ERIC HOLDER'S GUNRUNNER SCANDAL FUNDED WITH $10 MILLION OF OBAMA'S STIMULUS MONEY
ERIC HOLDER'S POORLY EXECUTED ATTEMPT TO DEMOLISH THE SECOND AMENDMENT
There is a new little wrinkle in Attorney General Eric Holder's claims of ignorance regarding the Gunrunner Scandal – Holder's Department of Justice requested and received $10 million in funding specifically for "Project Gunrunner" as part of Obama's 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the Stimulus Bill.
The damning evidence can be found on page 16 of the Act, under the heading "Department of Justice" and subheading "Office of Justice Programs"! According to the Library of Congress the section reads as follows:
"For an additional amount for 'State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance', $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses' for the ATF Project Gunrunner."
Eric Holder not only knew about Gunrunner, he requested $10 million to fund it. The only question now is, how much did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?
"You've got people who are dead. You have weapons that are missing and you have an administration that doesn't seem to want to take any accountability for it," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).
Like something out of a bad conspiracy movie, it is beginning to appear that Holder agreed to the now infamous "Gunrunner/Gun Walking/Fast & Furious" program in part to help Second Amendment hating Leftists who sought to impose gun control by "proving" that law abiding American gun shops were responsible for Mexican gang violence.
The plan might have worked brilliantly were it not for one murdered U.S. border patrol agent and a handful of dedicated ATF agents brave and honorable enough to blow the whistle on their own organization's shameful sellout of the U.S. Constitution.
Even now, as the true cost and body count resulting from Holder's betrayal become evident, the Left just isn't ready to give up. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said in a statement that "no legitimate examination of this issue will be complete without analyzing our nation's gun laws, which allow tens of thousands of assault weapons to flood into Mexico from the United States every year, including fifty caliber sniper rifles, multiple AK variants, and scores of others." Rep. Cummings apparently does not care that it was the U.S. Government, not its citizens, who sent these guns – in violation of standing U.S. law – to Mexico in the first place. Anything to kill the Second Amendment – even killing our own brave border patrol field agents!
As the damning evidence and criminal implications mount, Eric Holder's Department of Justice seems intent upon stonewalling – adding contempt of Congress to the possible list of charges levied against the ATF and DOJ.
ATF supervisors, acting as Holder's "yes men" and co-conspirators have already been caught red handed in a web of lies poured upon a suspicious Congress and a shocked nation. While supervisors told the House Oversight Committee that no guns were ever allowed across the border, whistle blowing ATF field agents have provided ample evidence to the contrary. For every document the ATF powerbrokers have refused to turn over, brave agents-on-the-ground have turned over their own records, including emails from the very supervisors denying "Project Gun Walker" (now being called "Project Gunrunner" by the mainstream media) which, in the higher-ups' own words and directives, confirms the entire gun walking operation.
ATF supervisors, surprised that their lies had been exposed, are now refusing to turn documents over to House Oversight Chairman Chairman Darrell Issa's investigators, claiming the need for redaction of sensitive and classified information. Chairman Issa has made it clear that he wants these documents unmolested. But given the current state of our criminal government, it is doubtful he will receive the evidence any time soon, if at all.
We must stand up for our rights before a corrupt Eric Holder and tyrannical Barack Obama seize our guns and our liberty without any hope of restoration or renewal.
BACKGROUND: ERIC HOLDER'S LONG EXPERIENCE WITH GUN RUNNERS: Holder has been defending a Columbian gun running scam since 2007
The DOJ/ATF "Gun Walker" scandal isn't the first time Eric Holder's name has come up in association with gun runners and terrorist organizations. Just a few years ago Holder acted as defense attorney for one of the largest gun running scandals in recent history.
In 2007, then private attorney Eric Holder defended the group that funneled $1.7 million into the Columbian group AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia) – a U.S. designated terrorist organization. In addition to funding, Chiquita International Brands (CIB) helped the group illegally import over 3,000 AK-47s and 5 million rounds of ammunition into a country ripped apart by drug wars. And Eric Holder not only defended CIB, he initially argued to the court that CIB had done nothing wrong. When that did not work, he helped CIB negotiate a relatively small fine and eliminate legal penalties for the CIB employees who facilitated the illicit weapons transactions.
Now it comes to light that Eric Holder's own U.S. Department of Justice, through its reporting agency the ATF, instituted a policy of assisting in the illegal export of guns to Mexican drug cartels. ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agents reportedly not only turned a blind eye toward illegal gun sales, field agents were forced by superiors to actively facilitate the transfers. And in at least one case, that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the cartels used those "gun walked" weapons to murder U.S. officers.
In his recent testimony before Congress, Eric Holder claimed absolutely no knowledge of the "Gun Walker" program. But given his previous work with gun runners, it is not far-fetched to imagine that Holder not only knew, but had a large hand in the program.
Frankly, the ongoing DOJ/ATF "Gun Walker" scandal represents only the latest in a long line of disgraces associated with Attorney General Eric Holder, including numerous instances of his refusal to enforce or even abide by the law, such as the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case, the ACORN Voter corruption and funding scandals, federal court orders regarding "ObamaCare" and Congressional subpoenas, and his shocking dereliction of duty regarding the Defense of Marriage Act. Rather than stand as the "top cop" and ultimate sentinel and protector of our nation's rule of law, Holder seems to be far more interested in traducing the law to suit his own cronies, radical friends, colleagues, business associates – plus random "clients" and high bidders. How much longer will we tolerate corruption and outright trampling of the Constitution from America's highest law enforcement office? Our current Attorney General is not fit to lead the Department of Justice. ERIC HOLDER MUST GO!
Congressional hearings into the "Gun Walker" case are happening now, so we must act quickly to ensure the Department of Justice can be cleansed of the cancer destroying it from within. Please fax Congress now! And please consider making a donation to help Life & Liberty PAC continue our crucial whistleblowing operations.
TELL CONGRESS – ERIC HOLDER MUST GO!
Thank you. I know I can count on you to defend LIFE AND LIBERTY!
Sincerely,
Mary Lewis, Chair
www.LifeAndLibertyPAC.org
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Committee On HomelandSecurity
King Opens Third Committee on Homeland Security Hearing on Radicalization, Focusing on al Shabaab
Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, July 27, 2011) – This morning, U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, convenes the hearing entitled “Al Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American Community and the Threat to the Homeland.” The prepared opening statement of Chairman King follows:
“Good morning. Today, we hold the third in a series of hearings on radicalization in the Muslim-American community.
Our focus is the result of a lengthy investigation the Committee has conducted into the threat the U.S. homeland faces from al-Shabaab, the Somalia affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and Anwar al-Aulaqi’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Committee has been briefed by intelligence agencies and we have interviewed dozens of experts on al-Shabaab.
I welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses. They have some of the most extensive insights into the problems uncovered by our Committee’s investigation and we are grateful they are sharing their knowledge.
You will hear how al-Shabaab, who bin Laden called “One of the most important armies” of Islam, is engaged in an ongoing, successful effort to recruit and radicalize dozens of Muslim-American jihadis, who pose a direct threat to the U.S.
Some argue that al-Shabaab is only a Somali problem, and that the group will never strike outside of the Horn of Africa region.
