The Western Word

One of the things that has always perplexed me about the contentious debate surrounding the Guantanomo Bay detention policies is the argument that constitutional protections, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, should be extended to enemy combatants.

The United States Constitution has been one of the most effective and resilient documents ever produced by human hand. Despite a cataclysmic civil war, the malfeasance of certain presidents and the pressures brought to bear on the republic by a depression and two world wars, the founding document of the republic has stood the test of time and is a profound statement of what human beings as a collective can create with with sufficient faith and determination.

But the Constitution has also come in for rhetorical abuse and no more so than last week when Barak Obama and Dick Cheney faced off in separate locations against one another, concerning the Bush Administration’s detention policies. Cheney claimed that the (policies) “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people, “ while Obama’s stated that "rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries.”

It is no accident that Obama’s speech was delivered from the National Archives, the marble building which houses the U.S. Constitution. The President’s supporters have made it clear that they regard Guantanomo Bay and the Bush Administration as a direct assault on the Constitution and that claim can be heard loud and clear from politicians like Nancy Pelosi to singers like Bruce Springsteen.

But the United States Constitution was written, as far as I am aware, with only American citizens in mind, to safeguard their liberty and freedom – not to defend and protect those who have no respect for our constitutional safeguards and in fact wish to destroy them.

Did the founders of this country ever conceive of the Constitution as a universalistic document designed to protect the rights of all human beings - even antagonists allegedly pledged to the destruction of the country?

Hardly. James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, in the Federalist Papers, went out of his way to draw a distinction between citizens and non -citizens – and how rights would be apportioned between them.

Does the same Constitution prevent us, particularly in the light of the devastating attacks of 9/11, from detaining non-citizen suspects indefinitely, in violation of habeas corpus, in order to prevent other potential attacks?

If one argues that the first obligation of government is the common defense of the country - a point noted in both the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution, there is almost no argument. Habeas Corpus, an English doctrine and one of the only British legal concepts imported into the U.S. Constitution, was itself never designed to give enemies of the state, rights. The great British legal scholar Blackstone described the Writ of Habeas Corpus as allowing “the King at all times, as entitled to have an account of why the liberty of any of his subjects is restrained, wherever that restraint my be inflicted.”
Should interrogation techniques, designed to elicit crucial information vital to the security and safety of the nation, be dispensed with because they violate constitutional safeguards?

Well that depends on whether you regard the Constitution as a mere adjunct to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or as a document which stands alone, independent of other international or supranational agreements. There is of course the argument that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified in 1949 by Congress under Article III of the Constitution, is already a part of U.S law.

But it is not part of the Constitution which is a significant difference.

Barack Obama, constitutional scholar though he may be, was not making a legal argument based on the Constitution; He was making a political argument based on international human rights law. So while Obama may have may made the symbolic inference that the Guantanomo Bay detention policies abuse constitutional safeguards, what he is really arguing is that they abuse universal human rights safeguards, which another thing.

The problem with Cheney’s point of view is that he, and others in the Bush Administration, were never able to validate the severity of the threat, since the projected events never occurred. But it must be left to each government administration make threat assessments and to respond accordingly.

We should never forget that the U.S. Constitution stands as the ultimate American symbol of independence – the independence of its judiciary, separated from both the legal and executive branches; the independence of its citizenry, which has a direct share in the proper and effective administration of government. And the independence of its polity from those of others around the world. International humanitarian law, which comes packaged to us in the nebulous expression “human rights,” should never be allowed to override governmental obligations to protect U.S. citizenry.

Where, there is a conflict between a constitutional mandate – such as the government’s duty to provide a common defense, and a universal human right – such as the right to due process for foreign nationals, the Constitution, the true symbol of American independence, must prevail.

