After receiving an award last week at the White House, Paul McCartney, one of the two remaining aging Beatles, felt compelled to spout off "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." Isn't it just like a far-left lib to hurl snide remarks at a conservative? Why, we wouldn't know what to do if there was civility shown by them.
This is one character revealing moment which insulted the American people who elected George Bush to two terms, if you think about it.
Boycott McCartney!
Video:
Oh look, there's Jerry Seinfeld next to McCartney, laughing.
This billboard was put up over I 35 in Wyoming, Minnesota. A group of small businesses thought of a clever way to say Washington isn't listening to them.
During the president race, Ohio physician Hatem El-Hady and former director of KindHearts, an Islamic charity linked to Hamas shut down by the U.S. Treasury, made blogging news when he became a fund raiser for then presidential candidate Barack Obama. See here, here and here. The main stream media ignored it, if I recall correctly.
This week, a federal judge who was appointed by President Clinton, may have begun the dismantling of a key counter terrorism measure by unfreezing the assets of Kindearts! I say "may have" because this might not be the final ruling in the case but it could be the beginning.
Oh, how neatly this does connects with President Obama's vow made on Islamic soil to make it easier for Muslims in America to give to their charities:
"Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I’m committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill." (Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt).
In a ruling that threw into doubt one of the government’s main counterterrorism tools, a federal judge said the Treasury Department acted unconstitutionally three years ago when it froze the assets of an Ohio charity suspected of aiding terrorists.
The ruling challenged a key tactic used by the government under an emergency executive order signed by President two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. If upheld, the ruling could severely undercut the government’s authority and ultimately require it to get a warrant and submit to court review in moving against charities.
In the last eight years, the Treasury Department has used its broadened authority to freeze tens of millions of dollars in assets held by eight charities within the United States and hundreds of other groups and individuals outside this country, all without warrants and court approval.
The ruling was issued late Tuesday by James G. Carr, the chief federal judge in northern Ohio. Judge Carr set a hearing in September to determine how to correct what he said were constitutional flaws in the government’s case.
Judge Carr, named to the bench in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, found that the Treasury Department had also violated the charity’s rights to due process and to challenge evidence.
He rejected the Justice Department’s contention that the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, did not apply to groups suspected of foreign terrorist ties because of the president’s separate national security authority.
...KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving," said Stuart Levey, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "By utilizing this specialized designation tool, we're able to prevent asset flight in support of terrorist activities while we further investigate the activities of KindHearts."
...Mohammed El-Mezain, who coordinated KindHearts' fundraising, is a former HLF official indicted by a federal grand jury in Dallas, Texas on charges of providing material support to Hamas. Information indicates that SDGT Khalid Mishaal, Hamas' Secretary General based in Damascus, Syria, identified El-Mezain as the Hamas leader for the U.S. At the time, Mishaal advised that all financial contributions to Hamas from individuals in the U.S. should be channeled through El-Mezain.
At a September 2003 KindHearts fundraising event, a KindHearts fundraiser spoke and encouraged the crowd to appreciate the efforts of the terrorist group Hizballah in supporting Hamas. The fundraiser then encouraged the crowd to give money and manpower as support against Israel. El-Mezain also spoke at this KindHearts fundraiser, encouraging people to donate to KindHearts.
PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML The defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, of the charge that he provided or attempted to provide material support and resources to ...
File Format:PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML 16 DEPOSITION OF MOHAMMAD A EL-MEZAIN. 16. 2D Fust Plia, Suite 700. 17 Sas Diego, Califórnia ....MOHAMMAD A EL-MEZAIN, SEPTEMBER 10,2003. 1 A You're right.
CBS 11 - May 27, 2009 MohammedEl-Mezain told the judge the foundation helped those in need. ... Mohammad El-Mezainand Abdulrahman Odeh were both sentenced to 15 years in prison ... 2
President Bush surprised the town of Woodward, Oklahoma by accepting their invitation to help them celebrate the 4th of July.
But, one resident of this town is not happy about the former president's visit. Warren Henthorn expressed his displeasure in a letter-to-the-editor published in the Tulsa World. In 2005, he lost his son, Jeffrey S. Henthorn, in Iraq to suicide on his 2nd tour of duty (PBS video), which wasn't mentioned in his letter. Mr. Henthorn did write that Iraq a war of choice and that our economic problems are because of it.
But was Iraq really a war of choice?
In November 1998, a United States District Court in New York federal grand jury indicted Osama Bin Laden for his long-term conspiracy to attack American interests and citizens.
Count 4 of the indictment reads:
4. Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.
This indictment came a couple years before President Bush took office. Earlier that same year President Bill Clinton spoke about the dangers of Iraq (video).
I'm just throwing some facts out there that pointed to Iraq as a problem way before President Bush took office.
Update 7/4/09: The Tulsa World did an article on this yesterday and then republished it again today where they featured Mr. Henthorn and another dad who also lost his son. These men believe former President Bush and his administration bear some blame for their son's death.
In fact, take a look at all the articles about Soufan that have appeared lately.
