Another 1,000,000+ Guns Added to American Homes in August

Background Checks On Firearm Sales Up 12% In August.Americans buy 1,074,757+ guns in August 2009

from Ammoland.com
September 9, 2009

Washington, DC --(AmmoLand.com)- Data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reported 1,074,757 checks in August 2009, a 12.3 percent increase from the 956,872 reported in August 2008.

So far that is roughly 9,076,205 gun bought this year! The total is probably more as NICS background checks may cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time.

This latest jump in background checks show that Americans are solidly in-favor of keeping firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens and clearly shows that proponents claiming the USA wants more gun control are blatantly wrong.

Gun Owners Say No to Gun Conrtol with their Wallets
The increased trend of Americans buying firearms at a record pace was once thought to be a one time fluke caused by fears of the new Obama administration expressed lust for more gun control. But now 10 months in and the wrongly named “fear buying” has now become the norm as law abiding US citizen exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear firearms by the millions every month with no sign of slowing down.

The bulk of the buying has been concentrated on the following types of guns or calibers:

•Semi Auto Handguns
•Revolvers
•Ar15s and all variants of the Black Rifle
•.50 Caliber

1.17 Guns for Each Person
Conservative estimates of legally owned guns in the USA put the number at 355,029,250 million guns in the USA. That is 1.17 guns for everyone in the USA and if you listen to the liberal press they are all assault weapons. God bless anyone who tries to invade the USA…

Crime Rates Falling
The most stunning in all of this is that we have not seen an increase in crime, murder rates have fallen across most of the USA and Americans have shown that they can be trusted with firearms ownership. This is directly in contrast to what the national media and gun control supporters would have us believe.

Gun owners you are clearly the majority!

Click to read the article and the comments

Miranda Warnings for Terrorists - what's next, a telephone call home?

Can you imagine a soldier after a firefight having to read a captured prisoner-of-war (terrorist) their Miranda rights? First of all, the terrorist won't have a clue as to what his Miranda rights are, and secondly, the soldier will have to have an interpreter available to do it. It's unbelievable to even imagine.

I was in the Army NG for 12 years, and if I was a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan, I would make sure there would be no survivors to read their Miranda rights to. Hey, it's war. That's just the way it is. Maybe Obama should go through basic training and get a clue.
Rees

from The Corner
at The National Review
by Andy McCarthy

Miranda Warnings for Terrorists — Thank Sen. McCain

Steve Hayes is getting lots of well deserved attention for his report at the Weekly Standard today about how the Obama/Holder Justice Department has quietly instructed the FBI to start giving Miranda warnings to captured alien combatant terrorists — the next logical move in the ongoing effort to move us away from a war approach and return us to the law-enforcement paradigm for dealing with international terrorism.

Obama will obviously be embarrassed by the revelation, especially since, as the Standard's John McCormack recounts, candidate Obama (and fledgling President Obama) scoffed at the claim by us knuckle-draggers that he wanted foreign terrorists to get Miranda protection upon capture. But once he recovers his footing, I guarantee the president will argue that he is merely bringing government agents operating overseas into compliance with the McCain Amendment (enacted as part of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act).

I hate to say I told you so, but back when we were having this debate, thanks to Senator McCain's grandstanding on "torture," I warned that his amendment would lead to the legal claim that American agents — including the military — were now required to give Miranda warnings to captured terrorists outside the U.S. (See, e.g., here, here, here and here (under "The Domestic Agenda")). Live by demagoguery, die by demagoguery.

In fact, it was Sarah Palin who said at the GOP convention: "Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he's (Obama) worried that someone won't read them their rights."

Click to read this and other great articles at The National Review

New York City: Bomb goes off outside Starbucks

from Jihad Watch
by Robert Spencer
May 25, 2009

There is no telling who did this at this point. It could have nothing at all to do with jihad.

So why am I posting it?

Because New York Islamic jihadist Youssef al-Khattab, who calls for genocide and has threatened others, hates Starbucks (and how very interesting that he has removed the video to which Jawa linked).

Also, jihadists in London hate Starbucks.

And Sheikh al-Qaradawi hates Starbucks.

Worth watching.



"Explosion outside UES Starbucks," by Scott Curkin for WABC-TV, May 25 (thanks to the Jawa Report):

NEW YORK (WABC) -- An explosive device blew out the windows of a Starbucks coffee shop in a blast that rocked an Upper East Side neighborhood.

The loud blast was heard at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 92nd Street just before 4 a.m.

The explosion took place on 92nd and 3rd avenue.

Police are still looking for the person who left the device outside of the Starbucks.

