Barack Obama -- April 21, 2009

April 21, 2009

Custom Search

Obama once dressed as
a Somali elder. Now he has
to kill Somali pirates.

event	description
Criminalizing Conservatism	John Hinderaker, an attorney, believes that many liberals don't just want to defeat conservatives at the polls, they want to send them to jail. Toward that end, they have sometimes tried to criminalize what are essentially policy differences. Obama hinted at another step in that direction when he said today that he is open to the idea of bringing criminal charges against the Justice Department lawyers who wrote opinions to the effect that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods could legally be used on al Qaeda detainees. Obama said the question was a complicated one, and the decision will ultimately be made by Attorney General Eric Holder. The idea of prosecuting a lawyer because he or she wrote a legal analysis with which the current Attorney General disagrees is so outrageous that I can't believe it would be seriously considered. Still, Obama and his party may achieve another objective by publicly making this kind of threat: deterring Republicans from serving in public life. For many Republicans considering whether to accept an appointment to government office, the prospect that they may be subjected to criminal prosecution if the next administration is Democratic could well tip the balance in favor of remaining in private life.
Obama Acts Weak	Former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed Obama for what he described as a disturbing tendency to criticize America abroad and embrace avowed enemies like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez while not praising the nation’s success in the war against terrorism. As an example, Cheney revealed that he had pressed for the release of documents that would show how the Bush administration’s allegedly harsh interrogation techniques had thwarted major terrorist attacks. Instead, Obama only ordered the release of memos detailing the controversial techniques, not the results. Cheney said, "What I find disturbing is the extent to which he has gone to Europe, for example, and seemed to apologize profusely in Europe, and then to Mexico, and apologize there, and so forth." "And I think you have to be very careful. The world outside there, both our friends and our foes, will be quick to take advantage of a situation if they think they're dealing with a weak president or one who is not going to stand up and aggressively defend America's interests." "The United States provides most of the leadership in the world… I don’t think we have much to apologize for." Cheney also said that: • the release of CIA memos detailing interrogation techniques was a "little bit disturbing" because the administration hadn’t released documents detailing how those techniques were successful in thwarting terrorism. • the Bush administration’s policy of ignoring Chavez and other leftist leaders like Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua was more effective than embracing a dialogue with them. That only serves to validate their anti-democratic tendencies at home. • Obama’s habit of traveling abroad -- to Europe and Mexico -- and apologizing "profusely" for American actions signal weakness to friends and foes alike. • criticizing the previous administration is nothing new, and is to be expected from a new president. "We did it. I'm sure the Obama administration is not the first one ever to do that." More here and the video here . . .
Obama Denies Facts Wants His Own Reality	White House lawyers are refusing to accept the findings of an inter-agency committee that the Uighur Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay are too dangerous to release inside the U.S., according to Pentagon sources familiar with the action. This action -- coupled with the release of previously top secret legal opinions on harsh interrogation methods -- demonstrates the Obama administration’s willingness to ignore reality. Obama’s decision to close the terrorist detention facility (known as "Gitmo" to the military) was made despite Bush administration determinations that there were no realistic alternatives to it. Gitmo holds three classes of terrorist detainees: first, those that are held for prosecution of terrorist acts such as Khalid Sheik Muhammed; second, those who cannot be prosecuted and will be released or transferred to another country for trial or incarceration; and third, those who cannot be prosecuted (because the information against them is intelligence information inadmissible in court) but who pose such a danger that they cannot be released. The last category encompasses a large number of the Gitmo detainees. The Supreme Court has held -- in the Hamdan decision -- that "administrative detention" is permissible in time of war. After Obama’s promise to close Gitmo, the White House ordered an inter-agency review of the status of all the detainees, apparently believing that many of those held would be quickly determined releasable. The committee -- comprised of all the national security agencies -- was tasked to start with what the Obama administration believed to be the easiest case: that of the seventeen Uighurs, Chinese Muslims who were captured at an al-Queda training camp. The Uighurs sued for release under the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision, which gave Gitmo prisoners the Constitutional right to habeas corpus. Last October, a federal court ordered their release into the United States, but an appeals court overturned the decision, saying the right to make that determination rested entirely with the president. Since then, Attorney General Eric Holder has said that some of the Gitmo inmates may be released into the United States. That, apparently, is what the White House plans for the Uighurs and others. Reviewing the Uighurs detention, the inter-agency panel found that they weren’t the ignorant, innocent goatherds Obama said they were. The committee determined they were too dangerous to release because they were members of the ETIM terrorist group, the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement," and because their presence at the al-Queda training camp was no accident. There is presently no ETIM terrorist cell in the United States: there will be one if these Uighurs are released into the United States. According to Defense Department sources, the White House legal office has told the inter-agency review group to forget the facts of the matter, and re-do their findings to come up with the opposite answer -- the one that suits Obama's own reality. More on this insanity here . . .
