Israel’s Increasingly Dangerous Neighborhood

I was invited to speak on 21st century missile threats and defenses at the recent 7th annual Jerusalem Conference, 2010, held at the Regency Hotel on Mt. Scopus, in the city of David, but I was pleased as well to hear a wide variety of experts (speeches are delivered in English and Hebrew with convenient wireless earphone translation headsets).

This gathering is rooted in historic Zionism, the meaning of the land of Israel, and the spiritual meaning of Jerusalem. Many Israeli statesman and American political leaders come to address current security crises, as well as existential questions ever-present for the Jewish state still facing war.

The Palestinian Front

On the Palestinian front, many now believe that the idea of a small PLO state within the 1967 borders, to include Gaza, major parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, has lost its appeal within Araby.

Radical Islamism, unrealistic expectations, and daily incitement against Israel in mosques, the media, and madrassas, have all added up to another era of Palestinian intransigence and irredentism.

Unfortunately, the drive for Palestinian independence has not been equated with responsible state building leading to the kind of sovereignty that would help the Palestinian people themselves.

Palestinians universally wish to cast Israel off their shoulders, but this does not mean they support a fair division of land, or a desire to live in peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state in the middle east.

Israeli journalist and commentator Ehud Ya’ari stated that the Palestinians have now fully collapsed into the unwilling arms of the Israelis, and that Israel must urgently solve the seemingly unsolvable.

Israel is today faced with a reverse annexation: It is the Palestinians who have decided to annex Israel, because Israel did not annex them first.

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Tags: abu mazen, AIPAC, ayatollah sistani, bernard lewis, chas freeman
Posted Feb 28th 2010 at 9:57 am in History, News | 81954315 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/lgreenfield/2010/02/28/israels-increasingly-dangerous-neighborhood/Israel%27s+Increasingly+Dangerous+Neighborhood2010-02-28+17%3A57%3A30Larry+Greenfield

Republicans Call Out Democrats on Bill Provision to Punish, Jail CIA Agents

The Hill reports a major win for Republicans and the CIA on a Democrat ambush on the agency and its agents. The Democrat sneak-attack unfolded as the healthcare summit took the national stage, but the GOP was watching.

Democrats inserted an 11-page addition into the bill late Wednesday night as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation.

The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applied to “any officer or employee of the intelligence community” who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of pain or forced sexual acts. The bill said the acts covered by the provision would include inducing hypothermia, conducting mock executions or “depriving the [detainee] of necessary food, water, sleep, or medical care.”

The language gave Congress the discretion to determine what the terms mean, and it would have imposed punishments of up to 15 years in prison, and in some cases, life sentences if a detainee died as a result of the interrogation.

Rep. Pete Hoesktra (R-MI) called out the Democrats:

“This will fundamentally change the nature of the intelligence community by creating a criminal statute governing interrogations,” said Rep. Pete Hoesktra (R-Mich.).  [This] had appeared “out of nowhere” in a manager’s amendment.

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Tags: CIA, criminal sanctions, intelligence agents, interrogation techniques, peter hoekstra
Posted Feb 26th 2010 at 12:51 pm in Congress, Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, Uncategorized | 81070133 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/02/26/republicans-call-out-democrats-on-bill-provision-to-punish-jail-cia-agents/Republicans+Call+Out+Democrats+on+Bill+Provision+to+Punish%2C+Jail+CIA+Agents2010-02-26+20%3A51%3A32SusanAnne+++Hiller

Explosives Theft Qualifies As Near-Miss for USA

Imagine tons of explosives being stolen in Mexico and then transported by truck across the border into the United States. Could it happen? Over the weekend, it did. Almost.

On Friday, according to an article in the Latin American Herald Tribune, 18 tons of industrial explosives were stolen from a cargo container during a robbery along the Monterrey-Saltillo Highway in the northern Mexico state of Nuevo Leon. According to subsequent reports, Mexican officials located and recovered the stolen explosives within hours. The thieves, however, remain at large.

But should Americans rest easy now? Not after this near-miss event.

According to officials with the Mexican industry association, Canacar, thefts from cargo trucks on Mexico’s highways increased 40 percent last year.

North of the border, officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are calling upon the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately challenge the legality of the tariffs implemented one year ago by Mexico so that the debate regarding cross-border trucking with Mexico can be shifted from economics to highway safety and security.

