Tag: war on terrorism

Obama’s Justice Dept. Releases Bush’s Justice Dept Secret Memos

One must remember that these memo’s were drawn right after the attacks of September 11’th 2001. They were, for all intents and purposes rejected by the Bush Administration. However it does give a glimpse into the minds of those in charge of the country, in the days after September 11.

Via the AP:

The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.

The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.

The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration’s most contentious policies.

"Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech a few hours before the documents were released. "Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good."

The Obama administration also acknowledged in court documents Monday that the CIA destroyed 92 videos involving terror suspects, including interrogations — far more than had been known. Congressional Democrats and other critics have charged that some of the harsh interrogation techniques amounted to torture, a contention President George W. Bush and other Bush officials rejected.

Related segment on MSNBC, on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown:

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Here are all of the said documents from the Justice Dept:
 

It must be emphasized that these opinions were rejected by the Bush Administration and never used, however, it does gives insight into the mindset of the previous Presidential Administration and Justice Department under the Bush Administration after the 9/11 attacks.

It has been already speculated that there could be prosecutions brought on, because of this document dump, and there are lawsuits pertaining to the destruction of tapes by the CIA, in regards to torture. 

I personally believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg of stunning revelations to come, about the conduction and secrets hidden by the former administration.

It will be an interesting story to follow indeed.

Others: Alan Colmes’ Liberaland, Reuters,  D-Day, Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly, CBS News, ACLU, Prairie Weather and Think Progress

Afghanistan is not going to be an easy war

This does not look good at all:

Tactically, the U.S.-led night raid in the village of Bagh-i-Soltan was a success. U.S. military officials said the dead man and an accomplice now in custody were bombmakers linked to recent insurgent attacks. They said that they had tracked the men for days and that one was holding an assault rifle when they shot him.

Strategically, however, the incident was a disaster. Its most incriminating version — colored by villagers’ grief and anger, possibly twisted by Taliban propaganda and magnified by the growing influence of independent Afghan TV — spread far faster than U.S. authorities could even attempt to counter.

Worse, it happened in an area where the Obama administration has just launched an expensive military push, focusing on regions near Kabul, the capital, where Islamist insurgents are trying to gain influence. Several U.S. bases have been set up in Logar and adjacent Wardak province, and 3,000 troops have arrived since January. Their mandate is to strengthen security, facilitate aid projects and good government, and swing local opinion against the insurgents.

via Washington Post – Tactical Success, Strategic Defeat.

Folks, I am not and nor have I ever been under any illusion that the Afghanistan War was going to be any kind of a cake walk.  I realize that Pat Buchanan and many other Paleo-Conservatives and Libertarians (like Lew Rockwell) feel that this war is not winnable. The problem with that mentality is this here. It is founded in the notion that; like Iraq, it was unjustified. Well, let me be plain about it here. That line of thinking is just plain bullshit. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is very justified, that was the country of origin that the September 11’th attackers came from, most of them anyway. This is where Osama Bin Laden is holed up, in that tribal region.

What cheeses me the heck off, is the fact that these Anti-American, far lefty nut cases and some Paleo-Conservatives, like Pat Buchanan and Lew Rockwell want to see America just say “Oh well, we can’t get Osama!” and just pack up and leave. I am sorry to be the one to say this, but if we do this in Afghanistan, basically the Al-Qaeda terrorists that attacked on September 11’th and the bastards hold up in that tribal region will have won the damned battle. As much as I hate like hell to sound like former President George W. Bush, who when he said this about Iraq, may have been wrong; but when it comes to Afghanistan was and still is absoutely right, if we cut and run from Afghanistan, we will be worse off, than if we stay and fight till we either capture or kill Osama and root out Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or at least topple the leadership there.

I just hope like hell that the Liberal media and Blogging World does not hand this victory to Osama Bin Ladin on a silver platter and in doing so put our Nation at greater risk than it is already.

(H/T Freedom’s Phoenix)

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Obama to Unveil Class Warfare Plan

I knew this was coming:

President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on business and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.

In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation’s economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.

A summary of Obama’s budget request for the fiscal year that begins in October will be delivered to Congress on Thursday, with the complete, multi-hundred-page document to follow in April. But Obama plans to unveil his goals for scaling back record deficits and rebuilding the nation’s costly and inefficient health care system Monday, when he addresses more than 100 lawmakers and budget experts at a White House summit on restoring “fiscal responsibility” to Washington.

