February 2009 Archives

If the Liberals or the Media, is there a difference?, were to allow the Republican voice to be heard then there would no way to say the Republicans have no plan. By ignoring and silencing the Right, the Left can then blame the Right for not speaking out. What a plan!

This is why blogs and talk radio have come around. And why those same voices need to be silenced by the Left with the New Fairness Doctrine.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-politics-of-four-percent-mortgages/

First, let's be clear as to how much money falling mortgage rates can put in consumers' pockets. The average home price is about $200,000, and let's assume that entire amount is financed with a 6% mortgage. A reduction to 4% would save the homeowner $4,000 in interest costs every year. Multiply that by the 85 million homes in America and we get $340 billion in interest savings.

And this isn't a one-time economic stimulus. That $4,000 is a permanent reduction in household expenses that the borrower can rely upon, as long as they continue to make their mortgage payment. Imagine the boost that could provide to the economy and the pressure it could take off America's cash-strapped families. It may even jump-start the new home sales market.

If a straightforward mortgage rate reduction that puts $340 billion in homeowners' pockets every year and could slow or stop further housing declines sounds like a simpler and better alternative than the $787 billion of phony tax rebates and pork barrel spending that was just passed by the Democratic Congress, then you're probably starting to understand why this Republican alternative wasn't widely debated.

What's even more egregious is that as the massive spending bill was being written in marathon backroom deal-making sessions, President Barack Obama continued to make the false claim that Republicans wanted to do nothing in the face of the crisis. This proposal for lowering home mortgage rates was just one of many alternatives that was introduced by the Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham's package of personal and corporate tax cuts.

The mortgage rate reduction proposal was killed, not because Democrats didn't agree with it, but precisely because it was a reasonable alternative that could have sparked intelligent discussion on the best way to improve the economy. When you're trying to push an $800 billion spending spree through Congress in the dead of night, the last thing you want is an intelligent discussion. But the fear mongering and false choices worked and the stimulus bill was passed. Where does that leave interest rates? Falling quickly most likely. Now the Democrats need the economy to recover to ensure a 2010 reelection, and the easiest way to do that is to keep interest rates and mortgage rates as low as possible.

I highlighted two parts of this story that are slanted.

First, the crowd was not laughing at the thought of Chicago being nuked, they were laughing at the thought of Liberals thinking one nuked city is morally different from ten.

Second, if this is the objective mainstream media, why are they making wisecracks?

This report is not objective at all. It is mocking and almost slanderous.

Besides, Mr Bolton is right. Allowing the Iranians and their terrorist followers access to nuclear weapons is foolish. It does not matter if they have one Bomb or twenty, it is still too many.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Crowd-Laughs-at-Nuclear-Threat-to-Chicago.html

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, had the audience in stitches with his comments about nuking Chicago.

Referencing remarks made by Barack Obama on the campaign trail, Bolton claimed the then-candidate said he thought "Iran was a tiny threat."

Crowd Laughs at Nuclear Threat to Chicago NBC Chicago.flv

ThinkProgress.org reported that Bolton tried to up the fear quotient in the room by raising the prospect of an Iranian-sent nuclear attack on an American city."

"It's [a] tiny [threat] compared to the Soviet Union," Bolton said to the group, "but is the loss of one American city -- pick one at random: Chicago -- is that a tiny threat?"

The audience erupted in cheers and laughter at the idea of Obama's home city being obliterated.

Unfortunately for Bolton, he got the then-candidate's quote wrong. Speaking in Pendelton, Ore., on May 18 last year, Obama said "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny, compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet, we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.'" [YouTube Video]

We surmise that must mean the joke... well, bombed.

GWP has put together a great sample of how horrible things are going to be economically. This could be a good read, unless you have a weak heart.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-barack-obama-depression-president.html

The markets continue to predict the outcome of Barack Obama's failed economic policies of massive spending and record deficits.

Things don't look so good right about now.
Team Obama projects a record $1.75 trillion budget deficit this year:

The BBC is calling a Muslim group dedicated to overthrowing the West a "left-wing group"? What a crock.

I can't understand why these would be called "anti-US" attacks? Why not anti-German or anti-Swedish attacks? I bet the stores sold products from those countries too.

The slant on this story is crazier than usual. What else do we expect from the BBC?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7912949.stm

Three supermarkets have been destroyed and a fourth damaged in central Sweden in what police say might have been a series of anti-American arson attacks.

Police spokeswoman Kia Samrell said more than 100 firefighters were called in to put out the fires overnight at the Swedish supermarkets in Sodertalje.

Ms Samrell said the police were investigating whether the left-wing group, Global Intifada, was connected.

Global Intifada claimed responsibility for two fires in Sodertalje last year.

It has also said it was behind arson attacks on vehicles belonging to the Danish and Russian embassies in 2005, and an attack on a Polish consulate in 2004, according to the Swedish Security Service.

"The targets have primarily been countries that are participating in the war in Iraq and the Swedish defence industry," it said.

The supermarkets targeted on Thursday were branches of Willys, and Ica and Tempo. The chains are all Swedish, but sell American goods.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130156#replies

Gaza terrorists resumed their near-daily rocket fire on southern Israel Thursday morning with an attack on the nearby city of Sderot.

A short-range Kassam rocket exploded next to two houses in the Gaza Belt community at about 8:45 a.m., damaging both buildings and traumatizing a number of residents.

Several people were treated for severe emotional shock by Magen David Adom medics who raced to the scene following the attack. The house sustained considerable damage as a result of the rocket explosion.

The attack was the second of two that came as part of what has become a daily delivery of rocket fire aimed by Gaza terrorists at southern Israeli civilians.

The Color Red rocket alert siren blared its warning the first time at about 8:30 a.m., sending residents scrambling for shelter just 15 seconds before an explosion rocked the Sha'ar HaNegev region.

The short-range missile exploded in an open area, and no physical injuries or damage was reported.

What this article does not say is that the police in India are mostly unarmed and are not given half the fire arms training that US cops are. The police there were unable to hit terrorists walking down the middle of the street!

One of the first things that is going to have to change is the way that they train. Having Israeli or US trainers will be a good first step to making things tougher.

Don't get FBI trainers! They are good at investigations, but street cops from LA, Miami, Chicago, or New York would be much better. Having a few cops from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem to fill in the cracks would make a great addition. Think about it guys!

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20090225\ACQDJON200902250628DOWJONESDJONLINE000361.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=India%20Studies%20US%20Anti-Terror%20Strategies%20After%20Mumbai

India said Wednesday it was looking at adopting some of the " anti-terror" strategies adopted by the United States in the wake of the deadly Islamic militant attacks on Mumbai last November.

The Congress led-government, which has come under strong opposition criticism over the delayed response by authorities to the attacks that left 165 people dead, insisted it was much better prepared to deal with any new strikes.

"Our level of preparedness is much higher than it was three months back and in the event of any attack, our response will be swift and deterring," said Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.

Chidambaram, India's former finance minister, was named in December to head the home ministry after the government admitted intelligence and security lapses involving the Mumbai attacks.

The government is keen to be seen acting tough on security which is expected to emerge as a key issue in general elections that must be held by mid-May.

India dispatched a team to the United States to study anti-terror strategies prepared in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Chidambaram told parliament.

The One is keeping his promise to the Loony Left to free the "political prisoners" the President Bush has held. Notice that the terrorist is being moved to an Illinois court where HE can control things in the court and ensure that all of the secrets get aired out in public so that other terrorists can learn from them.

Who wants to bet that half of the evidence will either be withheld or should be withheld?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090227/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/enemy_combatant_7

An accused al-Qaida sleeper agent held for 5-1/2 years at a Navy brig in South Carolina will soon be sent to Illinois for trial in civilian court, a move the government has fought for years saying terror suspects caught in the U.S. could be held indefinitely without charges.

Two people familiar with the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri said Thursday the government plans to transfer him to the civilian court system. One of them said he would be charged with providing support to terrorists. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because it's a pending criminal case.

The transfer could avert a Supreme Court hearing in April and a subsequent ruling that would govern other cases against accused terrorists. Al-Marri's transfer is the first signal of how the Obama administration is likely to handle accused terrorists, a significant shift from the strategy of the Bush administration.

So, the useful idiots of the Jewish Left are shocked now that Clinton is showing her stripes again? I know I am. Really.

I wish there was a way to help Israel now that the Far Left is in power in the US. They are just going to have to hold on for a couple of years while The One tries to neuter them. I wonder if there is a way to slip a couple of billion out of the payoff package the Left has stolen from our kids and sneak it over seas? Would anyone notice? With all the waste it might be easy to misplace a little...

The question is if Israel will be able to last until sanity returns.

http://wcbstv.com/national/hillary.clinton.israel.2.945238.html

In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

As first lady, Clinton raised eyebrows when she kissed Suha Arafat.

Since she was then seeking a Senate seat the resulting brouhaha caused her to "re-think" her positions.

"I'm a very strong supporter of Israel," Clinton said back in February 2000.

On Thursday, as secretary of state she had yet another about face in the form of angry messages demanding Israel speed up aid to Gaza. Jewish leaders are furious.

"I am very surprised, frankly, at this statement from the United States government and from the secretary of state," said Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and member of the NYC Jewish Community Relations Council.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/02/marine_2meb_022409w/

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- Activation of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, tapped last week for deployment to Afghanistan, has been "postponed indefinitely," Marine officials said Tuesday.

The MEB, expected to number 10,000 by the summer, was scheduled stand up at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday.

"It was a scheduling conflict for the generals involved," said Staff Sgt. Juan Vara, a MEB spokesman.

The Corps confirmed plans to activate the MEB after President Barack Obama announced Feb. 17 that he is sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan this spring to bolster international forces now battling an emboldened insurgency there. That number includes 8,000 Marines from throughout the Corps.

Marine officials have not yet identified which units will join the MEB, to be commanded by Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, but at least two battalions are being diverted from previously scheduled deployments to Iraq, where violence has subsided in recent months. Additionally, 2nd MEB will absorb about 2,000 Marines assigned to the special purpose Marine air-ground task force currently in theater, officials have said.

