What is the Obama Administration doing to uncover home-grown terrorists?
From an editorial in Investor's Business Daily:
While the essential ingredient in these cases is militant Islam, we have to wonder if the left isn't making otherwise normal Americans vulnerable to such treasonous seductions. After all, the hate-America lobby — led by the American Civil Liberties Union and often cheered by the media — has comforted even the most guilty in the war on terror, including the 9/11 mastermind and other Gitmo detainees.
Don't look know but terrorists may be operating right next door.
The Associated Press is reporting that a Montgomery County woman has been indicted for recruiting jihadists online.
The woman, identified in court documents at Colleen R. LaRose, aka "Fatima LaRose," aka "JihadJane," is believed to be from the Pennsburg area in rural northwestern Montgomery County.
LaRose has been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official, and attempted identity theft. In addition to LaRose, who is an American citizen, the court papers refer to five unindicted co-conspirators.
From The Associated Press:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas. Authorities say the case shows how terror groups are looking to recruit Americans to help carry out their goals.
A federal indictment charges Colleen R. LaRose with agreeing to kill a Swedish citizen on orders from the terrorists and traveling to Europe to carry out the killing. It doesn't say whether the Swede was killed.
U.S. Attorney Michael Levy tells The Associated Press the indictment doesn't link LaRose to any organized terror groups.
The indictment describes LaRose as in her 40s and from Montgomery County, in suburban Philadelphia. LaRose has been in custody since Oct. 15.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has also posted a press release online and the full 11-page indictment.
Look for a full story in Wednesday's edition of The Mercury.
Weekly GOP Address: Sen. Susan Collins on National Security Policy
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee discusses the Obama administration's failures in dealing with the Christmas Day bomber.
Sen. Collins expresses her incredulity that the bomber was interrogated for only 50 minutes before getting his Miranda rights.
Sen. Collins says, "The Obama administration appears to have a blind spot when it comes to the War on Terrorism. ... Theres no other way to explain the irresponsible, indeed dangerous, decision on Abdulmutallab's interrogation. There's no other way to explain the inconceivable treatment of him as if he were a common criminal. This charade must stop. Foreign terrorists are enemy combatants and they must be treated as such. The safety of the American people depends on it."
No wonder the Islamic terrorist keep slipping through
It's starting to make sense. The reason Islamic terrorists keep getting through U.S. security is because the Obama Administration is looking out for devout Christians and abortion foes instead of Islamic fanatics.
The U.S. government has released new photos of Osama Bin Laden ... or at least what Bin Laden would look like in the 10 years since the last photo of him was made public. (That's the photo at the bottom.)
The new photos have been digitally updated to reflect Bin Laden's age and whether he may have trimmed his facial hair.
And don't forget there is a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Bin Laden.
From The Associated Press:
The U.S. State Department has updated its 1998 file photo of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, digitally altering it to account for a decade of age and possible changes in his facial hair.
There is a $25 million bounty on bin Laden's head for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Bin Laden is now 52. And he is believed to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan frontier bordering Afghanistan, though his exact whereabouts have been unknown since late 2001, when he and a small contingent of body guards walked out of the Tora Bora mountains, evading air strikes and U.S. special forces and Afghan militias,
The photos and bounty on bin Laden and 41 others wanted for terrorism are on the State Department's Web site, www.rewardsforjustice.net
'We are a nation at war, and we should act like it'
Rep. Pete King (R-NY) delivers the Weekly Republican Address, focusing on the war on terrorism and the Obama Administration's anemic response to growing threats by Islamic fanatics. Rep. King:
"We are a nation at war, and we should act like it. We need to pull together, remain vigilant, and send a clear signal both to our friends and our enemies that this government will stop at nothing to protect our homeland. That's how America sets an example for the world."
'Alleged Terrorist' Indicted for Attempted Bombing of Flight 253
The last line in the Obama Administration's press release on the indictment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for the attempted murder of 279 passengers and 11 crewmembers aboard Northwest Airlines flight 253 reads:
"The public is reminded that an indictment contains mere allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law."
Maybe Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will ask for a change of venue ... to Yemen, perhaps ... because of all the pre-trial publicity.
Don't forget that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is now entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers since Obama decided to try him in a civilian court instead of a military tribunal.
Jennifer Loven, who has covered the White House for The Associated Press since 2002, wrote a news analysis a few days ago that was lost in the holiday shuffle.
In it, Loven asks if the failure of the Obama Administration to prevent the near tragedy of a likely terrorist bombing aboard a Detroit-bound passenger plane and Obama's subsequent downplaying of the incident could become Obama's Katrina.
The answer is "no" because Katrina and the Bush Administration's handling of the natural disaster was overplayed by the liberal media, which is anti-Republican and anti-Bush.
Regardless of how poorly Obama and his underlings did in response to the terrorist threat, the liberal media will cover up for one of its own.
