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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Terrorism'

Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque

December 6th, 2010 · Homeland Security, War on Terrorism

By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 5, 2010; 12:47 AM

IRVINE, CALIF. – Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys.

“This is Farouk al-Aziz, code name Oracle,” he said into the keys as he sat in his parked car in this quiet community south of Los Angeles. “It’s November 13th, 4:30 a.m. And we’re hot.”

The undercover FBI informant – a convicted forger named Craig Monteilh – then drove off for 5 a.m. prayers at the Islamic Center of Irvine, where he says he spied on dozens of worshipers in a quest for potential terrorists.

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI has used informants successfully as one of many tactics to prevent another strike in the United States. Agency officials say they are careful not to violate civil liberties and do not target Muslims.

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WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act: A new kind of Terrorism.

November 30th, 2010 · Accountability, National Security, Terrorist Threat, WikiLeaks

By Ellen Nakashima and Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 12:13 AM

Federal authorities are investigating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group’s release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act, sources familiar with the inquiry said Monday.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting “an active, ongoing criminal investigation.” Others familiar with the probe said the FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the documents, including those who gave the materials to WikiLeaks and also the organization itself. No charges are imminent, the sources said, and it is unclear whether any will be brought.

Former prosecutors cautioned that prosecutions involving leaked classified information are difficult because the Espionage Act is a 1917 statute that preceded Supreme Court cases that expanded First Amendment protections. The government also would have to persuade another country to turn over Assange, who is outside the United States.

But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is rapidly unfolding, said charges could be filed under the act. The U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria – which in 2005 brought Espionage Act charges, now dropped, against two former pro-Israel lobbyists – is involved in the effort, the sources said.

The Pentagon is leading the investigation and it remains unclear whether any additional charges would be brought in the military or civilian justice systems. Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst suspected of being the source of the WikiLeaks documents, was arrested by the military this year.

Holder was asked Monday how the United States could prosecute Assange, who is an Australian citizen. “Let me be very clear,” he replied. “It is not saber rattling.

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Terrorist Attack on US in NY Court:Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ghailani acquitted of all but one charge of 285 counts

November 17th, 2010 · Democrats, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Attack, Treason

Only in America will you find that TERRORIST have more Constitutional Rights that it’s Citizens.
This is an OBAMA-nation.

By TOM HAYS – The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:49 PM

NEW YORK — The first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial was acquitted Wednesday of all but one of the hundreds of charges he helped unleash death and destruction on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 – an opening salvo in al-Qaida’s campaign to kill Americans.

A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani of one count of conspiracy to destroy U.S. property and acquitted him on more than 280 other counts, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed in the embassy bombings. The anonymous jurors deliberated over seven days.

Prosecutors said Ghailani faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison at sentencing on Jan. 25.

Ghailani, 36, rubbed his face, smiled and hugged his lawyers after the jury left the courtroom.

Prosecutors had branded Ghailani a cold-blooded terrorist. The defense portrayed him as a clueless errand boy, exploited by senior al-Qaida operatives and framed by evidence from contaminated crime scenes.

The trial at a lower Manhattan courthouse had been viewed as a possible test case for President Barack Obama administration’s aim of putting other terror detainees – including self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – on trial on U.S. soil.

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Obama’s deficit commission proposing to reduce the annual cost-of-living increases in Social Security.

November 10th, 2010 · Deception, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama Nominees, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Social Security

By ANDREW TAYLOR – The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; 1:24 PM

WASHINGTON — Leaders of President Barack Obama‘s bipartisan deficit commission on Wednesday proposed reducing the annual cost-of-living increases in Social Security, part of a bold plan to control $1 trillion-plus budget deficits.

The proposal also would set a tough target for curbing the growth of Medicare and recommends looking at eliminating popular tax breaks, such as mortgage interest deduction.

As proposed, the plan by Chairman Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., doesn’t look like it can win support from 14 of the commission’s 18 members to force a debate in Congress. Bowles is a Democrat and was former President Bill Clinton‘s White House chief of staff.

Cuts to Social Security and Medicare are making some liberals on the panel recoil. And conservative Republicans are having difficulty with options on how to raise tax revenue. The plan also calls for cuts in farm subsidies, foreign aid and the Pentagon’s budget.

