The Jihad Playbook
February 17, 2006
A Couple new studies have come out to beat the terrorists:
The “Playbook” study takes a different approach, outlining six major trends in the thinking of prominent jihadists, including al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, and describing how the United States could counter each one:
-Direct engagement with the United States has been positive for the movement because it rallies locals, drains U.S. resources and puts pressure on Washington’s allies.
-To counter the first trend, the study says the United States “should avoid direct, large-scale military action in the Middle East. If such fighting is necessary, it must be done through proxies whenever possible.”
-Jihadist ideologues want to establish Islamic states that can be used as training bases and to help develop the “nuclei of the future jihadi order.” But rather than overthrowing a sitting ruler, they would be content to create enclaves in poorly policed regions.
-The movement has become decentralized, making training camps obsolete and opening doors to new venues for training, such as urban areas and the Internet. …
Therefore, the study authors write, the United States “must be aware of the consequences of creating new theaters for jihad, particularly in the Arab world. The U.S. must also find ways to redirect the alienation among Muslim youth that is fueling recruitment.”
-The United States should compete by helping local surrogates establish their own enclaves “in regions where there are security vacuums,” according to the study.
-Since Jihadists frown on bad publicity and want to foster an image that will convince people to join their groups, th eUS should use Cold War-era propaganda tactics to covertly sway public opinion. Attempts by the U.S. “to elicit pro-American feelings in the Middle East by making public pronouncements about the true nature of Islam or the virtues of democracy” should be avoided.
Some of these are obvious, but its nice to know that some of the smart people are actually looking at real alternatives.
Proof: Saddam Had WMD’s
February 16, 2006
Paul Pillar, who was national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, also said the Senate Intelligence Committee and a presidential commission overlooked evidence that the Bush administration politicized the intelligence process to support White House policy-makers.
“Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war,” Pillar said in an article written for the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs and posted on the magazine’s Web site Friday.
Yet, Saddam Husseins General has a book detailing Iraq’s WMD program, and and now his Son-In-Law is on tape admitting it. And to make matters even deeper. His top officers talk about how easy it would be to use a WMD to kill thousands in Washington DC.
In just recovered video of inner office meeting with Saddaam Hussein top officers you can hear:
Saddam Hussein told aides in the mid-1990s that he warned the United States it could be hit by a terrorist attack, ABC News reported Wednesday, citing 12 hours of tapes the network obtained of the former Iraqi dictator’s talks with his Cabinet.
One of Saddam’s son-in-laws also explained how Iraq hid its biological weapons programs from U.N. inspectors, according to the tapes from August 1995.
The coming terrorist attack Saddam predicted could involve weapons of mass destruction.
“Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans,” Saddam is heard saying, adding he “told the British as well.”
“In the future, what would prevent a booby-trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington or a germ or a chemical one?” Saddam said.
But he insisted Iraq would never launch such an attack. “This story is coming, but not from Iraq,” he said.
Hussein Kamel, a son-in-law of Saddam’s, who was then in charge of Iraq’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, explained how Iraq held back information from the U.N. inspectors.
“We did not reveal all that we have,” he said. “We did not reveal the volume of chemical weapons we had produced.”
Kamel said Iraq had not revealed “the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported.”
Kamel defected to Jordan shortly after the tapes were recorded, and Iraq was forced to admit it had concealed its biological weapons program. Kamel returned to Iraq in February 1996 and was killed by security forces.
Charles Duelfer, who led the official U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction after the first Gulf War, told ABC News the tapes show extensive deception but don’t prove that weapons were still hidden in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
As Sadaam’s General Sada points out in his book, the weapons were moved to Syria by plane when it was immenent that the U.S. would invade.
“What they do is support the conclusion in the report which we made in the last couple of years, that the regime had the intention of building and rebuilding weapons of mass destruction, when circumstances permitted,” he said.
