I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.
Resources
For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.
Feds Issue Train Alert Based on bin Laden Lair Info
Excerpt: Federal officials sent law enforcement officials a warning that al-Qaida may be targeting trains in the United States, based on information gleaned from documents at Osama bin Laden's compound after the world's top terrorist was killed. The Homeland Security advisory tells law enforcement officials to be vigilant about train security. The missive is general and precautionary in nature because the information dates back more than a year, and no recent intelligence indicates that such a plot is active, officials said. Federal officials say they have not found reference to specific plots, NBC News reported.
The Waterboarding Trail to bin Laden
The Waterboarding Trail to bin Laden
Excerpt: Osama bin Laden was killed by Americans, based on intelligence developed by Americans. That should bring great satisfaction to our citizens and elicit praise for our intelligence community. Seized along with bin Laden's corpse was a trove of documents and electronic devices that should yield intelligence that could help us capture or kill other terrorists and further degrade the capabilities of those who remain at large. But policies put in place by the very administration that presided over this splendid success promise fewer such successes in the future. Those policies make it unlikely that we'll be able to get information from those whose identities are disclosed by the material seized from bin Laden. The administration also hounds our intelligence gatherers in ways that can only demoralize them. Consider how the intelligence that led to bin Laden came to hand. It began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information—including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.
Shifting US
Like the "DIY Osama Photo." But this event didn't convince me that OBL and al Qaeda had the support of senior members of the ISI. I was convinced of that long ago. ~Bob. Excerpt: This week, The Australian spoke to several senior officials and former officials of different nationalities who have served in Pakistan Pakistan
The War Continues: Bin Laden’s death is an inflection point, not the end of the war.
Excerpt: On the contrary. The bin Laden operation is the perfect vindication of the War on Terror. It was made possible precisely by the vast, war-like infrastructure that the Bush administration created after 9/11, a fierce regime of capture and interrogation, of dropped bombs and commando strikes. That regime, of course, followed the more conventional war that brought down the Taliban, scattered and decimated al-Qaeda, and made bin Laden a fugitive. Without all of this, the bin Laden operation could never have happened. Whence came the intelligence that led to Abbottabad? Many places, including from secret prisons in Romania and Poland; from terrorists seized and kidnapped, then subjected to interrogations, sometimes “harsh” or “enhanced”; from Gitmo detainees; from a huge bureaucratic apparatus of surveillance and eavesdropping. In other words, from a Global War on Terror infrastructure that critics, including Barack Obama himself, deplored as a tragic detour from American rectitude.
The First-Person Presidency
Excerpt: Most of these first-person pronouns could have been replaced by either the first-person plural (our, we) or proper nouns (the United States , America
ExxonMobil’s U.S. taxes and U.S. earnings – Some relevant numbers for Washington
Excerpt: During the first quarter of this year, our U.S. Washington : During the first quarter, on those U.S. earnings of $2.6 billion, we incurred tax expenses in the United States U.S. tax bill was higher than our U.S. Washington U.S.
Herman Cain for president?
Excerpt: Okay, so he’s got no former political experience. He’s held no prior political office. That could actually be a big boon at this point. Whatever the reason, Godfather Pizza chief executive officer Herman Cain stole the show at Thursday’s Fox News debate of Republican primary contenders in South Carolina
Hundreds of militant Muslims stage mock funeral for bin Laden outside U.S. Embassy in London...as relatives of 7/7 terror attack weep at inquest just three miles away...
Excerpt: A protest by hundreds of Osama Bin Laden supporters sparked fury outside the US Embassy in London US
Chinese National Arrested for Leading Fake Military Unit in LA
Excerpt: A Chinese national will be in court today after he was arrested for running a phony special forces military unit and recruiting "soldiers" who paid money believing that they would be rewarded with citizenship. Yupeng "David" Deng, 51, gave himself the title "supreme commander" over the fictitious U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve, which donned actual U.S. Army uniforms to participate in drills, march in a parade and visit the USS Midway museum in San Diego, authorities said. "It's very sad that the people he recruited thought they would become citizens by doing this. They thought they were in the legitimate army," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told AOL News after the arrest Tuesday. "They were largely blue-collar-type workers he recruited, who would then tell others by word-of-mouth."
The End of a United Kingdom
Excerpt: The news has flown a bit under the radar here in the United States Edinburgh parliament--something that the Hollyrood system was designed to prevent, and which now puts the future of the United Kingdom
VIDEO: Scottish Election Results: Scottish National Party Secures Surprise Majority
Excerpt: The SNP has secured enough seats to form a historic majority in the Scottish Parliament for the next five years. Alex Salmond's party has achieved 65 seats which means there will be a referendum on independence during the next term.
