The face of the war on terror must include Israel, which some, including the MSM, have not done in the past. Israel is in fact a crucial part of this global war on terror. Caroline B. Glick has another excellent article in Jewish World Review. Here’s a taste:

The face of the enemy has changed. If in the past it was possible to say that the war being waged against Israel was unique and distinct from the global jihad, after the events of the past week, it is no longer possible to credibly make such a claim. Four events that occurred this week — the attacks in the Sinai; the release of Osama bin Laden’s audiotape; the release of Abu Musab Zarqawi’s videotape; and the arrest of Hamas terrorists by Jordan — all proved clearly that today it is impossible to separate the wars. The new situation has critical consequences for the character of the campaign that the IDF must fight to defend Israel and for the nature of the policies that the incoming government of Israel must adopt and advance.

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(Beijing) Following closely on the reported kidnapping of Chinese blogger Hao Wu by state security police is this story.

From Reuters:

Yahoo Inc. has been cited in a Chinese court decision to jail a dissident Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003 — the fourth such case to surface implicating the U.S. Internet giant.

Wang Xiaoning, born in 1951, was convicted of the charge of “incitement to subvert state power,” the New York-based watchdog Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a statement.

Evidence cited in the verdict included “information provided by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. stating that Wang’s “aaabbbccc” Yahoo Group was set up using the mainland China-based email address bxoguh@yahoo.com.cn.,” HRIC said.

Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. also confirmed that the email address ahgq@yahoo.com.cn, through which Wang sent messages to his Yahoo Group, was a China-based account, it said.

Although it’s clear that Yahoo provided specific information regarding Wang’s identity, it’s not clear whether it was Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. or Yahoo China.

Wang’s prosecution by the ChiComs was a result of his advocating democratic reform and a multi-party system. Consequently, he was deemed to be a subversive needing ten years in a Chinese prison. Without question, it’s heavy punishment and “illustrates the risks Chinese people expose themselves to through no more than the peaceful expression of political views.”

I think if I were Chinese, the ChiComs would have already sent me away for a long time.

From Interested-Participant.

It’s been two months since Chinese blogger Hao Wu was last heard from.

From IFEX.org:

Reporters Without Borders has said it considered Chinese blogger Hao Wu to be the victim of state abduction as more than two months have gone by since his arrest by the National Security Bureau in Beijing without his family getting any news about him. His lawyer has not been allowed to see him, but has been told his client is under house arrest.

“This case shows the Chinese security services operate without any control by the courts,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Hao is the victim of an arbitrary system that interprets the law as it sees fit. We call on European and American diplomats to raise his case at their meetings with the Chinese authorities. We are curious to know how they will justify the National Security Bureau’s procedures.”

I think it’s somewhat naive to expect a communist police state to respect freedom of expression. The Chinese live under a dangerous and repressive political system and Hao was taking big risks by just having a blog. Nevertheless, action should be taken at every opportunity to exert political pressure on the ChiComs for Hao’s release.

Hao’s blog is Beijing or Bust where he writes under the name Beijing Loafer. He also contributes to Global Voices under the name Tian Yi.

From Interested-Participant.

With frustration at both political parties here in the USA over several subjects, specifically illegal immigration, I found the following about a possible third-party interesting:

Third Party Does The Charm…During the past couple of months, I’ve thought privately that this country was ripe for the rise of a third party … and son of a gun — Rasmussen just came out with the fascinating poll:

April 27, 2006–Democrats currently hold a 12-point advantage over Republicans on a generic 2008 Presidential ballot. However, a third-party candidate focusing on immigration enforcement issues could fundamentally alter those political dynamics.The latest Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey finds that 44% of Americans say they would vote for a Democrat if the Presidential Election were held today. Just 32% would vote for a Republican. Those figures are likely a reflection of unhappiness with the Bush Administration rather than a commentary on prospective candidates from either party …(nope. folks are fed up with Congress as well — FB)

The survey also asked respondents how they would vote if “a third party candidate ran in 2008 and promised to build a barrier along the Mexican border and make enforcement of immigration law his top priority.”

