Thank God - for now, anyway:

A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What’s a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?

That in essence was the Bush Administration’s argument to a federal appeals court in a nineteen-page emergency request that maintained there would be only “minimal harms” if the detainees were to stay at Guantanamo a while longer.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed, halting the seventeen men’s release for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.

The appeals court set a deadline of next Thursday for additional filings, when it will be left up to the judges to decide how quickly to act — and in whose favor.

Note the orientation of this USA Today report - all about the “stymied freedom” of the Islamist terrorist illegal combatants and the “harms” that would be dealt to them by keeping them locked up in Gitmo where the belong for only an additional couple of weeks. Gee, if you didn’t know better, you’d get the idea that “the nation’s newspaper” is in the same insane, treasonous dhimmi tank with Judge Urbina. Is it any wonder that this was phrased as an “emergency appeal”?

Ensign Ed compiles a good summation:

Our armed forces capture seventeen Uighers in terrorist training camps far from home in Afghanistan. They have received training in al-Qaeda tactics — exactly the kind of people we want to keep out of our country while AQ wages war on the West. We’d like to get them out of Gitmo after having derived what intelligence we can from them, but no one seems terribly interested in taking al-Qaeda terrorists into their countr, either. The Chinese want them, but we’re afraid the terrorists will be mistreated by Beijing, which is suppressing a Uigher insurgency at the moment.

What solution does our brilliant judiciary reach? Let them live in the nation’s capital, the very place al-Qaeda trains its recruits to destroy! What a great idea!

I’d ask why we should give a frog’s fat leg what the ChiComms end up doing to these animals, but then I know the response I’d get, and I’m hypertensive enough as it is.

And just think: Barack Hoover Obama will have at least four years to make the federal judiciary more like Judge Urbina. Unless the Islamists, whether al Qaeda or the Iranian mullahgarchy, manage to shatter our country first sufficiently that judges will no longer be relevant.

Does irony get any bitterer than that?

[cross-posted at ]

What’s next from our Imperial Judicial overlords? A decree that we have to house released jihadis in our own homes?:

A federal judge today ordered that seventeen Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday, agreeing with the detainees’ attorneys that the Constitution bars holding the men indefinitely without cause. …

Justice Department lawyer John O’Quinn asked Urbina to stay the order for a week, giving the government time to evaluate its options and file an appeal. Urbina rejected that request and ordered the Uighurs to appear in his courtroom for a hearing on Friday. He said he would then release them into the custody of seventeen Uighur families living in the Washington area.

O’Quinn said the legal ramifications from the order are complex and that he wants time to consult with officials from the Department of Homeland Security. Under existing U.S. law, immigration authorities may be forced to take the Uighurs into custody shortly after they arrive in the United States, O’Quinn said. The Justice Department alleges they have ties to a group that has been designated a terrorist organization by the government.

Urbina chastised O’Quinn for suggesting that the government might take the Uighurs into custody for a second time.

Well of COURSE he did. Hey, I know, maybe Mr. O’Quinn could offer to put them up at the Pentagon instead! Or maybe at the White House - yeah, that’s the ticket! They can take turns trying to assassinate President and Mrs. Bush from the Lincoln bedroom, to which Judge Urbina will deny the Secret Service access. Maybe that’ll compensate them for their unconscionable six years at Gitmo for the inconsequential infraction of fighting on the side of al Qaeda and the Taliban against U.S. forces during Operation Enduring Freedom.

The War Against Islamic Fundamentalism will be effectively lost on November 4th, officially lost next January 20th, and lost for every American to see when that big Iranian nuclear flash goes off three hundred miles above Kansas, or maybe just in an Ameican city near you if we’re lucky. Judicial pronouncements like those of Judge Urbina serve as a depressing reminder that we were beaten long before We, The People, voted to defeat ourselves.

[cross-posted at ]

Two words, three letters - Iran and EMP:

Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon that could cripple the United States “in a blink of an eye,” says Frank Gaffney, a leading expert on U.S. national security….

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, Gaffney warned that Iran’s nuclear program has progressed much further than most officials believe. The Islamic republic could attain a nuclear weapon “any day,” he said.

A single nuclear weapon exploded at the proper altitude would create a wave of energy sufficient to wipe out the entire U.S. electrical grid, causing “catastrophic disaster,” Gaffney said.

In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors global nuclear activities provided intelligence to diplomats indicating that Iran is trying to refit a long-distance missile so that it can carry a nuclear warhead.

“The missing piece as far as we know is the nuclear weapon, and they’re busily working to acquire that,” Gaffney told Newsmax. “And I am afraid they could at any day have the ability not only to obtain that nuclear weapon, but to mate it with a ballistic missile, and God forbid, use it.”

Experts agree that a nuclear detonation at a high altitude would generate an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, that would destroy most electrical systems. Gaffney predicts it would plunge the entire country into conditions similar to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The resulting social breakdown could ultimately lead to millions of American deaths from various causes, he said.