Dick Cheney mentioned in his remarks that whatever choices the President makes concerning the defense of this country, those choices should not be based on slogans and campaign rhetoric, but on a truthful telling of history. I would add that it is not just the truthful telling of history that is necessary – but the truthful acceptance of Constitutions’ uniqueness and independence which should always be a president’s overriding concern.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Robert Spencer-Muslims Commit Terror, Muslims Condemn Terror
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

The Muslims who were arrested last week for plotting to blow up two Bronx synagogues and bring down an airplane have exposed yet again the virulence and ugliness of Islamic anti-Semitism. Said one plotter: “If Jews were killed in this attack ... that would be all right.” Plotter James “Abdul Rahman” Cromitie, a jailhouse convert to Islam, said: “I hate those mother-------, those f------ Jewish b------ .... I would like to get [destroy] a synagogue.” Muslim groups were quick to condemn the plot. Quick to issue statements were the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and New York Muslim leaders. Fozia Khan of the American Muslim Women’s Association said: “We believe that violence has no place in our community and is in no way a part of the tenets of Islam. Unfortunately, incidents of this kind hamper our efforts to create harmonious relationships with other religious organizations within our community. (Frontpagemag)

First Jihadi Cell of 2009 Busted In the United States — What Does It Mean?-Walid Phares
A successful counter-terrorism operation led by the FBI and the New York City Police Department ended with the arrest of four New York City men in connection with plots to bomb Jewish synagogues and gun down military planes in upstate areas. According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly the suspects, identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen allegedly “wanted to commit jihad.” A first reading of the material made available by authorities and statements issued by officials help us ask several questions and raise a number of points for debate. (Counterterrorismblog)

Egypt: French, Belgian, British citizens among al-Qaeda cell arrests
This might be the first terror cell to train in Gaza while intending to commit attacks in Europe.
Egypt said on Saturday that police have arrested seven members of an alleged Al-Qaeda-affiliated cell over a Cairo bazaar bombing three months ago that killed a teenaged French tourist. The interior ministry said those arrested over the February attack were a French woman of Albanian origin, a British man of Egyptian descent, two Palestinians, a Belgian man of Tunisian descent and two Egyptians. "(Police) were able, through information received and surveillance, to identify a group, some of them Egyptians and others foreigners, affiliated with Al-Qaeda... and seven of them were arrested," it said in a statement. (Islamineurope)

Rotterdam trialling plan against forced marriages- KLAAS DEN TEK*
Rotterdam council has started a trial to prevent girls being forced into arranged marriages during the holidays. Every year, dozens of girls with a Moroccan, Turkish and Pakistani background fail to return to the Netherlands after the holidays. In the pilot, pupils will be asked to sign a declaration in which they indicate they do not want to enter an arranged marriage. If a pupil is then forced into an arranged marriage, the school can call in the police. The idea comes from Great Britain, where it has been practice for years. If a girl is forced into an arranged marriage immediate action is taken. The British embassy employs special staff who try to get the girls back to Britain. The Netherlands doesn't yet have such specialised staff. It is not clear how big the problem in Rotterdam is. In an interview with the Dutch station Radio 1, Rotterdam executive councillor Jantine Kriens says that there are dozens of girls affected. Ms Kriens explains that forced arranged marriages often lead to violence connected to family honour. "We have been working on honour-related violence for some time now. In other words: the threat of violence against girls in the family. You often see that a forced arranged marriage leads to honour-related violence. So we want to take action first by preventing forced arranged marriages." (Radionetherlands.nl)

US: 5% commit terror after Guantanamo-AP, The Jerusalem Post
Five percent of inmates released from the Guantanamo Bay US lockup have participated in terror since their release from the US Navy prison, the US Defense Department said Tuesday. An additional 9 percent are believed to have joined or rejoined the fight against the United States and its allies, according to Pentagon data released amid a simmering political battle over where to send the detainees if the prison should close in January as planned. Constitutional scholars have long cast doubt on the Pentagon's detainee data, saying it is not proved that at least some of those who were released were even linked to terrorism in the first place. The Pentagon maintains that all the Guantanamo detainees were captured and, in most cases, held for years without formal charges, because of suspected ties to al-Qaida, the Taliban or other foreign fighter groups. "What this tells us is, at the end of the day, there are individuals, that if released, will again return to terrorist activities," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday. As of April 7, the latest data available, 74 of approximately 540 detainees that have been released have since taken up the fight, or are at least suspected of doing so. The Pentagon says it has fingerprints, DNA, photos or reliable intelligence to link 27 detainees to the war since their release. Speaking out against the United States, or participating in other anti-US propaganda alone is not considered terrorist activity, the Pentagon said. (JPost)