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Tags: border security, Homeland Security, Mexico, terrorism, trucking industry
Posted Feb 25th 2010 at 11:37 am in News, Politics | 79686101 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/2010/02/25/explosives-theft-qualifies-as-near-miss-for-usa/Explosives+Theft+Qualifies+As+Near-Miss+for+USA2010-02-25+19%3A37%3A14Bob+McCarty

The Insignificance of the CPAC Straw Poll

The enthusiasm at this year’s CPAC was palpable.  Conservatives turned out in record droves, optimistic and on the offensive against a government they rightly feel has run amok.  Dick Cheney and John Bolton amongst others predicted that Barack Obama would be a one term President.  I would take a more cautious view.  Beatable as I think President Obama is based upon his bombastic arrogance, blind elitism, blatant dishonesty, and boundless seemingly intentionally destructive policies, if the 2010 CPAC straw poll tells us anything it is that the conservative movement is still searching for its opponent.

Before delving into the numbers, it is important to note that while roughly 1/4 of the 10,000 in attendance at CPAC participated in the poll, around 50% of these voters were students.  And indeed the youthful Campaign for Liberty crowd was highly visible and energized throughout the convention, which explains the extent of Congressman Ron Paul’s success.  Paul, the staunch libertarian came in first with 31% of the vote, Mitt Romney the establishment candidate second with 22% and Sarah Palin the (absent from CPAC) Tea Partier third but lagging significantly behind at 7%.

What is fascinating about the results is that the top three spots were split between three different types of conservatives, and further that the top two spots were divided between two candidates so bipolar.  In my view, Ron Paul comes off as unrefined, radical and principled, while Mitt Romney comes off as polished, moderate and slickly political. Sarah Palin alternatively is the homey if not hokie populist.

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Tags: Ann Coulter, Barack Obama, Congress, conservatives, CPAC
Posted Feb 22nd 2010 at 7:01 am in Uncategorized | 77846259 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amellon/2010/02/22/the-insignificance-of-the-straw-poll/The+Insignificance+of+the+CPAC+Straw+Poll2010-02-22+15%3A01%3A06Andrew+Mellon

Dear T.S.A.: Please Profile Liberal Arts Students

Nick George, a senior at my sister college, Pomona College, was detained by TSA earlier this year. On February 10, he filed a federal lawsuit with the ACLU against TSA, the FBI, and the Philly police. (His father is an attorney and former public defender in the Philadelphia-area.) The lawsuit claims that he was detained for his Arabic flash cards. I think it’s because he was suspicious all throughout.

George is known as being very far to the left on the campuses, which is saying something for Pomona College. After a Pomona Student Union event discussing the state of the media, George tussled with Ross Douthat for over an hour, saying that the right — by which he meant Glenn Beck and Fox News — was effectively nuts and dishonest — much to the chagrin of those of us who wanted to talk to Douthat about something a bit more substantive.

And rather unsurprisingly, his political views on his Facebook profile are listed as “Communist Party of Bulgaria.” (He was asked by TSA agents whether or not he was a Communist; Facebookers of the world might think twice about what they put up in that section from now on.)

So George is not Mr. C.I.A. wannabe, as the mainstream media is trying to spin it. Take, for instance the opening lines of Daniel Rubin’s column for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Tags: ACLU, Nick George, terrorism
Posted Feb 19th 2010 at 12:04 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal | 73850106 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cjohnson/2010/02/19/dear-t-s-a-please-profile-liberal-arts-students/Dear+T.S.A.%3A+Please+Profile+Liberal+Arts+Students2010-02-19+20%3A04%3A52Charles+C.+Johnson

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

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.

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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Tags: abelhaleem hasan abdelrazig ashqar, ahmed omar abu ali, Al Qaeda, Anwar al-Awlaki, Christmas terror attack
Posted Feb 14th 2010 at 4:03 pm in Congress, Culture, Defense, History, Justice/Legal | 74774128 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/fgaffney/2010/02/14/february-fundraiser-for-convicted-terrorist-supporter-in-al-awlakis-mosque/February+Fundraiser+for+Convicted+Terrorist+Supporter+in+Al-Awlaki%27s+Mosque2010-02-15+00%3A03%3A05Frank+Gaffney

Obama’s Options: What Would Slick Willie Do?

It is evening. Dinner is over, and I can see Bill Clinton sitting back at a table. In my fantasy, he has a mischievous smile on his face and a cigar in his right hand; his left hand lies on the knee of a scantily-clad lass less than half his age; and he is waiting in vain for the President to call.

Republicans, when on the spot, are apt to ask themselves, “What would Reagan do?” Democrats would be well advised, when in similar straits, to ponder what Bill Clinton would do. For whatever one might think of him — and in the last couple of years Democrats have been as likely to badmouth the man as Republicans — Slick Willie is a survivor who knows how to stage a comeback when nearly everyone thinks him not only down but permanently out. It was with such a figure in mind that H. L. Mencken wrote these immortal words: “The smarter the politician, the more things he believes and the less he believes any of them.”