With that option, support fell sharply for both major parties. The Democrats still come out on top with support from 31% of Americans. The third party candidate moved into a virtual tie at 30% while the GOP fell to 21%.

That indicates that a third party could win, at least in 2008. If you look at the figures — Dems would lose a whopping 13 percent to a third party candidate, while Repubs would lose only two percent less. Which makes me think that alot of folks would consider voting Dem, just because they’re fed up with Republicans, and alot of Republican voters would love a third choice.

Click here to see how the rest of the November elections are shaking down so far. In some states, it looks close, but I’m only seeing 2 Republican leading in their Senate races, although it’s a partial list.

(Go read the entire post, with specific states and politicians listed and much more pertinent commentary here.)

Cross Posted at Right Truth

I saw the movie United 93 today. This movie is amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone. If you have been living in a cave and don’t know, the movie United 93 is the story of the brave passengers who grounded the plane to save it’s target, either the White House or the Capitol.

I expected the movie to be slanted, as most Hollywood movies are. But I was wrong. It was amazing. It was factual. There was not a sound in the theater and at the end people just sat there for a few seconds (although it seemed much longer) in silence.

I had tears in my eyes. I was proud to be an American, proud of these people. Each and every passenger was a hero. I was also angry at the evil terrorists and the religion that inspired them.

If you read the MSM, this film is described as “controversial”, as “the film that no one wants to see“. It may be controversial to some, but everyone should see this film, EVERYONE! This is not fiction, this is not a made up story to sell tickets. This is real. This happened. I saw the events live and in color on Fox News Channel on September 11, 2001.

This movie has been described as “difficult to watch, but impossible to turn away from”, and that is very accurate. At times I caught myself squeezing the fabric of my slacks, or hugging myself, or balling my hands into fists. I had to tell myself to relax. The movie almost makes the audience feel a part of the action, like I was actually on the plane. We need to feel this way.

We need to ask ourselves, “If I were in that situation, would I have the courage to ACT as those people did, or to at least stay out of their way?” I hope that I could be that brave. I pray that I would make my country proud as they did.

American needs to be reminded what happened on September 11, 2001. Time makes the horror of that day fade, we need to never let that happen. We need to remember why we fight, why we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why we must not allow Iran to go nuclear. Why crazy tyrants like Ahmadinejad must not be allowed to spread their evil and accomplish their goals. Americans must not grow weary and weak. To forget will make sure we get caught with our pants down again, just like we did on 9/11.

Writer / director / producer Paul Greengrass is a liberal. He says we must put our liberal and conservative views aside when it comes to this terror and protecting the United States. Rush Limbaugh has done a sit-down interview with Mr. Greengrass. The printed interview will come out in the next three weeks in the Limbaugh Letter. He is airing excepts from the interview on his radio show.

Never Forget! Never grow weak. Never let our guard down. Remember September 11, 2001 Americans! See this movie.

Cross Posted at Right Truth,

Cross Posted at Hyscience

Cross Posted at Freedom’s Zone

The same hackers out of Saudi Arabia that took down this site and many others who use Hosting Matters were at it again, shutting this site down for about an hour. It’s actually quite remarkable HM can fix the problem as fast as they have, which is the primary reason why I use HM; they fix any error very quickly.

Much like the DDoS attack this morning, I didn’t even know until it was over. It is the Stanley Cup playoffs you know.  On a positive note, at least the spammers couldn’t get their crap out too.  For the past week, this site has received an average of 600 spam comments per day, and only one has made it past my spam blockers.  Idiots.  All of them!

From Thomas Joscelyn:

As the nation continues to debate what to do about our southern border, I thought I would point out a piece of informaton I found in a cache of documents released by the Pentagon in early March. In connection with a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press, the Pentagon released thousands of pages of documents transcribed during tribunal hearings for the hundreds of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There is a lot of interesting information in those documents, including the allegations against one detainee who was caught while trying to sneak across the Mexican border.

The name of the detainee was not given in the original two-page transcript I reviewed. Just recently the Pentagon released the names of hundreds of Guantanamo’s inmates, but I haven’t been able to match one of those names to this suspect, yet.

