Archive for the ‘National Security’ Category
Illustrating absurdity: Liberals and counter-terrorism
Victor Davis Hanson cleverly illustrates the absurdity of liberal outrage regarding our counter-terrorism strategy. Consider this:
Somehow bloggers and op-ed writers have established by their selective outrage a narrative that it was immoral of Cheney to approve the waterboarding of three confessed terrorists like KSM, but quite moral of Obama to expand fivefold the Predator targeted-assassination program that served as judge, jury, and executioner of suspected terrorists — and of any living thing in their vicinity when the Hellfire missiles obliterated their compounds.
That is not to say that I am opposed to Hellfire missile attacks against “suspected terrorists” – providing our intelligence community is doing their due diligence in vetting their targets. But Hanson makes it crystal clear that there is a significant segment of our government that is willing to jeopardize the lives of Americans in order to weaken their political opponents.
If the Democrats seriously thought that the Bush doctrine had to be discarded, as Hanson points out, they would have corrected it. Instead, they continued the very strategy that they had fought when their party wasn’t in power:
… Obama retained Secretary of Defense Gates, stuck to the Bush-Petraeus withdrawal plan in Iraq, expanded Predator-drone attacks in Waziristan, surged into Afghanistan, bombed Libya, and embraced everything from Guantanamo to renditions.
It would be comical if it weren’t for the fact that it is our lives they are risking for their personal gain. I hope enough Americans will consider this when it comes time to vote.
In: National Security · Tagged with: War on Terror
Sacked: Another Muslim homeland security official with shady connections
On Monday, National Public Radio featured a story about a Muslim homeland security official who was fired after being featured as a terrorism suspect in an anti-terrorism seminar.
Omar Alomari, a 60-year-old Jordanian-American, served as a multicultural relations officer for the Ohio Department of Public Safety until the state fired him following a seminar for local law enforcement officers on political Islam and terrorism. Alomari was singled out as a suspect, and shortly after the presentation, he was fired.
The NPR article implies that Alomari lost his job due to the seminar, but it turns out that he actually was dismissed for not fully disclosing his employment history when filing his background check and then lying to investigators. Alomari left out his tenure as a college professor where he was fired due to an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student and also failed to disclose that he had previously worked for the Jordanian Minister of Labor.
The website The Jawa Report conducted an investigation into Alomari, which can be found here.
Apart from appearing as a witness for a 2010 Congress subcomittee hearing, Alomari is most notable work is two pamphlets on Islam he wrote as a member of Ohio Homeland Security.
In his guide to Islamic and Arabic culture, Alomari defined jihad as “The utmost effort one should exert to achieve excellence” and states that “Jihad does not mean holy war, as many people are led to believe.”
Zuhdi Jasser, fellow Muslim and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, calls Alomari’s pamphlets “classic Islamist propaganda” and says they are “full of factual inaccuracies.”
The other pamphlet, “Agents of Radicalization,” was actually destroyed before it could be distributed. Under “organizations we are working with,” Alomari listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Alliance of North America, Muslim American Society, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Muslim Student Association.
All of these groups are connected to Islamic terrorism.
There are far too many inaccuracies in Alomari’s pamphlets to properly address within this article. But having seen his soft-soaped definition of jihad, it is worth correcting.
Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, the author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, defines jihad using the Koran rather than perpetuating a false narrative.
“Jahada, the root of the word jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran.” said Bostom in an interview with Liberty and Security Journal. “With four exceptions, all the other 36 usages in the Koran as understood by both the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam […] and ordinary Muslims – meant and mean, ‘he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like.’”
John Brennan, the top counterterrorism official in the nation, shares Omari’s ahistorical interpretation, saying jihad is “to purify oneself or one’s community.” This would be funny if Brennan wasn’t responsible our national security.
Many Americans saw firsthand what al Qaeda’s interpretation of jihad is, though, and theirs apparently stems from one of the 36 violent mentions in the Koran. In fact, with over 17,000 terrorist attacks committed by Islamic terrorists since 9/11, it appears that Alomari and Brennan’s interpretation isn’t widely accepted.
“It is common knowledge in our office that Omar is definitely not on our team,” a former co-worker of Alomari told The Jawa Report. “He hangs out with these same terror-linked groups and even brings them into meetings he arranges to give them legitimacy.”
“It is no secret to anyone who knows him that Omar Alomari IS a radical, but he is great at playing the “moderate” when he needs to be.”
