StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

It’s time to "grip it and rip it" once and for all on the Rudy Giuliani bandwagon before its too late.  Just for a moment, judge this man, not as the Man of the Year who brought New York City back from the ashes of the World Trade Center, but as the man whose judgment of people is faulty.  Forgive, if you must, his blind trust of Bernard Kerik (I had missed this a month ago, but it is very telling…"was warned about Kerik’s relationship with a company with suspected
ties to organized crime even before Giuliani appointed Kerik as New
York City police commissioner…").  But Judith Nathan as a bio-terrorism expert?

I respect Mayor Giuliani for he did for the people of New York City, my friends and neighbors and all Americans during the period after September 11th.  In fact, I think he has shown himself to be a pretty successful businessman in his consulting practice, Giuliani Partners.  But what the hell is he thinking?  Judith (Judi) Nathan is a germ warfare advisor?  Based on what?

Rudy Giuliani consulted his wife Judith on bioterrorism after 9/11, and considered her "an expert we rely on" at his consulting firm…the ex-mayor spoke about Judy’s role in a 2003 interview, with his bride at his side: "She gives us a lot of advice and a lot of help in areas where she’s got a lot of expertise - biological and chemical," the ex-mayor said in a taping never aired in the US. "And since we do security work, that’s an area of great concern - you know, another anthrax attack, a smallpox attack, chemical agents. She knows all of that"…Giuliani touted himself as the candidate most likely to protect the country against terrorism…said his wife "worked in the pharmaceutical industry for years. So, she’s an expert that we rely on"…

Give me a break!  Anyone want to know what her background is that makes her his "bio-terrorism" expert?  Well, admittedly Wiki isn’t always the most accurate of research sources, but her is what she has done in her career:

• After graduation Judi worked for less than a year as a registered nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown Pennsylvania.

• in 1975 Judi she took a job with the U.S. Surgical Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina, a job in which she sold  medical supplies and showed doctors in operating rooms a new surgical stapling method

• While at U.S. Surgical she met Jeffrey Ross, also a medical supply salesman who she married in 1974…the couple returned home and sold supplies together traveling in the North Carolina region, but divorced after four years

• Five days later she married Bruce Nathan, a wealthy businessman and wall paper salesman.

• After 12 years, this marriage broke up (during this time Judi spent her time socializing and doing volunteer work.

• As a single mother, she went to night school and received a New York nursing license, and began working in 1994 as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Bristol-Myers Squibb selling surgical supplies in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn…her specialty was infectious diseases…she became one of Bristol-Myers’ top sales managers.

Now all this is a pretty normal life (for some people it would be considered "normal"), and much of it is admirable.  OK, fine, she’s a success story who left the coal mining town of Hazelton Pa. when she married her first husband.  Please remember, I am not criticizing Judi here at all…I am concerned about the thought process and people judging skills of her husband Rudy…the "Man Who Would Be President."  But what is it that possesses Rudy to think that Judi is a bio-terror expert?  I’ve heard reports (no links at the moment) that he has said that he would actually have her in Cabinet meetings because of her expertise.

In my opinion, this shows a total lack of good judgment on Rudy’s part (I am wondering what "head" Rudy is thinking with).  Personally, I’ve made a half-dozen presentations on bio-terrorism, and I’ve done alot of reading and writing on the subject(s)…I’ve written white papers and policy positions…but I am far from an expert.  One of my friends was a CW consultant for the government following the anthrax attacks…he was an expert.

Judi Nathan?  Excuse me, didn’t Mrs. Clinton take a mountain of heat in the first Clinton Administration for the role she played promoting her health care program?

Forget Rudy Giuliani for President.  I don’t care who likes him.  I don’t care how many "bloggers" go and join "Blogs For Giuliani" or "Bloogers4Rudy," or "Blogs For Rudy 2008" or any of the rest of a list of "blogrolls" about Rudy.  If he actually gave serious thought to his comment that Judi would be his bio-terrorism expert.  Rudy isn’t a conservative…I’m more conservative than he is!  He is against guns, he is pro-choice (until he started courting the vote of the religious right that is)…and his ability to judge people is highly "questionable."

He is the Man who brought New York City out of the ashes of September 11th, and with it, the rest of the Nation.  IMO, that isn’t enough to earn him my Republican vote in the primaries.  This post cross posted on Real Clear Politics.

Previous posts about Rudy:
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy! What are you saying?
A Nation Divided by Opinion and Personal Ideology
Bernard Kerik, Former DHS Secretary Nominee "Comes Clean"

Other: http://thehillchronicles.com/?p=935

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The Oaxaca teachers’ strike of nearly a year ago is long over.  There is no tear gas or body armored police on the streets.  But if you think that this once peaceful tourist destination is really at peace, you should think again.  Tensions are once again rising, and the prospects for another summer of insurrection are real.  See previous Oaxaca posts below.

The 70,000-strong teachers union announced it will march through the city Tuesday as part of International Workers Day observances and perhaps take over government offices.