Exclusive: GITMO Uyghurs Are Jihadis-Clare M. Lopez
With all the recent attention focused on where and how to release Guantanamo Bay detainees, the case of 17 imprisoned Uyghurs has grabbed headlines again. Massachusetts Democratic Congressmen Jim McGovern and Bill Delahunt think that at least some of these Uyghurs should be resettled right here in the United States (U.S.), maybe even in the Virginia suburbs. Speaking in late May 2009 at a world assembly of Uyghurs at the U.S. Capitol, Delahunt offered some reassuring words: “The Uyghur people are not enemies of America. In fact, I know you admire our fundamental ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….” How quaint. And how dangerously wrong. The Uyghurs held at GITMO were captured while fleeing a terror training camp in eastern Afghanistan that was run by the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a splinter faction of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). (Familysecuritymatters)

United States, West Still Under Assault By Jihadists-Herb Denenberg
We’re In The Process Of Surrendering Our Freedoms And More To Them
I’ve got bad news, and then more bad news. America and the rest of the West are now under assault by jihadists, and most of us don’t know it. If that’s not bad enough, those jihadists are getting the upper hand and are on the road to winning. As many expert observers of the scene have concluded, Europe is already lost, and America may not be far behind. Consider a few examples of how we are voluntarily surrendering our freedoms out of fear of Islamist intimidation and violence or on the mistaken belief that we have to appease and accommodate the demands of the Islamists:
• Right after a radical Islamists murdered Theo Van Gogh, the famous Dutchman, because he had made a movie about how women are mistreated under Islam, a Rotterdam artist named Chris Ripken drew a street mural featuring a dove of peace and the words, “Thou shall not kill.” The city’s mayor, fearing Muslim displeasure, ordered the police to destroy the mural. The police did so, and also arrested a cameraman, Wim Nottroth, who tired to save the mural. The police also confiscated and destroyed the cameraman’s videotape showing the mural’s destruction. (Thebulletin.us)

Where Do We Start? Reforming American Education-Peter Wood
• Truth in Spending: What does your college pay for ideology?
• How do I Know What You Can Do? Certifying skill sets in the age of zero calorie college degrees
• Better than College: Fostering alternative pathways to success
• Who Gets in and Why? Full disclosure in college admissions
• Good Housekeeping: Indoctrination-free dormitories
• Expiration Dates: Professions that have outlived their usefulness
• Unleash Innovation: Let’s see what the Internet can do
These are a few of the policy ideas that I am going to write about in the next several weeks. They are preliminary sketches for a policy agenda—one which I intend to offer to any and all politicians who are open to advice about how to improve American education. This is a departure for the National Association of Scholars, and before proceeding, I want to emphasize the tentative nature of the undertaking. The proposals I will set forth do not represent the official view of NAS. They have not been vetted with our board or our membership. In putting them forth in this forum, I am indeed asking for thoughtful responses—though with no expectation that the final result will reflect organizational consensus. (NAS)

Universities a big draw for Mideast students-By David Turner, Education Correspondent
The number of undergraduates applying to Britain from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries has doubled in only three years, according to Financial Times research, as increasing numbers of their future elites are drawn by the international reputation of UK higher education.Numbers have risen every year since 2001 in spite of big fluctuations in the oil price. Over the past decade, the figure has leapt fivefold. The jump could boost Britain's influence in the region, as well as providing much needed income for universities at a time when government funding will be tighter. Because the students are from outside the European Union, they can be charged higher, unregulated fees. The thriving market is a rare success story during the credit crunch - with applicants still rising this year. Shaun Curtis, head of the international unit at Universities UK, said British institutions were benefiting from a "massive increase" in university-age Middle Eastern students. "The overall population is becoming younger, which is in stark contrast to the UK," he said. As a result, the Middle East and Britain were "complementary" to each other. Mr Curtis said Middle Eastern students educated at UK universities "will pass on that knowledge to their own economy". In return, graduates of British higher education institutions, who might gain positions of power, "will become friends of the UK". (FT)