“Such an attack could really cripple our 21st-century society, and I would suggest sort of push us back into preindustrial society in the blink of an eye,” Gaffney said. “It would translate over time — not immediately but over time — into the deaths of perhaps as many as nine out of ten Americans, because our society simply can’t be sustained without electricity and all of the infrastructure that supports our urban settings.” [emphases added]

I was trying to explain this to my daughter yesterday, not because I thought I’d be able to convey the true horror of the implications, but as a test of a psychology theory I have of the uncommunicability of mortal national security threats. My theory was borne out, not surprisingly. But then it is difficult for even me to imagine the immensity of a successful EMP attack on the United States.

The best I can do is to ask you to imagine all the ways your life would change if there were no electricity. All the applicances in your home, the lights, the heat, would be gone. All the food in your fridge would spoil. You couldn’t go to the grocery store to replace it because your car wouldn’t start, and even if it did, you couldn’t refill the gas tank because the pumps at the local filling station wouldn’t run, and the tanker trucks couldn’t get to the filling station to delivery more gasoline - nor could eighteen wheelers deliver more groceries to the grocery store. You might have a home generator for just such emergencies, except that they run on gas or kerosene or diesel fuel and that would dry up just like the gas for your car.

Freezing to death. Starvation. Chaos. Let your imagination run wild from there.

The end result? America would cease to exist as a coherent continental nation because it is simply too big to remain intact without an interconnected modern infrastructure to sustain it. Civil order would break down. The law of the jungle would return. Most of us, rendered decedantly fat, dumb, and happy as the citizens of the late, great global hegomon, wouldn’t have a clue as to what to do so survive in such dire circumstances. Maybe the “over time” death toll wouldn’t be quite as high as 90%, but it would be staggering nonetheless. And there would be no FEMA to ride to the rescue, competently or otherwise, and certainly no international assistance coming our way.

That, of course, assumes that there wouldn’t be any follow up from our enemies, whether that was via land invasion or simply nuking our crippled, defenseless homeland to irradiated oblivion.

But again, that hasn’t happened - yet. And because it hasn’t happened, it’s difficult to see through the prosperous normalcy of life in these United States to recognize the danger of it happening in the very near future.

It’s base human nature. People don’t want to confront threats if doing so involves a signficant cost, even if the cost of not confronting them will be inestimably worse. Far easier to convince yourself that gambling on the latter is the safer bet. A psychological phenomenon colloquially known as “wishful thinking.”

Wishful thinking dominated the foreign policy of the Western democracies in the 1930s even as Adolph Hitler was following his published blueprint for anti-Semitic genocide and world conquest to the letter. There is arguably no war in human history that was more preventable than World War II, and yet Western leaders refused to believe the evidence of their eyes and ears and instead took comfort in self-generated pacifistic myths and delusions, no more infamously exemplified than the “tough direct diplomacy” that Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier undertook at Munich with Herr Hitler. Until, of course, the German tanks rolled across Poland, and then France and Holland and Belgium, and then German bombers started raining fire down on London, six million Jews perished, and fifty-four million other human lives joined them, all because Western leaders didn’t have the courage to recognize the futility of “diplomacy” and act pre-emptively against Hitler while they had the opportunity.

Happily for the world, the United States was there to (belatedly) intervene and eventually turn the tide against the Nazis. Which, of course, leads inexorably to the question of who is going to bail out America after it has been decimated by a long-proclaimed EMP attack from the Islamist theocrats in Tehran whose enmity against the United States has been proclaimed non-stop for the past thirty years. Once again we face an enemy that has told us they are going to bring us to our knees, told us how they’re going to do it, and that they will not and cannot be talked out of doing it. And once again we - and I mean the bipartisan “we” - are refusing to believe the evidence of our eyes and ears and instead are taking comfort in self-generated pacifistic myths and delusions, so much as that we are about to elect as our next president a man who makes Neville Chamberlain look like Winston Churchill.

I have said throughout this campaign that the reason above all others why I deathly fear a Barack Obama presidency is that he is going to get us all killed. Frank Gaffney says B.O. won’t get ALL of us killed, just “as many as ninety percent” of us. Who’d have thought that the former Reagan Administration official would have become such a wild-eyed optimist?

[cross-posted at ]

Three months ago, someone who should have known better declared a landmark diplomatic victory for the Bush Adminstration over the communist regime of Kim jong-IL’s North Korea and its supposed agreement to give up its nuclear weapons program. Somebody who DID know better bellowingly dissented, and made a prediction:

We gain nothing of any substance from this twenty-sixth agreement with the Kim regime, which will be riven by them just like all twenty-five of its predecessors, and the NoKos and Red Chinese gain breathing room for the rogue regime’s next round of nuclearization and consequence sabre-rattling and mischief-making.

Three weeks ago the NoKos announced to the world that they were going to reverse course and rebuild their Yongbyon nuclear fuel facility right in front of ourselves, the Japanese, and the South Koreans, all of to whose faces Pyongyang had agreed to dismantle it in the first place. Ourselves, the Japs, and the SoKos didn’t so much as yawn. The only thing the Kim regime hadn’t done was formally throw out Ourselves, the Japs, the SoKos, and the Internatonal Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and monitors.

You can check that detail off the list:

North Korea has expelled U.N. monitors from its plutonium-making nuclear plant and plans to start reactivating it next week, rowing back from a 2007 deal to scrap its atomic bomb program, officials said on Wednesday.