The brigade, including air assets, will operate in southern Afghanistan under the command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, officials said.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/9000-earmarks-in-democrats-latest.html

9,000 Earmarks!
The $410 billion omnibus spending bill that is on deck in Congress is chock full of earmarks from tattoo removal to money for La Raza.
Michelle Malkin has the scoop:

Hill staffer Tom Jones is going through the omnibus spending bill with a fine-tooth comb, and Twittering his earmark findings, including:

* $200,000 for "Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program," pg. 283;

* Maine lobster earmark in the omnibus, pg. 173;

* $5.8 million earmark for the "Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate...for the planning and design of a building & an endowment," pg. 232;

* and National Council of La Raza, $473,000 earmark from Sens. Bingaman and Menendez, pg. 212.

Hey! Finally we have a lawsuit that might work. Now that the judges have decided that mere citizens have no standing on enforcing the Constitution, maybe having a soldier deny The Ones legality will force the truth to be revealed. Unless the courts will decide that soldiers have no standing to challenge the Law.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89837

A U.S. soldier on active duty in Iraq has called President Obama an "impostor" in a statement in which he affirmed plans to join as plaintiff in a challenge to Obama's eligibility to be commander in chief.

The statement was publicized by California attorney Orly Taitz who, along with her DefendOurFreedom.us Foundation, is working on a series of legal cases seeking to uncover Obama's birth records and other documents that would reveal whether he meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.

"As an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the office of president of the United States," wrote Scott Easterling in a "to-whom-it-may-concern" letter.

yummy!

Go Israel!

http://fashionindie.com/nsfw-petra-nemcova-gets-jewishly-neked/

NSFW: Petra Nemcova Get's Jewishly Neked

Where does The One find these idiots? His picks are almost a whose who of the far left hate cults.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89898

Obama eyes intel pick tied to bin Laden
Business dealing, close contacts with family of terrorist mastermind
Posted: February 24, 2009
2:48 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Chas W. Freeman

JERUSALEM - The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family - including dealings after Sept. 11, 2001.

Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Freeman has come under fire in the Israeli media and on some pro-Israel blogs for his sharp criticism of the Jewish state. He also reportedly heavily criticized American anti-terrorism policy.

Now Ashley Rinsdberg, a Jerusalem-based researcher and blogger for the Daily Beast website has dug up another issue that may cause even bigger worry for the likely Obama appointee - he had business ties to Osama bin Laden's family and strongly defended the connections after 9/11.

Rindsberg documented how as chairman of Projects International, Inc., a company that develops worldwide business deals, Freeman declared in an Associated Press interview just after the 9/11 attacks he was still "discussing proposals with the Bin Laden Group - and that won't change."

(Story continues below)

The Bin Laden Group is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family. It was founded in 1950 by Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Freeman told the AP companies that have "had very long and profitable relationships are now running for public relations cover."

He said bin Laden remains "a very honored name" in the Saudi kingdom.

In a separate interview Sept. 28, 2001, Freeman told the Wall Street Journal he spoke at the time to two of Osama bin Laden's brothers following the mega terrorist attacks. He said they told him the FBI had been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the family during the current crisis.

The Journal noted Freeman's ties to the bin Laden family went beyond admiration and business. He served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that at time was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family.

The Left takes over the White House and now the Far Left Hollywood types finally can get demands taken care of.

I want to know who is against aiding the people of Darfur? President Bush tried to get a coalition of UN forces for it, and NO ONE wanted to help. Now, will The One finally decide to go it alone, like the Lone Ranger, or will he be able to find some others who are willing to save those poor souls? Clooney and his ilk jumped all over President Bush for going it alone in Iraq, even defining alone to mean less team members than a football team, yet more than a baseball team. I wonder how they will react to The Ones efforts to spread Peace?

I really hate activists who get face time because they are famous. If they were experts on the topic it would be one thing. Well, I guess on Darfur, there is no real expert except those who have been there. But Clooney still irritates me.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/24/clooney-gets-white-house-promises-darfur/

Academy Award-winning actor and activist George Clooney met privately Monday night with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to urge the new administration's action on the crisis in the Darfur region of the Sudan.

Mr. Clooney told reporters that Mr. Obama said once a foreign policy review is completed, he would appoint a "full-time, high-level envoy" to the region to report directly to the White House.

"The administration has assured me that Darfur is one of a small handful of foreign-policy reviews being undertaken at the [most senior] level," Mr. Clooney said.

He said the envoy would be "a huge policy step" since, in many cases, envoys have only been in the region "when the fire starts."

The actor, who made a documentary highlighting the Darfur conflict and has been outspoken on the issue, said it was "nice to hear" that the region is a priority for the Obama White House.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11770847

Homeland Security official affirms Mexican drug cartel violence has spilled over into Texas
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Posted: 02/24/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

AUSTIN -- Violence from Mexican drug cartels has spilled over into Texas, state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said Monday.

"Yes, absolutely it has occurred; there's no question about it," McCraw said after a hearing before the House Committee on Border and International Affairs.

McCraw answered lawmakers' questions about Gov. Rick Perry's request for another $135 million for border security operations on the same day Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked lawmakers for a new tool to help bring down transnational gangs that threaten border communities.

During the border committee meeting, state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, asked McCraw whether some incidents that have been reported in the El Paso area would be considered elements of spillover violence from Mexican drug cartels.

Moody asked, among other things, if threats against American citizens, individuals seeking treatment at U.S. hospital for injuries sustained in Juárez and Mexican nationals seeking asylum would be evidence of spillover.

McCraw said yes.

The BBC and the idiots who worry about the rights of terrorists and other murderers strike again. The last paragraph I saved here is the first that acknowledges the terrorists deliberately are targeting civilians, while the entire rest of the document complains about the fact that civilians were killed when the terrorists fired from their houses.

I think my favorite part is when the Gazans complain about having their kids watching from balconies and roof tops while a war rages around them. Terrorists are shooting missiles from the kids schools and yards! Why would you let your kids out in that? If you do, are you a victim of the terrorists who are attracting fire towards your neighborhood and house, or the military who is returning fire as accurately as possible before they are killed?

Why don't the hippies whine about dead Jews the way they do dead terrorists? Let them live the Sderot area for a few weeks. Let them tell the children there about why they should be targets for terrorists hate and rockets.

At least the hippies are starting to admit the terrorists are acting criminally, even if they feel they have to support those criminals instead of the victims.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7905320.stm

Human rights investigators have been trawling through the rubble in Gaza and gathering testimonies in an attempt to piece together a picture of the way both sides fought and the weapons they used.

International law demands that a distinction is made between combatants and non-combatants, and civilian casualties proportionate to the military gains from the attack in which they occurred.

But Amnesty International has concluded that some Israeli attacks "were directed at civilians or civilian buildings", while "others were disproportionate or indiscriminate".

Amnesty has dubbed Israel's use of white phosphorus as a war crime
As well as the way Israeli forces used white phosphorous in the conflict, which Amnesty has dubbed a war crime, the organisation has also raised concerns about other weapons and their use.

These range from the firing of high explosive artillery shells, which have a large margin of error, in populated areas, to concerns that Israeli forces were trigger-happy in their use of more precise weapons such as tank shells.

There has never been any doubt that Palestinian militants' use of rockets to target civilians in southern Israel was a violation of international humanitarian law.

Just to keep the facts straight, this is NOT me! I do not carry on campus because the State says that only illegal weapons are allowed on campus. My legal weapons would get me arrested, just like this guy.

If there were criminals who wanted to shoot up the campus, they would probably kill the few security guards first. I would have to run out to my car, past the shooters, to get my legal weapon. Not a great idea. If I had a weapon with me, I could at least defend the room I am in and, when the shooters go past, then I could take them on from a better position. Oh well, keeping legal weapons off campus is more important than stopping the slaughter of the students. Right?

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89280

A Marine has been arrested, suspended from college and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation for bringing a handgun and knife to campus - even though he holds a concealed carry permit issued by the state.

"They put me in cuffs as quick as they could and hauled me off," Western Oregon University student Jeffrey L. Maxwell told Portland's KATU-TV. "With my concealed weapons permit, I thought I was well within my rights to carry it. I never remember signing away my right to keep and bear arms."

Campus police arrested Maxwell, a 30-year-old junior, Jan. 28 after someone reported seeing a knife in his pocket. Maxwell was cooperative when authorities detained him. When they asked if he had any other weapons, he politely informed them he had a loaded two-shot .22 caliber Derringer and pocket knives in his possession. He also said he carried a rifle in his truck.

Monmouth police took Maxwell into custody for violation of ORS 166.370, possession of a firearm in a public building. Kevin Starrett, president of the Oregon Firearms Federation, said Maxwell was forced to sit at the police station for three hours after the district attorney told police to charge him.

"The law is absolutely clear that Jeffrey was not doing anything illegal, and this district attorney doesn't know that?" he told WND. "They can't figure out to read three lines and one section of the law?"

Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield dropped charges against Maxwell Feb. 10.

"I believe the Monmouth Police Department issued the citation in good faith and that there was an arguable violation," Butterfield wrote in an e-mail obtained by KATU. "However, a careful reading of the statute and the facts led me to conclude the charge was not in the best interest of justice."

Nonetheless, a Western Oregon University student disciplinary panel has determined that Maxwell may not re-enroll at the college until a mental health professional determines that he is not a threat to himself or the public. The panel consisted of four unnamed students and one university staff member. Maxwell asked for a public hearing, but his request was denied.

"These were children on the panel who were judging him," Starrett said. "These people were in elementary school when Jeff was serving his country in the Marine Corps. I looked at these kids thinking, these kids are judging this guy?"

What a moron. People are honestly scared to talk about race because everything seems to be related to race to the majority of Blacks. If I, as a non-Black man, were to accuse a Black guy of almost anything negative, I would almost certainly be called a racist.

I know this to be true! I have worked and lead all kinds of Americans. I do not care what color you are as long as you can do the job you are required to do. I have occasionally been accused of being racist because of this.

As an example, I had a young man assigned to my work section who was obviously from the inner city. He had a chip on his shoulder and took my critiques of his work to be about his skin and not the lack of knowledge about his job he constantly displayed. Finally, one of his non-Black co-workers took him aside and straightened things out. It was almost impossible for me to work with him during this early period because of HIS racism. After he slowed down and did his job the right way without the attitude, he became an excellent worker. He did not last long as a Marine, as I remember, but he completed his tour successfully and honorably.

I have to admit that I was honestly afraid to confront this kid. He was convinced that all non-Blacks were out to get him. If I had not been lucky enough to have already worked with other non-Blacks and Blacks to establish a good working relationship, I could have been charged with racism and been ruined.

If we want to have a discussion about race in the US, then we need to stop the racism on both sides. It is mostly gone, but incidents like I described are too common. They irritate people who work with these Black "victims" who then avoid any mention of the topic.