In his weekly radio and Internet address today, Obama expressed determination to “get exploding deficits under control” and described his budget request as “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”

Reducing the deficit, he said, is critical to the nation’s future: “We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.”

Obama faces the long-term challenge of retirement and health programs that threaten to bankrupt the government years down the road, as well as the more immediate problem of deficits bloated by spending on the economy and financial-system bailouts. His budget proposal takes aim at the short-term problem, administration officials said, but also would begin to address the nation’s chronic budget imbalance by squeezing savings from the federal health programs for the elderly and the poor.

Even before Congress approved the stimulus package earlier this month, this year’s deficit was projected by Congressional budget analysts to approach $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of the overall economy, the highest since World War II. With the stimulus and other expenses, some analysts say the annual gap between federal spending and income could approach $2 trillion when the fiscal year ends in September.

Obama proposes to dramatically reduce those numbers by the end of his first term, cutting the deficit he inherited in half, said administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the budget has yet to be released. His budget plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion in 2013 — still high in dollar terms, but a more manageable 3 percent of the overall economy.

To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from “winding down the war” in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on “overseas military contingency operations” throughout Obama’s presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year

via Washington Post – Obama to Unveil an Ambitious Budget Plan.

Well, one can forget about any new jobs coming to Michigan or anywhere else in America, because if Businesses are taxed, they will not hire new people. Just more class warfare from the Democrats. I also notice that Obama is cutting funds to Iraq and Afghanistan, that will be the precursor to ending the war. Because you cannot fight a war, if you do not have the funds.

We are headed into a repeat of the 1990’s all over again, ending the deficit on the backs of the wealthy in the Country, while the rest of Country gets off scott free. Where is the fairness in that? The reason why this is so bad is this, if you tax the wealthy and business owners, they are much less likely to hire new employees and also they are less likely to spend money, thereby adding to the economy. This whole idea of the Democrats of Tax and Spending our way out of our Economic woes is just plain idiotic.

We are headed towards very scary times in America. Act accordingly.

(H/T and Thanks to Drudge)

Report Says that Gitmo Meets Geneva Convention Standards

There is a quite a bit that could be said about this and I know some of you are thinking that I am going to sound like some of the Neo-Cons. But as some of you know, I am not on Neil or John Podhoretz’s payroll; so I do think for myself. So, no, I am not going to rile Obama for breaking his campaign promises. That’s because Obama has not broken any, when it relates to this….yet.

Via The Washington Post:

A Pentagon review of conditions at the Guantanamo Bay military prison has concluded that the treatment of detainees meets the requirements of the Geneva Conventions but that prisoners in the highest-security camps should be allowed more religious and social interaction, according to a government official who has read the 85-page document.

The report, which President Obama ordered, was prepared by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations, and has been delivered to the White House. Obama requested the review as part of an executive order on the planned closure of the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, on the southeastern tip of Cuba.

Another aspect of the closure — what to do with the approximately 245 detainees — will be considered by an interagency task force, and yesterday the Justice Department announced the head of that group: Matthew G. Olsen, a 12-year career prosecutor and acting assistant attorney general for national security.

Review teams will examine each detainee’s case and report to Olsen, who will make recommendations to senior officials from Justice and other agencies, including the departments of State and Defense and the CIA. Those officials will make the final decision on each prisoner.

“The Task Force will consider whether it is possible to transfer or release detained individuals consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States; evaluate whether the government should seek to prosecute detained individuals for crimes they may have committed; and, if none of those options are possible, the Task Force will recommend other lawful means for disposition of the detained individuals,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Now here is where most of your Neo-Conservatives, or those who supported George W. Bush’s asinine idea of going to war with a country, that had zero to do with 911; start carping, “See! I told you so, I told you so, I told so!” But that, as always, is not the point. The point is that Obama wanted to know the standards being used at Gitmo, but he is going to close it anyhow. The Neo-Conservative fear mongers are playing this as some sort of horrible security risk. Which has to be one of the biggest insults to Nation’s various law enforcement agencies. We have had like death row inmates in California and Texas for how long? They have not escaped. I do believe that our Nation’s law enforcement agencies would well handle some of these guys. I must confess that the idea of a couple of them getting “bumped off” in a prison really does not bother me at all. I mean, after all, I do remember what happened on 9/11 and turn about is fair play.