The trouble last year started when the police challenged the teachers’ demonstrating.  The violence escalated and the teachers took over the zócalo.  They set up a tent city and were reinforced by the leftist community group, APPO.  Losses to local businesses and tourism reached $800 million as a result.  American
journalist-activist Bradley Will was one of about 20 people killed in violence related to demonstrations in the
capital and other parts of the state.

The chief demand of the teachers and the coalition remains the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruíz, who they accuse of being corrupt, using the government to benefit his cronies and unleashing force to squash dissent.

They say they consider Ruíz an example of an old-school Mexican politician, ruling one of the nation’s poorest and most indigenous states like a dictator.

Apparently, the unanswered question is whether President Calderón will be able to keep the groups from coalescing again.

Oaxaca wants you back.  The question is whether you should want to go back there (ever).  Its a good publicity campaign, but the Mexican Tourist Board wouldn’t tell you about the fact that civil unrest is growing in Oaxaca again, this time protesting over social security law.  And there is more!

Last week, the son of the U.S. consul was stabbed during a mugging in what local authorities claim was a crime that could have happened anywhere.  I can’t believe that the South of Mexico is safe (is any part of Mexico safe?).

This message is not brought to you by the Mexican tourist board.

Travel in Mexico (Don’t) - State Department  16 Nov 2006
Travel in Mexico (Not) - Oaxaca Not al Qaeda Clones  9 Nov 2006
Traveling to/in Mexico - Think! 29 Oct 2006

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It is simply time for our Nation’s intelligence agencies to stop trying to figure out who is to blame the September 11th attacks, and to start concentrating on preventing a repeat.  When the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created, I had truly hoped that the internal and cross-agency bickering that was unquestionably one of the contributing factors to those attacks would abate.  It is still happening…and it is one of the most critical issues facing our Nation.

A few hours ago, I was about to write about George Tenet’s book ("At the Center of the Storm")  and his appearance on CBS Sixty Minutes.  Maybe George Tenet is making a final try to retrieve his reputation (I think he would have been alot better off keeping his mouth shut).  So we have Secretary Rice disputing his claims that that the administration never had a serious debate about whether Iraq
posed an imminent threat or whether to tighten existing sanctions
before its 2003 invasion.

Tenet’s comments on Sixty Minutes include:

Tenet also tells 60 Minutes the way the Bush administration has used his now famous "slam dunk" comment — which he admits saying in reference to making the public case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — is both disingenuous and dishonorable.

"It’s the most despicable thing that ever happened to me," Tenet says. "You don’t do this. You don’t throw somebody overboard just because it’s a deflection. Is that honorable? It’s not honorable to me."

Tenet says to have the president base his entire decision to go to war on such a remark is unbelievable.

It is simply time to stop re-living the past of our Nation’s experiences with Islamic terrorism, and even the War in Iraq, and get on with the business of protecting the American people from another terrorist attack on our soil or against U.S. assets or property overseas.

From Michael Scheuer’s article in the Washington Post, Tenet Tries to Shift the Blame. Don’t Buy It.  Scheuer writes:

George Tenet has a story to tell. With his appearance tonight on "60 Minutes" and the publication of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," the former director of central intelligence is out to absolve himself of the failings of 9/11 and Iraq. He’ll sell a lot of books, of course, but we shouldn’t buy his attempts to let himself off the hook…

…At a time when clear direction and moral courage were needed, Tenet
shifted course to follow the prevailing winds, under President Bill
Clinton and then President Bush — and he provided distraught officers
at Langley a shoulder to cry on when his politically expedient tacking
sailed the United States into disaster.

Scheuer’s is a scathing, and yet deserved indictment of George Tenet’s lack of leadership.  As Scheuer observes of Tenet, "…he may have been the ideal CIA leader for Clinton and Bush –
denigrating good intelligence to sate the former’s cowardly pacifism
and accepting bad intelligence to please the latter’s Wilsonian
militarism. Sadly but fittingly, "At the Center of the Storm" is likely
to remind us that sometimes what lies at the center of a storm is a
deafening silence."

Andrew McCarthy of NRO makes it sound even worse in Tenet Does 60 Minutes.  I don’t agree with all of McCarthy’s points however.

Now there is a letter from former CIA officers Phil Giraldi, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, Jim Marcinkowski, Vince Cannistraro and David MacMichael (see letter here) make the following points:

• that Bush administration officials took the nation to war "for flimsy
  reasons," and that it has proved "ill-advised and wrong-headed."

• Tenet’s "lament that you are a victim in a process you helped direct is
  self-serving, misleading and, as head of the intelligence community, an
  admission of failed leadership.

• that Tenet was "a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an
  unnecessary war and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George
  Bush for the debacle in Iraq."

• Tenet "showed a lack of leadership and courage in January of 2003 as
  the Bush administration pushed and cajoled analysts and managers to let
  them make the bogus claim that Iraq was on the verge of getting its
  hands on uranium."

• "You signed off on Colin Powell’s
  presentation to the United Nations. And, at his insistence, you sat
  behind him and visibly squandered CIA’s most precious asset -
  credibility."