If Mr Holder would like to talk to me about this, I am not afraid. I do think he might be a twit for bringing it up this way.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/18/holder-calls-nation-cowards-race-matters/

Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues.

In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/mexico/articles/20090216.aspx

February 14, 2009: For the past three months Mexican and U.S. security officials have openly discussed increased U.S. support for Mexico in its war against drug gangs. This is being called, "the Cartel War". The U.S. is concerned about "spill-over" violence. Politicians in El Paso, Texas, are worried about it, and they are concerned for their Mexican neighbors in Ciudad, Juarez (Chihuahua state). Both Mexico and the U.S. are pushing "intelligence sharing" (intel on smuggling, drug gangs, weapons, finances, etc). One criticism from some sectors in Mexico is that intel sharing will likely lead to "American contractors" (meaning military or intelligence service companies). This is "contractors" used in a very negative sense, suggesting American mercenaries. Apparently the Mexican government thinks hiring expertise to support Mexican operations is a good option. Are joint operations by the U.S. and Mexico possible? Sure - but as both the U.S. government and Mexican government have stressed, such operations have to be very carefully planned and approved by both governments. At the moment Mexican-U.S. joint military operations are very unlikely, but it is a good bet that planning officers in Mexico and the U.S. are looking at "what can we do for each other" if cartels launch attacks in the U.S., or tried to create a situation where Mexican military units cross the border in the midst of a combat operation. Some joint operations well short of combat and "increased security presence" operations make a lot of sense. Joint communications operations are one example, and "joint liaison teams" manned by experienced military personnel from both countries another. You can bet any joint team will operate on both sides of the border. Political cover is one reason - Mexicans are sensitive to "affronts to sovereignty." However, a "both sides" joint operation is also common sense since the violence and drug smuggling has transnational effects. Ad hoc arrangements and relationships already exist, but it appears both governments are interested in more formal and permanent cooperation.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/18/rancher-cleared-in-rights-case/

A federal jury in Tucson ruled Tuesday that an Arizona rancher did not violate the civil rights of 16 Mexican nationals he stopped after they sneaked illegally into the United States, but awarded $78,000 in actual and punitive damages on claims of assault and the infliction of emotional distress.

The jury of four men and four women returned the verdict Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Tucson after a day and a half of deliberation. The jury, after a nine-day trial, also threw out charges of false imprisonment, battery and conspiracy against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett.

In a case that generated national outrage over the ability of Americans to stop illegal immigrants, most of the award - about $60,000 - was for punitive damages.

I am glad to see that some people are taking this seriously. It scares me to think about how the killers are so prepared to slaughter innocents that they arrive at sick plans like this.

I would love to hear how this training is going. Hint hint. I know a couple of NYPD read this blog!

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/NYPD-Trains-for-Mumbai-Style-Terrorist-Attack/1$45412

"Terrorists are thinking creatively about new tactics," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last week at a City Council public safety hearing. "So must we."

The nation's largest police department launched a counterterrorism initiative this month to train a new team of officers with semiautomatic rifles loaded with armor-piercing bullets. The officers also are being trained in tactics for close quarters combat and rescuing hostages in hotels and other high-rise buildings.

After the three-day assault in Mumbai on luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites in November left 164 people dead, the NYPD dispatched investigators to India to see if there were any security lessons for New York. They were struck how the 10 shooters calmly caused so much mayhem by relying on cell-phone communication and Chinese knockoff AK-47s. The local police and security officers, they said, were clearly overwhelmed.

"Their weapons were not sufficiently powerful and they were not trained for that type of conflict," Kelly said. "It took more than 12 hours for properly armed Indian commandos to arrive."

I do not understand why people do not label the War in Mexico as a Civil War and not as random violence. Mexico needs to declare this a war and treat it as such this will allow them to round up Prisoners of War who can be processed and held indefinitely. It would be a way to get these criminals off the streets and into prisons.

I advise all my friends to avoid Mexico at all costs. It is not safe any more. Not that it has been that great.

We need to seal the border to keep this from overwhelming our country!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493784,00.html

TABASCO, Mexico --

Gunmen killed a state police officer and 10 members of his family, including five children, during a violent weekend that left at least a dozen Mexicans dead in separate events.

The shooting late Saturday also killed a street vendor in front of the house of state police officer Carlos Reyes, said Tabasco deputy prosecutor Alex Alvarez. Among the five children killed was a 2-year-old boy.

Reyes was a member of a special unit of high-level officers who investigated organized crime and kidnappings, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported.

Police hadn't determined a motive for the attack but Reyes directed a car chase and raids on two homes on Wednesday that led to the death of three suspected gang members and the arrest of seven others, Alvarez said.

"It is confirmed that [the assailants] wanted to kill the state police officer but they killed his whole family," Alvarez said.

At least a dozen gunmen in three SUVs sprayed the house with bullets, leaving police to find 11 bodies scattered inside three houses, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported.

An official from the Tabasco Attorney General's Office told the newspaper the killers "had no mercy" and were taken by complete surprise.

While some people are wondering why and how this crash happened, I think it is simple - these subs are designed to be as silent as possible and roam an area. In this case, they seem to have overlapped and found each other. Things happen when you are trying to hide in the dark. Duh!

I commend the skippers and crews of both ships for being so stealthy that the two ships collided! That is theoretically impossible because of the passive sonar technology that can identify almost any sound that is found under the sea. I also congratulate the scientists and engineers who designed these ships and systems for making them so well. Good job!

Sorry to hear about the accident. Better luck next time!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494085,00.html

"The crash could have been a coincidence -- some people win the lottery -- but it's much more possible that one vessel was chasing the other, trying to figure out what it was."

http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/02/14/be-headed-in-buffalo-the-honor-killing-of-asiya-z-hassan/

On February 13, 2009, in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, 44 year-old Muzzamil Hassan, a prominent Muslim businessman was arrested for having be-headed his wife, 37 year-old Aasiya Z. Hassan. Yes, he beheaded her. Aasiya's crime? She dared to obtain an order of protection which forced her violent husband out of their home.

We are now sadly familiar with some high profile Islamic beheadings of infidels in Muslim lands; Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, immediately come to mind. Sadly, we are also familiar with the practice of beheading, dismembering, burying alive, and stoning Muslim (and sometimes Christian) women to death in Muslim lands. But this took place in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, in America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. What can this mean? Why behead a wife who wanted a divorce and who wanted to live free of daily violence? Why didn't Hassan just agree to a divorce?

Because this foul murder is very probably an honor killing, a crime which has little to do with western-style domestic violence. Erie County District Attorney Frank A Sedita III has it all wrong. He commented: "Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible."

Yet another way to beat the police and the spooks from listening in on criminal activities. Skype is very handy and is cheap to use, but now that the criminals have found it, they are ruining the fun for all of us. I hate crooks and spoilsports.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/16/italian_crooks_skype/

Intelligence agencies and police across Europe have complained that VoIP technologies are making their life more difficult.

German police have sought legal permission to plant spyware on the PCs of terror suspect. In a parallel move, leaked documents that emerged last year detailed plans by German firm Digitask to develop technology capable of intercepting intercept Skype VoIP communications and SSL transmissions, alongside costing and licensing proposals.

At the Counter Terror Expo in London last week, an industry source told El Reg that the US's National Security Agency is prepared to pay "billions" for technology that can reliably eavesdrop on Skype IM and voice traffic.

P2P VoIP technologies pose a particular technical challenge because it's not possible to simply tap communications at a telephone exchange. In addition, Skype use a proprietary encryption scheme, which may (or may not) further complicate matters.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2746716253

While the western media raised hopes of a reconciliation between the Taliban and the Afghan government when Saudi Arabia sponsored talks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the man named as one of the main negotiators, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Rahmani, denied any involvement.

The Saudi government owned Al-Sharq al-Awsat even quoted the Afghan Minister of Information, Sheikh Mohammed Tashkiri, who said a second round of negotiations took place in Dubai between a delegation from Kabul and one from the Taliban movement.

According to Tashkiri, "on both occasions representatives of Mullah Omar participated in the meetings, the most authoritative among them was Mullah Mohammad Hasan Rahmani".

However, in an interview with AKI, Mullah Hasan Rahmani, a close advisor of Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, rejected the claims saying they were a figment of the imagination of the Kabul administration led by President Hamid Karzai.

Earlier Hamid Karzai called for an amnesty for Mullah Omar, if he laid down his weapons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7862893.stm

Fraudulent fines

It is believed more than a million drivers have been trapped by the system.

But it is now claimed the lights were rigged to change from yellow to red in three seconds instead of the regulation five or six seconds.

The fraud was uncovered by a senior police officer who noticed an unusually high number of fines being issued.

Instead of an average 15 fines a day in some places, the figure jumped to more than 1,000.

The fraud may have netted as much as $170m (£116.4m) for those involved.

The scheme's inventor is now under house arrest, though his lawyers say he is innocent.

More than 100 other people including 63 police commanders are also being investigated as part of the scam.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0130gs.html

The Iraqis call him King David. General David Petraeus earned the somewhat affectionate nickname in 2003 after taking Baghdad and then Mosul--a city whose governor he became, almost coincidentally. When all Iraqi institutions crumbled, a development that the Americans had not foreseen, one guard who had not fled explained to Petraeus that since he had conquered Iraq, it was also up to him to govern Iraq. Petraeus improvised, pursuing a military offensive and reconstruction at the same time. "We discovered that we were strangers in a strange country," Petraeus tells me.

He admits that the Army knew nothing about Arab civilization. But he drew the necessary conclusions. Later, back in the United States as head of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Petraeus radically modified American military culture. "My generation was trained to destroy Soviet tanks with helicopters," he recalls, but such training was useless in the modern struggle with terrorism. For that matter, Petraeus refuses to use the term "War on Terror." Terrorism, he explains, is just one aspect of a global war by extremists against our values and our ways of life. On the basis of this definition of extremism and of his experience in Iraq, Petraeus rewrote the counterinsurgency manual, the Army's new Bible. In 2007, George W. Bush sent him back to Iraq to apply his ideas. And as Barack Obama said during his presidential campaign, under Petraeus, the surge "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

Did Petraeus win the war, or at least prevent the United States from losing it? "We must no longer think in terms of victory or defeat," he says. "The time is past for raising a flag on a hill." The war against extremism must be measured in terms of "dynamics" and "progress." In Iraq, Petraeus says, there has been remarkable progress, in collaboration with the new Iraqi army--"progress that is measurable, fragile, and reversible." But public opinion in the United States, the general observes, has already forgotten how things were one year ago. From 40 attacks a day in Baghdad in 2007, the country has moved to a crime rate comparable with that of certain Latin American countries.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/angry-survivors-blame-council-green-policy-20090211-83p0.html?page=-1

ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk.

