Remembering and Understanding 9/11

by El Marco | 1:48 pm, September 9, 2011

September 11, 2011, is the tenth anniversary of that morning in 2001 when a 7th century Arabian warriors’ creed attacked the very heart of the modern world at the dawn of the 21st century. Ten years later we find America in a state of confusion a…

Bin Laden’s capture: should the U.S. military use “scapels” or “sledgehammers”

by Brian T. Schwartz | 10:04 pm, May 9, 2011

“A scalpel, not a sledgehammer, should be our primary counterterrorism tool,” notes Cato Institute policy analyst David Rittgers, a former Special Forces officer in Afghanistan.

The lasting impact of bin Laden’s death

by Rossputin | 7:25 am, May 9, 2011

People of all political stripes along with the media are dissecting the not-yet-dead carcass of the Obama Administration’s behavior following the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEALs.

A Washington Times article entitled “Obama, aides struggle with post-raid miscues” is a perfect example. Replete with outside and self-criticism of the Administration about its first reports on the raid, “should we or shouldn’t we” debates about pictures of bin Laden, presumably with a bullet hole in his head (and, really, could there be a better place on earth for a bullet hole?), the media frenzy is a tempest in a teapot.

Here’s my take on how the Administration is handling these various posthumous details: Who cares?

Come election time, nobody will remember or care about whether bin Laden’s wife tried to shield him or whether there was a “firefight” or just a few gunshots. Already nobody except some American Indian (or am I supposed to say Native American?) activists with nothing better to complain about care that the mission was called “Geronimo.” (If you were a Native American, wouldn’t you be extremely proud rather than irate at the choice, anyway, asks this Washington Redskins fan?)

Please read my entire article for the American Spectator at this link:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/09/from-osama-back-to-obama

DHS warns Americans to be alert for terrorist retaliation

by Rossputin | 5:11 am, May 5, 2011

Following the heroic killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEALs on Sunday night, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano issued the following statement urging Americans to remain vigilant during this time of heightened potential terrorist activity:

My fellow American citizens: The death of Osama bin Laden, arguably the most evil and dangerous man on Earth until just 72 hours ago, has increased the possibility of retaliatory acts by terrorists operating here in the United States. Those who would do us harm have, as you might imagine, a particular hatred of President Obama and may look to strike any targets which relate to him, have his name – such as many schools around the country, or which they perceive to be of particular importance to the President or his wife. Therefore, in addition to the aforementioned schools, we urge particular caution around golf courses, basketball courts, ultra-expensive hotels, or ESPN studios.

Some of these would-be terrorists have identifying traits. If you see any of these traits, and particularly if you see anyone with more than one of the following characteristics near any of the above-mentioned sites, please call the FBI immediately:

Typical identifying traits of expected terrorists:

• White male between the ages of 25 and 45
• NRA sticker, Ron Paul sticker, “Keep the Change” sticker on a pick-up truck
• Is seen praying in a Protestant church (except for a Lutheran church)
• Is heard listening to Rush Limbaugh or Fox News
• Is heard complaining that the security line at the airport is too long or that the machines which show his wife’s near-naked body to the TSA screeners seem beyond the pale.

On the other hand, any of these traits would tend to exclude someone from suspicion as a terrorist:

• Driving a Prius or any other hybrid vehicle
• Wearing an SEIU or AFSCME t-shirt
• Ordering food while asking if it is gluten-free, vegan, or organic
• A member of the Religion of Peace
• Is heard listening to “A Prairie Home Companion” or “Fresh Air” on NPR

Again, if you see anyone with two of the identifying traits (and none of the exclusionary traits), please call the FBI immediately at 1-800-IAM-SOPC.

If you run across a bearded man praying while facing toward the East who has a ticking device next to him, rest assured that he supports Obamacare and is thus not a threat to our nation. Thank you for your assistance and your support.

Bin Laden’s PC burial at sea

by Rossputin | 5:30 am, May 3, 2011

In a mid-day press conference on Monday, John Brennan, chief counter-terrorism advisor to President Obama, was asked multiple questions about the burial at sea of Osama bin Laden.

In short, Brennan said that it was done in compliance with Islamic law, including the tenet that burial occur within 24 hours of death, under the supervision of experts and the topic and perhaps a Muslim cleric. We’re told that the US Navy washed and wrapped the body in accordance with Islam, that a sailor read an Islamic prayer, which was translated into Arabic before Osama bin Laden’s body went into the ocean.

This bothers me.

Islam, or at least the branch of Islam represented by Osama bin Laden, is antithetical to everything good about human life: it’s against liberty of every sort, against democracy, against women, against rational thought; it is fundamentally evil.