The time of day echoed that of a pattern of unsolved early morning blasts that have occurred outside the British Consulate, the Mexican Consulate and the Armed Forces recruiting booth in Times Square over the past two years....

What Started The California Wildfires?

from Investor's Business Daily

by Michael Ramirez

FBI Agent: Obama Making Another 9/11 'Inevitable'

from Chandler's Watch.com
Posted by Howie
May 16, 2009

FBI Agent: Obama Making Another 9/11 ‘Inevitable’

from Newsmax.com
By: David A. Patten

A former FBI agent who recently won a lawsuit defeating FBI attempts to muzzle him tells Newsmax that the agency’s morale may be at its lowest ebb ever, and warns the “chilling” effect of Obama administration policies is making another terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland “inevitable.”

Speaking in an exclusive Newsmax interview, retired FBI Agent John Vincent says his gravest concern is that the Obama administration is repeating mistakes of the past, thereby leaving America vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

“I’m not exactly sure where the president is coming from, but all the signals he gives out is that the United States is prepared to talk peace, we’re not going to do anything to upset any of the people that are conducting all these terrorist acts, we’re going to back out of everything we’ve done before, we’re going to apologize for everything we’ve done in the past – what kind of signals does that send?” Vincent asks. “It sends a signal of weakness and: ‘We are not willing to try and stop what you have planned.’”

From 1997 to 1999, Vincent and Special Agent Robert G. Wright worked together out of the Bureau’s Chicago office on an investigation known as Vulgar Betrayal. Their job was to uncover financial links between U.S.-based charities and extremist groups abroad.

Initially, the investigation focused on Hamas. But Vincent says it eventually exposed “an octopus” of financial connections to other terror groups, including al-Qaida.

In 1999, Vincent says, the FBI shut down the criminal investigation for fear it would interfere with ongoing attempts gathering intelligence. The FBI did not immediately respond to a Newsmax request to comment on either the case or Vincent’s allegations.

“Had the investigation been allowed to go forward, we might have touched upon some of the 9/11 perpetrators,” Vincent tells Newsmax. “We don’t know that because we were stopped two years before the event. But because we had such an octopus working out there, we might have found those people. But we don’t know, because we were stopped.”

Post-9/11 investigations revealed that U.S.-based Islamic charities funneled money to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, funding their operations.

According to a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, the FBI tried to prevent Vincent and Wright from speaking to the media after the 9/11 attacks.

The judge who presided over the case, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler, blasted the Bureau, calling its efforts to silence the men a “sad and discouraging tale.”

“In its efforts to suppress this information,” Judge Kessler wrote, “the FBI repeatedly changed its position, presented formalistic objections to release of various portions of the documents in question, admitted finally that much of the material it sought to suppress was in fact in the public domain and had been all along, and now concedes that several of the reasons it originally offered for censorship no longer have any validity.”

The judge added ominously: “Unfortunately, the issues of terrorism and alleged FBI incompetence remain as timely as ever.”

After the agency shut down Vulgar Betrayal, Wright wrote a 500-page book manuscript and submitted it to the agency as required by law. The agency sought to censor its publication, and to stop Vincent and Wright from speaking to the media.

Vincent retired in December 2002, but Wright continues to be employed by the agency. Vincent tells Newsmax that Wright has chosen not to risk his job, or his retirement, by speaking to the media.

According to Judicial Watch, Wright was the only FBI agent prior to 9/11 to seize funds from U.S.-based terrorists using federal statues on civil forfeiture. That kept over $1.4 million out of terrorists’ hands.

“Wright and Vincent sought to blow the whistle to help prevent other terrorist attacks like 9/11,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated following the judge’s May 8 verdict. “We hope it is not too late for the FBI to listen to our clients, clean up its act, and better protect our nation from the Islamic terrorist threat.”

Vincent, a former Judicial Watch employee, says his primary concern today is that the leaders of the FBI and other counter-terrorism agencies are taking their signals from the Obama administration, softening their approach to the war on terror, and leaving the country more vulnerable.

“That’s what we’re doing all over again now,” Vincent says. “So we’re not utilizing all of the techniques available. We can play nicey-nice with the terrorists, and not use some of the techniques that we used, and we’re tying our hands. By stopping these things, or chilling activities by law enforcement, we’re doing the same thing, we’re tying our hands.”

He adds, “We’re tying the hands of law enforcement by these mixed signals going out. We’re not using all the things we should be using in an all out war. This should be an all out war, not tying one hand behind our back because it’s not politically correct.”