That kind of thinking is a glaring example of what the 9/11 Commission called a failure of imagination.
With al-Shabaab’s large cadre of American jihadis and unquestionable ties to al-Qaeda, particularly its alliance with AQAP, we must face the reality that al-Shabaab is a growing threat to our homeland.
Our investigation into this threat has led to alarming findings: Notably, that al-Shabaab has successfully recruited and radicalized more than 40 Muslim-Americans and 20 Canadians, who have joined the terror group inside Somalia.
Of those, at least 15 Americans and 3 Canadians are believed to have been killed fighting with al-Shabaab, the Committee has learned.
Not al-Qaeda, nor any of its other affiliates, have come close to drawing so many Muslim-Americans and Westerners to jihad.
Three Muslim-Americans became suicide bombers, such as Shirwa Ahmed from Minneapolis -- the first confirmed American suicide bomber in our history.
There also are radicalized converts like al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami who was raised a Baptist in Alabama, and who has repeatedly threatened the U.S. homeland.
Three American al-Shabaab fighters have been arrested after returning home and one was collared in the Netherlands.
Other radicalized Muslims have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada before they reached Somalia, which is now much easier to get to for jihad than Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Yemen.
But as many as two-dozen Muslim-Americans with al-Shabaab -- who in many cases were trained by top al-Qaeda leaders -- remain unaccounted for.
The Committee found that al-Shabaab-related federal prosecutions for funding, recruiting and attempting to join al-Shabaab are the largest number and most significant upward trend in homegrown terror cases filed by the Justice Department over the past two years.
At least 38 cases have been unsealed since 2009 in Minnesota, Ohio, California, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Virginia and Texas.
Al-Shabaab is recruiting inside American mosques in Somali communities like Minneapolis and San Diego, according to the Justice Department.
This month, an al-Shabaab recruiter pleaded guilty to recruiting a large group of Muslims in Minneapolis, “At mosques,” and without any known protest by mosque leaders. A top al-Shabaab leader in Somalia supervised this recruiting.
One Minnesotan recruited was suicide bomber Shirwa Ahmed whose 2008 attack in northern Somalia sent a shockwave of alarm through U.S. homeland security agencies, because of its implications.
Another would-be bomber from Minneapolis was shot and killed in Mogadishu by peacekeeping troops on May 30, moments before detonating his suicide vest.
When one cleric spoke out against al-Shabaab inside the Minneapolis mosque where many of the missing young Somali-American men had once worshipped, he was physically assaulted, according to police.
For those still skeptical that there are still jihadi sympathizers inside that community, it’s worth mentioning that the Committee learned of the mosque assault when an audiotape of the incident was posted on overseas jihadi Internet forums before authorities in Minneapolis even knew about the incident.
There is an enormous amount of travel by Somali-Americans between U.S. cities and East Africa. While most of this travel is legitimate senior U.S. counterterror officials have told the Committee they are very concerned about individuals they have not identified who have fallen in with al-Shabaab during trips to Somalia, who could return to the U.S. undetected.
They fear an al-Shabaab fighter operating under law enforcement’s radar – someone like a Zazi, a Shahzad, an Abdulmutallab – may attempt an attack here.
It is deeply troubling that from the very beginning, the Muslim-Americans in Somalia were trained by top al-Qaeda operatives, including several who were tied to Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is now generally considered our biggest homeland threat.
Al-Shabaab operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was charged this month for doing weapons deals and explosives training with AQAP in Yemen, and to, “Provide AQAP with material support including... personnel.”
Al-Shabaab has long harbored top al-Qaeda leaders, such as the mastermind of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, who was gunned down this month in Somalia after a 13-year manhunt.
Al-Shabaab has paraded in Somalia in support of AQAP and sent fighters to battle the weakened Yemeni government this year -- as well as flying the battle flag of al-Qaeda-in-IRAQ.
Finally, an al-Shabaab bombing in neighboring Uganda one year ago that targeted Westerners killed 74 people including one American.
President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has said the Administration remains, quote, “Vigilant that al-Shabaab may expand its focus from fighting to control Somalia to plotting to attack the U.S. homeland.”
That convinced me of the necessity to launch a careful examination of that threat.
Dozens of experts the Committee interviewed agreed this threat is real, and that al-Shabaab leaders’ public calls for attacks against America -- including in retaliation for killing bin Laden -- must be taken seriously.
With a large group of Muslim-Americans willing to die as “martyrs,” and a strong operational partnership with al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and in Yemen, al-Shabaab now has more capability than ever to strike the U.S. homeland.
We look forwarding to hearing more about the rising al-Shabaab threat from our exceptional witnesses, as well as the Minority’s distinguished witness.
Finally, I note that certain elements of the politically correct media—most egregiously the vacuous ideologues at the New York Times—are shamelessly attempting to exploit the horrific tragedy in Norway to cause me to refocus these hearings away from Muslim-American radicalization.
If they had even a semblance of intellectual honesty the Times and the others would know and admit that there is no equivalency in the threat to our homeland from a deranged gunman and the international terror apparatus of al-Qaeda and its affiliates who are recruiting people in this country and have murdered thousands of Americans in their jihad attacks.
Let me make this clear to the New York Times and their acolytes in the politically correct, moral equivalency media--I will not back down from holding these hearings. I will continue to hold these hearings so long as I am the Chairman of this Committee.
Apart from all the strategic and moral reasons why these hearings are vital to our security, they are liberating and empowering to the many Muslim-Americans who have been intimidated by leaders in their own communities and are now able to come forward.
I also owe it to all the friends, neighbors, and constituents I lost on September 11th. I will not back down.”
Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, July 27, 2011) – This morning, U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, convenes the hearing entitled “Al Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American Community and the Threat to the Homeland.” The prepared opening statement of Chairman King follows:
“Good morning. Today, we hold the third in a series of hearings on radicalization in the Muslim-American community.
Our focus is the result of a lengthy investigation the Committee has conducted into the threat the U.S. homeland faces from al-Shabaab, the Somalia affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and Anwar al-Aulaqi’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Committee has been briefed by intelligence agencies and we have interviewed dozens of experts on al-Shabaab.
I welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses. They have some of the most extensive insights into the problems uncovered by our Committee’s investigation and we are grateful they are sharing their knowledge.
You will hear how al-Shabaab, who bin Laden called “One of the most important armies” of Islam, is engaged in an ongoing, successful effort to recruit and radicalize dozens of Muslim-American jihadis, who pose a direct threat to the U.S.
Some argue that al-Shabaab is only a Somali problem, and that the group will never strike outside of the Horn of Africa region.
That kind of thinking is a glaring example of what the 9/11 Commission called a failure of imagination.
With al-Shabaab’s large cadre of American jihadis and unquestionable ties to al-Qaeda, particularly its alliance with AQAP, we must face the reality that al-Shabaab is a growing threat to our homeland.
Our investigation into this threat has led to alarming findings: Notably, that al-Shabaab has successfully recruited and radicalized more than 40 Muslim-Americans and 20 Canadians, who have joined the terror group inside Somalia.
Of those, at least 15 Americans and 3 Canadians are believed to have been killed fighting with al-Shabaab, the Committee has learned.
