or dismantle the policies that produced this type of success in keeping Americans safe is just insane.

Baxter Greene on January 23, 2010 at 7:10 PM