Drawing on his more than three decades of experience as an FBI agent, Vincent said the administration’s new approach to terrorism can only serve to discourage aggressive counter-terror operations by various federal agencies.

Vincent should know: He tells Newsmax that when he first moved into the agency’s Chicago office to begin his investigation in the mid-1990s, policies actually prohibited agents from conducting investigative interviews in the field.

“They wouldn’t even leave the office,” he says. “Well, how can you possibly conduct counter-terrorism operations by sitting there gathering intelligence and never doing anything with it, never trying to develop sources, never talking to people? That’s the way you counter terrorist activities,” he says. “You don’t sit in an office,” Vincent tells Newsmax.

With the Obama administration’s threat of prosecutions and its “kinder, gentler” approach to the war on terror, Vincent predicts “That’s exactly what [agents' supervisors] are going to do. They’re going to say, ‘Why should I put my neck on the line here? If I go out and do something I’m going to be second guessed for it later on?’ And I think that’s the message that’s being put out by this new Congress and this new president, which is: ‘Well, we’re going to play nice guys with them, don’t do anything to upset them.’ Meanwhile, they’re cutting your throat.”

Vincent sees Obama’s approach to counter-terrorism as less effective than the Clinton administration’s, because his willingness to negotiate will be seen as weakness in the Middle East. Obama’s policies, he says, will contribute to the next terror attack that Vincent contends will inevitably occur.

“I hate to say it, but yes, it’s inevitable,” Vincent says.

Vincent, who speaks regularly with a network of former agents who are in touch with current agency employees, says Obama’s policies — from closing the Guantanamo prison, releasing memos on “enhanced interrogations,” negotiating with America’s enemies, apologizing internationally for Bush administration policies, and threatening of prosecutions — are inadvertently “emboldening the enemies” of America.

“All the signals he’s putting out [are] causing law enforcement – FBI, CIA – to back up because in the future, ‘If I try to do my job I may get prosecuted for it.’ And then the idea that he apologizes, etc., that’s going to embolden the enemies and they’re going to think we’re easy pickings now.

“And that’s where I think we’re headed, back to prior to the Clinton administration, prior to 9/11, to an area that we don’t want to go. Because… when you back off, and don’t keep doing what you think is the right thing to do, eventually you’ll have a bigger war on your hands — or a bigger catastrophe worse than 9/11,” he says.

Vincent adds that his sources tell him “morale within the organization is probably the lowest it’s ever been. And when you have people who are demoralized, they’re not going to do a good job.”

He also tells Newsmax that he suspects the Obama administration has yet to comprehend the effects of its own policies.

“This administration is weakening every aspect of counterterrorism, and they don’t even know it,” Vincent warns. “They think they’re playing a game with people who follow the rules. Well, these people do not follow any rules. So yes, we can be high-minded, and at the same time we’re going to get our legs cut out from underneath us. Because they don’t play by the rules, they’re not nice people. And that’s what this administration is doing.”

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Complete 911 Timeline
Robert Wright and Operation Vulgar Betrayal
Project: Complete 911 Timeline

Click to read the article and the comments

Must Watch Glenn Beck Video Regarding New Montana Gun Law

from MsUnderestimated.com

Sheer genius. I can’t think of words right now, so I’m just going to tell you the players and you need to watch the video. It’s a self-styled guide as to how we, as individuals, can take our country back and reclaim our individual states’ sovereignty.

Included are Utah State Representative Carl Wimmer, Texas State Representative Leo Berman, and a story about Montana’s new law stating that firearms, ammo, etc., manufactured in Montana will NOT be subject to federal laws, and these states, as well as Oklahoma (my home state) are all drafting legislation to overtly re-emphasize STATES’ RIGHTS (10th Amendment) over the Federal Government!

Utah’s Representative, Carl Wimmer, is a retired police officer. Imagine his surprise that during the time of the interview, the story passed the wires that the Obama Administration is cutting benefits by 50% for families of police officers who have died in the line of duty! WTF is Obongo doing?

FOLKS, THESE MEN ARE TRAILBLAZERS, AND I ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO WRITE, CALL, VISIT YOUR OWN STATE’S REPRESENTATIVES TO ADOPT THIS SAME RESOLUTION FURTHER STRENGTHENING THE 10TH AMENDMENT!

WE REFUSE TO BE SLAVES TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! STAND UP! STAND UP WITH US! BREAK THIS CYCLE OF SLAVERY!

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE THAT I’VE FELT HOPEFUL AND LIKE A MIRACLE IS WAITING TO HAPPEN. COME ON, PEOPLE, BE PART OF THIS! DON’T BE PART OF THE APATHY THAT KILLS THIS GREAT REPUBLIC!