Is Alomari a terrorist? It is impossible to tell without seeing the seminar organizers’ intelligence. But Americans must understand that terrorist groups like al Qaeda and political Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood actually share the same goals, such as subjugating the U.S. under sharia law. Whether this is accomplished via suicide bombers or by political advocacy makes little difference.
But neither al Qaeda nor the Muslim Brotherhood would be successful without apologists like Alomari paving the way for Islamic supremacism.
In: Articles, National Security · Tagged with: Islam
Quoted in Deutsche Welle
Last weekend I was quoted in Deutsche Welle, Germany’s equivalent to BBC, for an article on how al Qaeda remains a threat following the death of Osama bin Laden. Also quoted were fellow U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team members Walid Phares and W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
Chris Carter, a regional director with the US Counterterrorism Advisory Team, agrees that the fight is far from over. “The threat from al Qaeda will never be truly eradicated as you can’t kill an ideology,” he told Deutsche Welle. “But a more effective military campaign, accompanied by a political resolve to defeat the Islamist threat, would further weaken al Qaeda and discourage other groups and individuals from joining the fight.”
In: National Security · Tagged with: al Qaeda
Dumb and dumber
Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist Army psychiatrist who killed 13 and wounded 32 soldiers and civilians in November 2009, is awaiting the results of a mental health exam that will determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
Not to jump to conclusions–as we were cautioned by the government and media, who ironically failed to follow their own advice following the Tucson shooting–but available evidence shows a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Looking back, Hasan had given the system every opportunity to prevent this massacre, but despite being openly jihadist, the system–infused by decades of political correctness–failed.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said, “[A]s horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” Once I heard that, I figured it would not be long before Congress enacted a jihad version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for the military.
But back to Hasan’s mental report, one has to wonder which of these two are the crazier: the man who was simply following an ideology that told him to kill non-believers, or the non-believers who refuse to admit that the ideology exists, then kowtow to the ideologues who only find appeasement in the killing of the non-believers?
Remember that following the massacre at Fort Hood, the Pentagon released an 88-page report on the incident entirely devoid of any reference to Islamic supremacism. I think that Americans would be better served if it were the federal government was being given the mental health evaluation.
In: National Security · Tagged with: Fort Hood tragedy, Nidal Malik Hasan
Canada shuts down movie at Iran’s behest
Update 19 Jan, 2011 @ 14:19 – Canada’s Heritage Minister has ordered the Library & Archives Canada to proceed with the screening.
I just finished screening the upcoming documentary Iranium. This excellent film exposes what politicians and the media are afraid to tell us: that Iran has apocalyptic intentions and a focus on destroying the United States and Israel. Historically, nations have always denied their development of a nuclear weapons program, but Iranium shows Iran’s leaders proudly announcing to their people that they (1) are developing nuclear weapons, (2) nothing can stop them, and (3) they plan on using them. Iran tells American media an entirely different – and much more pleasant – story, and unless you stay on top of geopolitics or watch this video, you won’t hear about the imminent threat Iran poses to the West – and Americans in particular.
Iranium has already generated controversy as a screening at the Canadian National Archives was shut down Monday following a cancellation request from the Iranian Embassy. On Tuesday, Canadian officials received threats of violence and protest, and a hazardous materials unit investigated two suspicious packages related to the incident.
Viewers will be able to watch Iranium free online on February 8, 2011. You can register at the website or buy the DVD.
In: National Security · Tagged with: Canada, Iran, Iranium, nuclear weapons
Former CIA agent says Iran WILL use their nuclear weapons against the West
Reza Khalili would know, he was a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is interesting to see that Islamic end times prophecy mirrors that of Christians – just from the other side. John Bernard has more at Let Them Fight.
In: Geopolitics, National Security, Religion · Tagged with: CIA, Iran
Cyber War
While doing some unrelated research, I came across an article written by Dr. Dave Pearson exposing how tenuous our cyber security situation really is.
In July 2009, thousands of “zombie” computers awoke at once and launched a massive attack against multiple U.S. targets, including the network-heart of the U.S. Department of Defense. The goal of the attack was to overwhelm the target networks with excess internet traffic, thus forcing a total shut down.
The attack raced through the Internet, hitting the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the White House, the New York Stock Exchange, the Treasury Department, the Federal Trade commission, the Secret Service, and the Department of Transportation.
According to the article, indications point to North Korea as the likely source of at least one of the attacks, but we have seen lately that pinning something on the Norks can be about as easy as convicting Rod Blagojevich of corruption.