Media Bias

The Halimi Cover-Up-Pamela Geller
(IsraelNN.com) Warning! The following contains descriptions of extreme brutality.
The abduction and murder in Paris of a young Jewish man by a gang of Muslim immigrants calling themselves the Barbarians shocked the whole of France in 2006. But now that the accused are on trial - silence. A French judge has ordered the latest issue of the magazine Choc ("shock") removed from the shelves. The cover showed a man with duct tape completely covering his head, except for a small opening around his nostrils. His nose is bloody. His hands are also bound with duct tape. It was a photo of Ilan Halimi, the 23-year-old Parisian Jew who was kidnapped and tortured for 24 days by the Barbarians. His captors took the picture and sent it to his family. A lawyer for Halimi's family had complained about the magazine, but Choc's editor-in-chief Paul Payan responded: "Of course, we understand the anguish of the parents and, of course, we share their anguish.... But what's so harrowing is not the publication of this photo. What's harrowing is what it represents, what happened, the reality behind it." (INN)

Liberals Still Afflicted With Bush Derangement Syndrome Christian Toto
Conservatives gritted their teeth when the election returns started coming in Nov. 4, 2008. But they took some solace in one aspect of Sen. Barack Obama’s victory: The end of the liberals’ Bush Derangement Syndrome was near. President George W. Bush had been blamed for more of the world’s wrongs than even global warming was. Comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler became part of the national dialogue. Surely, the media and the left would have to find a new target, someone different to attach their outrage claims on, with a new President, and a new party, in power. Four-plus months into the Obama administration and it’s like the BDS never took so much as a break. Why else are the media and Democratic politicians alike eager to prosecute Bush officials for the enhanced interrogations that kept the country safe over the last eight years? (HumanEvents)

Combating Libel Lawfare-Andrew C. McCarthy
Radical Islam’s apologists abuse courts to shut down criticism.
It has become fashionable in Washington to speak of “false choices” — “the false choice between our values and our security” or “the false choice between our liberties and our national defense,” for example. Apparently, we don’t need to make these choices. I often wonder, while standing in the body-search line while trying to get on an airplane, or trying to get into Yankee Stadium, or trying to enter a federal courthouse, whether any sensible person really thinks the conflict between the things we want to do and the security we need to do them is a “false choice.” Most people, I would guess, view such choices as a matter of common sense, and an inevitable part of life. To make such choices is often hard, calling for maturity and judgment. To deny that they have to be made is childish and irrational. It is not a matter of choosing between, for example, our security and our values. Our security is one of our values. Indeed, it is the one that makes the liberties we cherish more than mere parchment promises. (Nationalreview)

Explaining War- Sam Ser ,
"Let the general in," she says with a smile.
The Armored Corps brigade commander is tall and broad-shouldered, radiating experience and machismo with a trim gray beard covering a strong jaw. He's the third general to come to this office this week seeking guidance. The woman sitting behind the desk is several years his junior and a few ranks below him, too - yet when the brigade commander sits down, it is Avital Leibovich who is giving the orders. Fox News wants an interview with a senior officer who can explain what happened in the alleyways of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, and it is Leibovich 's job to make sure the journalists hear what the IDF Spokesperson wants them to hear. "Every question they ask you, answer with an example from the field. Describe what you have seen with your own eyes, what you and your soldiers have experienced. Be as descriptive as possible," she says. (Jpost)

Unlikely Allies Say U.K. Libel Laws Limit Speech-Eric Pfanner
PARIS — The American Civil Liberties Union may not often see eye-to-eye with the American Center for Democracy, a research group with neoconservative credentials. But the two organizations are united on at least one thing: their distaste for British libel laws, which they say are being exploited to suppress free speech in Britain and beyond. British courts have always been friendlier to libel claimants than their U.S. counterparts. Until recently that did not matter much to U.S. authors or publishers. But now the Internet makes anything published in America almost immediately available in Britain, too. American critics say so-called libel tourists — people with little connection to Britain — are using that to justify suing for libel there. London has gained a reputation as the libel capital of the world — Saudi businessmen have sued there to complain about American reports that they engaged in terrorist financing; Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs have sued in Britain over allegations of unsavory business activities; Hollywood celebrities have gone to London to seek redress over reports of wayward kisses. To try to insulate American authors and publishers, groups like the A.C.L.U. and the Center for Democracy have persuaded lawmakers in New York and Illinois to pass state laws that block enforcement of British libel decisions in the United States. Similar bills are advancing in other state legislatures, and stronger measures, allowing American defendants to fight back against adverse foreign libel rulings, have been proposed in the U.S. Congress. (NYT)