The Stalinist state said on Friday it was working to restart the Yongbyon atomic complex it had been dismantling since last November under a disarmament-for-aid agreement with five powers.

Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s head of non-proliferation safeguards, told a closed meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors that monitors were forced to leave the plutonium facility this week.

“There are no more seals and surveillance equipment in place at the (plutonium) reprocessing facility,” IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, referring to the most proliferation-sensitive installation at Yongbyon.

So…doesn’t that put us right back to square one? Yongbyon reassembled and back on-line by the end of the year? Fresh, and perchance successful, nuclear tests next year? Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. west coast under threat of North Korean nuclear attack just as Europe and the U.S. eastern seaboard will be under threat of Iranian nuclear attack? And terrorist network customers lining up to buy warheads like harried mothers at Toys-R-Us the week before Christmas?

No, Ed, it’s not a “negotiating ploy.” We’ll still give ‘em the economic aid we promised, because we don’t break OUR word to lying, meglomaniacal, murderous dictators. And you know damn well that President Hussein will tear up the “terror-supporting-nations” list altogether. And no, Ed, the NoKo military doesn’t fear a war with Ourselves, the Japs, and the SoKos, because they know that (1) they could and would clean the latter two’s clocks and (2) they know we have utterly no stomach for an(other) armed conflict in Northeast Asia when we’re still pacifying Iraq AND have Iran to deal with AND have to worry about a revival of the Cold War AND have to worry about a ChiComm grab for Taiwan AND keep an eye on Hugo Chavez’s Latin American ambitions, etc., etc., etc.

All of that is wishful thinking, Ed. Remember your Occam’s Razor. The truth is a lot simpler: the NoKos, just like the Iranians, want nukes, and they’re going to get them, and then they’re going to use them against us and our allies. And President Hussein will let them do it.

Sad to say, but George W. Bush completely wasted his time with this six-party-talks five-knuckle-shuffling. The only thing left to do now is deliver an ultimatum: honor the agreement or else. Starting with cutting them off completely from any and all aid until they let the inspectors back in and put Yongbyon back in mothballs - even better, destroy the plant equipment outright so it can’t be reassembled.

Diplomacy is fine, diplomacy is great, but without a commitment to national interest and the hard-headed, realistic mettle that goes with it, it’s nothing more than a suicidal fetish. If we let North Korea so openly and brazenly renege on an agreement they’ve already signed, there is utterly no point in saying another word to them - any more than there ever was in the first place.

[cross-posted at ]

Having been driven out of Iraq despite Barack Obama’s heroic efforts on their behalf, al Qaeda’s western wing (as opposed to the eastern wing in Pakistan) has found a new home - which they, er, christened with a bang:

Yemen, the site of a car-bomb attack yesterday on the American Embassy, is quietly emerging as a base for Al Qaeda veterans of the Iraq war, who are seeking refuge there and are close to establishing the kind of safe haven the group enjoys on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

American intelligence officials believe that Osama bin Laden’s organization is regrouping in the governorates of Ma’rib, al-Jawf, and Hadhramaut along Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, and that Al Qaeda in Yemen is now being led by a former military aide to Mr. bin Laden, Nasir al-Wahishi.

“The foreign-fighter flow in Iraq has slowed down to a trickle,” a retired four-star general and adviser to Multi-National Force-Iraq, General Jack Keane, told the New York Sun. “They can’t get to their operational cells to be a bomber or a fighter, so some of them are going to other safe havens. A lot of this has to do with where they came from. But two of the places certainly are Pakistan and Yemen.” That assessment was supported by two American intelligence officials whom the Sun contacted for comment on the bombing of the American Embassy yesterday in Sana’a. The attack killed sixteen Yemeni nationals but no Americans, the Associated Press reported, and the attackers included at least one suicide bomber, as well as gunmen wearing Yemeni military uniforms and armed with rocket-propelled grenades. One of the tasks of the FBI, which will investigate the attack, will be to determine whether members of Yemen’s armed forces participated in the attack.

Interesting, huh? Not so much the embassy attack, which wasn’t the first one even this year, but some of the attackers wearing Yemeni military uniforms. Could the jihadis have pilfered them? Sure; it’d be emblematic of  Yemen’s all around indifference to and marked lack of enthusiasm for aiding us in the War Against Islamic Fundamentalism. But if those “gunmen” were Yemeni military, that means either that they went rogue, or their government is now in passive cahoots with AQ, not unlike the even more hair-raising state of affairs in Pakistan.

As Ensign Ed observed, by the terms of the original Bush Doctrine, this would bring the Yemeni regime into our crosshairs for punitive action free of the complications of Islamic nuclear arsenals and keeping them out of the wrong hands. This would also be important in order to prevent a revival of the attempted Islamist takeover of Somalia that the Ethiopians crushed two years ago. The imperative of the (original) Bush Doctrine was to pre-empt mass-casuality Islamist terrorism by denying the enemy state sanctuaries where they can headquarter, gather resources, train, and mount offensives against Western targets. We’ve beaten them in Iraq (despite Barack Obama’s heroic efforts), we could beat them in Afghanistan did they not have a state-allowed sanctuary in northwest Pakistan. Gifting them much less isolated Yemen is a complacency we cannot afford.