Political correctness has no place in our response to bin Laden and those who think and act like him.

What purpose is served by treating bin Laden as he would have wanted to be treated following his death? Whom would we have offended by showing his body – and then cremating it? And if some Muslims would have been offended, would that be too high a price to pay for the value of the message?

Did we not by the apparently Islam-sanctioned burial at sea increase the argument that the islamofascists will make that bin Laden is a martyr, or even allow the conspiracy theories which already live in the Arab world that we didn’t actually kill him? Perhaps those who believe in the Muslim version of heaven would have thought twice about joining in terrorist actions against the US if they knew that we would treat their bodies in a way designed to ensure they never reach their 72 virgins.

The Bush Administration made a point of saying that we’re not at war with Islam. President Obama has taken that to a whole new level. He apologized around the Arab world for the United States and has now ordered that perhaps the single greatest enemy in our nation’s history (with the possible exceptions of Hitler, Tojo, and George III) be washed and wrapped in accordance with the same “law” on which that most evil of men based his murder of thousands of Americans.

I have the utmost appreciation for President Obama’s ordering a mission which not only allowed us to kill bin Laden but to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that we did so. But I would have preferred that our president didn’t yet again offer even the slightest suggestion of moral equivalence between the civilized world and the barbaric world of Islamists like bin Laden.

Treating bin Laden with respect in death, even if we killed him, is the wrong signal to send to current and would-be members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other anti-civilization Muslim terrorist groups. These enemies only understand raw ruthless power. We should show them nothing less, ever.

CO Peak Politics: Black sites closed by Obama were source of key intel

by Rossputin | 7:25 pm, May 2, 2011

Colorado Peak Politics has this interesting and important report, “putting 2 and 2 together” in a way I haven’t seen elsewhere:

http://www.coloradopeakpolitics.com/diary/270/breaking-obama-closed-same-black-sites-that-gave-intel-leading-to-bin-laden-execution

I concur with their conclusion that President Obama deserves praise for making the decision to take out Osama bin Laden in the way it happened. But in a sense, it’s almost by accident that we acquired the intelligence, or at least it would have been a lot less likely in the world Barack Obama would like to see. (I’ll have my own further somewhat related thoughts tomorrow morning relating to bin Laden’s burial at sea.)

The SEALS must-do list

by Rossputin | 6:59 am, May 2, 2011

Al Jazeera’s English-language web site contains about a dozen reactions to the news of Osama bin Laden’s death at the hand of American soldiers, reportedly members of US Navy “SEAL Team 6“.

Most of the reactions share a tone such as that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said “This is a resounding triumph for justice, freedom and the values shared by all democratic nations fighting shoulder to shoulder in determination against terrorism.”

Even a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority was basically reasonable and positive: “Getting rid of Bin Laden is good for the cause of peace worldwide but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods – the violent methods – that were created and encouraged by bin Laden and others in the world.”

However, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, offered just the latest proof of the nature of Hamas (and their associates in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood): “We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.”

As if that isn’t frightening and reprehensible enough, Reuters suggests that “In Gaza, Hamas now faces a challenge from al Qaeda-inspired groups that consider it to be too moderate.”

It makes this week’s coming unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah, the so-called “moderate” Palestinian party currently in control of the West Bank, that much more troubling. The move proves that even the “moderates” have no interest in peace with Israel, at least not unless it’s a “peace” that shrinks Israel to indefensible borders which Hamas and friends hope and believe will leave it vulnerable to attack – perhaps by Egypt under Hamas’ newly-influential co-conspirators in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The only difference between Haniyeh and bin Laden is capability; if Hamas thought they could do what al Qaeda has done, they would do it. When somebody in a position of political power reacts to the death of Osama bin Laden with sadness, his name should be immediately added to SEAL Team 6’s “must do” list. I’ll buy the bullets.

Bin Laden is dead

by Rossputin | 9:45 pm, May 1, 2011

It is being reported that Osama bin Laden is dead. Reports, while somewhat sketchy, say that he was killed a week ago and that his body was somehow acquired by the US which performed DNA testing, comparing the body’s DNA to that of a Bin Laden relative to prove identity. UPDATE: President Obama says the operation was carried out on Sunday, not a week ago.

UPDATE: It is being reported that after verifying the identity of the body as Osama bin Laden, the military dumped bin Laden’s body in the ocean so that there would be no land-based place for radical islamists to think of as a shrine. This strikes me as good thinking as long as they kept good enough proof of Osama’s death. I wonder if the fish and crabs will find the body to taste bad. And I wonder if, under Islam, being torn into tiny bits by sea creatures means someone can’t go to terrorist heaven.