It's the Economy, Stupid
Excerpt: President Obama received no immediate approval bump from the bin Laden kill, according to the new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll, though the subsequent days may have produced a smallish increase. The Gallup
C. S. Choules, Veteran of World War I, Dies at 110
Excerpt: Mr. Choules (rhymes with jewels) was born March 3, 1901, in the small British town of Pershore Fremantle , Western Australia Australia
Why the Balanced Budget Amendment Must Be Stopped
Excerpt: Currently, Washington Republicans are mulling over two versions of a Balanced Budget Amendment. One, sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch and John Cornyn, would limit government spending to 20% of GDP and require a balanced budget (i.e., without a deficit) five years after the amendment is ratified. The version introduced by Sen. Mike Lee would be similar, but it would limit government spending to 18% of GDP, the lowest in decades. Both versions, however, are fundamentally flawed and therefore utterly unacceptable. Let me explain. Firstly, and most worryingly, both proposed amendments would effectively undo all the limitations on the federal government currently listed in the Constitution. Goodbye to the principle of enumerated prerogatives, the nondelegation doctrine, and the 9th and 10th Amendments. Both versions would effectively mean that the federal government will be allowed to meddle with, legislate on, and spend money on anything, as long as its total annual spending doesn't exceed 18% or 20% of GDP (whose estimates it could falsify to justify higher spending). This would allow the Congress to legislate on whatever it wants to regulate and spend vast sums of money on programs that should be reserved to the states. And guaranteeing this beast -- the federal government -- even 18% of GDP is obscene. It is not a limited government policy.
Excerpt: Allah attests that the love for Jihad and death in the cause of Allah has taken over my life and the Sword Verses have penetrated every cell of my heart, “and kill all the polytheists [infidels] as they fight all of you”. And how many times I wake from my sleep and find myself reciting this holy verse. If every Muslim would ask himself why did our Ummah reach to where she is [in a state of] humiliation and defeat, his instinctual response would be, because she has clung to the pleasures of life and tossed the book of Allah [Koran] behind its back and it is the only source that has the cure and success in the here and now and the hereafter. The Jews and Christians have tempted us with the pleasures of life and its cheap delights and they invaded us with their monitory values before invading us with their armies. And we were, like women, did not react, because the love for death in the cause of Allah has departed the hearts.
San Diego, California: Terrorist Group Setting Up Near Border: Hezbollah Considered to be More Advanced Than Al-Qaida
Excerpt: Tunnels the cartels have built that cross from Mexico into the U.S. Middle East ," he said. Why have Americans not heard more about Hezbollah's activities happening so close to the border?
McRecovery Continues to Erode American Middle Class
Excerpt: It’s turns out to be a McRecovery. The Labor Department announced today the private sector has created jobs at the fastest pace since 2006. “Nonfarm payrolls rose 244,000 last month, the most in 11 months, the Labor Department said on Friday. The private sector accounted for all of the job gains last month, with payrolls rising 268,000, the largest rise since February 2006,” reports CNBC. According to the data, McDonald’s was responsible for the modest gain. “McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the United States after receiving more than 1 million applications,” the Star Tribune reports.
The SEAL Sensibility
Excerpt: At Camp Pendleton in California Pakistan Afghanistan
VIDEO: University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
Excerpt: An apology [has been issued] from the UW-Oshkosh professor caught on tape urging his students to sign a recall petition. Professor Stephen Richards says he regrets using class time to inform students about recalling a state senator. Recording: "I have two students here who are from the committee to recall Republican state senator Hopper. By signing this sheet, all it's saying is, that you'd like, you're signing it to have him recalled." The recording was made two months ago but just surfaced this week. (Professors used to think their job was to teach students HOW to think. Now it's WHAT to think. ~Bob. )
SEIU drops mask, goes full commie
Excerpt: A May Day rally in Los Angeles Southern California citizen journalist and photographer “Ringo” was on hand to record the day’s events, and posted a full-length photo essay on his site Ringo’s Pictures. To bring this important photo essay to a wider audience, I present here a small selection of Ringo’s May Day pictures; visit his site to see dozens more photos from the rally.
Republicans Scramble to Avoid another New York
Excerpt: Republicans in New York Davis
Department of Education orders universities to lower burden of proof in sex crime cases
Excerpt: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is going to bat against the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over what they see as infringements on college students’ due process and free speech rights. In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to colleges and universities in April, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali announced new federal regulations publicly funded schools must employ to address allegations of sexual harassment and sexual violence. The new standards most notably lower the burden of proof to prosecute.
Hispanic Voters on the Fence
Excerpt: Candidate Barack Obama ’s 2012 campaign team is set to announce a Hispanic outreach campaign next week, just as President Barack Obama travels to the Mexican border to give a speech on immigration. Hispanics are a key element in his reelection campaign, partly because his support among working-class whites and swing-voters have crashed after two years of lousy economic conditions. But Hispanics’ turnout is low, and their lopsided support for him has tumbled from 68 percent to 54 percent over the last few years.