Similarly, anybody who has consulted my thoughts on Iran and its quest for nuclear weapons knows that I have staunchly maintained since at least the end of “major combat operations” in Iraq over five years ago that Iran needs to be liberated by American military power even more urgently than Iraq did in order to avert the doomsday scenario of an irrational, theocratic, viciously anti-Semitic and anti-American Islamist regime launching a nuclear holocaust under the banner of a “holy” religious quest. Throw in the revanchist neo-Cold War hostilities with Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the ever-arming, ever-scheming Red Chinese and the picture of the world that the next president is going to inherit is one of a world that will spin into bloody chaos in the absence of firm American leadership backed by unchallengable American power.

John Sith McCain, whatever his myriad perfidious faults, would provide such leadership on the world stage. This, on the other hand, exemplifies the leadership vacuum in store if the voters throw caution, prudence, and sanity to the four winds and opt to “make history” instead:

“We are pleased to inform you that the keynote speakers at the “Stop Iran. Now!” Rally are confirmed to be Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Governor Sarah Palin and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel,” read an e-mail from a leader of a Jewish group planning the event.

But the curtain came down on the comedy sketch-turned-reality before the duo ever hit the stage: Clinton officials soon said they had not been told Palin would be on hand — and that her presence, which made the event a political one, would mean the absence of the New York senator.

The McCain-Palin campaign has not yet said whether Palin herself will still be attending the event, but released a statement criticizing Clinton’s withdrawal. “Governor Palin believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics,” said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. “She hopes that all parties can rally together in opposition to this grave threat.”

Feel free to jump in at any time here if you think I’m in desperate need of advice, but wouldn’t the presence of ANY politician make this event “political,” by that broad a definition? Indeed, wouldn’t having a prominent member of BOTH parties present balance out the rostrum and drain the program of any partisan perceptions? AP correctly argues that Her Majesty’s fleeing Palinmania is what brought politics into this equation. What possible harm could come from Mrs. Clinton and Barracuda speaking jointly or severally on behalf of a cause that no truly “patriotic” American can possibly oppose? 

Answer: None, if your top priority is protecting our country and its allies from mortal threats; is avoiding the horrific spectre of American and/or European and/or Israeli civilian death tolls in the tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions; is doing everything possible to avoid one city after another going up in hellish mushroom-shaped pyres of atomic conflagration.

But if your top priority is to diminish the United States as a world power, is an incurable neurosis of post-modernist guilt and multicultural self-loathing, is the at-all-costs furtherance of suicidal pacifism, and most immediately is to keep your party’s neoBolshevik crazoid base from mutinying in a geyser of utter, shrieking rage, then letting Hillary Clinton even be in the same zip code at Sarah Palin is an act of fratricide that you dare not contemplate.

I tend to think, though, that snubbing the cause of denying the mullahgarchy nuclear weapons was secondary; after all, the Dems know that the window of gumption for a Bush strike against Iran has long-since closed, and Darth Queeg isn’t about to suggest re-opening it. Hell, the Bushies won’t even let the Israelis do it for them. They’ve been cowed and browbeaten and all but physically bludgeoned into submission, and are doing what Dubya once vowed he would never do: punt the issue to the next administration. Besides which, the Dems are convinced that False Messiah will “judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. The [Iranians] will beat their [nuclear] swords into plowshares and their [atomic] spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

No, the idea here wasn’t to defect to Tehran, but to deny Governor Palin a public appearance on an equal footing with the Feminazi Popette. A suspicion whose confirmation was not long in emerging:

The Obama campaign in turn offered to send Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida to the event, but the appearance that the non-partisan group was aligning with the Republican ticket put the group and its president, Malcolm Hoenlein, under heavy pressure from Jewish Democrats, including members of the conference, members of Congress, and the liberal group J Street, not to give Palin a platform, sources said. Hoenlein told the McCain campaign that he would have to rescind Palin’s invitation or cancel the rally.

The organizers, I’m told, have formally disinvited all elected and political officials, but the move was about Palin.

You know, the Robert Wexler who smeared Governor Palin as a “Nazi sympathizer” based on the lie that she backed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 (in reality, she supported Steve Forbes) and the smear of PJB as a Nazi. Just the sort of “non-politician” to send to a “non-political event” sponsored by Jewish organizations.

These Jewish Donks - at Team Hussein’s usual insulated direction - weren’t playing around, either:

Sources tell CBS 2 HD that a decision to disinvite Palin from the high profile rally after Clinton pulled out in a huff came as the result of intense pressure from Democrats.

“This is insulting. This is embarrassing, especially to Governor Palin, to me and I think it should be to every single New Yorker,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, told CBS 2 HD.

Sources say the axes were out for Palin as soon as Senator Clinton pulled out because she did not want to attend the same event as the Republican vice presidential candidate…

The groups sponsoring the rally against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at the UN were reportedly told, “it could jeopardize their tax exempt status” if they had Palin and not Clinton or Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden on hand…

“It’s an absolute shame that this has happened,” Hikind said. “To threaten organizations … to threaten the Conference of Presidents that if you don’t withdraw the invitation to Governor Palin we’re going to look into your tax exempt status … that’s McCarthyism.”…

“I’m absolutely appalled at the behavior of the Democrats,” said Bob Kunst of Defenders.net. “I’m a Democrat and for the first time in my life I’m going to vote Republican. I can’t take it anymore.”