On an unrelated matter, Ed Morrissey,  comments over at Neo-Con Central about this article here, spouts the following Neo-Con Stupidity:

All statements from Barack Obama come with expiration dates.  That’s something that the HopeandChangizoids have begun to learn just a month after the dawning of the Age of Obama.  A lot of them owe Bush — and us — apologies.

His sentiments about “The Magic One” aside, I will take issue with the whole “A lot of them owe Bush — and us — apologies.” line. Ed; if anything, George W. Bush, The Republican Party and every last one of the fucking Neo-Conservative leaders; owes the American people an huge apology for lying to America about the fact that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, owes the American people for consistently moving the fucking goal posts every time one of his hair brained conclusions about Iraq was proven wrong, Owes the American people for illegally spying on million of Americans without warrants, owes the American people an apology for taking the damn focus off of Afghanistan and for allowing the actual mastermind of the 9/11 attacks escape and now leaving us with a situation where we might not ever be able to capture him. The Liberals and those of us who were against the war in Iraq owe the Neo-Conservatives nothing at all. Get used to it and enjoy being in the damned Minority, because, quite frankly, that is where you bastards fucking belong.

I know, you’re thinking, “Damn that’s harsh!” There’s a reason I got a huge beef with Morrissey and his clan of “Go along to get along” crowd over there at HotAir.com. I was tossed and banned from HotAir.com’s Commenting section AND Ed’s Chatroom that he runs during his show. Because I refuse to go along with the notion of embracing diversity, and because I dared to speak my mind about race of people that I personally believe have contributed to the moral decline of this country. No, I am not talking about Jews. I am talking about Negro race. That’s right folks, that is how I feel, I make no bones about it. Want to see a perfect example? Look at Detroit. Look at the rap music scene and you tell me, that the Negro race is not contributing to the moral decline in this country. Plus, my own cousin was shot and killed by two corrupt Negro Detroit Cops and one Mexican cop. I admit the details of that killing was some of my cousin’s fault, mostly because of some rather bone-headed stupidity on his part. But the Detroit cops that killed my cousin went way, way, way overboard on their use of force. It happened back in 1992 or 1993, I cannot remember which, it was never in the media. Oh they checked into it, but once they saw that my cousin was White and cops were black, they retreated from it, in a big hurry. Had the roles been reversed? It would have been on the front page of every newspaper in this country. But yet, Morrissey and his clan over there resented me coming in there and saying how I feel about blacks. Sorry, I categorically reject the notion that “All men are created equal” horse shit that the father of “Big Government”, Abe Lincoln opined in his document that basically sold the American White man up the damned river. So does my dead cousin, Michael Hill.

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Update: Ooops, Forgot these: QandO, Pirate’s Cove, Stop The ACLU, Power Line, Jules Crittenden, Don Surber, Outside The Beltway, PoliGazette

When one of our men goes bad.

This is what happens when you treat war, like a hobby:

A U.S. Army medic was convicted of murder Friday for his involvement in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees shot in the back of the head in the spring of 2007. The court sentenced him to life in prison.

Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was found guilty on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder by the nine-person jury who had heard testimony about the killings at the court-martial at the Army’s Rose Barracks Courthouse since Wednesday.

After a sentencing hearing, Leahy received a life sentence, with the possibility of parole. He also will have his rank reduced to private, his pay foreited and be dishonorably discharged.

“Looking back at the canal, I see it was the wrong thing to do,” Leahy read from a statement to the court before he was sentenced. “Please see that I’m not a bad person, that I made a bad mistake. I want to move on.”

via ABC News: US Soldier Guilty of Murder in Deaths of 4 Iraqis.

I just wonder how much more of this happened? This is just one that got caught. It is a sad thing, this turkey got what was coming to him.

Islamic subversion is real and it is on the move

This stuff really bothers me:

A former FBI special agent told law enforcement and Homeland Security personnel that a network of Islamic organizations are working to incrementally implement Islamic law in the United States.

During a presentation at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, former FBI agent John Guandolo briefed members about groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims is working with other Islamic groups to slowly implement Shariah, also known as Islamic law, which encompasses all areas of life.

Guandolo worked in the FBI since 1996, including nine years as a member of its SWAT team. After 9/11, he worked in the Bureau’s Washington Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division, developing expertise concerning Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood organizations and the Islamic movement in the U.S.

He now works with Stephen Coughlin, former Islamic Expert for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to advise leaders at the federal level and also brief local law enforcement about the Islamic threat at home.