Okay, enough shouting… just PLEASE do your part and make your voices heard/known in your local jurisdictions.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! And STATE SOVEREIGNTY IS PARAMOUNT!
Click to read the article and the comments

President Obama Addresses CIA & FBI Employees - I've got your back...

from Investor's Business Daily
by Michael Ramirez

February shooting was "definitely an anomaly" - not anymore - Iraqi soldier kills 2 US soldiers, wounds 3

My heart goes out to our military who make the ultimate sacrifice.

Try to imagine this: First of all, you can't identify the enemy in Iraq. They don't wear a uniform like in a normal war. This enemy walks aground dressed like any other Iraqi civilian. You don't know if they're carry a weapon, or worse, are wearing a suicide belt.

You really want to know what torture is? Try patrolling the neighborhoods of Iraq under those combat conditions.

If our troops could choose between being waterboarded and patrolling a Bagdad street, the choice would be simple, you won't die from waterboarding.
Rees

from Yahoo News
May 2, 2009
By BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi soldier opened fire on a U.S. military team Saturday, killing two American soldiers and wounding three, the U.S. military said, in an attack that could sharpen worries about the extent of militant infiltration in Iraq's security forces.

Iraqi officials described the attacker — who was killed in the gunbattle — as a soldier who also served as a Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit near Mosul, which is one of the last urban strongholds for Sunni insurgents.

Such an ambush could increase pressure on the Shiite-led government to try to root out possible turncoats and slow efforts to bring Sunni militiamen into the police and military as rewards for helping battle al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent factions.

But any possible slowdown of the Sunni outreach will meet resistance from Washington, which sees the sectarian reconciliation as essential for Iraq's stability and to keep security gains from rolling back.

A U.S. military statement said the attacker was killed after firing on the U.S. soldiers near the entrance to a combat outpost 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Mosul.

A separate gunman fired at other U.S. soldiers at the outpost, then fled, according to Maj. Derrick Cheng, a spokesman for American forces in northern Iraq.

In the past, attackers have used military and police uniforms to bypass checkpoints and gain access to heavily guarded bases. But several Iraqi military officials said the gunman was a low-ranking Iraqi soldier.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was the latest case of a member of Iraq's security forces targeting U.S. troops. On Feb. 24, two Iraqi police officers in Mosul opened fire on a visiting U.S. military team, killing one American soldier and an interpreter. The gunmen remain fugitives.

Earlier this week, a U.S. military spokesman, 1st Lt. John Brimley, called the February shooting "definitely an anomaly."

Saturday's attack follows the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since September — with 18 American soldiers dying in Iraq in April.
click to read the article and the commments

President Obama Addresses CIA & FBI Employees

Muslims: 'We do that on first dates'

picture of extremely painful waterboarding

from World Net Daily
by Ann Coulter
Posted: April 29, 2009

Without any pretense of an argument, which liberals are neurologically incapable of, the mainstream media are now asserting that our wussy interrogation techniques at Guantanamo constituted "torture" and have irreparably harmed America's image abroad.

Only the second of those alleged facts is true: The president's release of the Department of Justice interrogation memos undoubtedly hurt America's image abroad, as we are snickered at in capitals around the world, where they know what real torture is. The Arabs surely view these memos as a pack of lies. What about the pills Americans have to turn us gay?

The techniques used against the most stalwart al-Qaida members, such as Abu Zubaydah, included one terrifying procedure referred to as "the attention grasp." As described in horrifying detail in the Justice Department memo, the "attention grasp" consisted of:

"(G)rasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator."

The end.

There are rumors that Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney wanted to take away the interrogators' Altoids before they administered "the grasp," but Department of Justice lawyers deemed this too cruel.

And that's not all! As the torments were gradually increased, next up the interrogation ladder came "walling." This involves pushing the terrorist against a flexible wall, during which his "head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a C-collar effect to prevent whiplash."

People pay to have a lot rougher stuff done to them at Six Flags Great Adventure. Indeed, with plastic walls and soft neck collars, "walling" may be the world's first method of "torture" in which all the implements were made by Fisher-Price.

As the memo darkly notes, walling doesn't cause any pain, but is supposed to induce terror by making a "loud noise": "(T)he false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock and surprise." (!!!)

If you need a few minutes to compose yourself after being subjected to that horror, feel free to take a break from reading now. Sometimes a cold compress on the forehead is helpful, but don't let it drip or you might end up waterboarding yourself.

The CIA's interrogation techniques couldn't be more ridiculous if they were out of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch:

Cardinal! Poke her with the soft cushions! ...

