The real reason they hate us

Frank Gaffney has written a must read article for Townhall entitled "The Real Reason They Hate Us."  One of its most startling revelations:

Adherents to Shariah insist that their law prohibits any slander against Islam or Muhammad. Under such a catch-all restriction, virtually any kind of conversation about - or critique of - Islam can be considered impermissible if Muslims find it offensive. Particularly in Europe, the ever-present prospect of violence, like that which followed the September 2005 publication of Danish cartoons poking fun at Muhammad, is generally sufficient to induce self-censorship.

In this country, the application of such prohibitions seems unthinkable, given the guarantees of free speech enshrined in the Constitution's First Amendment. Unfortunately, the Obama administration last year co-sponsored with Egypt a relevant and deeply problematic resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council, promoted for years by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a group of 57 Muslim-majority nations that stridently embraces Shariah and seeks to legitimate and promote its advance around the world.


The resolution calls on members of the United Nations to prohibit statements that offend Islam. It also calls for criminal penalties to be applied to those who make such statements. (emphasis added)

The United States under the authority (notice I did not say leadership) of the Obama administration co-sponsored a U.N. resolution restricting the free speech of its members.  Our Founding Fathers would be aghast. We should be, too.

This is a long piece, but well worth the time.  Read it.  Share it.

Never forget

A stunning set of photographs taken by New York Police helicopters on September 11, 2001 has been released pursuant to an ABC Freedom of Information Act request last year.

A trove of aerial photographs of the collapsing World Trade Center was widely released this week, offering a rare and chilling view from the heavens of the burning twin towers and the apocalyptic shroud of smoke and dust that settled over the city.

The images were taken from a police helicopter -- the only photographers allowed in the airspace near the skyscrapers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that investigated the collapse.

The chief curator of the planned Sept. 11 museum pronounced the pictures "a phenomenal body of work."

The photos are "absolutely core to understanding the visual phenomena of what was happening," said Jan Ramirez of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. They are "some of the most exceptional images in the world, I think, of this event."

You can view the photographs here and here.

Obama outsmarts the terrorists?

Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast explains how Obama is outsmarting the terrorists.  Consider this remarkable excerpt:

Which brings us to Barack Obama’s “war on terror.” Conservatives keep saying that Obama doesn’t really believe we’re at war; that he sees terrorists as mere criminals, not the epic evil-doers that they really are. But here’s the irony: It’s precisely because he doesn’t see the terrorist threat as quite so epic that al Qaeda is falling apart. (emphasis added)

To understand why, it helps to understand that al Qaeda is one of the weakest enemies America has ever faced. In their day, the Nazis and communists each ran a great power. (In the case of the communists, two). What’s more, during the Depression, vast numbers of people across the globe—including some of the most famous intellectuals in the United States and Europe—believed the fascists and communists could build societies that were more prosperous and dynamic than their democratic competitors. Barely anyone has ever believed that about al Qaeda. Not only have the jihadists never controlled a powerful country, but no one really believes that if they did it would be anything other than a basket case. To millions of people, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia once offered compelling visions of modernity; Taliban Afghanistan never did.

At the end of the day, all jihadist terrorists can really do is kill. But the more they kill, the more they alienate their fellow Muslims. As the French scholar Gilles Kepel has pointed out, the reason jihadists turned their attention to the United States in the first place was because they utterly failed in the 1990s to overthrow the governments of Algeria and Egypt. They failed because the more people they killed, the more hated they became. And when they lost popular support, they were easily crushed.

In recent years, the dynamic has been playing itself out again. In countries like Pakistan and Jordan, where al Qaeda keeps slaughtering innocent Muslims, its public support has fallen off a cliff. During the Bush years, the only thing that kept al Qaeda from complete ideological collapse was Muslim hatred of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our unblinking support for Muslim dictatorships and for Israel, and our use of torture at places like Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay.

Now Obama, by pledging to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and close Gitmo, and by eschewing torture—in other words, by not overreacting to the terrorist threat—is cutting al Qaeda’s throat. Although the U.S. government is still not exactly loved in Muslim nations, it is hated less. Between 2008 and 2009, according to Gallup, approval of U.S. policies rose 23 points in Tunisia, 22 points in Algeria, 19 points in Egypt, 17 points in Saudi Arabia and 13 points in Kuwait. In Indonesia, according to the Pew Research Center, approval of the U.S. rose 26 points. And not coincidentally, al Qaeda’s slide seems to be accelerating. Between 2003 and 2009, according to Pew, support for Osama bin Laden has dropped 34 points in Indonesia, 28 points in Pakistan, 28 points in Jordan, 20 points in the Palestinian territories, 16 points in Lebanon and 13 points in Turkey. In Indonesia and Pakistan, much of the decline has occurred in the last year alone. Bin Laden is having so much trouble demonizing the United States that his last audio tape focused on climate change.

Maybe Obama isn't worrying about al Qaeda, but his intelligence chiefs certainly are.  And I'm quite sure they know more about the current threat environment than does Mr. Beinart.  CNN reports on recent testimony by U.S. intelligence chiefs before a Senate committee:

Asked by committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, of the likelihood of another attempted terror attack on the United States in the next three to six months, the officials agreed with Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's initial answer of "certain."

While none of the intelligence chiefs, who included CIA Director Leon Panetta, FBI Director Robert Mueller and others, cited a specific pending threat, their testimony made clear that an evolving al Qaeda remains their top concern.