The U.S. government alleges that the detainee “attempted to be smuggled into the United States” and “traveled with forged travel documents, including a passport and other travel documents.” The detainee admits that he was caught while attempting to illegally enter the U.S., but claims that he “was going to find a job to make some money.”
The government alleges, “The Detainee left Pakistan ten months previous to his detention by paying a smuggler in Pakistan twenty-five thousand dollars (US) to be smuggled into the U.S.” The detainee does not deny this allegation, but claims that the fee “was paid in Pakistani currency, one million rupies, about sixteen to eighteen thousand dollars. This would get paid when I got to the United States.” He adds, “My father owns an oil tanker, which he would sell to make the payment. Also, it was only eight months after I left Pakistan to when I was captured.”

Since the report states “he,” we can ascertain this isn’t Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed who was found crossing the Rio Grande into Texas in July 2004.  And since there’s a Pakistan connection (isn’t there always?), it’s likely not Fakhrul Islam either.  So this third person of interest was trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border while the immigration debate in this country in the halls of Congress is more over what to do with the millions of illegals in the country already.

Here’s a solution: build up that wall then we can decide what to do with those already here.  I’d be willing to grant amnesty if we actually secured our border first.

The U.S. State Department issued its annual report on terrorism, available for download HERE in pdf format (right-click, save as), and while there are many important aspects to the report, two stand out as reported by CNN and the Associated Press.

On terrorist groups seeking to create a terrorist safe-haven in Iraq:

Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq group and others “view Iraq as a potential safe haven and are attempting to make it a reality,” said the annual report on worldwide terrorism.

The study said Syria and Iran, whom the United States consider to be state sponsors of terror, are supporting terrorists in Iraq.

Syria “was used as a facilitation hub for terrorist groups operating in Iraq” and Iran “has provided political and ideological support for several terrorist and militant groups active in Iraq,” the report found.

It also noted the “proliferation of smaller looser networks that are less capable but also less predictable.”

These terrorist groups loosely associated with al Qaeda “represent the most prominent current terrorist threat to the United States” and allies because they are “smaller, harder to detect and more difficult to counter,” the report found.

“These micro-actors are launching more attacks, and they are more local and more lethal,” said a senior State Department official involved in the preparation of the report.

On Al Qaida’s leadership losing control of the movement, something previously discussed:

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From Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch:

This chimp’s name could be an indication of how popular Osama is in Sierra Leone, or how unpopular — depending on one’s view of chimpanzees. In any case, this chimp’s participation in the mauling of the four men should in no way reflect on the Vast Majority of Peaceful, Law-Abiding Chimpanzees, who abhor the Osama Chimp’s hijacking of chimphood. It’s a Species of Peace, you know. “‘Osama bin Laden’ still on run in Sierra Leone,” from Reuters, with thanks to DFS:

FREETOWN (Reuters) – “Osama bin Laden” is still on the run in the jungles of Sierra Leone — after escaping with some 20 other chimpanzees from a wildlife sanctuary where they killed a local taxi driver on Sunday.The chimp, named by wardens after the wanted al Qaeda leader, was among a pack of apes which mobbed and mauled four men at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the forested hills outside the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown.

Heh.

An Arizona State University study concluded jihadis use the press as a weapon in their war. Yes, we already knew that, or should have known that, but there are some key things in the study that are worth the mention.

Steven Corman, director of the school’s Consortium for Strategic Communication and a Defense Department consultant on communications networks and counterterrorism, said “people are surprised the jihadis think of the media as a weapon.” What people? Those with the IQ of a peanut?

The report found that jihadist operations use consistent patterns of outreach that establish them socially and religiously, generate public sympathy and intimidate opponents. Threats, in fact, are part of terrorist “talking points.”

This is something we’ve noted and discussed a bit here, and it is crystal clear many of the messages from terrorists and terrorists groups, from Osama bin Laden to Ayman al-Zawahiri through the lesser known groups and suicide bomber videos, use the much of the same talking points. Are these talking points effective? To a degree, I think they are, but much like all products that are around for a while, the talking points lose power. I’m not sure if the jihadi talking points have crossed that point yet, but I have seen the latest messages adapt with the times more than the first communications.

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