Hmm! She is made of harder stuff! Cardinal Fang! Fetch ... THE COMFY CHAIR!

So you think you are strong because you can survive the soft cushions. Well, we shall see. Biggles! Put her in the Comfy Chair! ...

Now – you will stay in the Comfy Chair until lunchtime, with only a cup of coffee at 11.

Further up the torture ladder – from Guantanamo, not Monty Python – comes the "insult slap," which is designed to be virtually painless, but involves the interrogator invading "the individual's personal space."

If that doesn't work, the interrogator shows up the next day wearing the same outfit as the terrorist. (Awkward.)

I will spare you the gruesome details of the CIA's other comical interrogation techniques and leap directly to the penultimate "torture" in their arsenal: the caterpillar.

In this unspeakable brutality, a harmless caterpillar is placed in the terrorist's cell. Justice Department lawyers expressly denied the interrogators' request to trick the terrorist into believing the caterpillar was a "stinging insect."

Human rights groups have variously described being trapped in a cell with a live caterpillar as "brutal," "soul-wrenching" and, of course, "adorable."

If the terrorist manages to survive the non-stinging caterpillar maneuver – the most fiendish method of torture ever devised by the human mind that didn't involve being forced to watch "The View" – CIA interrogators had another sadistic trick up their sleeves.

I am not at liberty to divulge the details, except to mention the procedure's terror-inducing name: "the ladybug."

Finally, the most savage interrogation technique at Guantanamo was "waterboarding," which is only slightly rougher than the Comfy Chair.

Thousands of our troops are waterboarded every year as part of their training, but not until it was done to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – mastermind of the 9/11 attack on America – were liberal consciences shocked.

I think they were mostly shocked because they couldn't figure out how Joey Buttafuoco ended up in Guantanamo.

As non-uniformed combatants, all of the detainees at Guantanamo could have been summarily shot on the battlefield under the Laws of War.

Instead, we gave them comfy chairs, free lawyers, better food than is served in Afghani caves, prayer rugs, recreational activities and top-flight medical care – including one terrorist who was released, whereupon he rejoined the jihad against America, after being fitted for an expensive artificial leg at Guantanamo, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Only three terrorists – who could have been shot – were waterboarded. This is not nearly as bad as "snowboarding," which is known to cause massive buttocks pain and results in approximately 10 deaths per year.

Normal human beings – especially those who grew up with my older brother, Jimmy – can't read the interrogation memos without laughing.

At Al-Jazeera, they don't believe these interrogation memos are for real. Muslims look at them and say: THIS IS ALL THEY'RE DOING? We do that for practice. We do that to our friends.

But the New York Times is populated with people who can't believe they live in a country where people would put a caterpillar in a terrorist's cell.
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The best New York flyover video

Stupidity + Arrogance = Gibbs

A MUST WATCH - Obama Insensitive about 911...

FAA memo: Feds knew Scare Force One would cause panic

image by Rees

from Hot Air.com
by Allahpundit
April 28, 2009

Via JWF, I’m almost comforted by the revelation. The possibility that they’d be so stupid as not to know that buzzing lower Manhattan with a jumbo jet might freak people out is too terrible to contemplate.

Now all we have to do is figure out why a “photo op” would be such a terrifically big secret that not even the mayor of New York was in on it. Does that make any sense at all? “We need a new stock shot of Air Force One near the Statue of Liberty. Don’t tell a soul.”

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD, the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out…

The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.

The cost of this debacle, by the way? Just shy of $329,000. Think of it as a stimulus: The amount of booze, smokes, and anti-anxiety meds alone that New Yorkers must have consumed in the aftermath of this mass panic attack was probably worth $10-20 mil to the city.

I just got this info sent to me about the photo op / flyover yesterday with Air Force One ….the one that sent people running in NYC…yes, scared them to death! They now say it was a training mission…hhm….they needed training? and the cost? see (by the way, how much flu vaccination can you get for $325,000+? )

Follow the link for a breakdown of the cost. Question for Air Force vets: Is “training mission” military jargon for “photo op”? What were they “training” to do here precisely, besides killing people on the ground from fright?
Click to read the article and comments

Napolitano:"crossing the border is not a crime per se." Yes, she really said that.

Bulletin: Napalatano changes the immigration law all by herself. At least it looks that way. Wow, I didn't know her DHS position had that authority but I guess it does.