Not al-Qaeda, nor any of its other affiliates, have come close to drawing so many Muslim-Americans and Westerners to jihad.
Three Muslim-Americans became suicide bombers, such as Shirwa Ahmed from Minneapolis -- the first confirmed American suicide bomber in our history.
There also are radicalized converts like al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami who was raised a Baptist in Alabama, and who has repeatedly threatened the U.S. homeland.
Three American al-Shabaab fighters have been arrested after returning home and one was collared in the Netherlands.
Other radicalized Muslims have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada before they reached Somalia, which is now much easier to get to for jihad than Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Yemen.
But as many as two-dozen Muslim-Americans with al-Shabaab -- who in many cases were trained by top al-Qaeda leaders -- remain unaccounted for.
The Committee found that al-Shabaab-related federal prosecutions for funding, recruiting and attempting to join al-Shabaab are the largest number and most significant upward trend in homegrown terror cases filed by the Justice Department over the past two years.
At least 38 cases have been unsealed since 2009 in Minnesota, Ohio, California, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Virginia and Texas.
Al-Shabaab is recruiting inside American mosques in Somali communities like Minneapolis and San Diego, according to the Justice Department.
This month, an al-Shabaab recruiter pleaded guilty to recruiting a large group of Muslims in Minneapolis, “At mosques,” and without any known protest by mosque leaders. A top al-Shabaab leader in Somalia supervised this recruiting.
One Minnesotan recruited was suicide bomber Shirwa Ahmed whose 2008 attack in northern Somalia sent a shockwave of alarm through U.S. homeland security agencies, because of its implications.
Another would-be bomber from Minneapolis was shot and killed in Mogadishu by peacekeeping troops on May 30, moments before detonating his suicide vest.
When one cleric spoke out against al-Shabaab inside the Minneapolis mosque where many of the missing young Somali-American men had once worshipped, he was physically assaulted, according to police.
For those still skeptical that there are still jihadi sympathizers inside that community, it’s worth mentioning that the Committee learned of the mosque assault when an audiotape of the incident was posted on overseas jihadi Internet forums before authorities in Minneapolis even knew about the incident.
There is an enormous amount of travel by Somali-Americans between U.S. cities and East Africa. While most of this travel is legitimate senior U.S. counterterror officials have told the Committee they are very concerned about individuals they have not identified who have fallen in with al-Shabaab during trips to Somalia, who could return to the U.S. undetected.
They fear an al-Shabaab fighter operating under law enforcement’s radar – someone like a Zazi, a Shahzad, an Abdulmutallab – may attempt an attack here.
It is deeply troubling that from the very beginning, the Muslim-Americans in Somalia were trained by top al-Qaeda operatives, including several who were tied to Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is now generally considered our biggest homeland threat.
Al-Shabaab operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was charged this month for doing weapons deals and explosives training with AQAP in Yemen, and to, “Provide AQAP with material support including... personnel.”
Al-Shabaab has long harbored top al-Qaeda leaders, such as the mastermind of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, who was gunned down this month in Somalia after a 13-year manhunt.
Al-Shabaab has paraded in Somalia in support of AQAP and sent fighters to battle the weakened Yemeni government this year -- as well as flying the battle flag of al-Qaeda-in-IRAQ.
Finally, an al-Shabaab bombing in neighboring Uganda one year ago that targeted Westerners killed 74 people including one American.
President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has said the Administration remains, quote, “Vigilant that al-Shabaab may expand its focus from fighting to control Somalia to plotting to attack the U.S. homeland.”
That convinced me of the necessity to launch a careful examination of that threat.
Dozens of experts the Committee interviewed agreed this threat is real, and that al-Shabaab leaders’ public calls for attacks against America -- including in retaliation for killing bin Laden -- must be taken seriously.
With a large group of Muslim-Americans willing to die as “martyrs,” and a strong operational partnership with al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and in Yemen, al-Shabaab now has more capability than ever to strike the U.S. homeland.
We look forwarding to hearing more about the rising al-Shabaab threat from our exceptional witnesses, as well as the Minority’s distinguished witness.
Finally, I note that certain elements of the politically correct media—most egregiously the vacuous ideologues at the New York Times—are shamelessly attempting to exploit the horrific tragedy in Norway to cause me to refocus these hearings away from Muslim-American radicalization.
If they had even a semblance of intellectual honesty the Times and the others would know and admit that there is no equivalency in the threat to our homeland from a deranged gunman and the international terror apparatus of al-Qaeda and its affiliates who are recruiting people in this country and have murdered thousands of Americans in their jihad attacks.
Let me make this clear to the New York Times and their acolytes in the politically correct, moral equivalency media--I will not back down from holding these hearings. I will continue to hold these hearings so long as I am the Chairman of this Committee.
Apart from all the strategic and moral reasons why these hearings are vital to our security, they are liberating and empowering to the many Muslim-Americans who have been intimidated by leaders in their own communities and are now able to come forward.
I also owe it to all the friends, neighbors, and constituents I lost on September 11th. I will not back down.”
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Obama Forbids 'God' At Military Funerals
Pentagon
Texas Lawmaker Calls for Congressional Probe Into Ban of Christian Prayers at Military Funerals
By Todd Starnes
Published July 26, 2011| FoxNews.com
A Texas lawmaker is calling for a congressional investigation of the Houston National Cemetery after he went undercover and determined that cemetery officials are still preventing Christian prayers at the funerals of military veterans.
“The Obama administration continues to try to prevent the word ‘God’ from being used at the funerals of our heroes,” said. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).
“It’s unacceptable and I’m going to put a stop to it as fast as humanly possible,” Culberson told Fox News Radio. He attended a burial service at the cemetery undercover on July 8, when he says he witnessed volunteer members of the honor guard from the Veterans of Foreign Wars being prohibited from using any references to God.
“The Obama administration had told the nation and me they were not interfering with the prayer said over the graves of veterans,” he said. “And I went undercover to personally verify that claim.” VA officials have strongly denied they’ve banned any religious speech – and have offered support for Arleen Ocasio, the cemetery’s director.
“The idea that invoking the name of God or Jesus is banned at VA national cemeteries is blatantly false,” said VA Press Secretary Josh Taylor in a written statement to Fox News Radio. “The truth is, VA’s policy protects veterans’ families’ rights to pray however they choose at our national cemeteries.”
Taylor declined to comment on the pending lawsuit or other ongoing legal proceedings, but did say, “No one should make judgments before all the facts are known.” Culberson said the commander of the honor guard was told by cemetery officials to approach a grieving widow to reconfirm that she wanted the word God mentioned at her husband’s graveside service.
“He quite correctly said as a Texan and a man of honor and integrity, ‘I’m not bothering that poor woman at this most terrible time of her life. We’re going to do the ritual,’” Culberson said. “Right in front of me, the VA directly and deliberately attempted to prevent the VFW from doing their magnificent, spiritual ritual over the grave of this fallen hero."
The cemetery is already the focus of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the VFW, an American Legion post and Houston’s National Memorial Ladies. They claim the VA banned members of the organizations from using the words “God” or “Jesus” at burial services.
They also allege they were banned from reciting prayers or using religious language during services unless families approved the text in advance. Culberson, who oversees the sub-committee responsible for funding the cemetery, said that he wants the cemetery director fired – and he’s willing to do whatever possible to make sure that happens.