This is quite upsetting when you consider that the credibility and quality of  our Nation’s intelligence is at the root of future decisions.  Read about Secretary Rice’s position that the "’Slam dunk’ comment didn’t lead to war"

Having written all of this, I still also wish that Secretary Rice would cooperate with Senator Waxman’s request to appear before his committee and testify regarding the claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger and other issues.  Executive privilege.  See: General Carlton Fulford

Moving on, in my opinion, is getting beyond the blame game…it is
owning up to the mistakes that were made and taking responsibility, even if (and they were) based on the then
currently available intelligence and the analysis provided…It is time
that our Nation’s leaders start acting like leaders…and in my
opinion, leadership is not asserting that electing the other political party will make us more vulnerable.  I am tired of this partisan sniping…I am tired of all of this crap frankly.  I’m hoping that some of our politicians are more like Joe Lieberman than Rudy Giuliani.

Also read my friend Moon’s entry on the otherside of this very blog,  George Tenet - At the Center of the Storm

You can read another person’s take on this at BTC News, The George Tenet edition of “Why don’t their heads explode?”

 

 

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Once again, an act of domestic terrorism has been launched against the free choice of women in the United States.  Adopting the tactics of the Iraqi insurgent terrorists and Eric Rudolph, a travel bag containing explosive material and nails, an IED, was found in a parking area outside of a women’s clinic just south of the Texas state capitol, Austin last Thursday.

The bomb was found by an employee of the Austin Women’s Health Center.

The device "was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death," said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department.

The next day, on Friday April 27, Paul Ross Evans (check out the photo of this brainiac) was arrested in this attempted premeditated murder.   Evans is in federal custody and he has been charged with use of weapons of mass destruction and the manufacture of explosive material.  The description of the device is especially chilling:

"It’s basically what people know as a pipe bomb, which we call an improvised explosive device, contained within a soft sided case. Additionally, there were approximately two pounds of nails and also a propane cylinder," Carter said.

Hang him!  Throw him in jail and throw away the key.  Actually, since almost everyone has a blog or a MySpace, this is also "telling…"  His myspace.com page suggests he’s into tattoos, dislikes sports and doesn’t watch television…what a man!

Anyway Stratfor had an article analyzing this incident (see Google link and then follow to the article), "U.S.: Bomb Scare Triggers Alert for Abortion Clinics."  Key points:

• …Anti-abortion activists almost always have deeply held convictions
  based on their religious beliefs. A study of past anti-abortion attacks
  shows that once activists decide to commit acts of violence based on
  these convictions, they will not be easily dissuaded…

• …Some of the early anti-abortion attackers — such as Michael Griffin,
  who gunned down an abortion doctor in Pensacola, Fla., in 1993 –
  committed their attacks and waited to be arrested. However, more recent
  attackers, such as Eric Rudolph and James Kopp, have fled with the intention of attacking again another day…

• …Those who attack abortion clinics also tend to be serial offenders and
  can cover a wide geographic area. Rudolph traveled from North Carolina
  to carry out a bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., that
  killed a security guard and seriously wounded a nurse. Rudolph later
  claimed to be acting out the will of God…

The law of the land…a woman’s right to choose.  FWIW, I support Roe v Wade, but I also support the ban on partial birth (or late term) abortion.  Make no mistake about it.  These bastards are domestic terrorists.  Ask each and every one of Eric Rudolph’s victims.  He was a terrorist.  And driven by, or somehow trying to justify, their actions by some deeply embedded religious belief does not change that.  My opinion is that its too bad people like Paul Ross Evans and Eric Rudolph weren’t aborted.

Since this is an evolving story, here is a Google link to "Paul Ross Evans."  He may be famous now, but he’s also been arrested on charges of the use of weapons of mass destruction and the manufacture of explosive material.

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Make no mistake about it.  We are in an undeclared war with Mexico…between the flow
of illegal aliens and illegals drugs…the warring drug cartels and all of the related violence along our border…Calderon and his government have a long way to go to
prove that they want to be a "good neighbor."  And now, we have SuperMex
Methamphetamine Labs.

On the U.S. side of the border, strong attempts to crack down on methamphatamine labs, we’ve put controls on the sale of pseudoephedrine and similar base products…and yet methamphetamines are still a problem.  But "south of the border down Mexico way" (a musical interlude before blasting the Mexicans - again), what are being described as "Super Meth Labs" have cropped up.

Meth Production Flourishes South of the Border
The anti-drug
operation was in the works for months. And the news would be big,
officials said. But when Mexican police burst into a plush home in the
capital’s exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood last month,
guided in part by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, they were
taken aback.

They found stacks and stacks of crisp U.S. $100
bills. In closets, in drawers, and suitcases. The attorney general’s
office arranged the bills into a huge, bed-shaped platform, with Ben
Franklin beaming from a thousand eyes. The first estimate by
authorities put the take at $100 million. Then the bill-counting
machines came in and the figure topped $200 million. It was the biggest
drug cash seizure ever.

There was another surprise. The money did
not belong to one of Mexico’s powerful drug cartels, nor did it
represent profits from the sale of traditional drugs such as Colombian
cocaine, Mexican marijuana and black-tar heroin.