Still, the parallels between Bush's handling of Katrina and Obama's failure to protect the nation from terrorists are there for all to see.
From Loven's analysis:
The Obama administration claim that "the system worked" after a failed aircraft bombing wasn't quite as jolting as President George W. Bush's "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" while New Orleans sank under deadly Hurricane Katrina. But both raised disturbing questions about presidential response in a time of crisis.
Bush's praise for his beleaguered FEMA director, Michael Brown, came while storm evacuees remained trapped in the Louisiana Superdome and victims' bloated bodies floated in the streets. It became a clarion call for all his administration did wrong during the 2005 calamity -- and a larger symbol of all that people disliked generally about Bush.
Loven focuses on the incredibly stupid comment by two high-ranking Obama officials that "the system worked" when it was fellow passengers who subdued the terrorist who was allowed on the plane by the same "system" Obama's people praised.
Loven writes:
Members of Congress -- Republicans, but some Democrats too -- were incredulous that "the system worked" was used in any context to describe what happened. "It is insulting that the Obama administration would make such a claim," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee -- who is running for governor in Michigan -- said in a campaign e-mail.
Republican Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl on Tuesday criticized President Barack Obama and his administration's response following the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. McCain said Obama should have addressed the nation earlier about the botched attack. Kyl said he now doesn't feel "totally safe" with Napolitano as homeland security secretary.
Phrases do matter. Sometimes they come to take on a life of their own, with context and nuance forgotten, representing broader beliefs or fears.
For Bush, the "heckuva job" comment more than four years into his presidency fit into an already well-developed critical narrative, that he was loyal to lieutenants to a fault and hands-off on even important matters. It stuck.
For Obama, still short of one year in office, his narrative, critical or otherwise, isn't set yet.
Nonetheless, rumblings keep resurfacing about emotional distance, even coldness. Whether it's Wall Street bonuses or terrorist near-disaster, people wonder whether he feels as they do or ever acts out of passion. The comment may well stick.
It doesn't appear that Barack Obama's Muslim-heritage or his dazzling personality have won the U.S. many friends among the radical Islamic community.
Let's review what Obama has done in the past year to make life easier for Islamic radicals whose stated mission in life is to kill American citizens:
Obama has released dozens of terrorists from Guantanamo and plans to close the military prison entirely.
He intends to bring some of the world's most dangerous terrorists, captured on the battlefield, to United States soil for trial in civilian courtrooms.
He's traveled the world to apologize for U.S. foreign policy and has canceled major weapons system. The groveling hasn't worked, either.
The scheduled surrender in Afghanistan announced recently by our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president hasn't done the trick.
What's it going to take or how many Americans have to die before Barack Obama and his far-left cronies in the White House begin to take terrorism seriously?
From POLITICO:
The Nigerian man charged with the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, reportedly spent time in Yemen after graduating from a London university in 2008. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab has told authorities that, while in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives crafted the explosive device which was sewn into Abdulmutallab's underwear.
"Yesterday just highlights the fact that sending this many people back — or any people back — to Yemen right now is a really bad idea," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "It's just dumb… If you made a list of what the three dumbest countries would be to send people back to, Yemen would be on all the lists."
"I think it's a major mistake," Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said about prisoner releases to Yemen. "I don't think Guantanamo should be closed, but if we're going to close it I don't believe we should be sending people to Yemen where prisoners have managed to escape in the past… Obviously, if [Abdulmutallab] did get training and direction from Yemen, it just adds to what is already a dangerous situation."
Read the full story, "Xmas bomb bid complicates Gitmo plan," at POLITICO.com
Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab ruins Obama's Christmas
Leave it to Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab to ruin Christmas (not to mention the vacation in Hawaii) for Barack Obama.
Democrats were expecting to bask over the holiday with their strong-armed passage of Obamacare, but a Nigerian terrorist spoiled everything by focusing America's attention on the ongoing War on Terror that the Obama Administration spent 10 months pretending didn't exist.
The Fort Hood terrorist attack and the attempted downing of a commercial airplane loaded with holiday travelers are a double-dose of reality in the Neverland that Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama and his far-left cronies live in.
I guess that plan to bring more than 100 of the world's most dangerous terrorists from Guantanimo to Illinois isn't looking so hot right now.
Did you hear about the Muslim fanatic who gunned down a soldier outside an Arkansas Army recruitment center? Probably not.
The story received little coverage by the mainstream media, which has been fixated all week with the murder of an infamous Kansas abortion doctor.
Michelle Malkin couldn't help but notice the double-standard in the media's coverage of the two violent acts.