“The cemetery director has to leave,” he said. “I will zero out her salary. If she attempts to work for the VA anywhere in the state of Texas her salary will be zero.”
“It makes my skin crawl that liberals are attempting to drive prayer out of a funeral ceremony for our heroes,” Culberson said. “We’re going to fix this so that no Obama liberal bureaucrat will interfere with the funeral of a hero.”
But Taylor said the rules set in place at the cemetery are meant to protect the grieving families.
“Put simply, VA policy puts the wishes of the veteran’s family above all else on the day it matters most – the day they pay their final respects to their loved ones,” Taylor said. "Out of respect for the families, VA’s policy exists to prevent anyone from disrespecting or interfering with a veteran’s private committal service.”
Controversy first surfaced nationally at the cemetery during a Memorial Day event when a Houston pastor was ordered by the VA to remove the name of Jesus from his prayer.
Culberson said he hopes to hold hearings on the cemetery in the fall.
“They will bury 10 to 20 American heroes today and the Obama administration is preventing prayers from being said over their gravesites – today, ” Culberson said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/26/texas-lawmaker-calls-for-congressional-probe-into-ban-christian-prayers-at/#ixzz1TFwZgnNR
Texas Lawmaker Calls for Congressional Probe Into Ban of Christian Prayers at Military Funerals
By Todd Starnes
Published July 26, 2011| FoxNews.com
A Texas lawmaker is calling for a congressional investigation of the Houston National Cemetery after he went undercover and determined that cemetery officials are still preventing Christian prayers at the funerals of military veterans.
“The Obama administration continues to try to prevent the word ‘God’ from being used at the funerals of our heroes,” said. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).
“It’s unacceptable and I’m going to put a stop to it as fast as humanly possible,” Culberson told Fox News Radio. He attended a burial service at the cemetery undercover on July 8, when he says he witnessed volunteer members of the honor guard from the Veterans of Foreign Wars being prohibited from using any references to God.
“The Obama administration had told the nation and me they were not interfering with the prayer said over the graves of veterans,” he said. “And I went undercover to personally verify that claim.” VA officials have strongly denied they’ve banned any religious speech – and have offered support for Arleen Ocasio, the cemetery’s director.
“The idea that invoking the name of God or Jesus is banned at VA national cemeteries is blatantly false,” said VA Press Secretary Josh Taylor in a written statement to Fox News Radio. “The truth is, VA’s policy protects veterans’ families’ rights to pray however they choose at our national cemeteries.”
Taylor declined to comment on the pending lawsuit or other ongoing legal proceedings, but did say, “No one should make judgments before all the facts are known.” Culberson said the commander of the honor guard was told by cemetery officials to approach a grieving widow to reconfirm that she wanted the word God mentioned at her husband’s graveside service.
“He quite correctly said as a Texan and a man of honor and integrity, ‘I’m not bothering that poor woman at this most terrible time of her life. We’re going to do the ritual,’” Culberson said. “Right in front of me, the VA directly and deliberately attempted to prevent the VFW from doing their magnificent, spiritual ritual over the grave of this fallen hero."
The cemetery is already the focus of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the VFW, an American Legion post and Houston’s National Memorial Ladies. They claim the VA banned members of the organizations from using the words “God” or “Jesus” at burial services.
They also allege they were banned from reciting prayers or using religious language during services unless families approved the text in advance. Culberson, who oversees the sub-committee responsible for funding the cemetery, said that he wants the cemetery director fired – and he’s willing to do whatever possible to make sure that happens.
“The cemetery director has to leave,” he said. “I will zero out her salary. If she attempts to work for the VA anywhere in the state of Texas her salary will be zero.”
“It makes my skin crawl that liberals are attempting to drive prayer out of a funeral ceremony for our heroes,” Culberson said. “We’re going to fix this so that no Obama liberal bureaucrat will interfere with the funeral of a hero.”
But Taylor said the rules set in place at the cemetery are meant to protect the grieving families.
“Put simply, VA policy puts the wishes of the veteran’s family above all else on the day it matters most – the day they pay their final respects to their loved ones,” Taylor said. "Out of respect for the families, VA’s policy exists to prevent anyone from disrespecting or interfering with a veteran’s private committal service.”
Controversy first surfaced nationally at the cemetery during a Memorial Day event when a Houston pastor was ordered by the VA to remove the name of Jesus from his prayer.
Culberson said he hopes to hold hearings on the cemetery in the fall.
“They will bury 10 to 20 American heroes today and the Obama administration is preventing prayers from being said over their gravesites – today, ” Culberson said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/26/texas-lawmaker-calls-for-congressional-probe-into-ban-christian-prayers-at/#ixzz1TFwZgnNR
One Sentence
Opinion
One Sentence That Can Resolve the Debt Ceiling Impasse
By Rev. John Rankin
Published July 25, 2011| FoxNews.com
If there is enough temerity, confidence and the freedom to think outside the box, the debt ceiling impasse can be resolved by Republicans in Congress with a one sentence proposal to President Obama:
Congressional Republicans will agree to a 13-week clean extension of the debt ceiling, provided President Obama agrees to participate in a September debate at the U.S. Capitol about the size and nature of government.
Debt Negotiations Further Apart Than Ever?
The process for this debate involves four simple elements:
1. The question is: Should the size of government be cut drastically? If so, how so? If not, why not?
2. Mr. Obama will prepare an 800- word statement, published ahead of time, where he addresses the question however he pleases. He will select two fellow advocates to do likewise.
3. Three members chosen by the Republican Caucus will do likewise.
4. With a chosen moderator in place, the six statements will begin with Mr. Obama, and be followed with free flowing questions and dialogue between the participants; and then the rest of Congress will be invited to pose questions of any and all of the participants.
If the President agrees, then follow-through debates will occur at 13-week intervals until the 2012 election, with the debt ceiling being increased after each debate proportionate to the immediate need.
If the President does not agree, Congress is free to pass an initial 13-week clean extension, noting in the bill how the President has refused to participate in such a debate.
If the President does not agree, the debate should happen nonetheless, with scheduled debt ceiling increases. Democrat leaders can be invited to step into the roles offered the President, with a standing offer for Mr.Obama to join in at any juncture.
These are honest politics which address the most compelling question in our federal life. If Mr. Obama or the Republican leadership has any confidence in their own philosophies of government, then such a debate will be eagerly embraced. To turn the ship around on our political and economic crisis is a large task. And yes, the eighteen months of debt ceiling extensions (indexed increases per 13-week season) does deepen the hole we are in for this time period.
But in the present divided government, we cannot otherwise get out of the hole as acrimony only deepens. With such a roadmap toward the 2012 election, the voters will then have a well informed choice, and in the meantime the nation and her business climate may see some light at the end of the tunnel.
I say this as one who believes government should be cut drastically, so as return to the simplicity of its constitutional purposes, and thus let the marketplace regain its true freedoms. Then, and only then, can religious, political and economic liberty be fully maximized for all people equally.
James Madison rightly feared that if laws become too “voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood,” then constitutional government is in danger. We are well past that tipping point.