Rather,
authorities said, it was amassed by a naturalized Mexican from China,
Zhenli Ye Gon, who is accused of using his Asian contacts to illegally
import the precursor drugs to make the new star of the U.S. and Mexican
drug markets: methamphetamine…[more]

• Mexican cartels are filling the void created by U.S. crack downs

• Cheap meth distributed through existing drug channels is attacking the U.S.

• In September,
  police in Fort Worth reported a record seizure of methamphetamine: more
  than 48 pounds, with a street value of $3 million.

• It costs 20 cents to make a dose of meth that garners $20

• U.S. and Mexican officials do not agree on Mexico’s role in meth production.

According to the U.S.
Justice Department’s "National Methamphetamine Threat Assessment" while the total number of meth users had stayed steady from 2002
to 2004 at about 600,000, the percentage of addicts within that group
had increased significantly…The number of people admitted to
programs for treatment of methamphetamine-related drug use rose from
about 68,000 in 2000 to nearly 130,000 in 2004, the report said.  The gory details can be found, with charts and graphs in the full report, found here.

Also check out this video news report on the problem, Mexico cracks down on giant meth labs.

More than 80 percent of all illegal methamphetamines in the U.S. now comes from Mexico. Learning from America’s devastating experience with meth labs, Mexican officials are cracking down on "superlabs" and the people backing them. Angela Kocherga reports from Mexico City. 

How many more deaths need to occur?  How many kids have to become addicted the Mexican Methamphetamine?  How many more times with the Zetas (Los Zetas) cross the U.S. border?  I believe that the Battle of the Rio Grande is still ahead of us.

Please follow this link to read previous posts on our problem with Mexico and its drug trade.

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In what is bound to be evolving news, Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi is now in Pentagon custody and was sent to Guantanamo.  While it is only now being disclosed, al-Hadi was captured in late 2006 as he was attempting to return to Iraq (from where?), and is said to be giving us hundreds of leads into al-Qaida operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. UPDATES below.

• considered the critical link between Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in Iraq

• brokered the 2005 bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi alliance

• carried messages between the upper levels of al-Qaida and al-Qaida in Iraq

• from 2002-2004 commanded al-Qaida’s
  paramilitary operations in Afghanistan and launched attacks on U.S.
  forces from Pakistan.

• accused of assassination plots against
  Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and United Nations officials.

• born in Mosul in 1961 and was once a major in Saddam Hussein’s military

He is the 15th so-called high-value detainee to be taken to Guantanamo Bay after being held by the CIA in secret prisons abroad. The other 14 were sent to Guantanamo Bay last September and have since undergone military hearings there to affirm their status as enemy combatants eligible for military trials.

Another one is captured, and more will be born.  Never forget that al Qaeda will live on after bin Laden is captured or killed…"nizam, la tanzim"

Update #1
So this morning we hear that al-Hadi had been caputred and remained in CIA custody until he was recently transferred to DoD custody and sent to Guantanamo.  Let the ACLU (and others’) handwringing begin!  While human rights groups are worried about how al-Hadi was treated when he was in the hands of the "spooks," the important thing is what Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman said:

…al-Iraqi and other detainees "have provided information essential to developing our knowledge of al-Qaeda’s organizational structure, operations, communications, finances, logistics and criminal activities…"

The al Qaeda jihadists are trained to not give up information.  So IMO, anything done to extract criticial information from them is justified.  And yet Human Rights Watch is worried about "a blatant violation of International law."  By the way, if you check out the article in the Washington Post, CIA Held Al-Qaeda Suspect Secretly - Officials Disclose That Use of Overseas Prisons Resumed, check out the picture of al-Hadi.  He looks PGD for someone who has been in the hands of the CIA for such a period of time.

Also, from the LA Times through the Boston Globe’s article, CIA moves Qaeda suspect - Detainee sent to Guantanamo, we have this (notice the bolded point about protecting our sources):

Defense Department and US intelligence officials would not say precisely when or where Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi was captured, or by whom, only that he was headed for his home country of Iraq when detained. Officials said Iraqi was handed over to the CIA in late 2006 and has been providing critically important information about Al Qaeda.

That official spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he could not discuss the details of Iraqi’s arrest or the cooperation between the United States and at least one US ally that participated in his capture.

"This is sensitive. It would put key foreign partners at risk were we to disclose where he was captured," said the US counterterrorism official, who added that "the CIA was deeply involved in efforts to locate and capture this individual."

Well, excuse me!  The attacks of September 11th were a blatant violation of International law.  And nearly 3000 people died as a result of what al Qaeda did.  Separate yourself from anything you feel about the War in Iraq!  Dammit!  I am so sick and tried of the lack of focus on the real issue here.  Jihadist terrorism is spreading…it would be spreading even if Hussein and his son’s were still alive and terrorizing the Iraqi people.  In fact, Hussein, if he were alive and still in power, would probably be warring against him, or his proxies in the Middle East right now (warring is the correct spelling, not "waring" as one "special person" persists in ignorantly proclaiming on a particularly hateful and hate-filled "elsewhere blog").

Update #2
According to an article yesterday, al-Hadi had been kept by the CIA since last Fall until his being turned over to the DoD.

The detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd who is said to have joined Al Qaeda in the late 1990s and ascended to become a top aide to Osama bin Laden, is the first terrorism suspect known to have been held in secret Central Intelligence Agency jails since President George W. Bush announced the transfer of 14 captives to Guantánamo Bay in September.

Intelligence officials said that under questioning Iraqi had provided valuable intelligence about Al Qaeda’s hierarchy and operations. It appears he gave up this information after being subjected to interrogation methods approved for the Defense Department, not harsher methods that the CIA is awaiting approval to use.

Let’s see.  He wasn’t subjected to CIA methods (too bad); he was subjected to DoD interrogation.

FWIW, a few months ago, I posted about secret (or extraordinary) rendtions: Spy-Games of our Own - "Extraordinary Renditions"

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Previously, I have provided information on data fusion and fusion centers, an area of endeavor that is very interesting to me.  I’ve just stumbled across another URL that adds to the resources (my resources) on the subject.  Since a new concept of data sharing has recently come onto my radar screen, and to also offer additional information for readers on the subject, I’ve posted them here.

Among the earlier Storm Blog posts in which these two areas were mentioned are: Data Fusion Centers - A Coming Trend That’s Already Here and Data Fusion Centers - National and Local and Cross-domain Information Sharing and Terrorism Data Base Quadruples.  The following is offered thanks to my finding them on IntelFusion.

C4ISRJournal.com was launched in 2002 to fill the need for an authoritative information
source on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, a fast-growing
field that is shaping the face of modern warfare. C4ISR Journal has
quickly become the publication of record for the global network-centric
warfare community. C4ISR Journal is the most dynamic, well-regarded new
publication on the international defense scene.

C4ISR Journal
was the first major periodical to specifically serve this key area of
military growth and development, and the publication has an extremely
strong following throughout the worldwide network-centric warfare
community.

US Department fo Justice Information Technology Initiatives (pretty much what I’ve posted before, but all in one place)

MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is the one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorism-related court cases, and terrorist groups and leaders.  TKB covers the history, affiliations, locations, and tactics of terrorist groups operating across the world, with over 35 years of terrorism incident data and hundreds of group and leader profiles and trials.  TKB also features interactive maps, statistical summaries, and analytical tools that can create custom graphs and tables.  Providing in-depth information for researchers, policymakers, emergency responders, and the general public, the Terrorism Knowledge Base integrates data from the  RAND Terrorism Chronology and RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident databases; the  Terrorism Indictment database; and DFI International’s research on terrorist organizations.

Fusion Center Guidelines (also published here before - and actually read by me).  Its very bureaucratic and for those who don’t know how to do it.

Council on Foreign Relations discussion of fusion centers (also published here before - and actually read by me).

An article from The International Society for Optical Engineering on Generating imagery for forecasting terror threats.

Its going to take me a bunch of time to go through all of this, especially the new sites for the C4ISRJournal.com and the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.  Thanks.

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If not in Iraq, then where?  Where should the War on Terrorism be fought?  It is unquestionably the fundamental question that faces this nation today, and that which should be asked by the Senators and Representatives who have voted to withdraw precipitously from Iraq.

The Senate today approved an Iraq spending bill that would force troop withdrawals to begin as early as July 1, dismissing President Bush’s veto threat even as party leaders and the White House launch talks on the next phase of the increasingly high-stakes war debate.

The 51-46 vote was a triumph for Democrats, who just weeks ago had questioned the political wisdom of a veto showdown over Iraq with the commander-in-chief. But Democrats are hesitant no more. And now that withdrawal language has passed both houses of Congress, even Republicans concede that Bush won’t get the spending bill with no strings attached as he has demanded.

Here is the total voting breakdown. 

That my friends is precipitous.  And it is ill-advised.  Why so?  Because regardless of what you believe about the War in Iraq (or alternatively, the War on Terrorism), today’s battleground against al Qaeda and its brand of Islamic Fundamentalist jihad…yes, the jihad is spreading, and yes, as it was reported recently, al Qaeda’s franchise is expanding.

Don’t look now, but al Qaeda is spreading, just like a virus (see previous Storm Blog posts, Global Terrorism - A Pandemic and Global Terrorism - A Virus and The Threat of the Return of Euro-Jihadists).

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The Presidential election season seems to be in full bloom, and with it comes the first of what will be many regrettable statements made by the candidates.  Of course, unlike a "rose" (which is always a "rose"), there will certainly be questions about the meaning of "regrettable."  Rudy, Rudy, Rudy! what are you doing?

Back in the pre-election of 2000 when Rudy was running for Senator of New York State against Hillary, I was in a quandry (as a then citizen of NY State).  I had the opportunity to urge his eventual replacement to run in his place, who, of course, lost to Hillary.