Question: Do we need to vote anymore? Does it make any difference? Obama's administration seems to be doing pretty much whatever they want. If they can't get it passed through the congress and senate, they'll just back door it.
Rees

Janet Napolitano said what?
from Michell Malkin.com
By Michelle Malkin
April 21, 2009

She said this on CNN over the weekend:

KING: A lot of Democrats in Congress want to you investigate [Joe Arpaio]. They think he is over the line. He says he is just enforcing the law and the problem is the federal government.

NAPOLITANO: Well, you know, Sheriff Joe, he is being very political in that statement, because he knows that there aren’t enough law enforcement officers, courtrooms or jail cells in the world to do what he is saying.

What we have to do is target the real evil-doers in this business, the employers who consistently hire illegal labor, the human traffickers who are exploiting human misery.

And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil. But anyway, going after those as well.

Full transcript here.

Julie Kirchner gently reminds the DHS Secretary of what the law actually says:

ENTRY WITHOUT INSPECTION IS A CRIME: In fact, pursuant to 8 U.S.C.
1325, crossing the border illegally is a crime–a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for the second and subsequent offenses. But of course, ignoring or mischaracterizing the law is a very convenient way for those in power to avoid the laws they find most inconvenient. Sadly, statements such as these are also a signal that Americans will have to wait a long time before their government articulates any credible immigration enforcement policy.

Jena McNeill at The Foundry sees through Napolitano’s parsing:

This ‘interpretation’ of the law by Secretary Napolitano seems to be the latest in an effort by the Obama Administration to scale back interior immigration enforcement efforts in the United States. As recently as March 28th, Napolitano made the decision to delay a series of immigration raids and other workplace actions aimed at finding illegal workers. At the same time, both President Obama and Secretary Napolitano have announced new initiatives intending to send the message that they take the issues at the southern border seriously. But the Administration cannot fight cartels while ignoring illegal immigration—people smuggling is part of the problem, not a separate issue. Legalization will only make matters worse. Granting the people here illegally asylum will only encourage more illegal border crossing. Likewise, failing to enforce workplace and immigration laws will only encourage more to ignore the law.

Yep, that’s The Plan.
***
There is now a Fire Napolitano website.
Click to read the article and comments

Muslim Group to FBI - "We're Going To Fight"

I guess it's a good thing that this wasn't a Rightwing Extremist meeting. Janet Napolitano would probably have had all of them arrested and put in an internment camp.

In fact, I don't believe I've seen a release from the DHS lately indicating that the disenchantment that Muslims perceive, could result in violent activity. If they've drafted one lately, I don't believe it was released to the public. That would have been a problem because it would have smeared the entire American Muslim population as Muslim Extremists.

Yeah, Janet wouldn't want to do something like that.

But, if she did, I would assume the DHS draft might read as follows:

* (U) Muslims in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and
adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as demanding implementation of sharia law.
Rees

from The Los Angeles Times
By Paloma Esquivel
April 20, 2009

Some influential Muslim groups question FBI's actions
Revelations that the agency has been surveilling popular leaders and infiltrating mosques and schools has many organizations turning away from their post-9/11 cooperation.

As they sipped tea and nibbled on dates, more than 100 men and women listened to a litany of speakers sounding the same message: The FBI is not your friend.

"We're here today to say our mosques are off limits," Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for Greater Los Angeles, told the crowd last month at an Anaheim mosque.

"Our Koran is off limits," Ayloush said. "Our youth, who they try to radicalize, are off limits. Now is the time to tell them, 'We're not going to let this happen anymore.' "

Attendees applauded Qazi's statement, but it was a mea culpa that most moved them.

"We goofed up, guys," said Shakeel Syed, head of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "We brought them here. We brought them to our mosques, to our meetings. . . . We have to hold ourselves responsible. That's why it's so important to dig our heels into the ground and say we're not going to take this lying down, we're going to fight."

He got the loudest applause of the night.
Click to read the rest of the article

This is 2009, not 1984

This is an incredible article. I posted the first couple of paragraphs and would encourage everyone to click on the link to read the rest of the article. It's worth your time.
Rees

from America's Right
By Rick Saunders & Jeff Schreiber
Monday, April 20, 2009

Report: FBI was actively monitoring Tax Day Tea Party protests

Yesterday, White House adviser David Axelrod suggested that the "TEA Party" phenomenon which started sweeping the country last week was an "unhealthy" reaction to tough economic times.