John Rankin is president of the Theological Education Institute in West Simsbury, Connecticut, and his website is www.johnrankin.org.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/25/one-sentence-that-can-resolve-debt-ceiling-impasse/#ixzz1TEWH25Ox
One Sentence That Can Resolve the Debt Ceiling Impasse
By Rev. John Rankin
Published July 25, 2011| FoxNews.com
If there is enough temerity, confidence and the freedom to think outside the box, the debt ceiling impasse can be resolved by Republicans in Congress with a one sentence proposal to President Obama:
Congressional Republicans will agree to a 13-week clean extension of the debt ceiling, provided President Obama agrees to participate in a September debate at the U.S. Capitol about the size and nature of government.
Debt Negotiations Further Apart Than Ever?
The process for this debate involves four simple elements:
1. The question is: Should the size of government be cut drastically? If so, how so? If not, why not?
2. Mr. Obama will prepare an 800- word statement, published ahead of time, where he addresses the question however he pleases. He will select two fellow advocates to do likewise.
3. Three members chosen by the Republican Caucus will do likewise.
4. With a chosen moderator in place, the six statements will begin with Mr. Obama, and be followed with free flowing questions and dialogue between the participants; and then the rest of Congress will be invited to pose questions of any and all of the participants.
If the President agrees, then follow-through debates will occur at 13-week intervals until the 2012 election, with the debt ceiling being increased after each debate proportionate to the immediate need.
If the President does not agree, Congress is free to pass an initial 13-week clean extension, noting in the bill how the President has refused to participate in such a debate.
If the President does not agree, the debate should happen nonetheless, with scheduled debt ceiling increases. Democrat leaders can be invited to step into the roles offered the President, with a standing offer for Mr.Obama to join in at any juncture.
These are honest politics which address the most compelling question in our federal life. If Mr. Obama or the Republican leadership has any confidence in their own philosophies of government, then such a debate will be eagerly embraced. To turn the ship around on our political and economic crisis is a large task. And yes, the eighteen months of debt ceiling extensions (indexed increases per 13-week season) does deepen the hole we are in for this time period.
But in the present divided government, we cannot otherwise get out of the hole as acrimony only deepens. With such a roadmap toward the 2012 election, the voters will then have a well informed choice, and in the meantime the nation and her business climate may see some light at the end of the tunnel.
I say this as one who believes government should be cut drastically, so as return to the simplicity of its constitutional purposes, and thus let the marketplace regain its true freedoms. Then, and only then, can religious, political and economic liberty be fully maximized for all people equally.
James Madison rightly feared that if laws become too “voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood,” then constitutional government is in danger. We are well past that tipping point.
John Rankin is president of the Theological Education Institute in West Simsbury, Connecticut, and his website is www.johnrankin.org.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/25/one-sentence-that-can-resolve-debt-ceiling-impasse/#ixzz1TEWH25Ox
Debt Crisis
House of Representatives
Transcript: Boehner's Speech on Debt Talks
Published July 25, 2011| FoxNews.com
Good evening. I'm John Boehner. I serve as Speaker of the whole House -- of the members of both parties that you elect. These are difficult times in the life of our nation. Millions are looking for work, have been for some time, and the spending binge going on in Washington is a big part of the reason why.
Before I served in Congress, I ran a small business in Ohio. I was amazed at how different Washington DC operated than every business in America. Where most American business make the hard choices to pay their bills and live within their means, in Washington more spending and more debt is business as usual.
I've got news for Washington - those days are over.
President Obama came to Congress in January and requested business as usual -- yet another routine increase in the national debt limit -- we in the House said 'not so fast.' Here was the president, asking for the largest debt increase in American history, on the heels of the largest spending binge in American history.
Here's what we got for that spending binge: a massive health care bill that most Americans never asked for. A 'stimulus' bill that was more effective in producing material for late-night comedians than it was in producing jobs. And a national debt that has gotten so out of hand it has sparked a crisis without precedent in my lifetime or yours.
The United States cannot default on its debt obligations. The jobs and savings of too many Americans are at stake.
What we told the president in January was this: the American people will not accept an increase in the debt limit without significant spending cuts and reforms.
And over the last six months, we've done our best to convince the president to partner with us to do something dramatic to change the fiscal trajectory of our country. . .something that will boost confidence in our economy, renew a measure of faith in our government, and help small businesses get back on track.
Last week, the House passed such a plan, and with bipartisan support. It's called the 'Cut, Cap, and Balance' Act. It CUTS and CAPS government spending and paves the way for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, which we believe is the best way to stop Washington from spending money it doesn't have. Before we even passed the bill in the House, the President said he would veto it.
I want you to know I made a sincere effort to work with the president to identify a path forward that would implement the principles of Cut, Cap, & Balance in a manner that could secure bipartisan support and be signed into law. I gave it my all.
Unfortunately, the president would not take yes for an answer. Even when we thought we might be close on an agreement, the president's demands changed.
The president has often said we need a 'balanced' approach -- which in Washington means: we spend more. . .you pay more. Having run a small business, I know those tax increases will destroy jobs.
The president is adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs. As the father of two daughters, I know these programs won't be there for them and their kids unless significant action is taken now.
The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.
You see, there is no stalemate in Congress. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we will pass another bill - one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate.
Obviously, I expect that bill can and will pass the Senate, and be sent to the President for his signature. If the President signs it, the 'crisis' atmosphere he has created will simply disappear. The debt limit will be raised. Spending will be cut by more than one trillion dollars, and a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress will begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.
The individuals doing this work will not be outsiders, but elected representatives of the people, doing the job they were elected to do as outlined in the Constitution. Those decisions should be made based on how they will affect people who are struggling to get a job, not how they affect some politician's chances of getting reelected.
This debate isn't about President Obama and House Republicans … it isn't about Congress and the White House … it's about what's standing between the American people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families.
You know, I've always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people. And right now, we have a government so big and so expensive it's sapping the drive of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity.
The solution to this crisis is not complicated: if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it,
There is no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. Break its grip, and we begin to liberate our economy and our future.
We are up to the task, and I hope President Obama will join us in this work.
God bless you and your families, and God bless America.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/25/transcript-boehners-speech-on-debt-talks/#ixzz1TDIxst7h
Transcript: Boehner's Speech on Debt Talks
Published July 25, 2011| FoxNews.com
Good evening. I'm John Boehner. I serve as Speaker of the whole House -- of the members of both parties that you elect. These are difficult times in the life of our nation. Millions are looking for work, have been for some time, and the spending binge going on in Washington is a big part of the reason why.
Before I served in Congress, I ran a small business in Ohio. I was amazed at how different Washington DC operated than every business in America. Where most American business make the hard choices to pay their bills and live within their means, in Washington more spending and more debt is business as usual.
I've got news for Washington - those days are over.
President Obama came to Congress in January and requested business as usual -- yet another routine increase in the national debt limit -- we in the House said 'not so fast.' Here was the president, asking for the largest debt increase in American history, on the heels of the largest spending binge in American history.
Here's what we got for that spending binge: a massive health care bill that most Americans never asked for. A 'stimulus' bill that was more effective in producing material for late-night comedians than it was in producing jobs. And a national debt that has gotten so out of hand it has sparked a crisis without precedent in my lifetime or yours.
The United States cannot default on its debt obligations. The jobs and savings of too many Americans are at stake.