Initially, the reports were that he was killed by a bomb or missile, but further updates suggest that he was killed in a “ground operation” in a mansion in Abbottabad, a city in the northwest frontier region of Pakistan. UPDATE: Fox News reports that the town Osama was in includes a major Pakistani Army presence and that for Bin Laden to have been living in a home in this town raises questions about what the Army knew or didn’t know about who was sleeping under their noses.

I’m a little ashamed to admit that after my initial moments of joy at the news, a small part of me thought of the potential beneficial impact on Barack Obama’s reelection chances as the dark cloud on the other side of the silver lining.  (I was in the car when the news hit so couldn’t cancel my offer on Intrade.com of Barack Obama’s re-election chances at 62%. I had gotten “filled” on that order by the time I got home. I guess that proves that I wasn’t the only one thinking about the domestic political implication of the news.)

But even with a president as bad as this, that’s just too cynical.

It’s unvarnished good news that bin Laden is dead.

So what happens now? How will the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have been hedging their bets, to put it politely, react?

How will the “Arab street” react?

And, keeping in mind the reported near-miss against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi in a bombing which may have killed his son, how will Gaddafi and the Libyan rebels react?

Another thing which occurs to me: If the bin Laden story remains more or less as we’ve learned prior to Barack Obama’s speech this (Sunday) evening, how does it impact the argument by President Obama to keep the US out of the Libyan operation and more broadly to lessen the use of (and apologize for) American power.

Obama just started speaking as I’m typing and he made it clear that Osama was killed in an American operation – a fitting end to the worst terrorist in history.

Obama recounted 9/11 and war in Afghanistan, noting that bin Laden kept escaping.

Obama tried to take credit for this event by saying that he directed CIA Director Leon Panetta to capture or kill bin Laden.

Obama said that the tip actually came to the intelligence community in August but that it was not until now that he felt the information was certain enough to act on. (This information will probably lead to some interesting questions, i.e. Why did it 9 months to take him out following the first tip?)

Obama: “A small team of Americans carried out the operation… After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

Obama said that this is “the most significant achievement to date” in the fight against al Qaeda – which may be true.

He then offered some of his usual and possibly sincere (but possibly not) rhetoric about how we didn’t start this fight, how we’ll be “relentless” in defense of our citizens and our allies, etc.

He closed by addressing those who lost loved ones on 9/11, suggesting we should “think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11″. I’m sure he didn’t think that when George W. Bush was president…but then as I said there will be time later to discuss the domestic political implications of tonight’s tremendous news.

All that said, I thought Obama’s tone was essentially reasonable, not overly jubilant, and essentially bipartisan. Better than usual for our campaigner-in-chief, but even he knows better than to campaign on a night like this.

One question raised by the death of Osama bin Laden is whether al Qaeda “prime” or offshoots will attempt terrorist acts more aggressively in the short term to fight back against the tremendous psychological blow against the organization as well as to wrangle for their own superiority within it.

Finally, I would note the crowds around the White House around midnight (Eastern time) chanting “USA”, waving American flags, and cheering – and compare that to the dancing in the streets we saw in the Palestinian Territories after the 9/11 attacks nearly a decade ago. Celebrating the death of a murderer versus celebrating murder. A stark contrast indeed.

LA Times’ flawed prescription for Israeli-Palestinian peace

by Rossputin | 6:11 am, March 25, 2011

In response to a typically naive liberal media editorial about the so-called peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, I sent the LA Times the following letter:

Your prescription for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, namely Israel “calming tensions” rather than responding to terrorism and murder, has two fatal flaws: First, there is nothing in modern or ancient history to suggest that Jews not reacting to those who wish us harm will disincline those enemies from trying to harm us.  Second, there is nothing in ancient or modern history to suggest that the most intense enemies of the Jews, among whom Hamas certainly numbers, actually wants peace. The only use Hamas has for a peace treaty would be as a tactic to employ in their never-ending quest to drive all Israelis into the Mediterranean Sea. Israel should not pursue peace with the Palestinians until they elect a non-Hamas government, publicly proclaim the right of Israel to exist, and stop printing maps with Israel eerily missing.  Until then, Israel’s building a few houses in response to the murder of innocents strikes me as already much too generous.

Ross Kaminsky
Boulder, CO

“Son of Hamas”: Mosab Hassan Yousef Speaks in Littleton

by T.L. James | 3:30 pm, March 5, 2011

Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, spoke in Denver on Feb. 10, 2011. He described his experiences as a Shin Beit informant within Hamas, his disillusionment with the movement and leadership among the Palestinians in general, and his optimism for peace in the Middle East.

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