During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner -- whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze -- criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help or permission to clean up around their properties in preparation for the bushfire season. "We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down," he said.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Mexican-Drug-Violence-Spills-Over-into-US/1$45324

Just as government officials had feared, the drug violence raging in Mexico is spilling over into the United States.

U.S. authorities are reporting a spike in killings, kidnappings and home invasions connected to Mexico's murderous cartels. And to some policymakers' surprise, much of the violence is happening not in towns along the border, where it was assumed the bloodshed would spread, but a considerable distance away, in places such as Phoenix and Atlanta.

Investigators fear the violence could erupt elsewhere around the country because the Mexican cartels are believed to have set up drug-dealing operations all over the U.S., in such far-flung places as Anchorage, Alaska; Boston; and Sioux Falls, S.D.

"The violence follows the drugs," said David Cuthbertson, agent in charge of El Paso's FBI office.

It is about time that this happened to some lying fool who just wants to make the cops seem like the criminals. I am so tired of cops getting a black spot for doing their job. Take the people who are smearing their names and make an example of them .

Good job! How many more liars can be counter sued for their slander?

http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=5&id=45316

Three Houston police officers filed a lawsuit against the father of an NFL player and a community activist, accusing them of defamation, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.

Marvin Driver, the father of Green Bay Packer Donald Driver, said the officers beat him and forced cocaine down his throat after a traffic arrest in November. He later held a news conference about the alleged incident with Quanell X, who was also named in the suit.

The officers said in the lawsuit that both men knowingly made false statements alleging the officers abused Driver.

"These individuals smeared our names, damaged our reputations and publicly humiliated ourselves and our family. We're delighted to have this opportunity to clear our names with this lawsuit," said officer Gilberto Cruz, a plaintiff. "We did not physically abuse Mr. Driver in any way. The accusations made by Mr. Driver and Quanell X were completely and utterly false."

An internal affairs investigation cleared the officers. On Jan. 9, the police union asked the district attorney to investigate Marvin Driver and others for perjury.

The officers are requesting unspecified damages in the civil suit.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88488

A jihadist group responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil is operating 35 training camps across the nation, but its name cannot be found on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Exposing Jamaat ul-Fuqra's threat to the U.S., putting it on the terror list and shutting it down is the aim of a documentary film premiering tomorrow night at the Landmark Theater in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m.

The film's producer, the Christian Action Network, or CAN, says there's no charge to attend the showing of "Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.," and DVDs are available at its website. A trailer for the film can be viewed online.

In 2006, the film points out, a Justice Department document, marked "Dissemination Restricted to Law Enforcement," exposed 35 terrorist training compounds in the U.S. Among the items of evidence was a confiscated terrorist training film by Jamaat ul-Fuqra's leader, Sheik Muburak Gilani, called "Soldiers of Allah."

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc4_1234284944

I wish this could have worked with my ex. Then I would not have had to see her again.

http://www.mmail.com.my/Facebook_divorce.aspx

Syariah lawyers said that it's perfectly all right for a Muslim to divorce their spouse on Facebook or any other social networking website as long as it is in line with hukum syarak .

They were commenting on the curious case of Neil Brady, a 39-year-old Briton who ended his six-year marriage to his wife Emma, 35, and announced it on Facebook last week, making it the first Facebook divorce ever recorded. ( see accompanying story )

Syariah lawyer Muhamad Burok said it does not matter how the declaration of divorce is made as long as it is communicated to the spouse.

"A declaration of divorce among Muslims that follows the hukum syarak is a communication between parties, in this case between a husband and his wife.

"This includes putting down words in writing and sending it to the spouse. It does not matter what medium was used; be it email or SMS; as long as it's later verified in the (Syariah) court."

Muhamad also said that the issue of time lapse does not arise in this case. If one makes the declaration of divorce against his spouse today on Facebook and the spouse only learns of it a week later, the effective date is still on the day the posting was made.

http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=5185

Lawyers and campaigners against sexual abuse of children say that it is not uncommon in Pakistan, especially in the segregated surroundings of the country's estimated 20,000 religious schools, but cases involving members of the clergy are rarely - if ever - exposed. ... Haroon Tanoli, Abid's father, met strong resistance when he tried to take up his son's case with officials at the school. He says that they offered to help him secure a cash payment from the alleged attackers, provided that he did not involve the police. Since then, he has been threatened with harsh consequences for refusing to back down.

Even as Abid was receiving treatment, the religious authorities pressed the hospital to discharge him. Mr Tanoli managed to get him admitted to a different hospital, where he is being treated free, although the family cannot afford an operation to save his sight. Mr Tanoli refuses to back down, despite being offered one million rupees (£12,000) by the teacher's relations if he withdraws the charges. He has moved to a secret location for his own safety.

I love to learn and this story is about a little thought of aspect of war. I hope you read the full article and enjoy it as much as I have.

http://www.eaglespeak.us/2009/02/sunday-ship-history.html

"AOGs- gas pipeline at sea"
Napoleon said, "An army travels on its stomach," referring to the need to keep an army in the field fed so it can keep moving. By World War Two the saying had expanded to include the "beans, bullets and black oil" needed to keep a fleet at sea. The logistics work behind keeping thousands of ships, hundreds of thousands of men and tens of thousands of aircraft fueled and supplied is, perhaps, not as exciting a tale as the landings at Iwo Jima, but it is an important story. A tiny portion of that tale should be carved out for the men who sailed and worked on the ships known as "AOGs"- or gasoline tankers.

Unlike the big fleet oilers designed to replenish carrier task forces at sea, the AOG was designed to transfer fuel to shore stations, though some could conduct replenishment at sea.

Not generally considered "front line" duty, the role of AOGs during wartime has been underreported. For example, off Iwo Jima, some AOGs carried potable water for use by the Marines ashore, a job which required the AOG to close the beach in close proximity of the fighting.

This is scary! I hate hemorrhagic fevers. They are not one of the Lords kinder creations.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icwnbejl-iJTMsx_JWAIgMXlweOAD9671DF00

The first U.S. case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed in Colorado, and authorities say the patient -- who contracted the rare illness while traveling in Uganda -- has since recovered.

The disease, caused by a virus indigenous to Africa, spreads through contact with infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Dave Daigle said no previous cases have been reported in the United States.

The patient had traveled to Uganda, visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth Park and encountered fruit bats, which can carry the Marburg virus. The Ugandan government closed the cave after a tourist from the Netherlands died from Marburg in July.

The patient was treated at Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008 and sought follow-up care in July, after learning of the tourist's death. The patient recovered and his or her identity wasn't disclosed.

Where is the outcry about the handling of prisoners by the Taliban? Or are they immune to societal norms that are expected from the rest of humanity? Are they even human?

We need to send the Human Rights freaks over to visit the Taliban and examine the way they treat prisoners and civilians who they have conquered. If they don't want to go, then send them anyway. Why should they only bother us?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489805,00.html

Poland pledges to capture and "punish" the Taliban militants who beheaded a Polish engineer in Pakistan on Friday before delivering a video of the attack to the media, the Times of London reports.

Piotr Stanczak was reportedly kidnapped four months ago while working in the Attock district -- a region close to Pakistan's lawless North West Frontier Province.

A video released to media outlets Sunday shows the beheading of Stanczak just minutes after he appears on tape urging the Polish government not to send troops to neighboring Afghanistan.

On Monday, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the video had been authenticated and pledged to bring the terrorists to justice, according to the Times of London.

"The cassette of the execution, this bestial execution, is authentic and unfortunately it confirms the worst," Sikorski reportedly said in a statement. "Now we can no longer save our compatriot, we are going to try to punish his killers."

Liberals around the world are celebrating the political win of the terrorists over the Evil Joos. Israel could just level Gaza and not get any worse publicity than they get for trying to kill terrorists who send children into the middle of firefights to distract the Israelis.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1375

DEBKAfile's military sources count eight areas in which the outgoing government is relinquishing assets to Hamas:

1. Military attacks on Palestinian military targets have been suspended in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has offered nothing in return except for an oral undertaking to Egypt to try and keep the level of missile fire down. The Israeli air force responds to each salvo by bombing empty Palestinian buildings and sand dunes.

2. Israel has suspended targeted strikes against Hamas leaders and commanders according to an understanding with Cairo.

3. According to another understanding, Israel will allow an increasing number of supply trucks and types of freights to enter the Gaza crossings daily.

This is a virtual surrender to Hamas' demands for fully opened crossings (translation: end of Israel's embargo of the Gaza Strip). Hamas has not been held to any guarantee for ending its smuggling of arms - or any other quid pro quo.

4. Israel has also promised Egypt to gradually lift its naval blockade of Gaza.

5. Jerusalem has given ground on its initial demand to remove Hamas from the crossings and pass them to Palestinian Authority control. The deal emerging is for foreign monitors to be posted on those crossings and report to Hamas. This is another form of Israeli recognition of the Palestinian extremists' rule of the Gaza Strip and its control of Israel's southwestern frontier.

If approved, it would also perpetuate the divide between the pro-Iranian entity in the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas and the pro-Western territory of the West Bank under the control of its rival, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which Hamas kicked out of the Gaza Strip in 2007

Israeli military sources warn that the eventual upshot of these Israeli concessions will be the collapse of Abbas' rule. Hamas will be able to use the Gaza Strip as a jumping-off base for taking over the West Bank as well.

It is a matter Israeli national policy to withhold recognition from the Palestinian Hamas - which the US and European Union also list as a terrorist organization for its commitment to violence and Israel's destruction. Yet, by knuckling under on this point, Israeli authorities will find themselves engaging Hamas officials willy-nilly in the day-to-day management of the shared border crossings.

6. Many of the soldiers who took part in the Gaza offensive declared that their mission was unfinished because Gilead Shalit remained in captivity. Instead of using its military feat to improve the chances for his release, Israel has allowed itself to be cornered here too. Hamas has upped its demand for the release of 1,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists including convicted multiple murderers of the Fatah, Tanzim, Popular Front and Hamas, which Israel was inclined to accept. Now the price has gone up to 1,250 inmates, all of whom are to be released at the Gaza crossings. The West Bank residents will be sent home later.