I have no doubt what advice Clinton would give Barack Obama if the latter were to make that call. He would tell him to jettison Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod; to hire a David Gergen, and a Dick Morris; to leave Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and their minions twisting in the wind; and to announce in his State of the Union Address that the era of big government is once again at an end.

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Tags: Bill Clinton, David Axelrod, David Gergen, Dick Morris, guantanamo
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 at 5:46 am in Coffee and Markets, Congress, Defense, Economics, Environment, Featured Story, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform, federal spending | 6349486 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/prahe/2010/01/22/obamas-options-what-would-slick-willie-do/Obama%27s+Options%3A+What+Would+Slick+Willie+Do%3F2010-01-22+13%3A46%3A19Paul+A.++Rahe

War Through Weakness: How the Terrorists Win

For those who were expecting the election of Barack Obama to yield a peace dividend in the war on terror, the resurgence of Al-Qaeda has come as a surprise. Obama’s obsequious diplomacy was supposed to be a tonic to the aggressions of the Bush years, but his appeasement seems to have only encouraged more war. Rather than calm the Islamic world, Obama’s passivity has invited attack.

As in the Cold War, the current battle of ideology takes place in proxy wars. Unlike in the Cold War, the war on terror is largely fought through symbolic actions. Islamists do not make tactical attacks. They do not bomb Boeing factories or destroy highways and rail lines. Instead they destroy iconic buildings, trains, and airplanes. They use the spectacle of destruction, carried out in a diabolical way by suicide agents, as their means of waging war. That is the definition of a terror campaign.

The proper response to terror is not appeasement but counterattack. Islamists wage their terror campaigns in order to cow American influence abroad, especially in the Gulf. The answer to such attacks, if we hope to avoid them in the future, is to increase American involvement in Muslim countries both through soft influence and force of arms. Such a strategy was one of the best but least articulated justifications for the Second Gulf War.

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Tags: Containment Policy, islam, Islamists, Obama, Sanaa
Posted Jan 10th 2010 at 1:03 pm in Defense, Obama | 57042400 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpanero/2010/01/10/war-through-weakness-how-the-terrorists-win/War+Through+Weakness%3A+How+the+Terrorists+Win2010-01-10+21%3A03%3A12James+Panero

Barack Obama and the Exhausted Presidency

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.

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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Tags: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Beijing, Chinese relations, Christmas Attack
Posted Dec 31st 2009 at 5:41 am in Congress, Defense, Featured Story, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 53670353 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/prahe/2009/12/31/barack-obama-and-the-exhausted-presidency/Barack+Obama+and+the+Exhausted+Presidency2009-12-31+13%3A41%3A42Paul+A.++Rahe

The Truth About Fort Hood

Like everybody else, when I first heard about the shootings at Fort Hood I immediately rushed to judgment, assuming that anybody opening fire on soldiers on an army base in Texas expected to die. Thus the shooter was either 1) a soldier who had cracked or 2) a priapic jihadist aroused by the thought of all those virgins in paradise. Reasoning that an armed Islamist would struggle to penetrate Fort Hood’s security, I concluded that the shooter was probably an unfortunate soldier gone berserk. A few hours later however I discovered secret option 3) that the “alleged” shooter Nidal Hasan was both a soldier and a jihadi nutbag- an entirely new hybrid, in other words.

Of course, this just goes to show the wisdom of suspending judgment until all the facts are in.  Alas, this lesson was lost on the media, who from the minute news of the shooting broke managed to get almost every detail of the story wrong. At first they told us that the killer was dead; then that there might have been more than one shooter. Soon we knew the suspect’s name, and learned that he was a Muslim convert. Then we learned that he had been Muslim since birth. Then we were told that he might have cracked as a result of exposure to combat, only he had never seen combat. Or maybe it was a response to racism he had experienced, or because as a devout Muslim he was unhappy about being deployed to Afghanistan. (And yet curiously, such a degree of sympathetic understanding was never extended to the likes of Timothy McVeigh or Seung-Hui Cho who also vented their rage by killing strangers.)

Indeed, even Mr. Obama lost his cool, by rushing to the judgment that we were all rushing to judgment, and asking us not to do it. After all Americans do love their pitchforks, don’t they? And when it got out that the suspect was not dead, and that he had shouted Allahu Akbar before opening fire, well- it became all the more important not to rush to judgment, and especially not to assume that the massacre had anything to do with terrorism or Islamic extremism.

Tired of listening to all the non-judgmental judgments, on Saturday I visited Fort Hood for myself.