And who leaned on Hillary to back out on a booking to which she had committed months ago? Barack Hussein Obama. His dirty, rotten, slimy, stinking, McCarthyist surrogates took it from there. Because as we will all be re-educated to know, Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency is an infinitely greater threat to the national security of the United States than nuclear weapons in the hands of men who have openly and public declared their sacred intent and duty to commit anti-Semitic genocide and bring “The Great Satan” to its knees.  

Parting point to ponder: Pretend you are Adolph Ahmadinejad reading the following lament from “Stop Iran Now!” organizer and Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations chief Malcolm Hoenlein and ask yourself what your reaction to it would be:

Some Jewish activists are blaming Hillary Clinton for [the rally’s] collapse; in the interview, Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations chief Malcolm Hoenlein blamed board members of some of the organizations involved, and a “vile” campaign by the National Jewish Democratic Council.

“Pressure really grows from the grassroots and from people on their boards. People feel very strongly these days. Irrationally strongly. I can’t even describe to you the kind of reactions and threats that they came under – and intimidation,” Hoenlein said. “It’s rampant. I have never seen an election that has evoked such deep division and response and emotion on the part of people – Jews and non-Jews.” [emphases added]

Is it any wonder that the Iranians are practically drooling at the prospect of President Obama? Or that Osama bin Laden, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, the ChiComms, et al are rubbing their hands together with glee as well?  With B.O. in charge, they won’t even have to soften us up before they take us down. [cross-posted at ]

In a strikingly bold speech about terrorism scheduled for this morning, Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama will call not only for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but a redeployment of troops into Afghanistan and even Pakistan - with or without the permission of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

“I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges,” Obama will say, according to speech excerpts provided to ABC News by his campaign, “but let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.” …

That was thirteen months and sixteen days ago.  Here was my timely and highly entertaining analysis.

Here’s the latest out of Pakistan - yesterday:

On the eve of a meeting with the top U.S. military commander, Pakistan upped the ante in its standoff over U.S. troop incursions, saying its soldiers had orders to open fire on American troops if they crossed from Afghanistan on raids…

A Pakistani military spokesman said Tuesday that the nation’s troops have been ordered to open fire if U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan launched another raid inside Pakistan, raising the prospect of a clash between Pakistani and U.S. forces on the border. Pakistani military officials have repeatedly emphasized that they consider such incursions — made permissible for U.S. troops by secret orders issued by U.S. President George W. Bush in July — to be a violation of territorial sovereignty.

“No incursion will be tolerated anymore,” said Major-General Athar Abbas, chief military spokesman. The prospect of allies fighting each other as they hunt down Islamist militants still appears remote, given the Pakistani government’s desire to receive billions of dollars in aid from the U.S. But the repeated warnings against U.S. troop raids reflect the strong anger felt among Pakistan’s senior ranks that the U.S. is overstepping its bounds with a close ally.

And if a clash or clashes do occur between U.S. and Pakistani forces?  I would assume that’s why JCS Chairman Mike Mullen is in Islamabad at this very moment.  To remind the unserious regime of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of just where his best interests lie.  A talk that is long overdue, in my humble opinion.

Hopefully AP is right and General Abbas was just blustering for PR consumption.  Otherwise the choices will be (1) keep raiding Pakistan and possibly push its government and nuclear arsenal into Islamist hands; or (2) let al Qaeda have its new base of operations and mark time until the resumption of their North American offensive.

Now aren’t you just DYING to have Barack Obama making that decision?  I KNEW you were!

[cross-posted at ]

Our Military On Political Pistachio Radio

On The Radio This Week!

ONCE A MARINE - An Iraq War Tank Commander’s Inspirational Story of Combat, Courage, and Recovery. Nick Popaditch appeared in an AP photo on April 9, 2003. The striking image was of the Marine tank commander smoking a victory cigar in his tank, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. “Gunny Pop” was immortalized forever as “The Cigar Marine.” A year later he fought heroically in the First Battle for Fallujah and suffered head wounds that left him legally blind and partially deaf. The United States Marine Corps awarded him a Silver Star for his valor and combat innovation. Coming home, however, is when the toughest fight of his life began - a battle to remain the man and Marine he was. Join Political Pistachio Radio on Tuesday Night at 10:00 pm Eastern Time/7:00 pm Pacific for a riveting interview with Nick Popaditch, a Marine’s Marine, a man who embodies everything noble and proud in the Corps’ long tradition.

What You Missed Last Week:

Saturday Sgt. Michael Volkin joined us to discuss his latest book, The Accomplishments of Senator Barack Hussein Obama. (From the book’s site, www.obamaresearch.com) The Accomplishments of Senator Barack Hussein Obama is a comprehensive, factual book about presidential candidate Barack Obama. The book is based on hours of research, dozens of speeches and listening to dozens of his supporters. The Accomplishments of Barack Hussein Obama accounts for all the presidential qualifications of Senator Barack Obama.