7. Israel has agreed to leave the monitoring of Hamas' arms smuggling in Egypt's hands, although Cairo's past record is notoriously wanting. For years, Egyptian police looked the other way as Hamas imported massive quantities of weapons through Sinai.

8. Not by a single word is Hamas required to dismantle its armed strength. Israel is therefore seen to be accepting the presence of an armed terrorist force on its border.

I guess when you declare the fighting over and your opponent has vowed to keep fighting, then these kind of attacks go with the territory. It is past time to bring true relief to the Palestinian peopleso that they won't need to turn to terrorism for jobs.

What kind of jobs can be safely brought in? I have no clue! They tend to destroy any help except for weapons.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489804,00.html

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A Palestinian fighter died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft struck two targets in Gaza early Monday as mediators tried to firm up a long-term Gaza cease-fire a day before Israelis go to the polls in a national election.

The militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement faxed to reporters that one of its fighters was killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said troops spotted an armed militant trying to cross the Gaza-Israel border late Sunday and opened fire, after which a bomb belt he was wearing detonated.

Israeli aircraft struck two militant positions in the territory early Monday, in what the military said was retaliation for rocket fire from Gaza on Sunday. No injuries were reported in the aerial attacks.

http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11275429.html

Human rights groups argued Wednesday that a detailed probe into Hamas's firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli communities is not necessary, because it constitutes such a "blatant" war crime. By contrast, Israel's actions are more complex, and therefore do require such investigation, they said... said Sarit Micha'eli of B'tselem... "It is quite clear that [Hamas is] attacking and targeting civilians... With Israel things are more complicated because Israel states it does not deliberately target civilians and that it safeguards them. With Israel, you have to investigate each specific incident because even if a civilian is killed in an attack..." "The Israeli authorities deny everything, so one has to prove what happened in a way that you don't need to do with the Palestinian rockets," said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304702123&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The United Nations is ready to address Hamas's use of children as human shields during last month's IDF offensive in Gaza, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN...

Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
Photo: Ruth Eglash
Slideshow: Pictures of the week

"We have not yet dealt directly with the human shield issue, but we will now mention it in our reports," Radhika Coomaraswamy said in an exclusive interview following a four-day visit to the region.

"It is still very difficult for us to say that it was actually happening and we still need to conduct a full investigation into what exactly took place... but we are not denying that it happened; it is absolutely possible that Hamas was using its civilians as human shields," she said.

However, Coomaraswamy said that the UN's policy not to meet with leading members of the Hamas government - because it was officially considered a terrorist organization - seriously hampered all types of humanitarian relief work in the Gaza Strip.

No way am I going to link directly to this perverted article, but you can cut and paste the link if you want to. The Liberals have gone nuts!

I usually ignore trash like this, but it was hard to ignore. Mainly since I wanted to vomit a few lines into it.

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/sometimes-a-president-is-just-a-president/

The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president's health or jealous because of the cigarette.

The other day a friend of mine confided that in the weeks leading up to the election, the Obamas' apparent joy as a couple had made her just miserable. Their marriage looked so much happier than hers. Their life seemed so perfect. "I was at a place where I was tempted daily to throttle my husband," she said. "This coincided with Michelle saying the most beautiful things about Barack. Each time I heard her speak about him I got tears in my eyes -- because I felt so far away from that kind of bliss in my own life and perhaps even more, because I was so moved by her expressions of devotion to him. And unlike previous presidential couples, they are our age, have children the same age and (just imagine the stress of daily life on the campaign) by all accounts should have been fighting even more than we were."

Two dead mice disappear? that is creepy. I am fairly sure that they did not just walk off into a hole in the wall. Ghost mice?

If this strain of virus ends up in a bio-weapon, then I think the head of the school and the department heads involved should be locked up in supermax to learn about high security procedures. Maybe even lock them up for a couple weeks to learn a few things right now!

No threat? Prove that!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489595,00.html

The frozen remains of two mice injected with the organism that causes plague have not been accounted for seven weeks after being discovered missing at a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey facility in Newark, the university said Friday.

The FBI investigated and determined there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link.

It wasn't the first time plague-infected mice have disappeared from the New Jersey facility. Four years ago, in September 2005, three live mice infected with bubonic plague bacteria disappeared from various cages. Officials later said they believed the rodents had died.

UMDNJ's Public Health Research Institute issued a four-paragraph statement about the December incident late Friday saying it believes the red hazardous waste bag containing the dead mice was sterilized and incinerated along with another bag.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/196221.php

Press TV: Are you certain these are up to date reports about British citizens serving in Israel?

[MP:]These are very new reports, dated January 2009, of British citizens who have gone out to fight against the Palestinian people as part of the IDF. Their names and ages are mentioned in these reports.[hit lists..ed]

We know that there are student unions that have been actively recruiting young people in Britain to join the Israeli Defense Force and we also know that there are young Jewish students who go and serve on the kibbutz and also in schools, who are also then doing national service in Israel.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024723.php

At the National Prayer Breakfast this morning (full text of his remarks here), Obama made a number of interesting and highly questionable assertions:

[...] But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate.

Arguably, that is true: there is no religion whose central tenet is hate: there is no religion that teaches that the most important thing one must do in this world is hate someone or something else. But certainly the religion that comes closest to teaching such a thing is Islam. If the Qur'an doesn't teach that Muslims should hate unbelievers, certainly it teaches that they should be harsh with them, consider them the worst of all created beings, not become friends with them, and, ultimately, wage war against and kill or subjugate them:

"O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him)." -- Qur'an 9:123

"Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures." -- Qur'an 98:6

"Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security...." -- Qur'an 3:28

"O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk." -- Qur'an 5:51

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Giant-Snake-Fossils-Unearthed-103808.shtml

It's official! The oldest snake fossils known to date belong to those of a new species, whose fossils have been discovered in Colombia. The animal named Titanoboa cerrejonensis (the titan boa) is a predecessor of today's boa constrictor, one of the largest snakes in the world. Its ancestor had a length of 42 feet, weighed up to a ton, and lived more than 60 million years ago, after the disappearance of the dinosaurs. The snake was apparently a force to reckon with, as discoverers say that it's main course was crocodile meat, and the only way to get it was to actually go out and eat a crocodile.

Besides shedding some light on the evolution of snakes to their modern adaptations, the new find also offers a priceless insight into how the rain forests handled the climate at the time, as it's a well known fact that all those years ago the planet was a lot warmer than it is today. Experts say that it's reassuring to learn that the forests are able to withstand increased temperatures. This discovery will most likely calm those who maintain that the current level of emissions will result in the drying up of the rain forest.

The joys of living under the Religion of Peace continue. I notice how all the population is under the thumbs of the clerics who keep the peons in line with fear of dying. I pity people unfortunate enough to be born in those regions of the world.

When will the Left see what conservatives see in Islam? We recognize that Islam is not tolerant or understanding about the way of life outside of the Arabian regions of the world. It is designed exclusively for the diverse Arab tribes and is not able to interact well with non-Arab populations. Sure, it has been brought around the world, say to Africa and Indonesia, but that was through conquest to tribes that then took on aspects of the victors. Look how well most of those areas are run. They are so Peaceful and Tolerant.

What is so Peaceful about a religion that demands such violence?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489104,00.html

2 Afghans Translate Koran, Face Death Penalty

Friday, February 06, 2009

KABUL --

No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say. The pocket-size translation of the Koran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're accused of modifying the Koran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

The trial illustrates what critics call the undue influence of hardline clerics in Afghanistan, a major hurdle as the country tries to establish a lawful society amid war and militant violence.

The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September 2007. It was a translation of the Koran into one of Afghanistan's languages, with a note giving permission to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for free.

Some of the men of the mosque said the book would be useful to Afghans who didn't know Arabic, so they took up a collection for printing. The mosque's cleric asked Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a longtime friend, to get the books printed.

But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began, then an outcry.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It's a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Koran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Koran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God's word.

Will the Liberals call this evil? Or is this just the way of the world? If so, should rape be called a norm in the world?

So many questions, so few Liberals who will admit that this is evil.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/iraqi-woman-had-80-women-raped-turned.html

Iraqi Woman Had 80 Women Raped & Turned Into Suicide Bombers (Video)

An Iraqi woman had 80 women raped and then talked them into exploding themselves to escape the shame.
She called herself "The Mother of All (evil) Believers" and was a member of Ansar al-Sunna, a radical Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda.

It is about time this movement started to get some traction! The US Constitution is almost a sacred text to me. I carry a copy in my work bag because I always get in arguements with ignorant Liberals about what it says.

The Feds have been expanding their power at the expense of everyone else's for decades and I, for one, am tired of it. Welcome to America! Who would have thought New England would fight for the restoration of the Constitution?

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87987

Legislators tell feds to back off
New speech, press, gun or ammunition limits 'altogether void'
Posted: February 05, 2009
12:00 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

New Hampshire's state website promoting its attractions

Lawmakers in New Hampshire are telling the federal government to back off because plans for a federal handgun license, "hate crimes" laws to regulate Christians' speech about their own religious beliefs on homosexuality, President Obama's youth corps for mandatory public service and the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" to "balance" talk radio are none of them constitutional.

Such plans by the bureaucrats and administrators in Washington, D.C., are "altogether void" and if mandated, "shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States," the lawmakers are warning.

The terse alarm is contained in House Concurrent Resolution 6, which has been introduced for debate. It affirms states' rights "based on Jeffersonian principles."

It's not the first such move in the United States. WND reported last year when state representatives in Oklahoma, steamed over a perceived increase in federal usurping of states' rights, approved Joint House Resolution 1089 on a 92-3 vote to reassert the state's sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and serve "notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates."

If you get on my property and take a dump, I expect the police to handle this. If the police can not get there to, or will not get there, then I will hold the scum until police can get there. What is wrong with that?

I think that this judge is a racist who is biased against white people. He seems to think that white people are automatically racists who hate the criminals for the color of their skin and not the crimes they commit.

I have to admit that I have a real dislike for my ex, who is Mexican and Cherokee, but it is not her skin color that makes that! It was her actions that irritated me.