Given the leftist pedigree Axelrod flaunts, that statement should come as no surprise, if not an outright compliment to the many concerned Americans who took time off from work to voice their opinions. Regardless of how taken, it only further underscores the fundamental intellectual hostility toward America and Americans who love their country and Constitution recently demonstrated by folks like Axelrod, DHS Commandante Janet Napolitano and, of course, The Chosen One himself.
Click to read the rest of the article and comments

Obama's Dept. of Homeland Security Targets 'Right Wing Extremists'

Check their definition of a Right Wing Extremist because you probably qualify as one!

from Joshua Pundit
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an Office of Intelligence and Analysis report (PDF file here) by the Obama DHS that identifies 'Right wing Conservatives' as the major threat to our country's security.

This is very different than other similar reports done by the FBI in the past. Those focused narrowly on specific groups like the Black Panthers,The Aryan Brotherhood or ELF.

This one essentially indicts anyone who is pro Second Amendment, pro-border control, anti-abortion..or most tellingly, not a fan of the current Administration:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use.

Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.

And it particularly targets veterans:

((U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence.

What this is, in case you haven't noticed is the Leftist fantasy of the 'vast Right wing conspiracy' made real and part of official policy under government auspices.

Essentially, it's a foundation for an enemies list, likely to be enforced by Obama's own personal domestic security force...the one Congress just approved funding for. And it targets virtually every hot button issue that people might disagree with the Obama Administration on and tars them with the brush of 'extremists.'

I particularly note the demonization of people who took an oath to defend our Constitution while in uniform. If you look at totalitarian regimes, veterans have always been targeted, especially if they're thought to be armed.

It remains to be seen exactly how far this policy ends up going. It bears watching, to say the least.
Click to read the article and comments

DHS Releases Classified Picture Of Rightwing Extremist Group

I'm obviously joking about the photo, but I am very serious about the DHS report and what a smear campaign it is.

Yes, according to the latest report issued by Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security, all of our brave men and women in America's military are potential Rightwing Extremists with a potential for violent capabilities. I'm not making this up. Please take the time to read the report. It's only 9 pages long and I have provided a link.

Rees

Here is a quick excerpt from the report:

— (U//FOUO) Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to
boost their violent capabilities.

Here is the actual Department of Homeland Security Report - PDF File

The following sections are directed towards current and former military personnel:

PAGE 7

(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

— (U) After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military
veterans—including Timothy McVeigh—joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups. [so they attach the stigma of McVeigh to all veterans - my comment]

— (U) A prominent civil rights organization reported in 2006 that “large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads, and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the [U.S.] armed forces.”

— (U//LES) The FBI noted in a 2008 report on the white supremacist movement that some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups.

PAGE 9

(U) Reporting Notice:

(U) DHS encourages recipients of this document to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to DHS and the FBI. The DHS National Operations Center (NOC) can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9685 or by e-mail at NOC.Fusion@dhs.gov. For information affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure, contact the National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC), a sub-element of the NOC. The NICC can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9201 or by e-mail at NICC@dhs.gov. The FBI regional phone numbers can be found online at http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm. When available, each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people and type of equipment used for the activity, the name of the submitting company or organization, and a designated point of contact.

Click to read entire report

US sea capt. freed from pirates in swift firefight

Update: Captain Phillips was tied-up with ropes at the time the snipers shot the pirates. The U.S. Navy Seal snipers saved the life of Captain Phillips and sent a message to all pirates monitoring the situation.


God Bless The United States Navy!
Deadly Force is the only way to deal with these scumbag terrorists. It's too bad the 4th pirate wasn't able to join the other three in their Muslim paradise.
Rees

photo of Maersk-Alabama captain Richard Phillips, (right), stands alongside Cmdr. Frank Castellano, the commanding officer of USS Bainbridge

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and LARA JAKES
Associated Press Writers
April 12, 2009

MOMBASA, Kenya – An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a swift firefight that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, U.S. officials said.

Capt. Richard Phillips' crew, who said they escaped after he offered himself to the pirates as a hostage, erupted in cheers abroad their ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya, waving an American flag and firing a flare in celebration.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet said Phillips was resting comfortably on a U.S. warship after receiving a medical exam.

The Navy said Phillips was freed at 7:19 p.m. local time. He was taken aboard the Norfolk, Virginia-based USS Bainbridge and then flown to the San Diego-based USS Boxer for the medial exam, 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said.

Christensen said Phillips was now "resting comfortably." The USS Boxer was in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia, Christensen said.

The U.S. did not say if Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was receiving medical care because he had been injured or if he was being treated for exposure after his ordeal.

U.S. officials said a pirate who had been involved in negotiations to free Phillips but who was not on the lifeboat during the rescue was in military custody. FBI spokesman John Miller said that would change as the situation became "more of a criminal issue than a military issue."

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said prosecutors were looking at "evidence and other issues" to determine whether to bring a case in the United States.