Coughlin was fired from his position with the Joint Chiefs following a report revealing opposition to his work by officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, according to a Washington Times report dated Jan. 4, 2008.

Coughlin had run afoul of a key aide to England, Hasham Islam, who accused him of being a Christian zealot or extremist “with a pen,” according to defense officials, the report states.

via Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Story: Islamic subversion alleged by speaker.

I think this one warrants a full read. Please go read now.

This is why Ammo sales are going through the roof, because our Government cannot be trusted. The Radical Muslims have figured it out, they did not destroy us on September 11, 2001; so, they are going to do it from within, and now with a Liberal President, they just might succeed.

Act accordingly.

Others: The Corner, Jihad Watch, Moonbattery

Uh-Oh – Senior US soldiers investigated over missing Iraq reconstruction billions

This cannot be good:

In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme.

“I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad,” said one US businessman active in Iraq since 2003.

In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in “pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills” to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money. He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering.

Despite the vast sums expended on rebuilding by the US since 2003, there have been no cranes visible on the Baghdad skyline except those at work building a new US embassy and others rusting beside a half-built giant mosque that Saddam was constructing when he was overthrown. One of the few visible signs of government work on Baghdad’s infrastructure is a tireless attention to planting palm trees and flowers in the centre strip between main roads. Those are then dug up and replanted a few months later.

Iraqi leaders are convinced that the theft or waste of huge sums of US and Iraqi government money could have happened only if senior US officials were themselves involved in the corruption. In 2004-05, the entire Iraq military procurement budget of $1.3bn was siphoned off from the Iraqi Defence Ministry in return for 28-year-old Soviet helicopters too obsolete to fly and armoured cars easily penetrated by rifle bullets. Iraqi officials were blamed for the theft, but US military officials were largely in control of the Defence Ministry at the time and must have been either highly negligent or participants in the fraud.

American federal investigators are now starting an inquiry into the actions of senior US officers involved in the programme to rebuild Iraq, according to The New York Times, which cites interviews with senior government officials and court documents. Court records reveal that, in January, investigators subpoenaed the bank records of Colonel Anthony B Bell, now retired from the US Army, but who was previously responsible for contracting for the reconstruction effort in 2003 and 2004. Two federal officials are cited by the paper as saying that investigators are also looking at the activities of Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald W Hirtle of the US Air Force, who was senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004. It is not clear what specific evidence exists against the two men, who have both said they have nothing to hide.

via The Independent: A ‘fraud’ bigger than Madoff.

Indeed I have suspected that there was major thievery going on during the war in Iraq. This story shines a light on this. Hopefully this new Administration will bring those to justice, who were responsible for these horrific actions. However, I will not hold my breath.

(H/T Freedom’s Phoenix)

Heckuva of a job Feinstein

What an idiot…..

A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to the ongoing campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan’s northwest border.

“As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said of the planes.

via Predator drones flown from base in Pakistan, U.S. lawmaker says — chicagotribune.com.

Feinstein ought to be arrested and tried on treason. Revealing Government secrets is illegal. But because she’s a Democrat, nothing will happen.

Others: protein wisdom, Wizbang , The Strata-Sphere, HotAir

Dutch MP refused entry to by the cowardly Government in Britain

This is a disgrace….

The Video and listen to Mr. Wilders stand up to the Liberal BBC’s baiting questions:

The Story:

A Dutch MP who called the Koran a “fascist book” has been sent back to the Netherlands after attempting to defy a ban on entering the UK.

Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders had been invited to show his controversial film – which links the Islamic holy book to terrorism – in the UK’s House of Lords.

But Mr Wilders, who faces trial in his own country for inciting hatred, has been denied entry by the Home Office.

He told the BBC it was a “very sad day” for UK democracy.

The Dutch ambassador was also at Heathrow to make clear his government’s opposition to the ban on Mr Wilders entering the UK.

via BBC NEWS  Dutch MP refused entry to Britain.

As far as I am concerned, Britain is nothing more than a Nation of terrorist sympathizers.  This is a disgrace and should be held as an example of what America will become if we allow the Liberals in America to have their way. This man put out a video exposing Islam for what it really is and now he is being persecuted for it.  Yes, the video was extreme, and yes, the framing of his argument was a bit extreme, but there is a thing called freedom of speech, and his man’s right are being violated.

In the Spirit of freedom of speech, I present, once again, Fitna:

Others: Fausta’s Blog, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit, Atlas Shrugs and Gates of Vienna