Legal jihad in Europe-Valentina Colombo
COMMENTARY:
No doubt about it - in Europe, Islamic lawfare gains ground day after day.The following sentence patently explains the reason why it is proper to call this lawfare "Islamic" and why we have to be very careful with it. "The term we translate [as] 'oppressed people' refers to those who could not listen to a correct exposition of the Islamic doctrine and, since they are ignorant, they easily came to believe to the oppressors' lies against Islam. Oppressors are orientalists, authorities of religions other than Islam, journalists and all those people who contribute to the campaign of misinformation about Islam and Muslims. All those people will receive bitter punishment."That is a comment to the Koranic verse IV, 98, which can be found in the Italian translation by the Italian convert Hamza Roberto Piccardo, former national secretary of the Union of Islamic Organizations and Communities in Italy (UCOII). The UCOII is ideologically very close to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Mr. Piccardo also is a member and spokesman of the European Muslim Network, headed by Tariq Ramadan. (Washingtontimes)

Muslims criticize producers of Seattle police training program-Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter Saying it's not going to take sides in someone else's feud, the Seattle Police Department is going ahead with a racial-awareness training program that has raised concerns among some local Muslims. They are troubled not by the content of the training program but by the organization that produced it: the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a 32-year-old Los Angeles-based Jewish human-rights organization perhaps best known for its Holocaust education work. They accuse the Wiesenthal Center of spreading fear toward Islam by producing or promoting films about extremism within Islam. And they, like many other Muslims elsewhere, are also angry at the center for building a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem partially on top of what once was an ancient Muslim cemetery. "The center has an anti-Muslim agenda, to be frank," contends Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Wiesenthal Center disagrees.The disputed land on which the Jerusalem museum is being built has been used as a parking lot for about the past 50 years, according to the center. And Liebe Geft, director of the center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, says the films in question take on anti-Semitism and the dangers of a small subsection of Islam, not Islam as a whole. (Seattletimes)

George Eliot and the essence of Zionism-Melanie Phillips
Jewish Chronicle, 21 May 2009
Against the current backdrop of rampant anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prejudice, we find ourselves once again asking the age-old question: why are people antisemites? What is it about the Jews that makes some people hate us so much? But we might also ask ourselves the reverse question: why are other people philosemites? Why should certain people have such a deep love for the Jews? And what might be learned about the Jews from such love? Alongside the long history of Jew-hatred in Britain, stretching back to medieval times and rooted in Christianity, is another history of profound affection for the Jews, rooted in first the Puritan and then the evangelical movements. It was the latter that, in the 19th century, gave rise to the Christian Zionist movement, of which Arthur Balfour — he of the eponymous Declaration which committed Britain to the restoration of the Jewish national home in Palestine — was a leading light. The Victorian novelist George Eliot is often spoken of in the same breath. In 1876, she caused a sensation with her novel, Daniel Deronda, which not only had a Jewish hero and delineated Judaism with extreme sympathy but embodied a passionately Zionist message — 21 years before Herzl addressed the first Zionist Congress in Basle. (JewishChronicle)

Sir Jeremy blasts Edinburgh Film Festival for boycott ‘capitulation’-Marcus dysch
Anti-Israel campaigners have succeeded in forcing the Edinburgh International Film Festival to return funding from the Israeli Embassy. Members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign had threatened to picket the event in June unless £300, which was to be used to fly Israeli director Tali Shalom Ezer to Scotland, was rejected. Festival organisers said the decision was not a result of those threats, but was instead based on comments made by film director Ken Loach, speaking on behalf of the SPSC. He had claimed “the massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable” and that film-lovers should “stay away” from the festival in “support for the Palestinian nation”. Sir Jeremy Isaacs, who as chief executive of Channel Four in the 1980s worked closely with Mr Loach, told The Times he was “disgusted” by his comments, and the “capitulation” of the organisers.“The idea that he should lend himself to the denial of a film-maker’s right to show her work is absolutely appalling,” he said. (JewishChronicle)