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Obama heralds Indonesia’s political, religious diversity in latest outreach to Muslims

November 10th, 2010 · Deception, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason

By Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; 12:02 AM

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – Speaking before thousands in the city that helped raise him, President Obama on Wednesday cited this country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy as a model in an Islamic world often governed by unelected autocracies.

He also praised Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – for a “spirit of tolerance that is written into your constitution, symbolized in your mosques and churches and temples, and embodied in your people,” a quality worthy for all the world to emulate.

Obama received a warm welcome from the crowd of about 6,500 at the University of Indonesia, particularly when he spoke in Indonesian, as when he recalled buying satay and bakso from street vendors or referenced the national motto, “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika,” or “Unity in Diversity.”

“We are two nations which have traveled different paths. Yet our nations show that hundreds of millions who hold different beliefs can be united in freedom under one flag,” Obama said.

The speech was cast by White House officials as part of the president’s continuing outreach to Muslims, an effort he began last year in Cairo by calling for a “new beginning” between the United States and Islam.

But Muslim views of Obama around the world have worsened in several countries since then, and in the United States, a recent Pew Research Center poll found that nearly one in five Americans thinks the president is a Muslim, in part because of the time he spent here as a child. Obama describes himself as a practicing Christian.

The president’s efforts to mend relations with the Islamic world were partly overshadowed by the reopening Tuesday of a rupture between the United States and Israel, a development that reflected his administration’s struggle to strike a balance that satisfies either side in the Middle East conflict.

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While economy is down midterm campaign funds exceed $2 BILLION.

October 26th, 2010 · Congress, Deception, Economy, Government, Greed, Politics

House and Senate shatter fundraising records for midterm election and may exceed $2 billion

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 26, 2010; 12:04 AM

House and Senate candidates have already shattered fundraising records for a midterm election and are on their way to surpassing $2 billion in spending for the first time, according to new campaign finance data.

To put it another way: That’s the equivalent of about $4 million for every congressional seat up for grabs this year.

The frantic fundraising by candidates has largely been overshadowed in recent weeks by a tide of spending by outside interest groups, most of it targeting vulnerable Democrats. Such groups could spend $400 million or more by Nov. 2.

But the latest Federal Election Commission data, along with a new study from a campaign watchdog group, show that most of the money sloshing around the 2010 elections is being raised and spent by the candidates themselves.

As of last week, House and Senate campaigns reported taking in more than $1.5 billion, exceeding the total collected by congressional candidates in 2006 and in 2008, FEC data show. Most of that money already has been put toward advertising and other expenses.

The Public Campaign Action Fund, a watchdog group, will release a study Tuesday predicting that House candidates alone could spend nearly $1.5 billion by the time the dust settles on Election Day. The calculation is based on previous elections in which about half of a campaign’s money was spent in the final month of the contest.

Senate campaigns are also on track to exceed the $550 million mark from 2006, bringing the likely total to $2 billion or more by the time the ballots are counted.

The surge is driven in part by the unusually broad battlefield in the House, where an estimated 90 seats are in play, almost all of them held by Democrats. Many Democratic incumbents are emptying their coffers in an attempt to win the message wars against GOP-allied interest groups.

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Taliban attacks U.N. compound in western Afghanistan: suicide bombers disguised as women

October 25th, 2010 · Defense, Terrorist Attack, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 23, 2010; 4:35 PM

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban launched a midday assault on the United Nations headquarters in western Afghanistan on Saturday, crashing a car bomb into a compound gate to create an opening for suicide bombers disguised as women, according to U.N. and Afghan officials.

The attack was a startling reminder of the Taliban’s readiness to strike at the symbols of foreign presence in Afghanistan, in this case a heavily fortified facility in the relatively peaceful city of Herat, near the Iranian border. Although two Afghan policemen were injured, the attack largely failed, as U.N. guards and Afghan security forces were able to kill the insurgents. No U.N. personnel were hurt.

A thinned-out weekend staff was manning the U.N. offices when the attackers launched rocket-propelled grenades at the compound just before noon and rammed a car bomb into the back gate, U.S. and Afghan officials said. At least three other insurgents, each hiding a suicide vest under a burqa, the head-to-toe cloak worn by many Afghan women, managed to get through the gate before being killed by either guards or police, the officials said.