On Killing the African Americans
February 16, 2006
Jill Stanek wrote at Worldnet about how the Illinois Cook County Republicans are coming out swinging at the inaffectual Democrats who have ruled the land of Lincoln for years.
As part of Black History Month, the Chicago GOP wrote a profound pro-life editorial blaming the Democrat “pro-slavery” Party of “black genocide” because of its pro-abortion position:
One of the most infamous cases ever decided by a Democrat-controlled court was the Dred Scott case … The result of Dred Scott was to strip African Americans of their standing under the law and thereby prevent them from ever exercising political power for the good of their people. Roe v. Wade subtly accomplishes the same ends by a different means. ….
The black population is curbed by convincing black mothers that their unborn children are only property which will financially destroy them, so it is in their interests and the interests of society to kill them. African Americans can thank the Democratic Party and its unyielding support for Roe v. Wade … for today’s veritable black genocide. Today’s Democrats continue to advocate a society in which certain people are stripped of their humanity and denied political power. ..Recent statistics indicate that since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent. Because abortion has been aggressively peddled to innercity black communities, black babies today are three times more likely to be killed in the womb than white babies. Abortion kills twice as many black babies as AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, cancer and heart disease combined. Although it is possible that Planned Parenthood and its ilk are racially blind, 80 percent of Planned Parenthood facilities are located in minority neighborhoods.
As pointed out by the Local Republican website, “from the 1930’s through the 1960’s Democrats switched from beating black voters to wooing them. .. Take away the faithful black vote and the Democrats would be reduced to irrelevancy. ”
They go onto point out what the African Americans have gotten back for their loyalty to the Democratic party:
- In 1965, black unemployment level was at 8.5%
- while white unemployement stood at 4.3%.
- By 2001, after nearly 40 years of voting Democrat, black unemployment stood 12.6% and white unemployment 6.5%.
For their loyalty, the Democrats are doing their best to keep Blacks on the modern plantation.
MoreOn Katrina Report
February 16, 2006
House Republican investigators released a scathing 520-page cover our ass report listing hundreds of mistakes and misjudgments in the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The report, called “A Failure of Initiative,” follows a five-month inquiry, and places blame at all levels of government. Several Democrats who participated in the inquiry have concurred with the main results.
The Katrina Report is available at NPR. Its in PDF.
Hollywood Couples Split
February 16, 2006
What happens in Hollywood when you marry?
Unfortunately you divorce about two years later. Plenty of time to handle any births.
First Benefer, Tom and Jen, Jessica and Nick, Now its TomKat!
Tom Cruise seems to be going thru serious midlife crisis issues these days. It seems that him and Katie Holmes are splitsville. They are trying to keep it hush until the baby is born.
This according to Life & Style Magazine who broke the story about Tom Crusise and Katie Holmes.
BullsEye Iran
February 16, 2006
THE Bush Administration has made an emergency request to the US Congress for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount a huge propaganda campaign against the Tehran Government.
In a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the West, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the $75 million in extra funds, on top of $10 million already allocated for this year, would be used to broadcast US radio and television shows into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and back democracy groups inside Iran.
This move, seems to illustrate the limits of our Muscle since any rhetoric, diplomacy and warnings will no doubt not be respected by the Iranian Government.
US officials acknowledge the limits of such a campaign, but the State Department is determined to bring in measures such as extending the government-run Voice of America’s Farsi service from a few hours a day to round-the-clock coverage.
4th Quarter :3rd Best on Record
February 16, 2006
David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said rising interest rates dampened the sales pace in the closing quarter of last year. “Mortgage interest rates were at the highest level since the third quarter of 2003,†he said. “At the same time, we’ve seen strong double-digit appreciation in home prices, so a modest slowing from record sales was to be expected. The good news is that home sales are being sustained at historically high levels.â€
Total existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were at the third-highest pace on record in the fourth quarter of 2005. In addition, 24 states showed increases in sales activity over the same period in 2004, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
The latest report on total existing-home sales shows that nationwide the seasonally adjusted annual rate* was 6.90 million units in the fourth quarter, up 0.3 percent from the 6.88 million-unit level in the fourth quarter of 2004 but 4.7 percent below the record pace of 7.24 million units in the third quarter of last year. The second highest sales rate was 7.22 million in the second quarter of 2005.