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Tags: fort hood, fort hood shooting, going postal, guns, islamic extremism
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 6:13 pm in Media Criticism, News, Uncategorized | 2815095 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dkalder/2009/11/10/the-truth-about-fort-hood/The+Truth+About+Fort+Hood2009-11-11+01%3A13%3A11Daniel+Kalder

Former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar Speaks On Radical Islam

Last week, Washington News Observer in collaboration with Big Government attended a speech by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Prime Minister Aznar illustrated the fact that while “not all Muslims are Jihadists, all Jihadists are Muslims.” Prime Minister Aznar’s party lost the 2004 election, only 3 days after the tragic events of the Madrid train bombing. His successor has since withdrawn all Spanish troops from Iraq.

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Tags: Aznar, Spain, terrorism, Washington News Observer
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 3:56 pm in Defense, News | 2825819 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/wno/2009/11/10/former-spanish-prime-minister-aznar-speaks-on-radical-islam/Former+Spanish+Prime+Minister+Aznar+Speaks+On+Radical+Islam2009-11-10+22%3A56%3A19Washington+News+Observer

Chicago Mayor Daley Blames Fort Hood On America’s Love Of Guns!

On Monday, Chicago Mayor Daley blamed the Ft. Hood Jihad Massacre on America’s love of guns!

“Unfortunately, America loves Guns. We love guns to a point where that uh we see devastation on a daily basis. You don’t blame a group.”

The Mayor is using a straw-man argument that conveniently provides him with an opportunity to politicize the terrorist attack as part and parcel with America’s love of guns.

Mayor Daley, and other politicians, like to blame gun violence on the guns themselves because that is so much easier than admitting any inconvenient (politically incorrect) truths which might be revealed if they were to place blame where it belongs.

Kids murdering each other in the inner city? That’s because of guns, not the War On Drugs which turns poor children into black market drug distributing gang members.

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Tags: Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, gun control, jihad, political correctness, terrorism
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 10:57 am in Culture, Defense, Politics | 281781,255 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2009/11/10/chicago-mayor-daley-blames-fort-hood-on-americas-love-of-guns/Chicago+Mayor+Daley+Blames+Fort+Hood+On+America%E2%80%99s+Love+Of+Guns%212009-11-10+17%3A57%3A45Andrew++Marcus

Why You Should Care About CAIR….

Over the next month, we will be exposing new evidence about the activities of the Council on American Islamic Relations, known as CAIR.  The evidence – and ensuing requests for formal investigations of CAIR – will be submitted to members of Congress, to the Departments of Justice and Treasury, as well as to the public here at Big Government.  To set the scene, here’s a brief “CAIR for Dummies” backgrounder  from author Paul Sperry, whose just-published best-seller Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America unmasks CAIR and its foreign backers:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations bills itself as a “civil-rights advocacy group,” much like the NAACP, but for Muslims

However, the FBI says that far from being a benign nonprofit, CAIR is a front group for Hamas terrorists and the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America. And the bureau recently cut off formal ties to CAIR’s national office in Washington and all 30 of its branch offices across the country.

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Tags: Council on American Islamic Relations, Dubai, FBI, Hamas, Holy Land Foundation
Posted Oct 28th 2009 at 12:00 pm in Congress, Defense, Justice/Legal | 2107065 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/fgaffney/2009/10/28/why-you-should-care-about-cair/Why+You+Should+Care+About+CAIR....2009-10-28+19%3A00%3A13Frank+Gaffney

A Name Americans Should Know – Jodie Evans and the Obama-Hollywood-Terrorist Connection

How much access can a possible agent of influence for state sponsors of terrorism buy from President Barack Obama? For Jodie Evans, a progressive Hollywood activist, the going rate appears to be $30,400 for dinner and a conversation.

Last week in San Francisco, Obama headlined a three million dollar fundraiser at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The San Francisco Chronicle reports about 160 people paid $30,400 or more per couple for a private dinner with Obama followed by a reception costing $500 to $1000 that drew over 900 attendees. Among those at the dinner was the leftist, so-called antiwar group Code Pink co-founder, Jodie Evans.

The Chronicle reports Jodie Evans had a several minutes long conversation with Obama at the fundraiser.

Why does Jodie Evans merit such face time with the president even though she acts as an agent of influence for the anti-American governments of Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, as well as Middle Eastern terrorists?

Over the life of the campaign, Jodie Evans became one of Obama’s top donors, giving the maximum $2300 to his respective primary and general election funds and tens of thousands of dollars more to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint Obama-Democratic National Committee fund.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, Code Pink, Democrat National Committee, Fidel Castro
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 4:15 pm in Culture, Defense, Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 20358177 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/taylorking/2009/10/23/a-name-americans-should-know-jodie-evans-and-the-obama-hollywood-terrorist-connection/A+Name+Americans+Should+Know+-+Jodie+Evans+and+the+Obama-Hollywood-Terrorist+Connection2009-10-23+23%3A15%3A33Kristinn+Taylor+and++Andrea+Shea+King