“This is quite significant,” one U.N. official said. “There was no such direct attack here, as far as I know, for a long time.”

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Obama’s Incoherent Closing Argument : While the economy is the No. 1 issue, the president constantly changes the subject.

October 21st, 2010 · Democrats, Economy, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US

Associated Press

By Karl Rove

At an April 2008 fund-raiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama let loose with his famous “they cling to guns or religion” line. Last Saturday at a West Newton, Mass., fund-raiser, the president said, “facts and science and argument [do] not seem to be winning . . . because we’re hard-wired not to always think clearly when we’re scared.”

Memo to White House: Calling voters stupid is not a winning strategy.

The economy and jobs are the No. 1 issue in every poll. Yet Mr. Obama of late has talked about immigration reform and weighed in (unprompted) on the Ground Zero mosque. He devoted Labor Day to an ineffective Mideast peace initiative. He demeans large blocs of voters and now is ending his midterm pitch with attacks on nonexistent foreign campaign contributions and weird assertions that “the Empire is striking back.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have talked about little else than the economy—drawing attention to lackluster job growth, the failed stimulus, out-of-control spending, escalating deficits and the dangers of ObamaCare.

On Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod promised that the administration’s focus next year would be “to generate more growth and jobs” and “on our fiscal situation.” That must have left congressional Democrats—battered for months by the GOP’s message discipline—wondering why there’s been no focus on that up to now.

Much of the blame lies with the president, who has left his party with an incoherent closing argument 12 days before the election.

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Internet security plan under review would alert users to hacker takeover

October 18th, 2010 · Democrats, Government Control, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Terrorism, Terrorism from Within

By Lolita C. Baldor – Monday, October 18, 2010; 1:05 AM

The government is reviewing an Australian program that will allow Internet service providers to alert customers if their computers are taken over by hackers and could limit online access if people don’t fix the problem.

Obama administration officials have met with industry leaders and experts to find ways to increase online safety while trying to balance securing the Internet and guarding people’s privacy and civil liberties.

Experts and U.S. officials are interested in portions of the plan, set to go into effect in Australia in December. But any move toward Internet regulation or monitoring by the U.S. government or industry could trigger fierce opposition from the public.

The discussions come as private, corporate and government computers across the U.S. are increasingly being taken over and exploited by hackers and other computer criminals.

White House cybercoordinator Howard Schmidt told The Associated Press that the United States is looking at a number of voluntary ways to help the public and small businesses better protect themselves online.

Possibilities include provisions in the Australia plan that enable customers to get warnings from their Internet providers if their computer gets taken over by hackers through a botnet.

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Senate report: Mismanaged U.S. contractor money aids enemy in Afghanistan

October 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Economy, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason, Unemployment, War on Terrorism

Reference: SASC Report on Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan 10/07/2010

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 8, 2010; 12:34 AM

The U.S. military has only minimal knowledge of – and exercises virtually no control over – the thousands of Afghans it indirectly pays to guard its installations, including “warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping, bribery” and to the Taliban, Senate investigators said in a blistering report released Thursday.

The bipartisan report, compiled after a year-long investigation, notes that the military has recently launched its own investigations of the situation and has taken some steps to address it. In one of the most significant steps, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has issued new contractor guidelines.

Still, the Senate investigation documents a failure to properly vet, train and supervise Afghan security subcontractors, hired by U.S. and other international firms under multimillion-dollar military contracts.

That failure has cost American lives, undermined the U.S. mission and the Afghan government, and “helped play into the hands of the enemy,” said Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Some of the Afghan security subcontractors, Levin told reporters Thursday, are “creating the very threat they are hired to combat.”

Committee staff reviewed more than 125 Defense Department security contracts dated between 2007 and 2009 and provided a detailed account of two in which subcontractors had direct and well-known ties to the Taliban. The report recounts an instance in which the military raided a Taliban meeting being held at the house of a subcontractor. It also notes instances in which security subcontractors were believed by U.S. military intelligence to be Iranian agents.

According to the U.S. Central Command, the report said, there were more than 112,000 Defense Department contractor personnel in Afghanistan as of April 30. As of May, more than 26,000 armed private security personnel – nearly all of them Afghans – worked for the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies.

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