The strongest performance was in Arkansas, where the fourth-quarter resale pace jumped 29.8 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2004. Alaska existing-home sales rose 28.4 percent from a year earlier, while Louisiana posted the third highest increase, up 28.1 percent. (Katrina influenced? by flippers?) Six other states also recorded double-digit sales gains from a year ago. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia posted declines, although 39 states set records for all of 2005.
Katrina Love You Really Good
February 16, 2006
Congress did its thing to feel good about itself. It seems when Government screws up, they blame another branch of Government.
Then when they want to get sophisticated they open up officilial inquiries.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that deaths, damage and suffering could have been decreased if the White House and federal, state and local officials had responded more urgently to Katrina.
The House report - called “A Failure of Initiative” - found ample fault with state and local officials, including delays in ordering early evacuations in New Orleans. But it also criticized President Bush for failing to get more deeply involved as the crisis unfolded.
“Earlier presidential involvement might have resulted in a more effective response,” the inquiry concluded. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report Tuesday.
As if calling it a disaster 5 days before , instead of two days like he did, would have made some kind of difference.
Lieberman needled Chertoff on why the security chief was in Atlanta at a bird flu seminar on Aug. 30, the day after Katrina hit, instead of rushing to the disaster scene.
The hearing highlighted the searing emotions that Katrina evokes nearly six months after it slammed into the Gulf Coast. At one point, a member of the audience loudly heckled Chertoff, calling a FEMA decision to discontinue paying for hotel rooms for evacuees “un-American.”
Meanwhile, Congress increased the borrowing power of the federal flood insurance agency in an attempt to meet unprecedented claims from Katrina and other hurricanes last year.
And this is how we create a bloated Government. Everyone blame each other. The Governor and Mayor point fingers at one another then towards FEMA, and then towards the President.
The head of FEMA blames the President, who blames other bureacracies for not doing their job.
Then they blame Congress and they point to Chertoff. And White House reconstruction coordinator Don Powell announced $4.2 billion in grants that will probably be used to help uninsured Louisiana homeowners whose properties inside flood plains were destroyed. The money is part of an anticipated $18 billion spending plan for the Gulf Coast.
Now everyone feels better about themselves that they care. And we still have a crappie dysfunctional City that will get more Government Welfare than they did before the flood. And like their inhabitants who squandered their FEMA credit cards in strip clubs and Goochie bags. The leadership in New Orleans will piss away billions.
War Of Cultures
February 15, 2006
The modern Politically Correct era in which we live has created almost apologetic tones toward modern Islam.
However, facts are facts. 
The rioting going on over stupid cartoons illustrates that this culture (or lack thereof) is nothing but evidence of a moral compass run askew in a major world Religion.
Islam’s major contribution to the world is Terrorism. (Don’t say it is oil because we showed them how to do that trick)
You would think that this obvious distinction would bother the flock within. But the silence is deafening. Where is the real Islam?
The silence and indeference can only be seen as tolerance. And tolerance can only be read as agreement.
Winston Churchill saw it this way:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities – but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.â€
Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50
(London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
Senior Citizens
February 14, 2006
This is one of those emails that I get. I toss most, but I like this one.
A very self-important college freshman at a recent USC football game took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen sitting next to him why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his own.
“You grew up in a different, actually almost primitive, world,” the student said, loud enough for the whole crowd to hear. “We young people today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars. We even have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed processing, and, uh….”
Taking advantage of a pause for breath in the student’s litany, the “wizened” one said, “You’re right, son, we didn’t have those things when we were young. So we invented them, you arrogant little shithead! Now what are YOU doing for the next generation?”