Some of the various topics this book discusses are:

+ His Detailed Plans of Change
+ His Senate Accomplishments
+ His Presidential Qualifications
+ Important Points He Has Made Without a Teleprompter or Prepared Script

This book includes title page, copyright page, a complete table of contents, running page headers, and a conclusion. Each book’s chapters, however, are BLANK!

Michael Volkin was the guest last Saturday on Political Pistachio Radio.

Also Last Week:

Mr. and Mrs. Cyber-Pastor’s adventures at the Republican National Convention
Mr. and Mrs. CP on PPR

9/11 Anniversary with the Executive Director of Let’s Get This Right .com, Sheridan Folger.
9/11 and Sheridan Folger on PPR

The Political Director, Dr. Bill Smith, of Let’s Get This Right .com joined us to discuss the Republican National Convention, Election 2008, and how the New Media is becoming a major force in shaping the public’s opinion and the rebirth of the Conservative Movement.
Dr. Bill Smith, Political Director of LGTR on PPR

Paul Volosen of www.mccainpalin2008.blogspot.com joined us to discuss the rise of Sarah Palin, as well as the continually changing upcoming election.
McCain/Palin 2008 on PPR

Amateur Kick Boxer Scott Venrick joined Political Pistachio to answer the question, does violence beget violence?
Does Violence Beget Violence? Let’s Ask A Kick Boxer on PPR

Alfonzo of MachoSauceProduction joins us to talk about being a black conservative, and why Conservativism is on the rise.
Macho Sauce Production on PPR

On the Blogs:

Doug Battles As He Adjusts To His New Life as a Trucker.

Newt Gingrich Shuts Up MSNBC.

I Remember 9/11.

See you next weekend (or earlier should a key guest come up) -

Doug
www.politicalpistachio.com

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when My people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16 You will advance against My people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes.

Here’s an interesting little nuance of Russia’s attack on Georgia last month (via Carl in Jerusalem):

In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter-bombers in the event of pre-emptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter-bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran. And to reach Georgian airstrips, the Israeli air force would fly over Turkey.

The attack ordered by Saakashvili against South Ossetia the night of August 7 provided the Russians the pretext for Moscow to order Special Forces to raid these Israeli facilities where some Israeli drones were reported captured.

Now not only are those Georgian airfields no longer available for Israeli use against Iran, but thanks to the undiminished incompetence of Israeli Brigadier General Gal Hirsch - the commander of Israeli forces on the Lebanese border in July 2006 - but the Russians reportedly got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment.  Which means we can count on them reverse-engineering it and passing on that helpful information to their clients in Tehran and Damascus.

The loss of a northern axis of attack limits the potential effectiveness of an Israel pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facililties.  Shorter distance is only one factor; as one of Carl’s commenters points out, Iran’s air defenses are concentrated to the west and south, not the north, and the mountainous Caucasian terrain makes it easier for low-flying aircraft to evade radar.  It’s not difficult to project that we envisioned using those Georgian airfields for airstrikes against those same targets as well.

Now that option has been, if not eliminated, than far less likely.  And the chances for a direct solution to the Iranian nuclear problem dwindled away to virtually nothing quite some time ago as it is.

This may be the stake through the heart of avoiding a nuclear war in the Middle East - or over our own territory.

Like the old man at the gas station told Sara Connor at the end of The Terminator, “There’s a storm coming.”  Seven years after 9/11, are we any less fat, dumb, and oblivious now than we were then?

[cross-posted at ]

We gain nothing of any substance from this twenty-sixth agreement with the Kim regime, which will be riven by them just like all twenty-five of its predecessors, and the NoKos and Red Chinese gain breathing room for the rogue regime’s next round of nuclearization and consequent sabre-rattling and mischief-making.  Only next time their nukes won’t fizzle - and won’t be tested inside a cave, but on Tokyo or Seattle.

-Me, 6/27/08

It’s barely taken two months for the NoKos to start reneging on this latest “historic breakthrough for peace and triumph of multilateral diplomacy.” My only question is, what took ‘em so long?:

Before workers began moving mothballed equipment back into place, North Korea informed U.S. personnel at its Yongbyon nuclear plant it would start reassembling its nuclear facilities, a South Korean official said Thursday.

Pyongyang gave the notification Tuesday to U.S. personnel stationed at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear plant and started moving some equipment, taken apart from plutonium-producing facilities, out of storage Wednesday, said a Foreign Ministry official.

“They were moving some equipment” to the original sites, said the official, citing information provided by the United States. But he did not say what the equipment was. The official spoke on condition of anonymity citing the issue’s sensitivity.

Well, now, THAT’s brazen, isn’t it? They’re deep-sixing the “disarmament agreement” and moving to restore Yongbyon to fully operational status right in front of us - oh, sorry, the FIVE of “us” (US, Japan, South Korea, Red [haha] China, and Russia [hahahaha]) - and all but smirkingly flipping us the bird while they do it.

And “our” reaction? Do you have to ask?:

“This is a clear violation of a six-party agreement,” he said, referring to a disarmament pact that the North reached with the U.S. and four other nations last year. The official said Seoul would try to persuade Pyongyang to reverse its action.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is in close contact with the U.S. and South Korea on the development.