Israeli tourism posters on London Underground pulled down over boundary dispute
Posters advertising Israel as a tourist destination are being pulled down from London Underground stations after the Syrian Embassy complained that the map on it appeared to show the Golan Heights and Palestinian territories as within Israel's boundaries. The Advertising Standards Authority in Britain received more than 300 complaints about the advertisement, a promotion for the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat. The Syrian Embassy and pro-Palestinian groups complained about it because the featured map appeared to show the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war – the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights – within the borders of the Jewish state. Syrian Embassy spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the move follows days of lobbying to get rid of the advertisement, which he called offensive. Although Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, it maintains a tight blockade on the narrow strip of land and remains in the West Bank. Israel's hold on the Golan Heights – a strategic plateau captured from Syria – is a particularly sensitive issue for Syrians. Damascus has said it will not make peace with Israel until the land is returned. Israeli Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Shira Kazeh said the decision was made to pull the poster because "we don't mix politics and tourism." Transport for London confirmed that the posters were being taken down. (Telegraph.co.uk)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Pyongyang lesson-Jerusalem Post
Say that in response to North Korea's detonation on Monday of a Nagasaki-like nuclear blast, the world declares: "Enough is enough." China, the North's only ally, cuts off fuel and seals its border. South Korea halts humanitarian aid. NATO warships, backed by Russia's Pacific fleet, enforce a total blockade. How might North Korea react? Perhaps by invading the South; perhaps by exploding a nuke over Seoul. Or perhaps the regime would begin to gasp its last, as millions of starving northerners stormed the Chinese and South Korean borders. The sudden, forced reunification of the peninsula would saddle the modern, affluent South with incredible logistical problems - foremost among them how to feed a backward, impoverished population and integrate it into their hyper-modern society. In other words: At this late stage, decision-makers are likely to find meaningful action totally unpalatable. IT HAS no doubt been instructive for Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to observe the civilized world's reaction, over the years, to North Korean provocations. (Jpost)

'If We Now Kill Schoolgirls, You Shouldn't Be Surprised'-Matthias Gebauer and Shoib Najafizada in Kunduz, Afghanistan
Responding to threats from the Taliban, at least 10 girls' schools have shut down near Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Visiting the schools is a dangerous proposition -- a trip leading directly into the heart of Islamist territory. When the deputy director of Aqtash High School talks of the government, he isn't referring to Hamid Karzai's central government in Kabul. Nor does he refer to the provincial administration in Kunduz. "The Taliban are our government," Bashir says. "They have taken over our region, their commanders give the orders here." Bashir is standing in a dusty classroom on the ground floor of his modern school, roughly half an hour from Kunduz by car. As recently as just one month ago, he says, some 400 girls were still coming to the school in three daily shifts to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Figures and formula are still scrawled across the blackboard. But now, the girls' classrooms have been left to deteriorate. (Spiegelonline)

Emerson on Fox News: Law Enforcement Focuses on Threat of Homegrown Terrorism-Fox News May 25, 2009
JON SCOTT: The nation is at war in two countries right now, largely because of the threat of terrorism but not all terrorism comes from overseas. Law enforcement in this nation is very vigilant about threat of homegrown terror. It becomes an even more evident threat after the news that the FBI and New York police breaking up a plot to blow up two New York synagogues and shoot down U.S. military planes. The four suspects in custody allegedly became radicalized, not overseas, but right here while doing time in prison. So, how serious is this threat and what can we do about it? Let's bring in Steve Emerson, he is the Executive Director of the Investigative Project. He is also the author of Jihad Incorporated. Steve, outside the book, you have an opinion piece in one of the New York newspapers that had a couple of quotes that I thought were interesting. You were talking about what you see as the folly of bring in Guantanamo Bay prisoners to this country and you said the Guantanamo prisoners would be looked about as "jihadi rock stars each one could potential produce a hundred new ticking time bombs ultimately walking the streets of America. FBI agents with whom I have spoken say that the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. is insane, pure and simple." (IPT)

Al Qaeda recruits back in Europe, but why?-Sebastian Rotella
Four men say their training experience in Pakistan wasn't what they hoped for. Anti-terrorism officials wonder if they're just biding their time, ready to strike in Europe. Reporting from Brussels — Determined to die as martyrs, the French and Belgian militants bought hiking boots and thermal underwear and journeyed to the wilds of Waziristan. After getting ripped off in Turkey and staggering through waist-deep snow in Iran, the little band arrived in Al Qaeda's lair in Pakistan last year, ready for a triumphant reception. "We were expecting at least a welcome for 'our brothers from Europe' and a warm atmosphere of hospitality," Walid Othmani, a 25-year-old Frenchman from Lyon, recalled during an overnight interrogation in January. Instead, the Europeans -- and at least one American -- learned that life in the shadow of the Predator is nasty, brutish and short. Wary of spies, suspicious Al Qaeda chiefs grilled the half-dozen Belgians and French. (LAT)