What we told the president in January was this: the American people will not accept an increase in the debt limit without significant spending cuts and reforms.
And over the last six months, we've done our best to convince the president to partner with us to do something dramatic to change the fiscal trajectory of our country. . .something that will boost confidence in our economy, renew a measure of faith in our government, and help small businesses get back on track.
Last week, the House passed such a plan, and with bipartisan support. It's called the 'Cut, Cap, and Balance' Act. It CUTS and CAPS government spending and paves the way for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, which we believe is the best way to stop Washington from spending money it doesn't have. Before we even passed the bill in the House, the President said he would veto it.
I want you to know I made a sincere effort to work with the president to identify a path forward that would implement the principles of Cut, Cap, & Balance in a manner that could secure bipartisan support and be signed into law. I gave it my all.
Unfortunately, the president would not take yes for an answer. Even when we thought we might be close on an agreement, the president's demands changed.
The president has often said we need a 'balanced' approach -- which in Washington means: we spend more. . .you pay more. Having run a small business, I know those tax increases will destroy jobs.
The president is adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs. As the father of two daughters, I know these programs won't be there for them and their kids unless significant action is taken now.
The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.
You see, there is no stalemate in Congress. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we will pass another bill - one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate.
Obviously, I expect that bill can and will pass the Senate, and be sent to the President for his signature. If the President signs it, the 'crisis' atmosphere he has created will simply disappear. The debt limit will be raised. Spending will be cut by more than one trillion dollars, and a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress will begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.
The individuals doing this work will not be outsiders, but elected representatives of the people, doing the job they were elected to do as outlined in the Constitution. Those decisions should be made based on how they will affect people who are struggling to get a job, not how they affect some politician's chances of getting reelected.
This debate isn't about President Obama and House Republicans … it isn't about Congress and the White House … it's about what's standing between the American people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families.
You know, I've always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people. And right now, we have a government so big and so expensive it's sapping the drive of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity.
The solution to this crisis is not complicated: if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it,
There is no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. Break its grip, and we begin to liberate our economy and our future.
We are up to the task, and I hope President Obama will join us in this work.
God bless you and your families, and God bless America.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/25/transcript-boehners-speech-on-debt-talks/#ixzz1TDIxst7h
Friday, July 22, 2011
Bomb Blast In Oslo
Explosion Damages Buildings in Norwegian Capital
Published July 22, 2011 | Associated Press
OSLO, Norway – DEVELOPING: A powerful blast tore open several Oslo buildings including the prime minister's office on Friday. One person was reportedly killed and several were injured, as the blast shattered windows and coated the street with documents.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is safe, government spokeswoman Camilla Ryste told The Associated Press, although it was unclear whether that meant he was uninjured. Norway's public broadcaster, NRK, said one person was confirmed killed.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the blast. NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris.
Most of the windows in the 20-floor highrise were blown out, and the bottom floor appeared to be gutted. Nearby offices were also heavily damaged and evacuated, including those housing some of Norway's leading newspapers and news agency NTB.
Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop about 100 meters from the high-rise at around 3:30 p.m. when the explosion occurred.
"I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later," Pedersen told AP.
An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated as the alarm went off. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
The government building houses the offices of the prime minister and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.
The blast comes as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to Al Qaeda. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar -- the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam -- made to various news media, including American network NBC.
Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago. Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries. Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of the cartoonist.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/22/explosion-damages-buildings-in-norwegian-capital/#ixzz1Sqi0xnCF
Published July 22, 2011 | Associated Press
OSLO, Norway – DEVELOPING: A powerful blast tore open several Oslo buildings including the prime minister's office on Friday. One person was reportedly killed and several were injured, as the blast shattered windows and coated the street with documents.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is safe, government spokeswoman Camilla Ryste told The Associated Press, although it was unclear whether that meant he was uninjured. Norway's public broadcaster, NRK, said one person was confirmed killed.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the blast. NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris.
Most of the windows in the 20-floor highrise were blown out, and the bottom floor appeared to be gutted. Nearby offices were also heavily damaged and evacuated, including those housing some of Norway's leading newspapers and news agency NTB.
Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop about 100 meters from the high-rise at around 3:30 p.m. when the explosion occurred.
"I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later," Pedersen told AP.
An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated as the alarm went off. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
The government building houses the offices of the prime minister and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.
The blast comes as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to Al Qaeda. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar -- the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam -- made to various news media, including American network NBC.
Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago. Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries. Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of the cartoonist.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/22/explosion-damages-buildings-in-norwegian-capital/#ixzz1Sqi0xnCF
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Embracing The Muslim Brotherhood
The Tipping Point: Embracing the Muslim Brotherhood
F R A N K J. G A F F N E Y, J R.
The Obama administration chose the eve of the holiday marking our Nation's birth to acknowledge publicly behavior in which it has long been stealthily engaged to the United States' extreme detriment: Its officials now admit that they are embracing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic). That would be the same international Islamist organization that has the destruction of the United States, Israel and all other parts of the Free World as its explicit objective.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to downplay the momentousness of this major policy shift by portraying it during a stopover in Budapest as follows: "The Obama administration is continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that have existed on and off for about five or six years." In fact, as former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy points out in a characteristically brilliant, and scathing, dissection of this announcement, Team Obama's official, open legitimation of the Brotherhood marks a dramatic break from the U.S. government's historical refusal to deal formally with the Ikhwan.
To understand why the Obama administration's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood is so ominous, consider three insights into the organization's nature and ambitions:
First, here's the MB's creed: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." (Source: Husain Haqqani and Hillel Fradkin, "Islamist Parties: Going Back to the Origins.")
Second, here's the Ikwhan's mission in America:
"A kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, sabotaging its miserable house with their [i.e., Americans'] hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." (Source: Muslim Brotherhood's "Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goals of the Group," entered into evidence by the Department of Justice in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-finance trial. Archived at the NEFA Foundation.)
Third, here are excerpts from the Muslim Brotherhood's "phased plan" for accomplishing that mission:
Phase One: Discreet and secret establishment of leadership.
Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene and exercising and utilizing various public activities. It greatly succeeded in implementing this stage. It also succeeded in achieving a great deal of its important goals, such as infiltrating various sectors of the Government.
Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media. Currently in progress.
Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach. It is aggressively implementing the above-mentioned approach. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero-hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.
Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation under which all parties and Islamic groups are united. (Source: Undated Muslim Brotherhood Paper entitled, "Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan." Archived at Shariah: The Threat to America.)
In short, the Muslim Brotherhood is deadly serious about waging what it calls "civilization jihad" against the United States and other freedom-loving nations in order to secure their submission to the Islamic totalitarian political-military-legal doctrine called shariah. The MB's goal in this country is to replace our Constitution with theirs, namely the Koran. And they regard this task as one commanded by none other than Allah. (For more details on the nature, ambitions and modus operandi of the Ikhwan, see the Team B II Report, Shariah: The Threat to America). To this end, as Andy McCarthy notes in the aforementioned essay, the MB's senior official, Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi, has effectively declared war on the United States.