“We are aware that (North Korea) is engaged in an activity to remove some of the key equipment out of the storage, and we are concerned about the situation,” he said.

OOOOH. The Japanese are “concerned”. The SoKos will “try to persuade” their northern counterparts to “reverse their action.” Well, THAT ought to put the fear of God into Kim jong-iL.

Heaven knows we won’t:

The U.S. played down Pyongyang’s latest step.

“Based on what we know from the reports on the ground, you don’t have an effort to reconstruct, reintegrate this equipment back into the facility,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Foggy Bottom’s spin is that this latest move is only a negotiating tactic meant to pressure Washington to keep its promise to take Pyongyang off the terror list. They cite in support of this “hopeful” conclusion that the NoKos have not - yet - ousted U.S. and U.N. on-site monitors overseeing the nuclear fuel facility’s alleged dismantling.

Mayhap that is a reason and mayhap it isn’t. But another most definitely is an indefatiguible determination to poke, prod, and otherwise test Western resolve. Recall that the biggest factor in North Korea strategically retreating from its nuclear weapons development was that their first full-fledged test fizzled. Communists know better than anyone that you don’t back up blustering threats like the ones they were issuing two years ago if you can’t back them up with more than blanks. The nuke they set off underground in the far northeast corner of their territory was, by modern nuclear weapons standards, a dud (not even a kiloton). Having lost face - for the moment - Kim backed off.

Now he’s reassembling his nuclear weapons facility right in front of us, and what is the response of ourselves and our equally feckless allies? “Concern,” “(diplomatic) persuasion,” and another wallowing indulgence in rationalizing and wishful-thinking.

Sex isn’t the only thing in which there’s always a morning after. Making deals with communist regimes is pointless because they cannot be trusted to abide by their obligations. How much more pointless are such “accords” when there are no enforcement provisions, no pre-defined, imposable sanctions for non-compliance, and less than no willingness on the part of the “three-nation united anti-NoKo nukes front and their two ill-disguised enablers” to do whatever it takes to force Pyongyang to keep their word?

What will we do if the ChiComms and Russkies don’t lean on their client to backtrack from their backtrack? If they do kick out the international monitors and fire up Yongbyon again? Was the point of this four-year diplomatic cluster to disarm the NoKos or buy time for Round #27?

Obama Nation Book by Jerome Corsi Draws Criticism - Corsi is my guest tonight on BTR

Tonight on Political Pistachio Radio Dr. Jerome Corsi must meet controversy head on!

Dr. Jerome Corsi, staff writer for World Net Daily, has suddenly found himself in the midst of a violent storm of controversy. The WND writer, this week alone, has been the object of numerous television and radio shows as the media tries to wade through the information contained in the book, and determine if the book is truly filled with falsehoods, or is a well researched piece of literature that takes a close and hard look at the Democratic Presidential front-runner, Barack Obama.

The book at the center of the controversy is, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality. The Huffington Post calls the book, “…one of the worst political books ever written. Corsi piles distortion upon innuendo to create a gigantic heap of right-wing garbage, with a seemingly endless parade of basic factual errors running through the text like rats. Corsi’s book is an embarrassment to the craft of journalism, and any of the conservatives who have praised and promoted it should feel humiliated at how bad it truly is.” Media Matters writes that The Obama Nation “contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.” Even Conservative talk show host and Townhall writer Hugh Hewitt exclaims about the book, “Corsi’s from the fringe. . . the book contains errors.”

Hugh Hewitt, however, also points out that the Obama Campaign has given us an “absurd set of non-responsive responses,” and that, “Now they botch a gimmie — defining Corsi as a nut while not putting attention on the charges he leveled.”

Sean Hannity has stated that The Obama Nation “may have made his [Obama’s] campaign a bit nervous.”

Joseph Farah, founder of World Net Daily, says about the controversy surrounding the book, and Jerome Corsi, “Unlike most of the critics of The Obama Nation, I have actually read the book from cover to cover. It is a thoroughly well-documented piece of first-rate journalism. Are there mistakes in it? Show me a first edition that doesn’t have some – other than the Bible. But is it truthful? Does it add considerably to the public’s knowledge of the front-running candidate for the presidency? Do we know much more about Obama than we would had we relied exclusively for our information from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press? I offer a resounding ‘yes’ to all three of those questions. I am privileged to call him my friend, colleague and co-worker. I stand with Jerry Corsi today as he is viciously maligned by an attack media that would prefer to aim its potent artillery at a man who dared to do their job when they refused, when they laid down, when they sucked up, when they failed to ask the tough questions, when they took sides.”

In response, Barack Obama’s advisers have been tracking Corsi’s media appearances, quickly telephoning producers to react to the book’s charges, and last night, the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign issued a 40-page response to the book.

The Democratic National Committee has its own rapid response team to take aim at Corsi’s book, saying, “One of the most vile smear peddlers of the 2004 election has found a new target. We cannot afford to let Corsi get away with the same dirty tricks that fooled so many people in 2004. We can’t rely on the media to hold him accountable – in fact, the sheer brazenness of the lies is attracting even more coverage. The media have shown that they aren’t going to stop him. It’s up to you to spread the truth.”