US investigator exposes Iran's nuclear weapons 'shopping list'-Philip Sherwell in New York
A senior US financial investigator has revealed Iran's detailed 'shopping list' for nuclear and missile parts after uncovering a vast procurement network for materials related to weapons of mass destruction. Robert Morgenthau, the New York district attorney who is heading a long-term investigation into the Islamic regime's complex web of illicit overseas financial operations, told US senators there was little time left to halt Tehran's atomic weapons programme. His warning is all the more sobering as Iran last week successfully test-fired a sophisticated medium-range missile that could strike Israel, central Europe and Western forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan with warheads. "It's late in the game and we don't have a lot of time to stop Iran from developing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons," Mr Morgenthau told a recent Senate hearing. He described Iran's quest as "deadly serious". His unit's findings also highlight the risks facing President Barack Obama as he hopes to forge improved diplomatic relations with Tehran at the same time as Iran presses ahead with a nuclear programme. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Israel: Ties to South America aiding Iran's nuclear program-Roni Sofer
Official Foreign Ministry report obtained by Ynet details extensive ties Tehran has forged in Latin America with help of Venezuela', which also provides Tehran with uranium; dossier further claims Islamic Republic setting up Hizbullah cells in South America. Venezuela is helping Iran circumvent the Security Council's economic sanctions and is also suspected of providing Tehran with uranium, while Hizbullah is setting up terror cells in south America, this according to an official Foreign Ministry document obtained by Ynet. Next week Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is expected to visit South America ahead of FM Avigdor Lieberman's tour of the region. As part of the preparations for Lieberman's trip, the Foreign Ministry drafted a detailed dossier on Iran's activities in South America, which have been expanded amid the sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic by the West. (Ynet)

Our Confused Age-Thomas Sowell
The older I get, the less patience I have with cleverness.
They say that people mellow with age. However, the older I get, the less patience I have with cleverness. If increased government spending with borrowed or newly created money is a “stimulus,” then the Weimar Republic should have been stimulated to unprecedented prosperity, instead of the runaway inflation and widespread economic desperation that ultimately brought Adolf Hitler to power. Just days after Colin Campbell informed us that the American people were willing to pay higher taxes in order to get government services — and that Republicans therefore needed to stop their opposition to taxes — California voters resoundingly defeated a bill to raise taxes in order to pay for the many government services in that liberal state. (Nationalreview)

Euroamericans?-Victor Davis Hanson
European thoughts…
I am on my first week of an annual tour I co-lead to Europe. Some random thoughts. I hope that urban density, apartment living, Smart cars, and motorbikes are not the envisioned future of the United States. For all our perceived sins, the American with his suburban house and yard, and pickup and boat, enjoys a freedom of choice and ease unmatched anywhere-and unappreciated in most surveys of comparable standards of living. That autonomy in private life translates into a freewheeling, unpredictable electorate, about all we have left of the modern equivalent of the homestead farmer of the nineteenth century. Me First? If socialist health care is so preferable, with the power of the state to mandate preventative health care, why do Europeans smoke far more than Americans? On cultural issues, such as politely forming lines, or not defacing monuments with graffiti, or yielding to pedestrians, or driving with concern for others, I think supposedly selfish Americans are light years ahead. But how so, when our capitalist system breeds ‘me first’? And what exactly once created the European genius that we see expressed in the beauty of Italian architecture and the zest for excellence throughout the art and literature of old Europe? (Pajamasmedia)