Were there any doubt that legitimacy is what the Ikhwan is taking away from this gambit, consider this assessment from an expert in Islamic groups, Ammar Ali Hassan, cited by Associated Press: "...The Brotherhood will likely try to float ‘conditions' or ‘reservations' on any dialogue to avoid a perception that it is allowing the U.S. to meddle in Egypt's internal affairs. But in the end, the talks will give a boost to the group, he said, by easing worries some in the Brotherhood and the public have of a backlash if the Brotherhood becomes the dominant player in Egypt. ‘Now the Muslim Brotherhood will not have to worry [about] moving forward toward taking over power,' Hassan said." Unfortunately, the U.S. government's dangerous outreach to the Ikhwan is not confined to Egypt but is systematically practiced inside the United States, as well. For example:
The absolutely predictable effect will be to undermine U.S. interests and allies in the Middle East and further catalyze the Brotherhood's campaign to insinuate shariah in the United States and, ultimately, to supplant the Constitution with Islamic law. Consequently, the Obama administration's efforts to "engage" the Muslim Brotherhood are not just reckless. They are wholly incompatible with the President's oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" and the similar commitment made by his subordinates.
These officials' now-open embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a geo-strategic tipping point, one that must catalyze an urgent national debate on this question: Does such conduct violate their oath of office by endangering the Constitution they have undertaken to uphold?
At a minimum, such a debate would afford a much-needed opportunity to examine alternatives to the administration's present course - as well as the real risks associated with that its intensifying pursuit. For instance, one of the most astute American authorities on the Middle East in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, Dr. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a posting at The American blog yesterday:
"Rather than embrace the Brotherhood, the Obama administration should be seeking to ensure that the group cannot dominate Egypt. Most analysts agree that the Muslim Brotherhood is by far the best organized group in Egypt, but that it only enjoys perhaps 25 or 30 percent support. The secular opposition remains weak and fractured. If the Obama administration wishes to remain engaged in Egypt's future and shape the best possible outcome for both U.S. national security and the Egyptian people, it should be pushing for electoral reform to change Egypt's dysfunctional system to a proportional representation model in which the secular majority can form a coalition to check a Muslim Brotherhood minority for which true democracy is anathema."
The same goes for the enemy within. Instead of relying upon - let alone hiring - Muslim Brotherhood operatives and associates, the United States government should be shutting down their fronts, shariah-adherent, jihad-incubating "community centers" and insidious influence operations in America. By recognizing these enterprises for what they are, namely vehicles for fulfilling the seditious goals of the MB's civilization jihad, they can and must be treated as prosecutable subversive enterprises, not protected religious ones under the U.S. Constitution.
Let the debate begin.
This article can be found here:
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18757.xml
F R A N K J. G A F F N E Y, J R.
The Obama administration chose the eve of the holiday marking our Nation's birth to acknowledge publicly behavior in which it has long been stealthily engaged to the United States' extreme detriment: Its officials now admit that they are embracing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic). That would be the same international Islamist organization that has the destruction of the United States, Israel and all other parts of the Free World as its explicit objective.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to downplay the momentousness of this major policy shift by portraying it during a stopover in Budapest as follows: "The Obama administration is continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that have existed on and off for about five or six years." In fact, as former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy points out in a characteristically brilliant, and scathing, dissection of this announcement, Team Obama's official, open legitimation of the Brotherhood marks a dramatic break from the U.S. government's historical refusal to deal formally with the Ikhwan.
To understand why the Obama administration's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood is so ominous, consider three insights into the organization's nature and ambitions:
First, here's the MB's creed: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." (Source: Husain Haqqani and Hillel Fradkin, "Islamist Parties: Going Back to the Origins.")
Second, here's the Ikwhan's mission in America:
"A kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, sabotaging its miserable house with their [i.e., Americans'] hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." (Source: Muslim Brotherhood's "Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goals of the Group," entered into evidence by the Department of Justice in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-finance trial. Archived at the NEFA Foundation.)
Third, here are excerpts from the Muslim Brotherhood's "phased plan" for accomplishing that mission:
Phase One: Discreet and secret establishment of leadership.
Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene and exercising and utilizing various public activities. It greatly succeeded in implementing this stage. It also succeeded in achieving a great deal of its important goals, such as infiltrating various sectors of the Government.
Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media. Currently in progress.
Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach. It is aggressively implementing the above-mentioned approach. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero-hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.
Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation under which all parties and Islamic groups are united. (Source: Undated Muslim Brotherhood Paper entitled, "Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan." Archived at Shariah: The Threat to America.)
In short, the Muslim Brotherhood is deadly serious about waging what it calls "civilization jihad" against the United States and other freedom-loving nations in order to secure their submission to the Islamic totalitarian political-military-legal doctrine called shariah. The MB's goal in this country is to replace our Constitution with theirs, namely the Koran. And they regard this task as one commanded by none other than Allah. (For more details on the nature, ambitions and modus operandi of the Ikhwan, see the Team B II Report, Shariah: The Threat to America). To this end, as Andy McCarthy notes in the aforementioned essay, the MB's senior official, Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi, has effectively declared war on the United States.
Were there any doubt that legitimacy is what the Ikhwan is taking away from this gambit, consider this assessment from an expert in Islamic groups, Ammar Ali Hassan, cited by Associated Press: "...The Brotherhood will likely try to float ‘conditions' or ‘reservations' on any dialogue to avoid a perception that it is allowing the U.S. to meddle in Egypt's internal affairs. But in the end, the talks will give a boost to the group, he said, by easing worries some in the Brotherhood and the public have of a backlash if the Brotherhood becomes the dominant player in Egypt. ‘Now the Muslim Brotherhood will not have to worry [about] moving forward toward taking over power,' Hassan said." Unfortunately, the U.S. government's dangerous outreach to the Ikhwan is not confined to Egypt but is systematically practiced inside the United States, as well. For example:
- Muslim-American organizations identified in court by the U.S. government - and, in many cases, by the Muslim Brotherhood itself - as MB fronts are routinely cultivated by federal, state and local officials. Representatives of homeland security, Pentagon, intelligence and law enforcement agencies frequently meet with and attend functions sponsored by such groups.
- MB-associated individuals are sent as our country's "goodwill ambassadors" to foreign Muslim nations and communities. MB-favored initiatives to insinuate shariah into the United States - notably, the Ground Zero Mosque and shariah-compliant finance, conscientious objector status for Muslim servicemen and stifling of free speech in accordance with shariah "blasphemy" laws - are endorsed and/or enabled by official institutions.
- A blind eye is turned to the presence across the country of shariah-adherent mosques that incubate jihadism. A peer-reviewed study published last month in Middle East Quarterly determined that 81% of a random sample of 100 mosques exhibited such qualities - constituting an infrastructure for recruitment, indoctrination and training consistent with the Brotherhood's phased plan.
- Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, individuals with family and other ties to the Muslim Brotherhood have actually given senior government positions. The most recent of these to come to light is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin (who also happens to be former Rep. Anthony Weiner's wife).
It seems a safe bet that, as Team Obama legitimates Muslim Brotherhood organizations and groups overseas, it will feel ever less constrained about further empowering their counterparts in the United States. If so, the MB will come to exercise even greater influence over what our government does and does not do about the threat posed by shariah, both abroad and here.