Games are being played here, folks. Soufan is the star anti-torture guy for the left! Are we to believe he is the only FBI interrogator around? The media is doing a diservice to America by this one-sided spectacle.
First of all, let's look at the author of the ABC article. Is Matthew Cole the same Matthew Cole who is/was an aspiring screenwriter and journalist who has written article like Angelina Jolie Has A New Baby Girl back in 2005 whose articles all of a sudden stopped in that year? Did Cole pop up again as a party to The James Madison Project and Matthew Cole vs. the CIA? Are they the same person? ABC doesn't provide their readers a link with his byline to know anything about him.
In any event, here's the comment I added to the article:
"It's so amazing the timing of Soufan's op-ed piece in the New York Times on April 22nd and the article about him in Time that followed on April 24th and now this article along with the release of so-called torture documents by the White House.
What a remarkable coincidence!
In a May 2008 article by Soufan in the Washington Post titled "Coddling Terrorists In Yemen", Soufan, a Muslim, wrote:
"...When the FBI arrived in Yemen, some government officials tried to convince us that the explosion had been caused by a malfunction in the Cole's operating systems. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh even asked the U.S. government for money to clean up port damage the United States "caused."
...We faced constant threats to our safety, not just from terrorists. Members of the Yemeni parliament, in fiery speeches broadcast on official television, called for "jihad" to be declared against us. The hotel where we stayed was shot at and received at least one bomb threat, prompting an evacuation..."
Mr. Soufan argues that enhanced interrogation is ineffective based on his own ability to interrogate without it. Yet, he collapsed and was rushed to the emergency room after three long days with little sleep while interrogating Fahd al-Quso, a man who boasted he had fought beside Osama Bin Laden. As a result of his efforts, Soufan reportedly got good information (page 11, The Agent).
Soufan, was the chief liaison to the Qatar Royal family while working for Rudy Guiliani's security firm according to ABC News in an article title "Giuliani's Ties to Qatar Raise Questions for Mr. 9/ll" dated 11/27/07.
He now has his own "security" firm and moved into a $1.7 million apartment in New York City last year.
What 's the name of his firm? Who are his clients?
Soufan won't show his face on TV, according to a CNN transcript dated 10/29/07 and seeks to live in secrecy because of the "evildoers," as he put it. in an article in the Observer dated 1/29/08. Aren't those evildoers Islamic radicals? They are the very would-be killers Soufan argues should be given due process and sheltered from harsh interrogations."
Give me a break.
Update 5/13/09 2:07 PM CT: On CNN just now Rick Sanchez showed a clip of Ali Soufan testifying before Congress from behind a curtain because, as Sanchez said, the terrorists want him dead!
CNN Transcript 5/13/09 Rick Sanchez around the 7 minute mark into the hour-long transcript.
"And there's this. This is what else Americans have been very much involved with today. There's hardly a citizen, a politician or soldier who hasn't expressed an opinion in our conversation, our national conversation about our country's interrogation methods. Some call it torture.
You have heard the arguments. Some call it a necessary evil. You have heard those arguments as well. Enter a guy who's not just an American average citizen or just another politician or a soldier. This guy knows what an effective interrogation is, because he has interrogated terrorists and gotten them to talk.
He's gotten kudos from up and down the stratosphere of folks in the military and in politics, considered one of the best at this. He is behind that screen you see right there, that wooden screen, where it protects his identity, because the terrorists want him dead.'
Update 5/13/09 4:46 PM CT: The name of his company: The Soufan Group, LLC. Others involved: Daniel Freedman, Bud Aldridge, Robert Shea, Geoggrey Gillian, Rick Festorizzi, John Waddell
The top ABC News stories from May 2009. ...The network apparently outsourced this report to a freelancer named Matthew Cole, whose record in Nexis . ...
File Format:PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML After JMP amended its complaint to add as a plaintiff Matthew Cole, a journalist (and to whom the CIA had granted expedited processing for the identical ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML The James Madison Project(JMP) brought this FOIA action to compel the CIA to respond to its October 2007 request for “copies of all internal [CIA] ...
Jan 8, 2009 ... A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the James Madison Project has requested CIA documents related to the destruction of the videos ...
By Juan Cole July 24, 2007 ... By Matthew Cole February 27, 2007 ...JournalistRajiv Chandrasekaran pulls back the curtain on the Green Zone in Baghdad to ...
An UN official wants President George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld presecuted on torture charges:
"Manfred Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture, called on the US authorities to pursue the former president and his former defence secretary for the treatment of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.
"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation," he told German television.
He said that the US had ratified the UN convention on torture which requires "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.
"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," Mr Nowak claimed..."
"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this."
"In perhaps his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison terms of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler who fled across the Rio Grande after they stopped a van with 743 pounds of marijuana.
The Justice Department announced that Bush has granted clemency to former Texas-based agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos. As is usually the case in such executive grants, the announcement included no explanation, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a case that ignited a fierce debate about illegal Immigration, the two men were sentenced to 12 and 11 years, respectively, after being found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, defacing a crime scene and violating the smuggler's rights. The men, who tried to cover up the 2005 shooting, were given 3 years of supervised release following the prison term and a $2,000 fine as well."