“‘Unequivocal’ ‘Consensus’ on ‘GlobalWarming’” by Christopher Monckton
The Claim
In mid May, 2009, David Fahrent hold, a staff writer for the Washington Post, wrote: “Climate skeptics might well feel like polar bears on a shrinking ice floe. Scientists around the globe have rejected their main arguments which the climate isn't clearly warming, that humans aren't responsible for it, or that the
whole thing doesn't amount to a problem. Public opinion has also shifted and even Exxon Mobil talks about greenhouse gases.” The article admits that “doubt is not dead”, and that a growing number of Republican congressmen and party leaders have spoken out against the alarmist view. Michael S. Steele, the Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele is quoted as having said that the planet is cooling, not warming. However, Mr. Fahrenhold concludes that scepticism is “at the margins, but trying to get back in the fight”, even though “most scientists now say there is a consensus about climate change: It is ‘unequivocal,’ concluded a United Nations report in 2007. It found that recent temperatures were about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit higher than a century ago and that most of this is ‘very likely’ due to man made
greenhouse gases.” (Scienceandpublicpolicy)

Climate Change Act: Now the world faces its biggest ever bill-Christopher Booker
One of the mysteries of our time is how impossible it is to interest people in the mind-boggling sums cited by governments all over the world as the cost of the measures they wish to see taken to "stop climate change", observes Christopher Booker. One measure of the fantasy world now inhabited by our sad MPs was the mindless way that they nodded through, last October, by 463 votes to three, by far the most expensive piece of legislation ever to go through Parliament. This was the Climate Change Act, obliging the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to reduce Britain's "carbon emissions" by 2050 to 20 per cent of what they were in 1990 – a target achievable only by shutting down most of the economy. Such is the zombie state of our MPs that they agreed to this lunatic measure without the Government giving any idea of what this might cost. Only one, Peter Lilley, raised this question, and it was he who, last month, alerted me to the fact that the minister, Ed Miliband, had at last slipped out a figure on his website (without bothering to tell Parliament). The Government's estimate was £404 billion, or £18 billion a year, or £760 per household every year for four decades. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Animals 'can tell right from wrong': Scientists suggest it's not just humans who have morals-Daily Mail Reporter
Animals have a sense of morality and can tell right from wrong, according to new research.
Species ranging from mice to wolves are governed by similar codes of conduct as humans, say ecologists. Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions. But Professor Marc Bekoff, from the University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are ‘hard-wired’ into the brains of all mammals. They also provide the ‘social glue’ that allow often aggressive and competitive animals to live together in groups, he said. For instance dominant wolves dominate fairness by ‘handicapping’ themselves by engaging in role reversal with lower ranking wolves, showing submission and allowing them to bite, provided it is not too hard. Chimpanzees also demonstrate a sense of justice by setting upon those in the group who deviate from the code. They also treat disabled members differently by rarely subjecting them to displays of aggression, research found. Dolphins and whales are known to be capable of empathy because they have the same spindle cells in their brains as humans. Prof Berkoff, who presented his case in new book, Wild Justice, said: ‘There are cases of dolphins helping humans to escape from sharks, and elephants that have helped antelope escape from enclosures.’ Experiments with rats have shown that they will not take food if they know their actions will cause pain to another rat. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Texting May Be Taking a Toll-Katie Hafner
They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.
Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messagesper month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier. The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. Dr. Martin Joffe, a pediatrician in Greenbrae, Calif., recently surveyed students at two local high schools and said he found that many were routinely sending hundreds of texts every day.“That’s one every few minutes,” he said. “Then you hear that these kids are responding to texts late at night. That’s going to cause sleep issues in an age group that’s already plagued with sleep issues.” (NYT)

An Old Norse Legend, Courtesy of J.R.R. Tolkien-Marjorie Burns
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), famous for “Lord of the Rings,” was an Oxford philologist whose expertise in Old Germanic languages included Old Norse (the language spoken by the settlers of Iceland) and Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon). With “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún,” we have—for the first time—Tolkien’s attempt to translate the Sigurd tale into English verse. It is a fascinating exercise, one that succeeds in presenting an ancient and engaging story to a contemporary audience. Tolkien is neither the first poet nor the first creative artist who has hoped to bring the Old Norse legend of Sigurd the Volsung—with its Brynhild and Gudrún entanglement and its curse from Fáfnir’s dragon hoard—into the modern world. In the mid-19th century, Richard Wagner based his four-opera cycle, “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” on the Sigurd story, showing Siegfried, the German Sigurd, slaying the dragon Fafner and wooing the larger-than-life Brünnhilde. And in 1877, William Morris retold the story in 392 pages of verse as “Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.” (WSJ)