Maersk Line Limited President and CEO John Reinhart said in a news release that the U.S. government informed the company around 1:30 p.m. EDT Sunday that Phillips had been rescued. Reinhart said the company called Phillips' wife, Andrea, to tell her the news.

The U.S. official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment.

When Phillips' crew heard the news aboard their ship in the port of Mombasa, they placed an American flag over the rail of the top of the Maersk Alabama and whistled and pumped their fists in the air. Crew fired a bright red flare into the sky from the ship.

"We made it!" said crewman ATM Reza, pumping his fist in the air.

"He managed to be in a 120-degree oven for days, it's amazing," said another of about a dozen crew members who came out to talk to reporters. He said the crew found out the captain was released because one of the sailors had been talking to his wife on the phone.

Capt. Joseph Murphy, the father of second-in-command Shane Murphy, thanked Phillips for his bravery.

"Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday. I have made it clear throughout this terrible ordeal that my son and our family will forever be indebted to Capt. Phillips for his bravery," Murphy said. "If not for his incredible personal sacrifice, this kidnapping and act of terror could have turned out much worse."

In the written statement, Murphy said both his family and Phillips' "can now celebrate a joyous Easter together."

Terry Aiken, 66, who lives across the street from the Phillips house, fought back tears as he reacted to the news.

"I'm very, very happy," Aiken said. "I can't be happier for him and his family."

A government official and others in Somalia with knowledge of the situation had reported hours earlier that negotiations for Phillips' release had broken down.

Talks to free him began Thursday with the captain of the USS Bainbridge talking to the pirates under instruction from FBI hostage negotiators on board the U.S. destroyer. The pirates had threatened to kill Phillips if attacked.

Three U.S. warships were within easy reach of the lifeboat on Saturday. The U.S. Navy had assumed the pirates would try to get their hostage to shore, where they can hide him on Somalia's lawless soil and be in a stronger position to negotiate a ransom.

Maersk Line said before news of the rescue broke that "the U.S. Navy had sight contact" of Phillips — apparently when the pirates opened the hatches.

Before Phillips was freed, a pirate who said he was associated with the gang that held Phillips, Ahmed Mohamed Nur, told The Associated Press that the pirates had reported that "helicopters continue to fly over their heads in the daylight and in the night they are under the focus of a spotlight from a warship."

He spoke by satellite phone from Harardhere, a port and pirate stronghold where a fisherman said helicopters flew over the town Sunday morning and a warship was looming on the horizon. The fisherman, Abdi Sheikh Muse, said that could be an indication the lifeboat may be near to shore.

The district commissioner of the central Mudug region said talks went on all day Saturday, with clan elders from his area talking by satellite telephone and through a translator with Americans, but collapsed late Saturday night.

"The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates," said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

Two other Somalis, one involved in the negotiations and another in contact with the pirates, also said the talks collapsed because of the U.S. insistence that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.

Phillips' crew of 19 American sailors reached safe harbor in Kenya's northeast port of Mombasa on Saturday night under guard of U.S. Navy Seals, exhilarated by their freedom but mourning the absence of Phillips.

Crew members said their ordeal had begun with the Somali pirates hauling themselves up from a small boat bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean far below.

As the pirates shot in the air, Phillips told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men, crew members said.

Phillips was then held hostage in an enclosed lifeboat that was closely watched by U.S. warships and a helicopter in an increasingly tense standoff. On Friday, the French navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, but one of the five hostages was killed.

Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat Friday and tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured when a pirate fired an automatic weapon at or near him, according to U.S. Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the unfolding operations.

Early Saturday, the pirates holding Phillips in the lifeboat fired a few shots at a small U.S. Navy vessel that had approached, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official said the U.S. sailors did not return fire, the Navy vessel turned away and no one was hurt. He said the vessel had not been attempting a rescue. The pirates are believed armed with pistols and AK-47 assault rifles.

"When I spoke to the crew, they won't consider it done when they board a plane and come home," Maersk President John Reinhart said from Norfolk, Virginia before news of Phillips' rescue. "They won't consider it done until the captain is back, nor will we."

In Phillips' hometown, the Rev. Charles Danielson of the St. Thomas Church said before the news broke that the congregation would continue to pray for Phillips and his family, who are members, and he would encourage "people to find hope in the triumph of good over evil."

Reinhart said he spoke with Phillips' wife, who is surrounded by family and two company employees who were sent to support her.

"She's a brave woman," Reinhart said. "And she has one favor to ask: 'Do what you have to do to bring Richard home safely.' That means don't make a mistake, folks. We have to be perfect in our execution."
Click to read the article