Sensitivity Training Run Amock

Weekly Standard:

Fort Hood's New Islamist Instructor
Over at the Corner, Andy McCarthy points out that Louay Safi, a top official at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), has been brought into Fort Hood to teach our troops about Islam. There’s just one problem. As McCarthy and others have reminded us, ISNA has a variety of disturbing ties to Islamic extremists and terrorists--and ISNA itself has been identified by federal prosecutors as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Here is one more ISNA tie worth remembering, adapted from a post I wrote in June. (Keep in mind that this same organization has sent an official to teach American servicemen about Islam.)

In a must-read expose on the financial ties between Saudi Arabia, including members of the royal family, and al Qaeda, the New York Times linked to several supporting documents [in June]. One of these documents is a dossier prepared by German criminal investigators in 2003. The Germans investigated the financial dealings of an organization called the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA), which moved hundreds of millions of dollars around in its sponsorship of terrorism.

TWRA was run by senior Bosnian government officials, and sponsored the relocation of hundreds, if not thousands, of jihadists to Bosnia to fight in the 1990s. While carrying out some legitimate humanitarian functions as a cover, TWRA was really a front for global terrorist operations.

And the ISNA was likely one of its donors.
The German criminal investigators' entry on ISNA reads (see this page on the Times’s web site):

Islamic Society of North America
Four credit entries by check were identified, whose sender where (sic) all indicated as “Dyewood Center I.S.N.A.” In total an amount of USD 102,197.85 was credited. This organization is likely to be the “Islamic Society of North America”, headquartered at Plainfield, Indiana, USA.

German criminal investigators concluded that ISNA’s six-figure donation to TWRA was split into four transfers between July and October of 1992.

What was TWRA doing at the time? It was funding the terror network that executed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and orchestrated a follow-on attack against landmarks in the New York metro area.

As Evan Kohlmann explains in his book, Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe:

During the 1995 trial of conspirators charged with involvement in a terrorist plot to attack landmarks in New York, Clement Rodney Hampton-el, an American Muslim who trained in the Afghan camps run by Al-Qaida, confirmed that he had been smuggling money into the United States obtained from the Third World Relief Agency for the purpose of financing the military training in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania of Arab-Afghan mujahideen destined for Bosnia.
Several graduates of these makeshift camps helped organize and carry out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. TWRA had ties to al Qaeda members and supporters the world over. Kohlmann notes that Osama bin Laden was suspected of donating “large sums of money” to TWRA to fund the jihad in Bosnia. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, whose jihadists executed the World Trade Center bombing and organized the follow-on landmarks plot, was caught on tape talking to TWRA officials. TWRA “volunteered to spread” Rahman’s message and sell the Blind Sheikh’s “militant videotapes and sermons in mosques throughout Europe,” Kohlmann reported.

There’s more, of course. But it would take pages to summarize TWRA’s international jihadist activities, from transiting terrorists around the globe to arranging for massive arms shipments. In addition to Kohlmann’s book, TWRA’s violent legacy, including ties to al Qaeda, are spelled out in elaborate detail by John Schindler in his book, Unholy Terror. Schindler was formerly one of the NSA’s top analysts on the Balkans. He includes pages of details on TWRA’s terrorist activities.

ISNA's $100,000 was just a drop in TWRA's vast bucket. But still: The simple fact of the matter is that ISNA was helping to fund an al Qaeda-affiliated account used to sponsor jihad.
And now ISNA has supplied an instructor to teach our troops about Islam right before they are deployed to Afghanistan - at a U.S. military base that was just the target of a jihadist attack.
As McCarthy asks, “What on earth is this government doing, and will Congress please do something about it?”