The killing of abortionist George Tiller was Page 1 news in most newspapers and led the network news broadcasts. The murder of Pvt. William Long by a domestic terrorist was virtually ignored by the media and the Obama Administration, which is working hard to persuade Americans that we are not at war with radical Islam despite having several hundred thousand troops currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From Malkin's latest column:
When a right-wing Christian vigilante kills, millions of fingers pull the trigger. When a left-wing Muslim vigilante kills, he kills alone.
These are the instantly ossifying narratives in the Sunday shooting death of late-term abortion provider George Tiller of Kansas vs. the Monday shootings of two Arkansas military recruiters.
Tiller's suspected murderer, Scott Roeder, is white, Christian, anti-government and anti-abortion. The gunman in the military recruitment center attack, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, is black, a Muslim convert, anti-military and anti-American.
Both crimes are despicable, cowardly acts of domestic terrorism. But the disparate treatment of the two brutal cases by both the White House and the media is striking.
President Obama issued a statement condemning "heinous acts of violence" within hours of Tiller's death. The Justice Department issued its own statement and sent federal marshals to protect abortion clinics.
News anchors and headline writers abandoned all qualms about labeling the gunman a terrorist. An almost gleeful excess of mainstream commentary poured forth on the climate of hate and fear created by conservative talk radio, blogs and Fox News in reporting Tiller's activities.
By contrast, Obama was silent about the military recruiter attacks that left 24-year-old Pvt. William Long dead and 18-year-old Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula gravely wounded.
It wasn't much of a fight. The flashy newcomer against the grizzled veteran. Platitudes versus facts.
After a muddled and unconvincing teleprompter reading about terrorism by Barack Obama at the National Archives, former Vice President Dick Cheney gave on the most cogent analysis of the war on terror during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.
If this had been a boxing match, "it would have been stopped in the first round," says Investor's Business Daily.
In other words, Cheney took inexperienced and naive Obama to school.
From the IBD editorial:
For those with short memories, Cheney talks of being hustled into a bunker on 9/11, where he got "word of the crash in Pennsylvania, the final phone calls from hijacked planes, the final horror for those who jumped to their death to escape burning alive."
"I'll freely admit," he says, "that watching a coordinated, devastating attack on your country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities."
That is a sane, grown-up response — not a lawyerly response premised on the trendy idea that, somehow, we are to blame for the attacks, that America, as some on the left have said, "had it coming."
When called upon, President Bush and Vice President Cheney took their responsibilities seriously. They made tough decisions to keep us safe from the predations of terrorists whose ultimate goal is to murder our people and destroy our civilization.
On his second day in office, Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo terrorist prison camp in Cuba and bring some of the most dangerous men in the world to the continental United States.
It was an ill-advised move to pander to the far-left, card-carrying ACLU crowd that could care less if American lives are placed in danger.
No so fast, says the U.S. Senate, including most of its Democratic members.
From The Washington Post:
The Senate voted overwhelmingly today to deny funding for President Obama's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, and lawmakers in both parties vowed to withhold federal dollars until Obama decides the fate of the facility's 240 detainees.
The 90-6 vote represented a potentially serious setback for Obama, who as a presidential candidate vowed to close Guantanamo and who signed an executive order beginning the process soon after he took office. But although most Democrats agree that the facility should be closed, they have grown increasingly wary of the consequences if terrorist suspects are moved to the United States.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller warned Congress today that if Guantanamo detainees are released in the United States, they could pose a domestic threat. Mueller raised the concerns in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee a day after Senate Democrats, under pressure from Republicans, announced they would not release federal funds until Obama produced an acceptable plan.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune expressed the feeling of many of his Senate colleagues: "The American people don't want these men walking the streets of America's neighborhoods. The American people don't want these detainees held at a military base or federal prison in their backyard, either."
And this from U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas: "No good purpose is served by allowing known terrorists, who trained at terrorist training camps, to come to the U.S. and live among us. Guantanamo Bay was never meant to be an Ellis Island."
Mueller echoed concerns during his testimony: "The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing, radicalizing others," Mueller said, as well as "the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States."
House Republicans have introduced the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act, requiring pre-approval from governors and state legislatures to transfer or release any terrorist detainee into their respective state.
The legislation establishes strict criteria and certification standards that must be met before any detainee is released into the United States.
The Democrats control the House and Senate, but let's see one Democratic member of Congress vote against this bill. Let them explain to their constituents back home how bringing the world's most dangerous terrorists to American soil will make them safer. It's one thing for Barack Obama to pander to the far-left loons of the Democratic Party, but every member of the House has to stand for re-election in 2010.
Stand for the safety of Americans or stand with America's enemies. This issue alone will help Republicans win back the House in 2010.
Tony Phyrillas is the city editor and political columnist for The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa. Phyrillas has won several national and state awards for his columns. Phyrillas has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR) and in The New York Times and is a frequent commentator on radio and television programs. He co-hosted "Talking Politics with Tony Phyrillas & Mike Pincus" on WPAZ 1370 AM.
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