What a crock this is. If this rancher loses, even with all the evidence that he has about illegal activities taking place on his property, then the system is more broken then even I think. It might be better for him to just kill and bury the trespassers in that case.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87988

16 illegals sue rancher who catches them on his land
Aliens claim American violated civil rights, inflicted emotional distress
Posted: February 05, 2009
12:00 am Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A group of 16 illegal aliens is suing an Arizona rancher, claiming he violated their civil rights, falsely imprisoned them and inflicted emotional distress by holding them at gunpoint on his property along the border.

Roger Barnett (photo: Southern Poverty Law Center)

The federal lawsuit against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett, his wife, Barbara, and his brother, Donald, is taking place before Judge John Roll in U.S. District Court and will run through Feb. 13. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, is representing the five female and 11 male illegals.

Al Garza, National Executive Director for Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, attended the first day of hearings on Monday. While the plaintiffs allege that Barnett attacked them because he is racist, Garza, an American of Mexican descent, said Barnett has never shown any hostility toward him.

"There is no racist agenda here, or I wouldn't be a part of it because I am and American of Hispanic descent," Garza said. "We don't hate anyone from any particular country. We just want our laws enforced. This is not about color."

Many of the aliens are residents of Michoacan, Mexico. Four live in Illinois, one resides in Georgia and another in Michigan. All of the plaintiffs currently living in the U.S. listed pseudonyms in the lawsuit due to "fear of adverse action based on immigration status."

According to the complaint, Barnett, a resident of Douglas who owns 22,000 acres along the border in southeastern Arizona, approached the group of illegals on an all-terrain vehicle on March 7, 2004. He allegedly began yelling at them in English and broken Spanish while aiming his gun at the group. While Barnett's dog barked at the intruders, the illegal aliens accused him of ordering the dog to attack. One of the women said the rancher kicked her because she refused to get up.

Barnett allegedly detained the trespassing illegals until Border Patrol agents arrived.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/how-can-the-world-be-blind-to-israels-existential-threats.htm#yvComment

It is amazing to me, as an American who travels the world on a near-constant basis, that there is so much confusion over who the terrorists are. Hamas is a terrorist organization that condones and facilitates suicide bombings and will kill every Jew on the planet if they have the chance. Meanwhile, Israel is an energetic democracy with a vibrant press. I could sit right here in Jerusalem and write bad things about Israel and Jews, and nothing would happen. Maybe I wouldn't get invited somewhere or would be called an anti-Semite, but that would be it. Neither the Jews nor the Israelis would harm me, though they likely would write bad things about me. I came to Israel with no press accreditation and at the airport they knew that I was a writer. Yet they let me in and have allowed me to freely roam the country. Today I was in very close proximity to Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu talked about how, in this very hotel, Rehavam Ze'evi had been murdered just a few floors above our heads. The security seemed incredibly lax by American standards. Bernard Lewis and other extremely smart people were there.

If you want to see what Israel has to deal with every day that Hamas still exists, look at this page. It is more than worth it.

Say a prayer for the poor people who have to live with this because the world thinks that Jews are evil.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2008/12/rocket-calendars.html

Here are all of the rocket calendars for easy reference, in reverse order from last month.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87757

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.

As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/03/house-leaders-wary-cair-fbi-shuns-group/

A leading member of the House of Representatives is asking the FBI to explain why it did not notify Congress that it had cut ties with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as revealed by FOXNews.com last week. And several lawmakers are calling on their colleagues to "think twice" before meeting with the Islamic advocacy group, which the FBI considers a front for Islamic radicals.

Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf sent a letter to the FBI's assistant director of counterterrorism on Monday, raising questions about CAIR in light of the FOX News report.

"Has the FBI severed ties with CAIR? If so, how is the FBI planning to formally notify members of Congress and other government officials of this decision?" read the Republican congressman's letter, which pushed the bureau for word of its current connections with the group -- and asked whether CAIR's Washington-based lobbyists are receiving money from overseas.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487492,00.html

A mysterious and deadly bat disease discovered just two winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before it spreads across the country.

White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they eat could flourish.

Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates the illness' distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disease from killing off caves full of the ecologically important animals.

"The cause for concern is that this is going to race across the country faster than we can come up with a solution," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation. "Now that is entirely possible."

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/01/26/Battelle_2.ART_ART_01-26-09_A1_4VCLL11.html?sid=101

FREDERICK, Md. -- Fort Detrick Army Base has a fence to keep civilians out.

Inside the base, another fence surrounds the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center.

Inside this Department of Homeland Security lab, safety and security systems; supplies of air, water and power; blistering-hot waste incinerators; and much more have one, two or sometimes three or more backups to protect secrets as well as the scientists who will work with deadly biological agents.

The high-security center, designed by the FBI and Battelle and scheduled to open in May, will be used by intelligence agencies and will house a staff of 150.

When the hippies in Seattle notice how bad things are in Mexico, then it means that the situation is horrible. I prefer the analysis from StratFor because they actually study this and find the facts that Media then usually ignore.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008602532_mexico08.html

WASHINGTON -- Drug-related violence in Mexico, already at unprecedented levels, is expected to escalate further this year, with targets likely to include top Mexican politicians and law-enforcement agents and possibly even U.S. officials, according to diplomats and intelligence experts on both sides of the border.

The warning underscores the difficult choices confronting President Felipe Calderón as he takes on drug cartels while weighing the implications of growing casualties in a year of midterm elections and a slowing economy.

It also reflects rising concern among U.S. officials and analysts about the deteriorating security situation, corruption among Mexico's top crime fighters, and the vulnerability of the military to possible corruption in battling cartel gangs.

As the war against cartels escalates in 2009, so will threats, particularly against U.S. officials and other Americans, said officials, analysts and diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza.

"Calderón must -- and will -- keep the pressure on the cartels, but look, let's not be naíve: There will be more violence, more blood, and, yes, things will get worse before they get better. That's the nature of the battle," Garza said. "The more pressure the cartels feel, the more they'll lash out like cornered animals."

He advised Americans traveling to Mexico to check State Department travel alerts at www.state.gov.

A U.S. intelligence official based along the Texas border warned that U.S. officials, American businessmen and journalists will "become targets, if they're not already."

Violence related to organized crime continued across Mexico this past week. Among the more noteworthy incidents was the discovery of three severed heads inside a cooler just outside Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state. Meanwhile, some 20 armed men shot and killed two police officers in San Miguel Totolapan, Guerrero state, then set fire to two buildings before fleeing. And in Durango, Durango state, a group of gunmen traveling in at least one vehicle shot and killed two people.

While violence in most of the country continues at a level we have come to expect, Sinaloa state registered a noticeable decrease in homicides. This decline also coincided with reports that Mexico's major drug-trafficking organizations had reached at least a limited cease-fire as a result of several meetings held in December. Rumors of such meetings and truces are quite common in Mexico, and more often than not, such agreements quickly break down. Nevertheless, the situation warrants monitoring, especially considering that this has been a year of flux in cartel relationships, and any new truces or alliances could have a significant impact on the country's security environment.

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/02/a-minority-repo.php

When I tried to alert my foreign colleagues in 1995, 1996, and 1997, to the fact that there was corruption in the Palestinian Authority, many of them asked me if I was on the payroll of the Jewish Lobby. I wanted to know where was this Jewish Lobby? If there was one maybe they would pay me.

I told them: "This is what I am hearing. The writing is on the wall. Come and listen to what Palestinians are saying." And they told me they weren't interested in that story. They told me they wanted anti-Israel stories because it made their lives so much easier. They told me they didn't want to write anything bad about Palestinians, that Arafat was a man of peace and should be given a chance. I heard this from major American journalists, by the way. Leading American journalists. I don't want to give you their names right now, but I was really frustrated. And angry.

Listen. For all these years we've been attacking the military occupation. So why is it that when I tell you something that Arafat is doing, suddenly you don't want to report it and think it's Jewish propaganda? Most of these journalists did not even want to make any effort.

By depriving these people of money, what did Arafat do? He radicalized the Palestinians who did not see the fruits of peace. So that's reason number one why Palestinian society is radicalized.

But there are other reasons. Reasons number two is that you gave Yasser Arafat guns so that he could kill Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but instead he directed those guns against anyone who said they wanted reform or democracy. Arafat used your guns, your weapons, provided by the United States of America, to suppress the leaders of a new leadership.

Let me give you an example. In 1997, 29 Palestinian professors signed a petition demanding Yasser Arafat end the corruption. They found themselves either shot or killed or thrown into jail or they had to run away from the country. And of course this is not a story you would see on CNN. I don't think even the New York Times reported that.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Atlanta-Woman-Uses-Taser-Gun-to-Help-Officer-in-Distress/1$45111

Tanisha Cross never thought the Taser stun gun she received for Christmas would come in handy so soon.

Cross said she was headed to Wal-Mart in Lithonia with her mother when she noticed a DeKalb County police officer in distress.

"I just told my mom pull over, let's try to help," said Cross.

The 20-year-old mother, who received the taser as a gift from her husband, said she kept it in a diaper bag.

Cross said while others gathered to watch, she sprung into action.

"I went straight for my kid’s diaper bag and I got it and asked it if he [officer] wanted me to do it and he said, 'Yea,'" said Cross.

Cross said the officer had a hard time defending himself because the attacker had taken the officer's radio and managed to rub pepper spray in the officer's face and eyes.

Jolting the attacker, Cross' timing couldn't have been better. Cross said she tasered the suspect in his arms and legs.

Cross said she stunned the attacker to where the officer regained his composure and fought back until a security guard came to their aid.

http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/01/29/news/a5-gitmo.txt

Before he was released from Guantanamo, a Saudi detainee insisted he had only wanted to help refugees and was not a fighter. Now, as an al-Qaida field commander sporting a bandolier of bullets, he is threatening the United States and has been hailed by a militant Web site as a veteran guerrilla and "a fomenter of war."

The story of Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi underscores the dilemma Barack Obama's administration finds itself in: Keeping men locked up without trials invites global criticism, but releasing them without a fair and diligent process to distinguish enemies from noncombatants exposes the U.S. and its allies to danger. It also shows how hard it is to separate truth from lies.

Al-Oufi was one of two former Saudi detainees at Guantanamo, the U.S. military prison in Cuba, who resurfaced last week in video clips as al-Qaida fighters in Yemen. Their identities were confirmed in recent days by a U.S. counterterror official. Al-Oufi was detainee number 333 at Guantanamo.