Ecstasy-Apt Description of Obamanaut Nutroots

Obama Ecstasy pills hit the streets
PALMVIEW, Texas - President Barack Obama's approval rating may be hovering in the 50 percent range, but that doesn't mean America's Commander-in-Chief isn't catching on with new constituents.
There is now a line of Ecstasy pills made in the image of the 44th president of the United States, according to Texas police who have snatched a batch off the streets.
Ecstasy is known for a sense of elation, diminished feelings of fear and anxiety, and ability to induce a sense of intimacy with others.
Perhaps a good Election Day strategy to get out the vote?
A stash of the brightly colored tablets was found Monday during a south Texas traffic stop.
Police in Palmview detained a driver after finding black tar heroin, cocaine, marijuana and several Ecstasy pills in the back of his car.
The drugs look like a "vitamin for kids," police spokesman Lenny Sanchez said.
Police say that other Ecstasy pills they found were made to look like the cartoon characters Homer Simpson and the Smurfs.
The 22-year-old driver is expected to face felony drug possession counts.
Palmview is near the border with Mexico.
No word on the driver's political affiliation.

George Will

George Will -- This will not end well
Will gives Obama’s “tentative surgelet” in Afghanistan and it’s supporters a good rap on the snout in his column today.

“Tuesday, the Taliban heard a distant U.S. trumpet sounding withdrawal beginning in 19 months. Also hearing it were Afghans who must decide whether to bet their lives on the Americans, who will begin striking their tents in July 2011, or on the Taliban, who are not going home, because they are at home.

Many Democrats, who think the $787 billion stimulus was too small and want another one (but by another name), are flinching from the $30 billion one-year cost of the Afghan surge.

Considering that the GM and GMAC bailouts ($63 billion) are five times bigger than Afghanistan's gross domestic product ($12 billion), Democrats seem to be selective worriers about deficits. Of course, their real worry is how to wriggle out of their endorsement of the ‘necessary’ war in Afghanistan, which was a merely tactical endorsement intended to disparage the ‘war of choice’ in Iraq.”

The Hammer Is At Work Early

Manifestations of the Magic Lost

Der Spiegel jumps ship: "Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false...It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught. The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself."

How long before an Obama Warrior cover?

And, in perhaps the most important measure of Obama's waning persuasive powers, Tom Hayden has...removed his Obama bumper sticker from his car, with these potent words of warning for the president:

We'll see. To be clear: I'll support Obama down the road against Sarah Palin, Lou Dobbs or any of the pitchfork carriers for the pre-Obama era. But no bumper sticker until the withdrawal strategy is fully carried out.

Grabbing Stuff from the Inbox

DCExaminer
Chris Stirewalt
Good Stuff

New York Times -- Between the Lines, an Expansion in Pakistan
The president went to great pains to explain to the cadets at West Point and a skeptical American public how Afghanistan is not like Vietnam. He might have also explained what Pakistan isn’t like.It may seem surprising since he threw in most everything else – his domestic agenda, his avoidance of past American failures, his wish for a world without war, etc. But Pakistan – the world’s largest Islamic republic – is hard for President Obama to discuss.He has been escalating the clandestine American war in Pakistan for months, even as the nation’s 181 million residents become more suspicious of American involvement and of the American-backed government in Islamabad. As writers David Sanger and Eric Schmitt point out that while Obama did not say much about Pakistan Tuesday night, the thrust of his efforts in the region are focused there.“In recent months, in addition to providing White House officials with classified assessments about Afghanistan, the C.I.A. delivered a plan for widening the campaign of strikes against militants by drone aircraft in Pakistan, sending additional spies there and securing a White House commitment to bulk up the C.I.A.’s budget for operations inside the country. The expanded operations could include drone strikes in the southern province of Baluchistan, where senior Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, officials said. It is from there that they direct many of the attacks on American troops, attacks that are likely to increase as more Americans pour into Afghanistan.‘The president endorsed an intensification of the campaign against Al Qaeda and its violent allies, including even more operations targeting terrorism safe havens,’ said one American official. ‘More people, more places, more operations.’”