So Rudy, in a campaign speech in New Hampshire and then on the Sean Hannity Show (where he undoubtably was encouraged to expand his thoughts), has the Democratic candidates for President up in arms as he stated that if a Democrat is elected, "it sounds to me like we’re going on defense. We’re going to wave the white flag there."  Now, his judgment echoes the sentiments of alot of vocal conservatives (those found on the air and others found on the Internet) that conclude that the Democrats will immediately revert to pre-September 11th policies:

• like the refusal of the Bush Justice Department to add Arab language translators to the FBI budget on September 10, 2001 to suppose

• and the continuing difficulties with lack of interoperable communications systems

• or the fact that collectively the ports and transportation system and critical infrastructure is not alot more safe today than it was nearly 6 years ago 

And I also realize that my position has mud thrown on it by the actions of Senator Reid and the Congressional votes to force a timetable of withdrawal from Iraq (setting a deadline is bad strategy and tactcic, let alone poor judgment, but a rational and objective discussion of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is probably in order but not in this post).

I don’t usually take political positions here.  While I maintain that I long ago stopped being a Democrat and became a registered Republican, and further, that most of my opinions and positions are those of a more conservative stance, I am also told by many of the adamant conservatives that I am not "conservative enough" to be called a conservative (well, since I believe in the Right to Choose for example, I may not be the conservatives’ conservative).  FWIW, at this moment in time, I would vote for McCain…I would have voted for McCain in 2000 had he been the Republican nominee.

But Rudy?  What the hell are you saying and doing?  It should be stated that since terrorism and terrorists know no political party (yeah, I know, loads of conservatives claim that bin Laden and al-Sadr for example are rooting for the Democrats, but that is nothing but BS and literary license)…bin Laden kills Americans, not Democrats or Republicans.

Prior to September 11th, Rudy was having difficulties in New York City.  He was credited with a drop in the crime rate in New York City, but some people dispute the effects of his policies versus an overall drop in crime nationwide.  There was also a increase in the police force numbers because of increased federal funding to hire cops.  He also is credited with cleaning up New York City (literally) by making the streets cleaner and enforcing laws to remove squeegeemen from the street corners (you used to be able to get a streaky and dirty windshield "cleaning" at many New York City intersections).  Those things alone do not qualify him for leading this country.

Giuliani’s immigration policy also came under fire.  Under his leadership, city employees were prevented from contacting the INS about immigration violations, believing that illegal aliens had the right to send their children to school or
report crime and violations without fear of deportation.  His order led to city attorneys defending this policy in federal court (the court ruled that NYC’s sanctuary laws were illegal)…and yet, he persisted to ignore the laws, doubting that the federal government could ever completely stop illegal immigration.
In 1996, Giuliani said, "I believe the anti-immigration movement in
America is one of our most serious public problems." In 2000, Giuliani
said of New York City, "Immigration is a very positive force for the
City of New York. Immigration is the key to the city’s success. Both
historically and to this very day."

What else?

• He had an open affair with his now wife, Judith Nathan while his wife, Donna Hanover and his son lived in Gracie Mansion

• He is pro-gun control

• He is pro-Gay rights

• He is pro-Choice (he was against a ban on partial birth abortion until reversing his position with the latest Supreme Court decision)

• He stifled Free Speech when the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibit was removed (elephant dung on a depiction of the Virgin Mary)

• He supported til the end his friend Bernard Kerik to become the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (to replace Tom Ridge)

I have probably missed a few points.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rudy was one of the heroes (and certainly one of the most visible) in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11th.  I believe that Rudy was a shining light in the period of darkness.  I believe that his actions following his escape from near death when his command center crumbled around him.  I also believe that the words of his essay, "Getting it Right at Ground Zero" unquestionably reflect his true feelings.

I also believe that, as had been written a number of times by others, the myth of Rudy post-September 11 is alot bigger than the reality.  On such article, Rudy Giuliani’s Dubious Leadership, appeared a couple of weeks ago on Real Clear Politics (this post will be linked back to RCP).

During the months and years leading up to 9/11 — as reporters Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins proved in "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11," their superb book debunking much of the "America’s Mayor" mythology — he made decisions as mayor that would later prove disastrous.

Against the advice of real experts, he stubbornly insisted on placing his immensely expensive emergency command center in a World Trade Center building, although terrorists had struck there already and were determined to do so again. The command center went down with the rest of Ground Zero, leaving the mayor and his aides to wander downtown as the buildings fell.

Their frantic efforts to cope with the disaster were lethally hindered by faulty communications equipment purchased by the Giuliani administration — also against the advice of experts who knew better. Such fateful errors are more troubling when viewed against the backdrop of political and financial influences that probably distorted the decision-making process.

Where does this leave us?  Rudy showed the Nation the type of definitive leadership (whether the decision is right or wrong in hindsight is less important than he does make decisions) that this Nation needs as we go forward.  But is he the "right" man for the job?

Here again is what Rudy said:

"If any Republican is elected president — and I think obviously I would be the best at this — we will remain on offense….I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense," Giuliani continued. "We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense."

He added: "The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us."

If this is purely politicing, then, well, I still have a problem with this type of scare-tactic rhetoric.  The Nation cannot afford to have any more divisiveness inserted to it.  If he believes this, then he is disappointing me as a potential Republican voter (I don’t have any confidence in any of the Democratic candidates at this point).