And speaking of Chicago Democrats, it sounds like our hacker enemies merely applied the Cloward-Piven strategy — whose tactics are currently hard at work overwhelming and dismantling American capitalism — to our sensitive DoD networks. In fact, the 2009 attack did shut down several sites. As vulnerable as we are, it could have been much worse.
Each hour, the Pentagon’s computer networks are probed over a quarter million times by unauthorized users. In fact, if a deep weakness was found, the ensuing digital battle could be lost within seconds.
This is where an over-reliance on technology gets us. DoD can have all the firewalls, anti-virus, and other protections in place, but our enemies only have to be right once. U.S. Cyber Command – actually a sub-command under U.S. Strategic Command – has around 1,000 members working to secure the DoD’s seven million computers and 15,000 networks. USCYBERCOM became operational in May, but won’t be fully functional until October.
[...] the resources needed to initiate a devastating attack on the U.S. information infrastructure are no longer out of reach of terrorists. Cyberspace is the ideal realm for cyberterrorism, including terrorist networks and organizations like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah. And the Internet is the ideal tool by which to attack the U.S. on a massive scale, both militarily, as well as the entire U.S. civilian infrastructure, including the U.S. financial centers, electrical grid, telecommunications, air traffic control, and multi-national corporations.
If al Qaeda and Hizballah can conduct crippling attacks simply by pointing and clicking a mouse, we are in trouble.
In: National Security
Obama admin ignores Arizona governor’s repeated requests to secure the border
The Obama administration claims to be committed to securing our borders, but has ignored multiple requests by a governor to use troops to secure the border.
Since Obama became president, Arizona governor Jan Brewer has sent five separate requests to deploy the state’s National Guard to the border – four last year and another on March 29.
Shockingly, none of the governor’s letters has elicited a response from the White House.
A reporter from the Tuscon television news station KGUN attempted to determine why the government isn’t listening. Instead of getting answers however, he found obstacles.
According to KGU’s website, the reporter first contacted the White House Media Affairs office, who then replied that they required copies of the governor’s letters. Once copies were sent, KGUN’s follow-up call was not answered.
Another call to the Department of Homeland Security pointed the reporter to the Department of Defense, stating the Pentagon is responsible for deploying the National Guard.
The Department of Defense representative in charge of the National Guard was not in the office, and an email was sent.
KGUN reporter Steve Nunez writes: “So, here’s the trail……6 phone calls, 4 emails, no answers. Just a couple of statements including one by Napolitano’s office that was released March 26th which states ‘the Secretary shares the Governor’s concern about the safety of U.S. border communities.’”
In: National Security · Tagged with: illegal immigration, Obama administration
Terrorism Roundup
Egypt: According to Ynet, Egyptian security forces captured 100 anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons believed destined for Gaza on Wednesday according to the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabe’. Egyptian forces also discovered three tunnels linking Rafah to the Gaza Strip, and confiscated dozens of vehicles used for smuggling.
Gaza: The Kuwait News Agency reports that Palestinians fired two more rockets into Israel on Wednesday. Local radio stations said the Ali Mustafa Brigade – the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – claimed responsibility.
And just hours after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov urged Hamas to stop militants from firing rockets into Israel, a Qassam rocket was fired into Ashkelon.
Israeli warplanes responded by launching at least five attacks on various targets.
Lebanon: Tribunal investigators have summoned 12 Hizballah members and close supporters for questioning for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Hizballah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah referred to the 12 as “witnesses and not as suspects,” and told al Manar – the jihadist group’s television station – that “We have nothing to fear and we will co-operate.”
Nasrallah stated that six additional members would appear for questioning.
Hizballah, Israel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Syrian intelligence, and even al Qaeda have been speculated to be involved in the Hariri killing. But in May of last year, Der Spiegel reported the tribunal had evidence showing that Hizballah was behind the massacre.
Russia: Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the “Black Widow” suicide attacks on the Moscow Metro, which killed 39 Russians on Monday. Another double attack in Dagestan killed 12, including nine policemen on Wednesday. A second Dagestan bombing killed two more on Thursday. President Dimitri Medvedev said in a Security Council meeting that the attacks are “links in the same chain,” and called for a “brutal” response.
Monday’s blasts were the first terrorist attacks against Russia in six years.
In: National Security · Tagged with: Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Rafik Hariri tribunal, Russia
Recognizing the 8 signs of terrorism
A group called “The Cell” has an informative video on how to recognize potential terrorist acts.
In: National Security · Tagged with: terrorism