Washington Post -- The puzzle for Congress: How to pay for plan
President Obama was very frank in saying that one of the reasons he had to end his Afghan surge in 18 months is that otherwise the cost will interfere with his domestic agenda.“The nation I’m most interested in building is our own,” Obama said. But even a short surge in Afghanistan might cost as much as another $45 billion on top of the $55 billion a year we’re already spending there.On the subject of how to get that money and press forward with the most expensive domestic agenda in generations, Obama was less frank.Writer Paul Kane looks at how war opposition, crippling debt, and a massive entitlement expansion will complicate Obama’s request for more funds.Conservatives want to divert domestic spending to the war, liberals want new taxes, and the president won’t say where he thinks the money should come from.As Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio points out, opposition to the plan is spreading on the Right, further complicating the politics of paying for the president’s second surge.“Obama's proposal would place more than 200,000 troops altogether in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the troop level across both nations averages 75,000 through the next decade, the operations will cost an additional $867 billion -- more than the $848 billion health-care legislation the Senate is considering.”

New York Times -- Senators Pitch to Women and Elderly on Health Bill
The first proposed Democratic amendment to the Senate health bill would add almost $1 billion in taxpayer costs and outlaw low cost, bare-bones health insurance for women. The addition is intended to allay fears among women that government health care means fewer mammograms, etc.The first Republican amendment would eliminate cuts to popular government insurance programs for senior citizens. It was pandering too, but actually designed to kill the whole bill by eliminating half the source of its funding.Writers Robert Pear and David Herszenhorn show us what a long, dreadful process finishing this Senate bill will be.“Another centrist Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said he would propose three amendments. One would impose tougher restrictions on the use of federal money for insurance covering abortions. Another would give states more control over any new government-run health plan. A third would eliminate a proposed new federal program providing insurance for the costs of long-term care.”

Wall Street Journal -- Climate Scientist Steps Down
The scandal surrounding the suppression of scientific doubts about man-made global warming by top climate researchers continues to roll along, now with resignation of Phil Jones, head of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.With the president eight days away from his remarks at the international carbon summit in Denmark, it seems a bad time for a meltdown in the climate control sector.“On Wednesday, President Barack Obama's top science adviser -- John Holdren, a climate scientist who sent one email among those hacked and posted -- is due to testify on Capitol Hill. The House committee holding the hearing has billed it as a way to explore ‘the urgent, consensus view...that global warming is real, and the science indicates that it is getting worse.’ Dr. Holdren's office declined to comment. Dr. Holdren has long spoken of the ‘overwhelming’ evidence of man-made global warming.”

Wall Street Journal -- ObamaCare at Any Cost
The latest swoon on Capitol Hill is over a Congressional Budget Office report that shows only 20 percent of Americans would see big increases in their health insurance premiums while taxpayer-funded subsidies will hold down increases for most consumers.The Journal editorial page does a thorough job of debunking the notion that higher premiums for some and subsidized premiums for others is a good value. “We have now reached the stage of the health-care debate when all that matters is getting a bill passed, so all news is good news, more subsidies mean lower deficits, and more expensive insurance is really cheaper insurance. The nonpolitical mind reels.Consider how Washington received the Congressional Budget Office's study Monday of how Harry Reid's Senate bill will affect insurance costs, which by any rational measure ought to have been a disaster for the bill. CBO found that premiums in the individual market will rise by 10% to 13% more than if Congress did nothing. Family policies under the status quo are projected to cost $13,100 on average, but under ObamaCare will jump to $15,200.

Thanks Are Due

I need to take a minute and tell everyone Thank You for all the support you gave my family and me over the past two weeks. It was overwhelming and humbling.

Susan Keating wrote a nice post after our conversation this past Sunday. Laughing Wolf has been grabbing my tweets and re-tweeting and updating over at Blackfive.

I appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers you have sent my way.

Jihad In America

One year of Jihad in America
Christopher Holton
This was never a war on "terrorism." Jihad is being waged against us and we have tied ourselves in knots to deny that reality. When will we wake up?