It’s still very early in the 2008 Presidential process.  Rudy has to emerge from all of the primaries before he is even granted the Republican Party nomination.  But as a man who is credited with bringing the Nation together through his actions and his words and his emotion, I find it disturbing that he would politicize the War on Terror and claim that the war would not be prosecuted under a Democratic President.  No one wants to see a repeat of the attacks of September 11th.  Anyone who thinks that a particular individual does want to see that is blinded by ignorance and partisanship, with a healthy dose of unhealthy hatred (I could provide an open link to one such post, but it wouldn’t be constructive).

I do happen to agree with these statements made by Rudy, however:

• the terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we
  have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us
  for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the
  world.”

• "The freedoms we have are in conflict with the
  perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.” He said
  Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections,
  freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy.”

• To the terrorists he said: “We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”

Giuliani also said that America had been naive about terrorism in the past and had missed obvious signals.  “They were at war with us before we realized it, going back to ’90s
with all the Americans killed by the PLO and Hezbollah and Hamas,” he
said. “They came here and killed us in 1993 [with the first attack on
New York’s World Trade Center, in which six people died], and we didn’t
get it. We didn’t get it that this was a war. Then Sept. 11, 2001,
happened, and we got it.” [Actually, I believe that Rudy is wrong here, this war started decades ago...and if he was right about 1993 ebing the beginning, then why didn't he do more to prepare New York City for a repeat attack?]

Simply, I don’t think Rudy is the man to lead this country.  If you made me point to one thing alone, it would be his "people judgment" (see Bernie Kerik).  Beyond that, I am disappointed in his campaign rhetoric.  I am hoping that someone else emerges from the Republican side of the aisle who instills confidence and leadership.  The next decade is one that will shape the path for future generations of Americans.

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In a move that may well create a moment (or two) of religious hissyfits, the Pentagon (actually the Department of Veterans’ Affairs) has approved the Wiccan Pentacle as one of the approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.

To settle a law suit, the Department has agreed that along with such more "mainstream" symbols, the Pentacle will now be available to deceased Wiccans for their tombstones.

The Department of Veterans Affairs previously had given veterans a choice of 38 religious symbols, including numerous forms of the Christian cross, as well as the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel and an atomic symbol for atheism.

This reverses a ten year refusal by Veterans’ Affairs to allow the symbol to be used.  Apparently there are ten pending applications that will now be granted within two weeks, and new applications will be expedited for the next 30 days.

In 1999, Governor George W. Bush of Texas is quoted as saying, "I don’t think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it."

"This is a complete capitulation by the administration," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed suit last year on behalf of Wiccan veterans.

Considering the plight of the Yazidis, a persecuted Iraqi sect that is neither Christian nor Muslim (Iraq Divided: Religious Minority Bloodshed), this shows in stark contrast how much more open the American landscape is for the pursuit of religious beliefs…even if it took ten years to overcome the bias that existed.

Additional commentary:
Wiccans Win Military Grave Battle (some of the comments are quite revealing)

Wicca Defined:
 Witchcraft, or Wicca, is a form of neo-Paganism. It is officially recognized as a religion by the U.S. government. This is a diverse movement that knows no central authority. Practitioners do not all have the same views, beliefs and practices.

While all witches are pagans, not all pagans are witches. Likewise, while all Wiccans are witches, not all witches are Wiccans.

Quotes:

	"We are not evil. We don’t harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You don’t have to be afraid of us. We don’t want to convert you. And please don’t try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give you–to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you think." Margot Adler
	"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain." Herbalist Carol McGrath as told to her by a Native-American woman.
	"I don’t think witchcraft is a religion. I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made." G.W. Bush (R), as Governor of Texas. Interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America, 1999-JUN-24. He disapproved of Wiccan soldiers being given the same religious rights as others in the military.
	"We should educate people that ‘Witch’ is not evil but ancient and positive. The first time I called myself a ‘Witch’ was the most magical moment of my life." Margot Adler.
	"When one defines oneself as Pagan, it means she or he follows an earth or nature religion, one that sees the divine manifest in all creation. The cycles of nature are our holy days, the earth is our temple, its plants and creatures our partners and teachers. We worship a deity that is both male and female, a mother Goddess and father God, who together created all that is, was, or will be. We respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and accept the sacredness of all creation." Edain McCoy

With all of the overt and loud religious bias that pervades today’s society, where is religious tolerance?  Why did it take so long to permit this expression of religious belief?  Now, I happen to have a very close friend who, while he believes in a higher being, his is Mother Nature.  This kind soul communes with Nature everyday.  He feeds the wild animals that live near his home, and he feeds the birds and squirrels, often by hand.  He is one of the most reverent people I know.  That he doesn’t believe in what you or I might believe in doesn’t diminish his faith or make him a bad person.  So what’s wrong with Wicca?

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According to USA Today, the Department of Homeland Security says that they have uncovered rampant
fraud in a religious worker visa program that allows thousands of
foreigners into the United States each year.  So, under the guise of "doing good," some of these organizations are encouraging "doing bad."

