The brutal truth about gun control

The brutal truth about gun control: Brown University and Bondi Beach show that it was never meant to solve a problem; it's only to constrain freedom.

Australia’s delusional response to the Bondi Beach mass shooting

Australia’s delusional response to the Bondi Beach mass shooting: More gun control measures to deal with homicidal Islamists?

Nothing to see here ...

 

Bondi Beach — Australia’s Kristallnacht

Bondi Beach — Australia’s Kristallnacht: While a militant Islamic faction organized against the Jewish community, Australian authorities looked on without intervening.

Brown University attack and the week's violence: How the mighty have fallen

Brown University attack and the week's violence: How the mighty have fallen: Brown University is one of the most prestigious schools in the nation ... allegedly.   Allegedly they have 851 cameras on the campus, too.   And yet a murderer gained entrance to a building where a study session for an ...

Vetting Aliens from Third World Countries

Vetting Aliens from Third World Countries: The U.S. needs immigrants and refugees who share American values and are willing to assimilate into the Golden Age of America, not try to transform it.

9/11: Some Say, “Always Remember,” But Many Have Already Forgotten

9/11: Some Say, “Always Remember,” But Many Have Already Forgotten: This forgetting takes the form of opening the West, including our political institutions, to the same ideology that killed 2,977 people on American soil. 

The Two-State Solution Died on October 7

The Two-State Solution Died on October 7: The October 7 atrocities convinced Israelis that any territory given over to the Palestinians would become a launchpad for terror.

MS-13: A Transnational Terrorist Threat Ravaging America

MS-13: A Transnational Terrorist Threat Ravaging America: While MS-13 has dominated headlines with relentless coverage, a deeper examination of their actions reveals the true scope of their terror, demanding a closer look to understand who they really are. Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) or roughly translated as “Salvadoran Gang” is by all official accounts a transnational terrorist organization born from Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s; it’s now a 10,000 (CLCJ) strong menace in the United States (50,000–70,000 globally), driven largely by foreign nationals, many here illegally. 

Tiny Israel flips the tables of warfare itself on the terrorists of Hezb'allah

Tiny Israel flips the tables of warfare itself on the terrorists of Hezb'allah: These pinpoint strikes targeting Hezb'allah members, but not the civilian population they swim in, represents a dramatic paradigm shift in the history of warfare.

A cautionary tale of big government

The Washington Post ran a series of articles this week about the massive growth (and apparent lack of accountability) of the U.S. intelligence community since 9/11.

The Bush Administration, followed by the Obama White House, have allowed scores of of alphabet soup government agencies to grow without any checks-and-balances or regard for expense.

Are we safer today after billions of dollars have been spent to bolster America's intelligence-gathering apparatus after the failures that led to 9/11? That's debatable.

From an editorial summarizing the series:

SINCE SEPT. 11, 2001, the United States has increased its spending on intelligence by 250 percent and created or revamped 263 organizations. Yet the problems that gusher of money and bureaucracy were meant to solve -- such as the failure of existing intelligence organizations to share information or "connect the dots" about terrorism threats -- have not been alleviated. Instead, as a series of articles in The Post this week documented, the vast expansion of agencies, programs and personnel -- including tens of thousands of private contractors -- has overwhelmed many of the policymakers and military commanders it was meant to serve.

Read the full editorial, "The overgrowth of intelligence programs since Sept. 11," at the newspaper's website.

You can also read the series, "Top Secret America," here.

The terrorist living next door

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.

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS

Obama's Katrina

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.

Read the full story here.

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS

American Legion Commander urges strength, not apologies, from Obama

From The American Legion, the preeminent voice for America's military veterans:

The National Commander of The American Legion is stressing the need for strength as well as conciliation in President Obama's current campaign to improve relations with Muslim countries.

"Although The American Legion does not believe that the United States has anything to apologize for, we appreciate the spirit of President Obama's call for what he termed a 'new beginning' in our relationship with the followers of Islam," David K. Rehbein, National Commander of the nation's largest veterans service organization, said in a written statement.

"We must demand reciprocity of both spirit and deed," he said. "When the President pronounces, as he did in his conciliatory address in Egypt, that the events of September 11, 2001, in his words, 'led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals', he must, in our opinion, demand equally public admission from the Muslim world that elements within its community have been responsible for egregious acts of terrorism including mass killings, torture and public beheadings - acts that must be contrary to their traditions and ideals."

Rehbein continued, "When the President announces that, to quote him, 'we are taking concrete actions to change course,' with reference to the exercise of certain interrogation techniques and the very controversial order to close detainee housing at Guantanamo Bay, then it is incumbent upon him to demand that the Muslim community take concrete and demonstrable action to suppress and eliminate those within their own ranks who are responsible for uncounted, unprovoked acts of terrorism.

"The extension of the hand of friendship and its return are hopeful signs," concluded the Commander, "but the United States of America is not willing to accept total blame for the conditions that have led to the present state of affairs."

On a related topic, Commander Rehbein says the recent killing of a young soldier at a recruiting center in Arkansas by an ideologically radicalized murderer further demonstrates the risks inherit in housing Guantanamo Bay terror suspects on American soil.

"Even if these detainees were to be housed in the most secure premises possible," said Rehbein, "they might still be free to communicate their radical beliefs to fellow prisoners, thus converting already known criminals to their murderous points of view - much as the Arkansas killer was persuaded to commit his act of terror.

"Even greater danger would be imposed upon our citizens," said Rehbein, "if radicalized detainees were ever set free in this country. President Obama claims that it is within his power to hold the suspected terrorists indefinitely, but that argument has yet to be settled definitively in the courts. This past Tuesday, for instance, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ruled that, by law, some detainees - potentially dangerous ones in our opinion - should not be held under current circumstances. If they are moved to domestic soil, their release could pose an immediate danger to our citizens. This is unacceptable. Beyond that, the threats of escape and the availability of outside assistance to detainees is far greater here than they are on an isolated Caribbean island.

"The overwhelming majority of both lawmakers and ordinary citizens are strongly opposed to housing terrorist suspects within our borders," concluded Commander Rehbein. "It is our hope that the President, even as he reiterates his intention to close the Guantanamo Bay facility, will keep this mandate,and the emotional comfort and physical welfare of our citizens, in mind."