Charlie Chan and the Mystery of the Mansion Hideout
Excerpt: As the story of the death of Osama bin Laden grows more curious by the day, it's time we call in that legendary Honolulu police detective of yesteryear, Charlie Chan, to visit the scene. With his Number One Son, Jimmy, Chan arrives at the former hideout of the deceased mass murderer, where a small crowd of on-lookers still lingers. This conversation ensues:
In Celebrating OBL’s Demise, the Kids Are All Right
Excerpt: On September 11, 2001, grade school and high school children around the country saw giant jets crash into two 100-story skyscrapers. They saw those towers, with thousands of people still inside, collapse one after the other into horrible and previously unimaginable heaps. They saw the carnage at the Pentagon, and they heard about how Flight 93′s heroes died preventing an additional attack targeting either the White House or our Capitol. Children shouldn’t have to see these things, but it was of course unavoidable. Many of them, especially in and around New York and Washington
Is Obama A Gunrunner?
Excerpt: Under a program run by the Justice Department, weapons were knowingly sold to criminals suspected of links to Mexican drug cartels, with two guns ending up at the murder scene of a border patrol agent. Considering how this administration has made a cause celebre out of gun control, the revelation of a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), in which weapons were transferred on purpose to Mexican drug cartels and criminals and then lost track of, is at best embarrassing and at worst an unconscionable dereliction of duty. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, among others, have blamed the rising violence in Mexico by the drug cartels on the transfer of weapons from the U.S.
Tinhorn Treatment
Free Press: Is the U.S.
Obama's 'Gangster Politics'
Excerpt: President Obama has officially kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign, and don't Republicans know it. The president is expected any day now to sign an executive order that routs 70 years of efforts to get politics out of official federal business. Under the order, all companies (and their officers) would be required to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts. Companies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether—which is the White House's real aim. Think of it as "not-pay to play."
Drones Target Yemeni Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
Excerpt: The U.S. launched a drone strike in Yemen on Thursday aimed at killing Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric suspected of orchestrating terrorist attacks in the U.S, but he evaded the missile, Yemeni and U.S. Pakistan U.S.
Muslims hold mock funeral for bin Laden in London, threatening revenge and waving signs proclaiming "Islam will dominate the world"
Excerpt: The pictures really speak for themselves. This spectacle was organized by Anjem Chaudary, and it's worth repeating that he lives on £25,000 in benefits. Don't curse the kuffar with your mouth full, "Andy."
New Osama urges UK
Excerpt: Yemen-based Anwar al-Awlaki - tipped as Osama Bin Laden's successor - urged a Mumbai-style massacre after being duped by a Sun sting. Security services were last night studying our dossier on his drive to recruit fanatics in the UK
Truth vs. Ideology
Excerpt: Frustrating! That's the appropriate word for what is happening in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid. Besides the precision of the Navy SEALs, the big story to emerge from the action is that coerced interrogation gave the CIA vital information used to track bin Laden to his lair. Current CIA Chief Leon Panetta has confirmed that. Of course, that exposition is embarrassing to the left, including President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, who are all on record as saying coerced interrogation does not work. Apparently, they were wrong in a big way. The nails-on-the-blackboard part of this story is that some liberal pundits are trying to deny the undeniable. The spin they are using is that a "mosaic" of intelligence led the CIA to bin Laden. It was not just waterboarding or whatever. To paraphrase Panetta: We'll never know if we could have gotten the same intel without the water. That's true, but who cares?
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Will Muslim Brotherhood Succeed Where Osama bin Laden Failed?
Excerpt: Unlike Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has evolved and learned the hard way that the use of violence will be met with superior violence by state actors. The clever thing to do, it now turns out, was to be patient and invest in a bottom-up movement rather than a commando structure that risked being wiped out by stronger forces. Besides, the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran Iran Iran
Mark Steyn: Why Pakistan
Excerpt: In the fall of 2001, discussing the collapse of the Taliban, Thomas Friedman, the in-house thinker at The New York Times, offered this bit of cartoon analysis: "For all the talk about the vaunted Afghan fighters, this was a war between the Jetsons and the Flintstones – and the Jetsons won and the Flintstones know it." But they didn't, did they? The Flintstones retreated to their caves, bided their time, and a decade later the Jetsons are desperate to negotiate their way out. When it comes to instructive analogies, I prefer Khartoum America a decade to avenge the dead of 9/11, it took Britain 13 years to avenge their defeat in Sudan Kitchener
Michael Moore Says Bin Laden ‘Executed,’ Not Killed: ‘He Won’
Excerpt: Michael Moore is back at it. This time, his target is the Obama administration.
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