On Wednesday, the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors extremist Web sites, provided a translation of al-Oufi's biography written in an online militant forum. The personal history was completely at odds with how al-Oufi had characterized himself as he tried to convince a panel of U.S. military officers at Guantanamo that he was an innocent man who had been swept up in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

While having to get a warrant for raids is a sign of returning (creating?) civilization, it is also a problem since civilization is still a little shaky. Those troubles are leading to things like police trying to protect the terrorists.

Small problems. I doubt there is a country anywhere that does not have a few corrupt cops, but Iraq is still trying to rid itself of terrorists who have been infiltrating all the sections of the government to destroy it from within. I pray they will fail and that the country of Iraq will finally see Peace and Honor.

http://www.thestate.com/world/story/669826.html?RSS=untracked

U.S. soldiers killed two Iraqi policemen Saturday after coming under fire during an operation against al-Qaida in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi officer confirmed the incident, which occurred near the northern city of Mosul, but said the policemen were manning a checkpoint when they were gunned down.

A U.S. statement said the incident began when U.S. soldiers entered a neighborhood looking for a suspected al-Qaida operative who was believed to be in a building.

The Americans called for the building's occupants to surrender when they came under fire from another building about 100 yards (meters) away, the statement added.

"Despite multiple attempts to identify themselves, the (U.S.) force continued to receive hostile fire. Acting in self defense, coalition forces returned fire," the statement said.

"Coalition force members immediately moved to the building and linked up with the Iraqi police forces. A search of the building revealed two Iraqi police, who were not in uniform, were killed during the exchange," the statement added.

The U.S. expressed regret for the policemen's deaths.

How can there be a ceasefire if one side still has not ceased fire? It is past time to go back in and finish the job. Olmert does not have the guts to attack because it might hurt him in the political realm.

Retaliate with full force. These little attacks actually make the terrorists stronger because they all want to be killed. Why not help them?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129667#replies

Hamas Launches Rocket Attack; IAF Retaliates

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) The Color Red incoming rocket alert roused Sderot residents from their beds at approximately 6:00 Thursday morning, barely giving the sleepy civilians time to scramble into shelters before a short range ("Kassam") rocket slammed into the community. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

The early warning system also sounded several minutes earlier in the Eshkol region, although it was not clear whether it was a false alarm, or if a missile had fallen in an as-yet-unidentified site.

This article lists several sources, some not very reliable (NYT?), so why have the Media all ignored this? All the "human rights" and other Liberal groups have whined over and over about the Israeli "crimes" while ignoring this.

I have not ignored it. Neither have most of the writers I follow. I have noticed that a few, very few, politicians have backed off on the critiques of Israeli actions because of the horrible acts, distortions and lies by the terrorists.

Israel has the power to slaughter every living thing in Gaza and they didn't. That alone speaks volumes about the efforts the Israelis put into fighting with a minimum of loss to the civilian population. Personally, I think some of them would love to flatten Gaza and turn it into a Biblical treasure trove by removing the top foot of sand. Or more.

If the Liberals did not rule the world, the terrorists would all be dying bloody deaths. Which means the survivors would be trying to assimilate into civilized society again. What is so bad about that? It is coddling the vicious little bast@rds that is allowing them access to our families and lives.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87755

Gazans detail being used as human shields
Testimonies decry 'monstrous' use of women, children, ambulances
Posted: February 01, 2009
6:04 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

"We, your brothers, holy war fighters used this house. ... Our apologies."

HERZLIYA, Israel - More tales are emerging of the ways Hamas utilized civilians during Israel's 22-day war against the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, including accounts from Gaza residents who accuse Hamas of using them as human shields.

In one case, after engaging with terrorists holed up inside a civilian apartment complex, the Israel Defense Forces seized an Arabic-language note left behind, addressed to one of the apartment's occupants.

"Greetings, honored residents of this house," reads the note, obtained by WND. "We, your brothers, holy war fighters used this house and some of the things in it. Our apologies."

Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Muhammad Shriteh, a Gaza-based ambulance driver, who complained Hamas would "lure the ambulances into the heart of a battle to transport fighters to safety."

He told the paper his ambulance company "coordinate[d] with the Israelis before we picked up patients ... so they would not shoot at us."

Shriteh recounted one instance when he was called to an emergency in the Jabaliya camp in the northern Gaza Strip only to find Hamas terrorists waiting inside a civilian apartment complex, hiding from Israeli fire.

"They were very scared, and very nervous," he said. "They dropped their weapons and ordered me to get them out, to put them in the ambulance and take them away."

For an analysis of the European reactions I recommend reading:

Jerusalem Issue Brief
Institute for Contemporary Affairs
founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Vol. 8, No. 20 29 January 2009

European Reactions to Israel's Gaza Operation

Tamas Berzi

* Many countries such as Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic showed understanding for Israel and described Israel's actions as self-defense. These countries generally used strong language against Hamas and demanded that it stop the rocket attacks unconditionally.
* At the time of the start of the Israeli airstrikes, the European presidency was held by France. On December 27, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union condemned both the Israeli air raids and the Palestinian rocket strikes on Israel from Gaza and called for an immediate end to these activities. The statement also condemned the disproportionate use of force.
* As of January 1, 2009, the Czech Republic took over the role of the Presidency of the European Union. On January 3, the presidency described the Israeli ground operations as an act of self-defense.
* This drew heavy criticism from many European countries, and the Czechs apologized for the "misunderstanding" and issued a new statement, but one that did not call for an "immediate" ceasefire. In diplomatic language there is a significant difference between "as soon as possible" and "immediate."
* France has been traditionally the main driving force behind European foreign policy. The separate Sarkozy visit to Israel and his humanitarian ceasefire proposal showed that France was not ready to relinquish its positions to the Czech Republic.
* The Czech positions during Israel's Gaza operation indicate that the current presidency will work toward a more favorable international environment for Israel. However, Israel should try to make the most of it, since the upcoming Swedish presidency, which starts on July 1, 2009, will most likely be a more difficult time for Israel.

While the European Union is striving to achieve consensus in the international arena, this is traditionally the most difficult when it comes to the Middle East and especially to Israel. The EU is often split on anti-Israel resolutions at the UN Commission on Human Rights and its successor, the Human Rights Council, and EU member states reacted diversely to the Second Lebanon War. The wide range of reactions to Israel's Gaza operation reflected the same pattern. In such a divided environment, the role of the Presidency of the European Union becomes very important in drafting statements and setting the agenda.


Critical Voices

Ireland's attitude has been by far the least favorable towards Israel. Immediately after the launching of Israeli airstrikes, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin condemned them in the "strongest terms," calling them "devastating." He called on Israel to halt its airstrikes - what he described as "offensive operations" - immediately. He also condemned the firing of rockets into Israeli territory.1 Martin described the Israeli ground operation as "indiscriminate attacks" and he stated that the continuation of the operation "cannot be justified in any way and must now be brought to an immediate end."2

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt described the Israeli airstrikes as a "serious continuation of the escalation of the tension." He acknowledged that Hamas refused to renew the ceasefire, however, stating that "although this ceasefire did not live up to expectations - particularly with regard to alleviating the Israeli blockade of Gaza - it would have been better for everyone if it had continued to be respected." He also described Israel's policy to isolate Hamas-run Gaza as "counterproductive."3

Bildt also claimed that the isolation of Gaza created the need to smuggle in products and that smuggling "creates better opportunities to bring in weapons."4 In these statements he seems to be blaming Israeli policies for the terrorism that occurs from Gaza and he downplays the responsibility of Hamas.

The "Mainstream"

Most European countries were clear about placing the responsibility for the situation on Hamas. However, many of these countries called for an immediate ceasefire and/or described the Israeli airstrikes as "disproportionate."

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation issued a communiqué which represented the general attitude of the majority of EU countries. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "called for an immediate stop to the violence. The Ministry has insisted that violence does not constitute a valid solution to the situation. He has expressed his firm condemnation of the irresponsible provocation on the part of Hamas in launching rocket attacks, as well as the Israeli Armed Forces' disproportionate retaliation."5

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at first only called on Israel to show restraint, without requesting an end to the operation. Two days later, however, he urged an immediate ceasefire.6 On January 6, Brown defined Gaza as a "humanitarian crisis."7

Supportive Voices

Many countries such as Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic showed understanding for Israel and described Israel's actions as self-defense. These countries generally used strong language against Hamas and demanded that it stop the rocket attacks unconditionally.

On December 27, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini

expressed his deep concern for the situation developing in Gaza in the wake of Hamas' violation of the ceasefire and Israel's subsequent retaliation. Condemning in no uncertain terms the indiscriminate and unjustified launching of Kassam rockets by Hamas against the defenseless civilian Israeli population, and calling for its immediate cessation, at the same time Frattini urged Israel to consider, in exercising its legitimate right to self-defense, the difficult situation in Gaza and the need to protect innocent human lives.8

In an interview with La Repubblica, he added:

What Hamas has done is something much more serious than simply violating the truce by launching rockets against Israel. It has violated the "land for peace" principle according to which the Palestinians got Gaza back from Sharon and which, with the restitution of the West Bank, should lead to the creation of a Palestinian state - but for peace. That's why, in my opinion, Hamas is not only a terrorist group but an organization that deeply undermines the fair creation of a Palestinian state.9

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that "the Federal Government can in no way accept that Hamas has unilaterally renounced the ceasefire with Israel. Hamas must immediately and permanently stop the intolerable missile attacks on Israel."10 Chancellor Angela Merkel made Hamas responsible for the escalation. She described Israel's actions as legitimate.11

Czech Republic Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg also showed his support for Israel, saying, "Why am I one of the few that have expressed understanding for Israel?...I am enjoying the luxury of telling the truth."12

After the ground operation took place, countries of this group remained supportive of Israel and focused on the need to work for a durable ceasefire that would reflect Israeli concerns. The German Foreign Minister claimed that "this ceasefire must guarantee Israel's security on a durable basis. Not only will Hamas have to finally end its missile attacks but the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip will also have to be reliably prevented."13

From the French Presidency to the Czech Presidency

At the time of the start of the Israeli airstrikes, the European presidency was held by France. On December 27, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union condemned both the Israeli air raids and the Palestinian rocket strikes on Israel from Gaza and called for an immediate end to these activities. The statement also condemned the disproportionate use of force.14

On December 30, the foreign ministers of the EU held a meeting in Paris where they called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, meaning the "unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action."15 The statement also called for the reopening of all border crossings.

