Posts Tagged ‘Al Qaeda’

Steve Schippert

PLA Senior Colonel: ‘The China Dream’ Means US Defeat

by Steve Schippert

On the path to 9/11, many of us National Security wonks were intensely studying and tracking China and its activities before the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11. Just as so many had our eyes too focused on a single ball then, it is a necessary exercise of experience and wisdom to ensure the same mistake is not made again, simply in the reverse.

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We cannot afford to be – neither as a National Security community nor as a society – so critically focused on our terrorist enemies as to lose sight of an equally determined if even more patient strategic competitor. Though the Chinese are much less overt than our terrorist enemies, their grand strategies and ambitions are hardly invisible. One need simply look for them and recognize them when seen.

In a Reuters article, “China PLA officer urges challenging U.S. dominance,” there is a wake-up call for those perhaps needing it.

From the Reuters article:

The call for China to abandon modesty about its global goals and “sprint to become world number one” comes from a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel, Liu Mingfu, who warns that his nation’s ascent will alarm Washington, risking war despite Beijing’s hopes for a “peaceful rise.”

“China’s big goal in the 21st century is to become world number one, the top power,” Liu writes in his newly published Chinese-language book, “The China Dream.”

“If China in the 21st century cannot become world number one, cannot become the top power, then inevitably it will become a straggler that is cast aside,” writes Liu, a professor at the elite National Defense University, which trains rising officers.

His 303-page book stands out for its boldness even in a recent chorus of strident Chinese voices demanding a hard shove back against Washington over trade, Tibet, human rights, and arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

“As long as China seeks to rise to become world number one … then even if China is even more capitalist than the U.S., the U.S. will still be determined to contain it,” writes Liu.

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Nick Gillespie

Reason.tv: Dramatic Olbermann vs. Dramatic Chipmunk or, Premature Obit for the Capt. Queeg of cable news

by Nick Gillespie

No one is more self-dramatizing on cable news than male hysteric, unsolicited janitor of Cooperstown, and Countdown host Keith Olbermann, who includes more special effects during his Castro-length “Special Comment” segments than Mikhail Kalatozov did in I Am Cuba (one cinematically exemplary rant remains Commandante O’s multi-camera denouncement of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign).

When Olbermann is not ripping “tea-baggers” (get it, har har har) or slagging honest reporters such as Miami Herald TV critic and Reason contributing editor Glenn Garvin (who committed the unpardonable crime of reporting that Olbermann donned a Bill O’Reilly mask and did Nazi salutes in front of a room full of TV critics), he is courageously taking a stand in favor of English-only at schools, judging Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News as “worse than Al Qaeda,” and extolling Sen. All Aboard Amtrak, Joe Biden, who embodies the Holy Trinity of Olbermannia: “passion, detail and eloquence.”

Countdown—it’s like Rupert Pupkin finally did get a talk show that could broadcast far past the paneled walls of Mom’s basement and reach most of the neighborhood—is must-see TV, as riveting as a nail gun powered by nuclear energy on steroids, the sort of can’t-turn-away-from-car-wreck-like commentary usually associated with CNN hosts who have actually been in car wrecks (like this guy and this one).

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Frank Gaffney

February Fundraiser for Convicted Terrorist Supporter in Al-Awlaki’s Mosque

by Frank Gaffney

On Saturday, February 13,  the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia – about 20 minutes from the White House -  held a fundraiser dinner to raise money for Sabri Benkhala’s various legal appeals.  (They’re holding an even bigger fundraiser in April, which may be attended by some well-known elected officials – more on that later….)  Benkhala is serving a 10-year term in a federal prison for perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.

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According to a February 5, 2007 statement from the Department of Justice, “Benkahla was convicted of making materially false statements both in his grand jury appearances in 2004, as well as to the FBI in 2004. These false statements included his denial of his involvement with an overseas jihad training camp in 1999, as well as his asserted lack of knowledge about individuals with whom he was in contact.”