Actor Mickie Rourke had the guts to say what many already know. Blinded are those, who are too consumed by stupidity and hate for Bush:
"President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't know how anyone could have handled this situation.
"I don't give a (expletive) who's in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem... I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This s**t between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it.
"It's too easy to blame everything on one guy. These are unpredictable, dangerous times, and I don't think that anyone really knows quite what to do."
Rourke also confesses he was so angry after 9/11, he wanted to fight the war on terror himself.
He adds, "I'm not politically educated. But I do know that after 9/11 I wanted to go over there, you know what I'm saying?"
And the star is baffled by the U.K.'s approach to fundamentalists - insisting he was taken aback by the freedom of speech allowed in the U.K.
He explains, "I was in London recently and I couldn't believe all these hate-talking fanatics you have over here who are allowed to carry on doing their thing even when a bus full of women and children gets blown to pieces.
"I know you've deported one or two of them, but it seems crazy. I think there is worse to come, something terrible will happen to either America or the U.K., or France even. I don't think these fundamentalists should be allowed to talk all this crap, and brainwashing these young kids." Daily Express
This man, who often plays odd and quirkier roles, has got a good grip on the danger we face from Islamists.
"Join us on Inauguration day at the FBI building to demand the ARREST OF GEORGE W. BUSH!
We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for instigating an unwarranted war of aggression against a sovereign nation, wanton attacks on civilian populations, use of torture and violations of the Consititution (notice: it is misspelled) of the United States and United Nations charter.
US Park Service permit # 09-18 allows for 3,000 participants!"
How pathetic. I wonder who is behind it. This website is hosted by Go Daddy.
On Meet the Press today there was one more final jab at our current president, during a time of war, from Democratic Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid:
“I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Reid pointed to Bush’s failed plan to privatize the Social Security program and also said Bush “has done his very best to destroy Medicare” in order support his assessment of Bush’s presidency.
Asked by David Gregory if he had any regrets about his persistent criticism of Bush, Reid responded, “I am who I am.”
A Presidential Bulletin from Rev. Miguel Rivera, the president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, was posted on their website today. This Christian organization, whose president serves on the Immigration Reform Council of the President of the United States, is going to sue the state of Oklahoma any day now.
This is a must read for anyone who is a citizen of the United States. It has been translated from Spanish.
Presidential bulletin: Agosto 28, 2007
The Legal Battle has begun
Washington DC- the CONLAMIC principles, we should remember the initial conversations with our 1st National Vice-president , Rev. Dr Kittim Silva, do not reflect the consideration of which we are beginning to experience nowadays, with legal actions in Federal Court in favor of the civil rights and the freedom of our“Latino town” in the United States. At that time, the great challenge we had (which we still face) was to manage to unite the associations, alliances and organizations of shepherds in all United States, to establish a and seriously representative coalition legitimately speaking, of the Latin Church in this Country. Right now, the presence of 99 organizations of shepherds of all the Nation and National Council the 35 support of Lideres, grants the right to us to demand representation of more than 20,000 evangelical Latin churches, including Puerto Rico.
At the moment, thanks to the efforts of our National Coordinator Rev. Ben Fragmentation's hand grenade, we are about to receive the alliance of evangelical ministers of Laredo, Texas, that added 100 to the affiliated organizations. Gloria to God for that reason. Nevertheless, as opposed to so many successes and experiences that we have managed to live, it never crossed our mind that we would arrive the moment when most of the opinion published in North America would be totally opposite towards our “Latino town", as a result of the high number of undocumented immigrants who are in the United States.
The reports in newspaper, specially reflect chilling incidences in those less diverse states or with a concentration of being able economic and political controlled by the anglian extreme conservatives. In fact, those of us who resided in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida and Texas, do not know of the multiple upsets that our Latin brothers suffer in other places where they are collective minority and sights like pleasing invaders and non to the society.
During these last days that the Lawyer William Sanchez and myself, were in Oklahoma, we never seen such racial, economic and social segregation showed in form before my eyes. Literally, the Latin community in Tulsa, OK is so totally marginalized at a deep level that it is hardly possible to perceived.
Today President Bush went to the Islamic Center of Washington extending peace, friendship and mutual respect between Muslims and all people.
..."This is what freedom offers: societies where people can live and worship as they choose without intimidation, without suspicion, without a knock on the door from the secret police. The freedom of religion is the very first protection offered in America's Bill of Rights. It is a precious freedom. ...In the Middle East, we have seen instead the rise of a group of extremists who seek to use religion as a path to power and a means of domination ...America has stood with Muslims seeking to freely practice their beliefs in places such as Burma and China. ....Men and women of conscience have a duty to speak out and condemn this murderous movement before it finds its path to power. We must help millions of Muslims as they rescue a proud and historic religion from murderers and beheaders who seek to soil the name of Islam..."
In this speech the President announced an envoy he will assign to an global Islamic advancement organization which seems to contradict his very message since many member states of this Islamic organization do not allow freedom of religion. Obviously, I've got to be missing something in his message.
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