"My greatest concern, and what keeps me awake at night, is that al Qaeda and its terrorist allies and affiliates could very well attack the United States," Panetta said. (emphasis added)

Al Qaeda is adapting methods to make their plots more difficult to detect, shifting from large attacks with multiple players to using individuals without any background in terrorism, Panetta said.

If I understand Beinart's argument, he believes that the less President Obama is concerned about terrorism, the less likely he will be to commit the U.S. to actions that further inflame the perpetrators of terror.  Meanwhile the more al-Qaeda kills innocent Muslims, the more ostracized they will become by other nations.  Using this perverse logic, I suppose he believes that Wold War II would have had a better ending if England and the United States had not seen the Nazi threat as "epic."  This is a naive and dangerous argument.

It is also clear that the author equates appoval of U.S. policy with a lessening of hatred for Americans.  This is a fallacy.  A different conclusion could reasonably be drawn:  The terrorists prefer Obama's policies to those of President Bush because it gives them an opportunity to rest, regroup, reorganize and launch more attacks against the infidels which, make no mistake about it, the terrorists still hate.

Michael Yon detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Acclaimed independent war correspondent and photojournalist Michael Yon was handcuffed yesterday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for refusing to disclose his annual income to Customs personnel.  If you don't know who Michael Yon is, you really should.  He has single-handedly produced some of the best eye-witness coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. From his website:

Michael Yon is a former Green Beret, native of Winter Haven, Fl. who has been reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004. No other reporter has spent as much time with combat troops in these two wars. Michael’s dispatches from the frontlines have earned him the reputation as the premier independent combat journalist of his generation. His work has been featured on “Good Morning America,” The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, ABC, FOX, as well as hundreds of other major media outlets all around the world.

From an exclusive interview with Big Government:

Award winning war correspondent Michael Yon was detained and handcuffed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Yesterday by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel.


Yon was returning to the United States from Hong Kong to visit family when TSA officials stopped him during a routine security checkpoint. “Officials asked me what was in my bag—nothing wrong with this question,” Yon said in an interview with BigGovernment.com. “I told them it was normal stuff, clothes and toothbrushes.”


At this point the TSA officials escorted Yon to a designated screening area where they examined the contents of his bag. “Then they asked me how much money I make,” Yon said. Yon suggested to the TSA officials that the question was inappropriate and unrelated to transportation security. The award-winning blogger noted another TSA officer approached Yon: “he asked who do I work for.” ”I did not answer the question which clearly was upsetting to the TSA officers.”

From Michael's Facebook page:

When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.

Last week, I watched two interviews on Fox News with Isaac Yeffet, former head of El Al Airlines (and retired officer in the Israeli Secret Service).  He observed that many screeners at TSA are unqualified and untrained.  He stated that the key to airline security is qualified, well-educated screeners that are proficient in at least two languages.  He also said that airline security is a 'holy mission.'

The harassment of Michael Yon is a stark confirmation of  Mr. Yeffet's observations, and the failure of our government to heed the lessons of 9/11.

I have followed and supported Micheal Yon's reporting since 2005.  You can view what I believe is his most heart-wrenching photo here.

Update:  I have corrected this post after reading Michael's clarification on Facebook.  He was handcuffed by Customs (CBP) personnel, not TSA.

Somali man linked to al Qaeda tries to kill Danish cartoonist

In the United States of America, we revere the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  But the sad truth is, thanks to the sacrifice of blood and treasure by generations of Americans, we probably take it mostly for granted.  Here it is, in all of its simplicity and power:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

One brave cartoonist in Denmark almost lost his life (and likely his grandson's life) tonight in his home at the hand of a 28-year old man linked to al Shabaab and al Qaeda.  From Sky News:

Danish police say they have shot an al Qaeda-linked man armed with an axe who broke into the home of a controversial cartoonist.



Police attend scene of break-in at home of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard


Police say the 28-year-old Somali man was trying to kill Kurt Westergaard, who triggered worldwide protests after drawing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed.


The intruder was linked to Somali terror organisation al Shabaab and al Qaeda leaders in east Africa, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service PET said in a statement.


The intruder was shot twice and is being held in custody.


Lotte Mejlhede, of TV2, told Sky News Mr Westergaard, 74, fled to a safe room at his Aarhus home after spotting the would-be attacker.


Ms Mejlhede, who spoke to Mr Westergaard, said: "He pressed his panic alarm button because a 28-year-old Somalian was trying to to break into his house and actually got into the house.


"He had a knife and axe and was trying to attack him.


"Mr Westergaard went to a safe room in his house."


She added: "This man tried to escape and attacked the police."


Mr Westergaard's five-year-old grandson was also with him.


Chief Supt Morten Jensen, from East Jutland police, said: "A personal alarm was received from Mr Westergaard's house.


Officers found the man "armed with an axe and a knife in either hand".


The security service said the man, who will be charged with attempting to kill Mr Westergaard and the police officer, had been involved in a "terror-related network" that had long been under investigation in connection with threats to Westergaard.

This brings to mind the murder of another artist, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, in 2004 at the hands of a Dutch born Muslim, Mohamed Bouyeri.  Van Gogh had made a film documenting the cruel treatment of women under Islam. You can watch part of the film here.

The Somali group al Shabaab was a prominent player in November's special feature on Fox News:  Pirates of the 21st Century which was replayed today.  The documentary suggests that these Somali terrorists are well funded by the huge ransoms of this outbreak of piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden.

I am thankful that Mr. Westergaard and his grandson are safe tonight, and that he had the foresight to construct a safe room in his home.