If you want to fundraise for a jailed jihadist, Dar Al-Hijrah is definitely the $40-donation-for-a-halal-chicken-dinner venue of choice.  Dar Al-Hijrah’s  jihadist credentials are impeccable:

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Michael Caputo

Your Time Is Up, Chuck

by Michael Caputo

At the Washington Cathedral memorial service for conservative icon Jack Kemp last May, many of his loyalists asked the same question: with Kemp’s passing, would his infectious pro-growth optimism also depart our political stage? That profoundly sad day, it certainly seemed possible.

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Just eight months later, there is a remarkable potential candidate in the Kemp mold who may oppose – and defeat – uber liberal Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). New York Republican, Conservative and Tea Party leaders are talking up the potential candidacy of CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow, a former advisor to Kemp and Ronald Reagan.

For decades, Chuck Schumer has bullied his way to victory at the polls. He’s a prodigious fundraiser, a tough campaigner, and has long been thought unbeatable. But as former New York Assembly Republican leader John Faso noted recently in the New York Post, Schumer’s “image of invincibility has been fed by the failure of Republicans in New York and Washington to aggressively attack his vulnerabilities.”

Many New Yorkers agree: it is difficult to find a federal legislator as odious as Schumer. He is personally responsible for much of the bad policy that led to the economic melt down of the United States. He stands firmly in favor of health care reform that is bad for New Yorkers and he supports a tax on banks that is poison for the Empire State.

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Kristinn Taylor and  Andrea Shea King

Terrorism Critics Admonished by Obama Security Advisor

by Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King

Fort-Hood-victim

Three terror attacks on U.S. soil in their first year and the Obama administration dares lecture us?

It takes a special kind of arrogance to lecture the American people about terrorism. Especially when in the past year, your administration has allowed three al Qaeda-related terrorists to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.

But that’s what the Obama administration has done with Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan’s op-ed in today’s USA Today entitled We Need No Lectures.

Brennan even goes so far as to accuse critics of the Obama administration of aiding al Qaeda.

Brennan boasts of the Obama administration’s successes against global terrorism:

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Publius

Podcast: Mark Steyn and John Yoo and Rob Long and Andrew Breitbart, Oh My

by Publius

Rob Long and Mark Steyn are joined by guests law professor John C. Yoo and Breitbart.com’s Andrew Breitbart. Topics covered include Miranda rights for terrorists, a report from the Tea Party convention, the joyless MSM, Al-Qaeda’s potential new bomb making strategy that may be particularly problematic for certain parts of Los Angeles, and some unconventional Super Bowl picks.

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Bob McCarty

Army Reduces Soldier’s Sentence to 15 Years

by Bob McCarty

On Thursday, the Army Clemency and Parole Board reduced the sentence of Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna from 20 to 15 years, according to a news release from Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.).

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Lieutenant Behenna, who is currently serving his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was convicted of unpremeditated murder in the shooting death of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative, while serving in Iraq.

Previous cases of similar or more aggravating circumstances, where the defendants were found guilty of premeditated murder, have resulted in less severe sentences, which prompted the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation to appeal to the board for a careful review of this case and relevant precedent.

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Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

America Betrayed President Bush

by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

It’s almost hard to believe but Wednesday, January 20 marks exactly one year since President Bush left the White House.

During his last public ceremony as commander in chief, he was booed by thousands of Americans who simutaneously cheered for Barack Obama as he was sworn into office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

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Except for a June 17 speech in Erie, Pennsylvania in which Bush defended his policies and criticized Obama’s, the former president has been remarkably silent about his successor. He has not fired back at Obama despite the new administration inappropriately blaming Bush for all of their failures.

One year after taking office however, Obama has done a total reversal on his isolationist, non-interventionist foreign policy, and is now pushing President Bush’s neo-conservative philosophy as a justification for starting a new war in Afghanistan. What the Democratic Party once criticized as an over-simplified good vs. evil argument has become the cornerstone of Obama’s reasoning.