There is mounting evidence that the global Jihadist insurgency is fully entrenched in the United States After the Fort Hood massacre news services seem divided between those hell-bent-for-leather on denying that the Fort Hood massacre was a case of anything other than a persecuted loner "snapping" and those who proclaimed it the first "terrorist" attack on U.S. soil since September 11th.

This focus is wrong. Fort Hood was an act of Jihad and that's really all that matters: It is essential that we find out how extensive Nidal Malik Hasan's ties to other Jihadists were. Of this there can be no doubt.

But we must refrain from entering into a debate on what amounts largely to semantics about whether or not the Fort Hood massacre was an act of "terrorism." We need to get away from focusing on the term "terrorism" anyway. Some observers still don't consider the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing by Hezbollah, which killed 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers, an act of "terrorism" because, by some widely recognized definitions, attacks on combatants cannot be termed "terrorism."

!!!Norfolk 7 December UPDATE!!!

VIA EMAIL!!!
Subject: New Updates:
Right now it looks like the event will take place off base (on public property), just outside one of the main entrances to Naval Station. Like I said, I am completely unfamiliar with the area, so any help as to where we need to setup would be greatly appreciated.

We are still trying to find out the exact time that the arraignment will take place so we can plan on centering the event around that time. Unconfirmed reports have said that it is expected to being sometime around 10:00am EST, but I will update everyone once I know for sure.

Also, it is expected that the arraignment will go fairly quick, so I'm guessing a 1-2hr rally would be perfect.Since the gathering will be taking place on public property, the City of Norfolk requires us to have a permit if there are more than 50 people.

Right now I am working on nailing down a special events insurance policy so we can get the application submitted for the permit. We're cutting it close, but the City of Norfolk is working with us to get it done.

Some of you may have noticed that I changed the name of the event from "Protest" to "Support Rally". I want us to take the focus off protesting and instead shift it to better represent what our purpose is; supporting these SEALs. The last thing we want is to bring negative attention to the coverage surrounding these guys.

With that said, I ask that we do our best to make this event as peaceful as possible, while expressing our support.I have contacted several local news stations in the area and so far, WAVY-TV 10 will have a news crew out to cover the rally. Please take the time to notify every media outlet you can; the more coverage, the better.

United Conservatives of Virginia: Fool's Errand?!?!?

United Conservatives of Virginia: Fool's Errand?!?!?

The Daily Grind

From Mary Katharine via the Weekly Standard

The Daily Grind
Ain't no party like a holiday Tea Party, 'cause a holiday Tea Party don't stop.

Democracy Corps: "The survey found that voters now say, by a three-point margin (45% to 42%), that Republicans would do a better job on the economy than Democrats. That’s a change from the 16-point lead Democrats had in May on the question of managing the economy, and marks the first time since 2002 that Republicans have had a lead on the issue."

Obama rhetoric flashback from March 2009: "So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That’s the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: We will defeat you."

California is making almost every other state government look good.

Family Guy spoofs Chris Matthews: "My forehead, my rules."

"I think 'Hide the decline' is a pretty hard phrase to 'interpret' in any benign way, and a pretty easy way for anyone to get up to speed with what what's going on. It's already a song, and a T-shirt."

ClimateGate: Following the money

Another one bites the dust: "I've always said, if there's a state that would never pass a smoking ban, it's Virginia."

Dana Milbank takes this important moment, a year into Barack "You guys make a great photo-op" Obama's presidency, to bash Bush and Sarah Palin for making the military into political props.

Clive Crook: "Intellectual corruption" and "statistical incompetence" is what trillions of dollars in potential public policy are relying on.

It's come to this: Obama ruins Christmas. "ABC announced today that it too will carry the speech. Originally scheduled programs, including "A Charlie Brown Christmas," will now air next Tuesday at 8pmET."

Good news: Paul Krugman will be at the jobs summit!

Center for American Progress wants a timeline from Obama.