So, what is the truth? Is this book a classic smear job? Or is Corsi’s book simply caught up in the crosshairs of the leftists because it hits a chord? Is Dr. Jerome Corsi a discredited liar peddling garbage in order to help continue Bush-Cheney politics? Or is he a simply being lynched by the mainstream media and Democratic Party for daring to write the truth? Be the judge yourself. Read the book, and listen to what Dr. Jerome Corsi has to say tonight on Political Pistachio Radio.
The show airs live at 10:00 pm Eastern Time, but will be archived for later listening for those unable to listen live. Access the program HERE.

www.blogtalkradio.com/politicalpistachio

Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.

Only 16% now think the terrorists are on top, while 27% view it as a stalemate. Prior to this week’s survey, the number who believe the terrorists are winning had never fallen below 20%.

Last July, just 36% thought the U.S. and its allies were winning. At that time, an equal number—36%–thought the terrorists were ahead … Only 23% now expect things to get worse in Iraq, down from 49% last July.

Appears those on the left may be losing their primary source of criticism. UH-OH. So when the polling was down he was a loser and wasn’t listening to the American Public. So I can only assume that now the left will pat him on the back and say good going, keep it up.

I AM WAITING LEFTIES!!!

This message brought to you by your patriotic America can and will win friends at the Conservative Intelligence Report! And CIR Radio!

GREAT READ! Spread to your friends on the blogs! Major H/T to Mike @ Mike’s America for putting me on to this nugget. Go and download the document that McCain supporters handed to reporters leaving on the trip with the messiah, excuse me, Senator.

Walid Shoebat Returns to Political Pistachio Radio

Walid’s new book, God’s War on Terror will be out after July 11, 2008

Walid Shoebat tonight returns to Political Pistachio Radio, this time to talk about the new book.

Walid has been a returning guest on Political Pistachio Radio since his first visit in September 1, 2007. He is a former Palestinian terrorist who became a Christian. After marrying his American wife, Walid tried to convert her to Islam. He bought a Bible and read it in hopes to disprove his wife’s religion. This actually backfired and then Walid learned the truth about God, and Christ’s promise of salvation. Walid has re-dedicated his life to speaking internationally about the lies of Islam, the treachery of child indoctrination in Israel of the Palestinian children by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Hezbollah. He teaches that Israel is a land God gave wholly to the Jews. He had to give up family and his homeland to take this position.

His first book, Why We Want to Kill You, reveals:

- How the Muslim Terrorists invaded America 30 years ago

- What their plan was and how patience was key

- How perseverence, recruitment, and hate fueled attacks in the U.S. and U.S. interests worldwide

- The similarities between radical Muslims and Nazi Germany

- Why Hitler failed so early and the Muslims, through patience, have increased their stronghold

This is information you will NOT get on CNN, MSNBC, or FoxNews or any other major television or Radio station as the Muslims have taken over financial controlling interests and will not allow the TRUTH to be aired.

Why We Want to Kill You: The Jihadist Mindset and How to Defeat It is part autobiographical, part confessional. Why We Want to Kill You helps readers in the West understand the Islamic mindset, what drives Islamic hatred and violence, and how to become more aware of the dangers to which many Americans and Europeans have become overly complacent.

Now we are seeing the world shape into what is really going on, and Walid Shoebat recognizes the signs at the center of the growing Islamization of the world.

In the news now are stories about Hamas and other radical Muslims and their attempts to continue their agenda to destroy Israel, the U.S., and other western countries.

Walid has continuously proclaimed that the only way to stop this is for Christians and Jews to stick together and fight.

Why should we join together against the Islamization of the world? Because we must realize that the invasion by Muslims worldwide creates a stronghold we should be concerned about, and if left alone, may become so large that it cannot be stoppeed.

Walid’s latest book, God’s War on Terror, is a deep comparison of Islam with the AntiChrist. Walid shows how the prophecy of the Koran lines up with the end times prophecy of the AntiChrist and how it will effect Christians and Jews. Walid also outlines how important the relationship is between Christians and Jews to protect the Jews and Israel from the evil surrounding it.

Tonight, Walid joins us to discuss his latest book. Go to Political Pistachio Radio to listen at 10:00 PM Eastern, or check out the archive later!

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2008 – The Senate has confirmed Army Gen. David H. Petraeus as commander of U.S. Central Command and Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to receive his fourth star and succeed Petraeus as commander of Multinational Force Iraq.

95-2 Victory, so I decided to see if my logic was correct and if the “2″ were democrats. Sure enough Senator Byrd (WV) and Senator Harkin (IA) opted to give the middle finger to the good General. And even though Kennedy came in to vote this week he opted not to vote, but given his medical condition I give him a pass. In addition Harkin said “nay” to Odierno.

HOWEVER, Both Presidential Candidates opted not to vote. Now I am not sure where in the country or world they are right now but I think that is pathetic. Granted we know where McCain would have stood “yea” in both counts. But Senator Obama…wonder where he would have been. I guess just add this to another group of “not present” or “present” votes which hold no real conviction.