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Andrea Shea King and Dave Logan

GW Bush: Rock Solid Under Fire

by Andrea Shea King and Dave Logan

“I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”

When President George W. Bush spoke through a bullhorn to emergency rescue workers at Ground Zero just two days after 9/11, he put the world on notice: We are coming to get those who did this, and we will not stop until we do.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 underscored the gravity of threats posed by international terrorist organizations. Responding to the attacks, on October 7th President Bush declared a “war on terror” and identified Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network responsible. Within weeks, as opposed to our current Commander in Chief’s dithering for months, a US-led coalition launched air-strikes against targets in Afghanistan, where Bin Laden was believed to be sheltered by the Taliban regime.

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Paul A.  Rahe

George W. Bush Revisited

by Paul A. Rahe

He left office a year ago today. He has maintained a dignified silence in the last twelve months — even though his successor denounces him in almost every speech and acts as if he is still running against the man. I reviewed President Obama’s disastrous first year on Saturday. Today, I ask, “What, in retrospect, should we think of George W. Bush?”

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The first thing that needs to be said is that he meant well. He is not a vindictive man, and he sought to put behind him the controversies and turmoil of the Clinton years. He thought that his focus would be domestic policy, but, as tends to happen, events intervened.

Had it not been for 9/11, George W. Bush would probably have been a one-term President. He fell short of his adversary in the popular vote but won a majority in the electoral college. He was destined to be weak — but when disaster struck, he was in the line of fire, and he rose to the occasion.

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Endre Balogh

When Will the Democratic Party Grow Up and Seriously Address National Security?

by Endre Balogh

On conservative talk shows, defenders of President Obama have frequently asserted that it is too soon into the term of the new administration to fairly judge the policies and performance of our President.  Well, nearly a full year has elapsed since the Obama administration took office and we’ve now all had plenty of chance to “give Obama a chance.”  The oft-repeated mantras that “It’s too soon to tell” and “It’s all George Bush’s fault” won’t hold beer any longer.   If his plummeting poll numbers are any indication, many who fell for Obama’s neatly packaged utopian vapors of hope, change, and transformation are finally starting to emerge from their media-induced slumber.  And, while many of us could easily predict that the shallowness residing at the core of Barack Obama would soon lead to a precipitous disillusionment, the speed with which that is taking place is actually quite breathtaking.

DHS Napolitano and Obama (2)

Despite what European Socialists may think of us, Americans are not entirely stupid.  While the well-oiled hype machine of the Left-biased news media and the air headed Hollywood crowd helped to induce the large scale brain freeze that got Obama elected, as his serious failures of policy have mounted and the significant impact of those failures is felt, no amount of propaganda will suffice to resurrect the messianic fervor that once surrounded the heady days of Obama’s campaign.  Daily some new facet of the administration’s incompetence (at best) and fecklessness (at worst) is displayed, and increasing numbers of those who initially fell under his thrall are awakening to the profound danger Obama’s Presidency poses to both world peace and our American way of life. (more…)

Richard  Grenell

More Christmas Bombing Fallout: Hillary’s Visa Problem

by Richard Grenell

President Obama came back to work this week after leaving the Presidency for his Hawaiian holiday vacation.  Hawaii proved to be a restful retreat for the President, his team and the White House press corps who all took time off from their regular duties to enjoy the Hawaiian sun and ignore their responsibilities.

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But after 10 days of tropical silence, this week there is a sudden flurry of security reviews, media statements, ass-covering and more misstatements coming out of Washington from the Obama Administration.  But we still don’t know why the State Department didn’t revoke the visa of a man they knew had ties to al-qaeda.

Even the normally workaholic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enjoying a silent 10 nights on the matter.  Taking her time to get the facts and pack up the Christmas decorations, Hillary finally came out looking like she had just landed in Yugoslavia under sniper fire.