Apologizer In Chief Smooth Talks The CIA	Obama made his first visit to the Central Intelligence Agency on Monday in an attempt to calm an uproar among America's spies over his release of secret memos about interrogation techniques. In his speech, the Apologizer-in-Chief lamented, "Don't be discouraged by what's happened the last few weeks. Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we have made some mistakes -- that's how we learn." "So I want to make a point that...I understand that it's hard when you are asked to protect the American people against people who have no scruples and would willingly and gladly kill innocents." Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA chief, and four most recent former heads of the spy agency had all implored him not to release the memos, all of them said that doing so would damage national security and demoralize CIA operatives. Obama described the methods as part of a "dark and painful chapter in our history" and Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, defended the decision to publicise them, stating that it had "enhanced America's image abroad" and deprived al-Qaeda of "propaganda tools". (...the smell of bovine excrement fills the air) Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer who led the agency's paramilitary team that searched for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, said his former colleagues were "horrified" by Obama's actions. "When you make this public you define for al-Qaeda the limits of the playbook we would use against them. This allows them to prepare themselves." "Part of the problem is that this administration can't control themselves in terms of continuing to throw mud at their predecessors. The decision seemed to be political." The release of the documents and the outlawing of the techniques, he suggested, could come to haunt Obama. "What do you do when you capture a terrorist who has a bio-weapon or fissile material if you have a standard that won't allow for anything at all? What he's done is close down his room for maneuver." Michael Hayden, who retired in January as CIA chief, told Fox News: "What we have described for our enemies, in the midst of a war, are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an al-Qaeda terrorist. That's very valuable information." He argued that Obama's actions -- lauded by civil liberties groups -- put interrogators in the "horrible position" of fearing prosecution even if they'd been told by the White House that the methods they'd been instructed to use were legal. Hayden, a former Air Force general appointed by President Bush, well regarded within the CIA, and viewed as a non-partisan intelligence professional, added that the methods were effective. "Most of the people who oppose these techniques want to be able to say, 'I don't want my nation doing this ... and they didn't work anyway.' That back half of the sentence isn't true," he said. "The use of these techniques against these terrorists really did make us safer, it really did work," he said.
Al Qaeda No. 2 Unimpressed	Obama can apologize till the cows come home, but he has failed to lift America's status in the Muslim and Arab world, and his election is seen as a victory for Al-Qaeda, according to a new audio message allegedly from the terror network's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The video was posted on key jihadist websites on Monday. "In our view, America is still the country that kills Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. It is the country that steals our assets and occupies our lands, and which props up thieving and corrupt Arab regimes. "The Islamic nation has opted to revive Islam and refuses to give in to oppression. Killing or capturing people casts the US in an even worse light. The US airstrikes in Pakistan pour oil on the flames and will lead to further defeats for that country," al-Zawahiri says. Obama's election was actually a political triumph for Al-Qaeda and the result of US defeat in Iraq, the message says. "Obama's victory is nothing more than the recognition by the American people that Bush's policies had failed, and that the administration was lying when it claimed to have defeated the mujadeen (holy warriors)," al-Zawahiri says. I find it interesting that we never hear from No. 1 anymore. I personally believe Osama is providing nutrients for Pakistani flora.
Obama's Youth Indoctrination Program	The AmeriCorps program will triple in size over the next eight years, and tens of thousands of other Americans will soon see new opportunities to "volunteer." It's all part of a $5.7 billion national service bill Obama is scheduled to sign Tuesday to foster and fulfill people's desire to make a difference, such as by mentoring children, cleaning up parks or building and weatherizing homes for the poor. Bolstering voluntary public service programs has been a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer in his early 20s for giving him direction in life. The White House said Monday that Obama "will call on people across the country to serve their communities and work together to tackle the nation's tough challenges." The legislation provides for gradually increasing the size of AmeriCorps to 250,000 enrollees from its current 75,000. It outlines five broad categories where people can direct their service: helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting veterans. The operative section of this item is, "...a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer..." This program will be used to indoctrinate the young -- plain and simple. It is not an accident that this Obama-friendly article identifies Obama's three principal goals as the areas in which these "volunteers" will be utilized. These "volunteers," believing they are engaged in "community service," will be Obama's shock troops in implementing his agenda. Remember these words: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." (video)