As of January 1, 2009, the Czech Republic took over the role of the Presidency of the European Union. On January 3, the presidency described the Israeli ground operations as an act of self-defense.16 This drew heavy criticism from many European countries, and the Czechs apologized for the "misunderstanding" and issued a new statement:

It is not surprising that the Israeli forces have launched land operations in the Gaza Strip. There were indications that Israel had been considering this step. But even the indisputable right of the state to defend itself does not allow actions which largely affect civilians. We call for the facilitation of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and in accordance with the position agreed by the EU Foreign Ministers in Paris on 30 December 2008 we call for the establishment of a ceasefire.17

The fact of the withdrawal of the original proclamation was widely covered in the international press. However, there was not much coverage of the second statement. Even though the first statement, calling Israeli ground operations as an act of self-defense, had to be withdrawn, the second statement also talks about the indisputable right of the state to defend itself. The need for protection of civilians and facilitation of humanitarian aid are principles that Israel has safeguarded throughout the fighting. The statement also calls for the establishment of a ceasefire instead of an immediate ceasefire. The statement of the Czech presidency after the ground operation commenced was much more favorable towards Israel than that of the French presidency, published on the first day of the Israeli airstrikes, which condemned them and called for an immediate ceasefire. Only the day after the acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 1860 on January 8 did the EU presidency statement explicitly call for "immediate cessation of military action on both sides."18

In the week after the ground operations started there were two diplomatic missions to Israel and other countries of the Middle East. French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the region and called for a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire that was not accepted by Israel. The European delegation headed by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg came without any proposals.

At a press conference attended by the delegation and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Schwarzenberg opened by stating: "I'm very happy to be here in Jerusalem and in Eretz Israel twice in one month." Then he explained that this time he was leading the EU delegation and he was a spokesman for 27 countries. He stated that a ceasefire had to be established "as soon as possible." In diplomatic language, of course, there is a significant difference between "as soon as possible" and "immediate." He added that, "of course, the rocket attacks on Israel have to stop first."19

Indicating the different approaches within the European Union, Schwarzenberg mentioned that the members of the delegation - EU Secretary General Javier Solana, Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner - brought a "broad spectrum" of views to the attention of Livni.20

France has been traditionally the main driving force behind European foreign policy. The separate Sarkozy visit and the humanitarian ceasefire proposal showed that France was not ready to relinquish its positions to the Czech Republic. When it comes to foreign policy, small and medium-size countries of the EU have often taken a low-key approach and left these issues to European great powers such as France, Germany, and the UK. However, the EU statement reflecting the Czech positions, the EU delegation's visit, and the statement of the Czech foreign minister indicate that the Czechs are serious about being the leaders of the European Union.

After Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire, six European heads of state and government visited Israel: Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero. Though the visit was a display of European unity and showing support and understanding for Israel, the various leaders expressed themselves in different ways. Topolanek put the emphasis on Israel's right to self-defense and showed much understanding, while Berlusconi declared that "when we heard about the renewal of rocket fire which landed on Israeli homes, we truly felt that this was a danger we all faced, a danger threatening the entire Western world"21 and "your hardships are our hardships."22 He even predicted that "one day Israel can be one of the member countries in the European Union."23

Though Sarkozy reminded listeners that all his political life he "felt and lived as a friend of Israel,"24 he nonetheless was more reserved than Berlusconi. He reminded everyone that "we did not support Israel's actions in Gaza."25 Zapatero took a much harder line on Israel than his counterparts. He revisited the old falsehood that "peace here means peace worldwide,"26 implying that regional instability in the Middle East was tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Subsequently, when he retold the story of Europe's role in the Gaza conflict, he said that the EU had decided "to demand from Israel to keep the ceasefire and withdraw from Gaza."27 It was Israel that faced "strong international pressure,"28 he explained, while Syria, along with Turkey and other Arab states, had made contributions to stabilizing the situation.

Since Czech-Israel relations are often described as the strongest between Israel and any European country, there is a possibility of further improvement in European-Israeli ties during the Czech presidency, since the presidency plays an important role in setting the agenda for the Council and the attitudes of the president are strongly reflected in EU statements as well.

In 2009, Israel is facing critical international challenges such as the Iranian nuclear threat and the upcoming Durban II anti-racism conference in Geneva in April, where Israel is hoping many Western countries will boycott the conference. The Czech positions during Israel's Gaza operation indicate that the current presidency will work toward a more favorable international environment for Israel in order to successfully tackle these challenges. However, Israel should try to make the most of it, since the upcoming Swedish presidency, which starts on July 1, 2009, will most likely be a more difficult time for Israel.

* * *

Notes

1. "Minister for Foreign Affairs Condemns Israeli Air Strikes Against Gaza," Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland, 28 December 2008.
2. "Minister for Foreign Affairs Condemns Latest Atrocity in the Gaza Conflict," Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland, 6 January 2009.
3. "Carl Bildt: Break the Isolation of Gaza," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Swedish Government Offices, 29 December 2008.
4. "Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt on the Situation in Gaza," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Swedish Government Offices, 8 January 2009.
5. "Communiqué on Today's Events in Gaza," Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Spain, 27 December 2008.
6. "No. 10 'Appalled' at Gaza Violence," BBC News, 29 December 2008.
7. "Gaza Is a Humanitarian Crisis - PM," Number10.gov.uk, The official site of the Prime Minister's Office, 6 January 2009.
8. "Minister Frattini on the Gaza Strip Crisis," Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy, 27 December 2008.
9. "Interview with Minister Frattini: 'Immediate Truce, a Divided Europe Can Do Nothing'," La Repubblica, 5 January 2009. [From the English translation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.]
10. "Federal Minister Steinmeier is Concerned about the Situation in the Gaza Strip," Federal Foreign Office, Germany, 27 December 2009.
11. "Merkel macht Hamas für Eskalation verantwortlich," Welt Online, 29 December 2008.
12. "Czechs, Next EU President, Defend Israeli Strikes," Reuters, Ynet News, 30 December 2008
13. "Federal Minister Steinmeier Very Concerned about Further Escalation in Gaza," Federal Foreign Office, Germany, 4 January 2009.
14. "Declaration by the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on the Violence in Gaza," Presidency of the Council, 27 December 2008.
15. "Statement by the European Union on the Situation in the Middle East," European Council, 30 December 2008.
16. "Gaza EU Statement Is a Misunderstanding, Says Czech Minister," European Jewish Press, 4 January 2009.
17. "Official EU Presidency Statement Concerning the Situation in the Middle East," Czech Presidency of the European Union, 4 January 2009.
18. "EU Presidency Statement on the Middle East," Czech Presidency of the European Union, 9 January 2009.
19. "Joint Press Conference with FM Livni and EU Representatives," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5 January 2009.
20. Ibid.
21. "Joint Statements by the PM and the European Leaders," Prime Minister's Office, Israel, 18 January 2009.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. "Entrevista al Presidente del Gobierno en el programa 'Hoy por hoy,' de la Cadena SER," [Interview with the Prime Minister in the "Hoy por hoy" program of the Cadena SER], Government of Spain, 19 January 2009.
28. Ibid.

* * *

Tamas Berzi is project coordinator of the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He holds an MA in international relations from Corvinus University of Budapest and an MA in political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:

http://www.jcpa.org/

Dore Gold, Publisher; Yaacov Amidror, ICA Chairman; Dan Diker, ICA Director; Mark Ami-El, Managing Editor. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Registered Amuta), 13 Tel-Hai St., Jerusalem, Israel; Tel. 972-2-561-9281, Fax. 972-2-561-9112, Email: jcpa@netvision.net.il. In U.S.A.: Center for Jewish Community Studies, 5800 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215; Tel. 410-664-5222; Fax 410-664-1228. Website: www.jcpa.org. ©Copyright. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.


The Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) is dedicated

to providing a forum for Israeli policy discussion and debate.

Looking at old information for a project, I ran across this old email, looked it up to see if it was true and it is! Not that I doubted the information, just the origin.

What do you think of this?

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/realdeal.htm

Red Thomas

Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert.

Lesson number one: In the mid 1990's there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured died. 60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical.

Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff was to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too).

Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again out loud!)! These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you will probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and their "Experts," make it sound.

Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians they are not weapons of mass destruction they are "Area denial," and terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave the area and the risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it and that's why they need all that spiffy gear. These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or air borne particles.

The agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that defines when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning and evening inversion where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack will have it's best effect an hour of so either side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles they are heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches, basements and underground garages. This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin too fast. They've got to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale it for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or wound you. Too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted.

What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents and equipment so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists.

The more you know about this stuff the more you realize how hard it is to use. We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house, plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the area you're probably gonna live. The military's antidote for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent, they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes, after that the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air and staying calm. Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning.

Sudden headache, Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have pinpointed pupils), Runny nose, Excessive saliva or drooling, Difficulty breathing, Tightness in chest, Nausea, Stomach cramps, Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you.

If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did someone spray something on the crowd?

Are other people getting sick too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be?

If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head up wind, or, outside.

Fresh air is the best "right now antidote". If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Kayro syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body weight, what a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the ground for while. Remember they have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes while all you have to do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting space between you and the attack.

Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect your blood's ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing. The military's antidote is body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up.

Fresh air is the your best individual chance. Blister agents(distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle it let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle safely and may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours.

The attack scenario is also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them, if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to harm the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.

Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial chemical spills); they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. They have to get the stuff to you, and on you. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air really deal this stuff a knock_out_punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side.

Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground!

The heat will be over a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out going, and one on it's way back. Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very very long time. Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of tanks. These will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT.

Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a half mile circle of death and destruction, but, when it's done it's done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic device for a good distance, it's impossible to say what and how far but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order. There are lots of kinds of radiation, you only need to worry about three, the others you have lived with for years. You need to worry about "Ionizing radiation," these are little sub atomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning, you have so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you.
It's the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there and take it, and there's lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta particles, you just gotta try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms that are emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from them.

Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my brain hurt) and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material, on the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill you.

Your defense is as always to not panic. Basic hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits and vegetables are OK if there's no dust on em (rinse em off if there is). If you don't have running water and you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.

Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here.

Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses, etc., ... with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of dollars trying to get it right?

If you're clean of person and home you eat well and are active you're gonna live.

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff and I'm not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one either (how's that for confidence). We have a week's worth of cash, several days worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them.

These people can't conceive a nation this big with this much resources. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America. You've only gotta protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.

Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best. This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit pick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around three pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the United States can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

SFC Red Thomas (Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ

Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me credit for my work, and, keep in context.