The religious worker visa program was established in 1990 to allow churches,
synagogues and mosques struggling to fill jobs to hire qualified
foreigners…a fraud-detection unit in the
Homeland Security Department found that 33% of the visas that
investigators examined were granted based on fraudulent information.

"We found that the program had been compromised and the fraud rate was
excessively high," said DHS’s Emilio Gonzalez by way of explaining a
recent DHS decision to tighten up the program…One particular mosque, the agency noted, had filed more than 200 false
applications — a fraud that was detected when agents noticed that not
all supposed imams could work in a storefront basement.

New rules:

• Inspect religious organizations sponsoring applicants to make sure they are legitimate.
• Require more proof from applicants that they are trained and qualified for the job they’re being hired to do.
• Review W-2 forms or other proof of employment after one year on the job before extending the visa.

Laila Al-Qatami of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee said she understands "their desire to tighten up the
program." But she said she hopes Homeland Security will ensure that
inspectors are educated about Islam. "In particular with mosques," she
said, "we’ve found people are generally suspicious of them."

Well, what can you conclude from this?

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A story of forbidden love now emerges from the fractured, but democratic Iraq…it is a horribly violent story.

The victims were Yazidis, a sect that is neither Christian nor
Muslim and whose followers have faced persecution from a succession of
rulers.  If you didn’t know about the Yazidis, you’re not alone.  I didn’t know anything about them either…and there is still so much more now to learn.

Forbidden love ends with multiple deaths in Mosul
A forbidden love affair that ended with a young
woman’s death by stoning led to religiously motivated bloodshed Sunday
when gunmen dragged members of a tiny religious minority off a bus and
killed 21 of them, police and witnesses said.

The incident in the northern city of Mosul was shocking in its
brutality and frightening for the specter it raised — violence
between Muslims and non-Muslims aggravating the already volatile
conflict involving Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds…[more]

Iraq gunmen target minority group
Unidentified gunmen have killed 23 people in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.
All the victims were said to be members of the Yazidi
religious minority which follows a pre-Islamic religion and worships an
angel figure…

…
Police said the gunmen ordered followers of other faiths to leave the
bus, before killing the Yazidi members in a field by the road…

They worship an angel figure that some Muslims and Christians consider the devil.[more]

Maliki Denies Civil War, Halts Barrier
Gunmen shot and killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in
northern Iraq on Sunday after stopping their bus and separating out
followers of other faiths while car bombings in the capital killed at
least another 20 people.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in Egypt to drum up support among
Arab leaders for his Shiite-led government, told Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak that Iraq was not embroiled in a civil or sectarian war.
Key Arab leaders pressured him to step up reconciliation efforts to
include Sunni insurgents if he expects Arab support…[more]

Yazidis
The Yazidi or Yezidi (Kurdish: Êzidîtî or Êzidî)(Arabic,يزيدي or ايزيدي) are adherents of a Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. Yazidi belong to the smallest of the three branches of Yazdânism. The other branches of Yazdânism, Alevism and Yarsanism, differ from Yazidism by recognizing the Islamic practice of taqiyya (dissimulation). The three branches are geographically split and mutual contacts are rare.

This included driving a wedge among the Kurds by accusing
the Yazidis of not being authentic Kurds, Goran told the Kurdish
newspaper Jamawar.
The group practices an ancient religion that includes elements of
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and worships the peacock angel, or
"Malak Taus," which appears as a royal blue peacock.

Under Ottoman rule, Yazidis were targeted for refusing to convert
to Islam. Under Saddam’s Sunni-dominated regime, they were
marginalized with other non-Sunnis. Since the fall of Saddam, Yazidis
say they have come under fire from both Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds
because of their beliefs.

The London-based Minority Rights Group estimated in February that
the Yazidis numbered 550,000 in Iraq before March 2003, but that many
had fled since the war’s beginning because of rising religious and
ethnic tensions.

Recognizing that there will continue to be religous conflict in Iraq, I believe that many on both sides of the "left" and the "right" are going to have to reassess their views of "what will be" in the newly democratic Iraq.

For an update on religious intolerance in Iraq toward the Yazidis (Yezidis), please go to the Right Truth, 175 Yazidi killed by suicide bombers in Iraq today.  Its not a new problem, but one that simply continues.

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Last week a break occurred between Muqtada al-Sadr and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  I, like many others, read the news and was led to the conclusion that Sadr was objecting to Maliki’s government refusing to set a timetable for the withdrawal of American and Coalition forces.  Seems like that conclusion was wrong.

According to Richard Engel of MSNBC, this break was related to something more basic to the workings of the "new" Iraq ("Maliki violated an agreement he had with Sadr. He crossed certain red lines by arresting so many of Sadr’s men," I was told.)  Looks like the "mainstream media" got one before everyone else [actually they often do, but there is so much blogburping about the dreaded "msm" that many people never notice]

Sadrists are also angry that US and Iraqi government troops have
arrested 800 of their men, including Sheikh Qais Khazali, one of their
leaders. Mr Sadr reportedly believes the Prime Minister reneged on an
agreement not to purse the Mehdi Army if it did not fight.

So the expectation is that after…I wonder how the differences between the cleric and the bureaucrat will resolve themselves.