Secretary Clinton joined Janet Napolitano in glossing over the facts surrounding the Christmas Day attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253.  Not to be outdone that all went well with her agency while the boss was on vacation, Secretary Clinton said that the State Department “fully complied with the requirements set forth in the interagency process” about sharing threat information.

What?

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Thomas Del Beccaro

Obama’s World Peace Offensive Yields Few Peace Dividends

by Thomas Del Beccaro

On the foreign policy front, the Democrats for years have blamed America for the actions of rogue nations and dictators.  Indeed, as Mona Charen pointed out at length, in her book Useful Idiots, the Democrats have been all too willing to Blame America First for the actions of others.  So the storyline goes, when Russia armed itself, it was a justified response to the American arms buildup – as if Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev were otherwise peace loving souls.

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No mere academic cheer for Democrats, they have campaigned on their Blame America First theme for years.  In the minds of those Democrats, rather than display arrogance, America must be more humble, except blame for World troubles and not seek to impose its view on the world.  The latest iteration of that, of course, was Obama’s campaign.

According to Obama, following 9/11:

Millions around the world were ready to stand with us. They were willing to rally to our cause because it was their cause too – because they knew that if America led the world toward a new era of global cooperation, it would advance the security of people in our nation and all nations.” According to Obama, however, the Bush Administration “squandered that opportunity . . . [and]  . . . World opinion has turned against us.

What is the cure for such “mistakes,” according to Obama? As we have seen, it is to apologize on his world tours for American actions, to promise to talk directly to dictators, to abandon missile systems, to speak softly in the face of phony Iranian elections and crack downs on dissent, to bow in front of dictators, wear a thin mustache in front Middle Eastern leaders in Egypt, preach global responsibility, promise to close Guantanamo, give rights to Interpol over US territory, and on and on.

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Larry  O'Connor

Breaking: Dutch Authorities Claim No Accomplice in Airport; Contradicts Eye-Witness Account

by Larry O'Connor

According to Reuters, Dutch authorities have announced that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the terrorist who penetrated the Dutch security system on Christmas Day on Flight 253 to Detroit, acted alone with no accomplices at the Amsterdam airport.

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This directly contradicts the first-hand, eye-witness account from Kurt Haskell, a lawyer from Taylor, Michigan who was on board Flight 253.  We have reported Mr. Haskell’s account here at Big Government as well as his interview with Andrew Breitbart on The Dennis Miller Show, the nationally syndicated radio program on Westwood One.

Mr. Haskell tells us he is sticking to his story.  “I’m not surprised, we expected this.  They are trying to discredit me without actually PROVING me wrong.  But, I’m not going to shut-up about this.“

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Lurita Doan

Al Qaeda’s Successful Attack

by Lurita Doan

Everyone keeps saying how lucky we are that the “crotch” bomber on Flight 253 was unable to ignite the explosives hidden in his underwear, but I am sorry to report  that  the attack was a actually a huge success.  The plane was not destroyed and no lives were lost, but the larger, strategic goals of al Qaeda were certainly advanced.

US TERROR PLOT

Too many Americans, and many in our Department of Homeland Security, forget that al Qaeda targeted our economic power and symbols on 9/11.   The goal, as Osama bin Laden announced, was to force, or cause the US to take actions, that would erode our economic prosperity and weaken us as a  nation .

Unfortunately, we have given bin Laden a victory he does not deserve.  DHS has, for some time, been unaware that the failure of many of the security measures and procedures that they have championed, has resulted in additional, self inflicted wounds.