The absolutely predictable effect will be to undermine U.S. interests and allies in the Middle East and further catalyze the Brotherhood's campaign to insinuate shariah in the United States and, ultimately, to supplant the Constitution with Islamic law. Consequently, the Obama administration's efforts to "engage" the Muslim Brotherhood are not just reckless. They are wholly incompatible with the President's oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" and the similar commitment made by his subordinates.
These officials' now-open embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a geo-strategic tipping point, one that must catalyze an urgent national debate on this question: Does such conduct violate their oath of office by endangering the Constitution they have undertaken to uphold?
At a minimum, such a debate would afford a much-needed opportunity to examine alternatives to the administration's present course - as well as the real risks associated with that its intensifying pursuit. For instance, one of the most astute American authorities on the Middle East in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, Dr. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a posting at The American blog yesterday:
"Rather than embrace the Brotherhood, the Obama administration should be seeking to ensure that the group cannot dominate Egypt. Most analysts agree that the Muslim Brotherhood is by far the best organized group in Egypt, but that it only enjoys perhaps 25 or 30 percent support. The secular opposition remains weak and fractured. If the Obama administration wishes to remain engaged in Egypt's future and shape the best possible outcome for both U.S. national security and the Egyptian people, it should be pushing for electoral reform to change Egypt's dysfunctional system to a proportional representation model in which the secular majority can form a coalition to check a Muslim Brotherhood minority for which true democracy is anathema."
The same goes for the enemy within. Instead of relying upon - let alone hiring - Muslim Brotherhood operatives and associates, the United States government should be shutting down their fronts, shariah-adherent, jihad-incubating "community centers" and insidious influence operations in America. By recognizing these enterprises for what they are, namely vehicles for fulfilling the seditious goals of the MB's civilization jihad, they can and must be treated as prosecutable subversive enterprises, not protected religious ones under the U.S. Constitution.
Let the debate begin.
This article can be found here:
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18757.xml
Michele Bachmann
Career Politician, Michele Bachmann
If you are hoping for reform in Washington, don't vote for Bachmann. I was seriously considering her because she looks so good on paper, and in polls.
But recently I saw her rhetoric in action on a Bob Schieffer segment, and she left me cold. Almost every question Bob had for her was fended off as she answered questions he did not ask. I was sorely disappointed to see her in action, obviously dodging valid interview questions by making statements that would have, under other circumstances, made her look like an ideal candidate.
Two thumbs down for Michele ... see the interview HERE
"Indeed, Bachmann simply would not answer any of Schieffer's points about her mounting record of falsehoods, trying instead to "pivot" the interview and make it about Obama's supposed misleading statements. It's like trying to talk to a trained robot, programmed never to admit to anything like lying -- so of course, it lies in order to do so."
If you are hoping for reform in Washington, don't vote for Bachmann. I was seriously considering her because she looks so good on paper, and in polls.
But recently I saw her rhetoric in action on a Bob Schieffer segment, and she left me cold. Almost every question Bob had for her was fended off as she answered questions he did not ask. I was sorely disappointed to see her in action, obviously dodging valid interview questions by making statements that would have, under other circumstances, made her look like an ideal candidate.
Two thumbs down for Michele ... see the interview HERE
"Indeed, Bachmann simply would not answer any of Schieffer's points about her mounting record of falsehoods, trying instead to "pivot" the interview and make it about Obama's supposed misleading statements. It's like trying to talk to a trained robot, programmed never to admit to anything like lying -- so of course, it lies in order to do so."
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Dear Jeremiah Wright
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Please if you can, pass this email on to Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Sir,
I think somehow things have got terribly twisted. An article today claims that you’ve said, “Whites are liars”—or so the news story goes.
I wish you’d open your eyes to the truth. Never in our nation’s history has there been so much support for Black people (or any other “minority”). Racism in some form will always be with us, but to put out a blanket statement like that is just wrong.
Sir, I’ve never had a racist bone in my body. Even growing up with a very racist Mother (Dad died when I was 2) who didn’t like anyone who wasn’t a W.A.S.P. I knew that wasn’t right, as far back as I can remember. I don’t care for Obama’s policies, but I don’t dislike him as a human. If he were purple, I still wouldn’t like his policies.
Often, ALL people of ALL colors lie—usually I believe, it’s to not hurt the feelings of whoever they’re talking to. Your statement of “White people lie” is itself a lie. But I’ll tell you straight up, and you can pass it on to whomever you desire, if I feel some foolish white person, or brown, or black, or yellow, or whatever—is harming my country, or even being racist to any group, I will not be silent.
Look, God doesn’t care what color we are...why should humans???? That includes you, Dearest Reverend Wright. It includes me. it includes everyone on the planet.
I’d so hoped that Obama’s election would end racism once and for all...many, MANY white people did also. It didn’t happen, and it breaks my heart the divide seems deeper and meaner than ever.
Perhaps we should all repent—once and for all---of this sin, for surely it truly IS a sin.
God Bless and Keep You,
Chris
(a 59 year old white woman that doesn’t “cross the street” when a black person approaches.)—oh and hey, I don’t capitalize “colors of men/women” because it’s not an issue with me, it’s not out of disrespect, please note “white” is not capitalized except in the quote above.
Also, please keep in mind there are jerks and evil people on every corner—and they’re every color too!
THE GRACE OF GOD, NFP
P.O. BOX 865
HAZEL CREST, IL 60429
info [at] jeremiahwright.com
Please if you can, pass this email on to Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Sir,
I think somehow things have got terribly twisted. An article today claims that you’ve said, “Whites are liars”—or so the news story goes.
I wish you’d open your eyes to the truth. Never in our nation’s history has there been so much support for Black people (or any other “minority”). Racism in some form will always be with us, but to put out a blanket statement like that is just wrong.
Sir, I’ve never had a racist bone in my body. Even growing up with a very racist Mother (Dad died when I was 2) who didn’t like anyone who wasn’t a W.A.S.P. I knew that wasn’t right, as far back as I can remember. I don’t care for Obama’s policies, but I don’t dislike him as a human. If he were purple, I still wouldn’t like his policies.
Often, ALL people of ALL colors lie—usually I believe, it’s to not hurt the feelings of whoever they’re talking to. Your statement of “White people lie” is itself a lie. But I’ll tell you straight up, and you can pass it on to whomever you desire, if I feel some foolish white person, or brown, or black, or yellow, or whatever—is harming my country, or even being racist to any group, I will not be silent.
Look, God doesn’t care what color we are...why should humans???? That includes you, Dearest Reverend Wright. It includes me. it includes everyone on the planet.
I’d so hoped that Obama’s election would end racism once and for all...many, MANY white people did also. It didn’t happen, and it breaks my heart the divide seems deeper and meaner than ever.
Perhaps we should all repent—once and for all---of this sin, for surely it truly IS a sin.
God Bless and Keep You,
Chris
(a 59 year old white woman that doesn’t “cross the street” when a black person approaches.)—oh and hey, I don’t capitalize “colors of men/women” because it’s not an issue with me, it’s not out of disrespect, please note “white” is not capitalized except in the quote above.
Also, please keep in mind there are jerks and evil people on every corner—and they’re every color too!
THE GRACE OF GOD, NFP
P.O. BOX 865
HAZEL CREST, IL 60429
info [at] jeremiahwright.com
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