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Publius

Al-Qaeda Terrorist May Be Offered Plea Agreement: Administration Defends Decision

by Publius

Jaw-dropping story in today’s Washington Post:

*Dec 28 - 00:05*

President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser on Sunday defended the administration’s decision to try in federal court the man charged with attempting to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day and indicated that he would be offered a plea agreement to persuade him to reveal what he knows about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian charged with the failed attempt on the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, was initially “talking to people who detained him” but now has a public defender and “doesn’t have to,” John O. Brennan said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We have different ways of obtaining information from individuals” in the criminal-justice process, Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “A lot of people . . . understand what they’re facing, and their lawyers recognize that there is advantage to talking to us in terms of plea agreements, [and] we’re going to pursue that.” Brennan told CNN’s “State of the Union” that other terrorism suspects have “given us very valuable information as they’ve gone through the plea-agreement process.”

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Andrew  Marcus

A Path to Jihad: From Gitmo, To Saudi Arabia, To IRAN, To Yemen

by Andrew Marcus

Americans fancy the idea that while we might have been asleep prior to 9/11/2001, now our eyes are wide open and we are on alert. This is a pipe dream.

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If people’s eyes were truly open, they would be closely examining the path Gitmo detainee Said Ali al-Shihri took to Yemen, where we are now learning he helped plan the Christmas Jihad.

Said reportedly left Gitmo, went through “rehabilitation” in Saudi Arabia, then moved to Iran before ending up as a leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

For example, Said Ali al-Shihri left Gitmo in 2007 and became a patient in Saudi Arabia’s terrorist rehabilitation program. Upon graduation, he went to Iran, and then became the deputy leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Abdullah al-Qarawi following a similar path, also traveling to Iran after finishing the program, where he know oversees over 100 Saudi Al-Qaeda operatives. Mohammed al-Oufi, a former Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander, also was released from Gitmo. Luckily, he defected later and informed the Saudis about Iran’s secret involvement with Al-Qaeda in Yemen and a plot to bomb the Saudi oil infrastructure. [READ MORE...]

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Paul A.  Rahe

Barack Obama and the Exhausted Presidency

by Paul A. Rahe

In a recent puff piece, The New York Times reports that our President is tired. This is not the first such report. Back in May, when he treated England’s Gordon Brown so shabbily, the excuse given — according to The Daily Telegraph – was that wrestling with the economic crisis had left Barack Obama too exhausted to be able to focus on foreign affairs.

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We should perhaps discount what was said in May. For, as I have attempted to document in detail here, here, here, here, here, and here, President Obama is a gentleman, and, as such, he is never unintentionally rude. He is, in fact, a master of the insulting gesture, which he seems to reserve for political opponents, such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin, and for political leaders in countries, such as England, France, Germany, Israel, and Poland, which were closely associated with the United States prior to the Age of Obama.

This time, however, Barack Obama may be genuinely tired, and he may be depressed as well. He certainly has warrant. In public, he may claim that he deserves a B+ for his first year in office, but the polling data suggests that he has earned a failing mark, and he has to know better.

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Andrew  Marcus

America’s Drone War In Yemen: Al-Jazeera’s Take

by Andrew Marcus

This fascinating news segment produced by al-Jazeera (aka Jihad TV) highlights how the US drone war in Yemen has inspired a renewed front in the Jihad against America.


This report is interesting because even as it parrots the Jihad narrative, it provides more in depth background information and perspective on American, Saudi, and Iranian involvement in Yemen than anything we have seen from just about any US “news” outlet.

What a sad comment on the state of US/Western media, that “Jihad TV” is a better source of information pertinent to this aspect of the world war we are engaged in.

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Publius

Detroit Terror Attack Is a Major Intelligence Failure

by Publius

From UK’s Telegraph:

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Tough questions need to be asked of not just the US security agencies – such as the CIA and the FBI – but also of Britain’s MI6, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorist unit.

How can a Muslim student, whose name appears on a US law enforcement database, be granted a visa to travel to America, allegedly acquire an explosive device from Yemen, a country awash with al-Qaeda terrorists, and avoid detection from the world’s most sophisticated spy agencies?

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