Tuesday, July 28, 2009
7 Arrested in Home Grown Jihadist Case in N. Carolina Police Hunt for 8th Traitor

This is surprising, a bit disappointing, but at least they’ve been caught. This is exploding all over the blogosphere and it’s up on Little Green Footballs, Jawa Report, and many others.

Here is a link to the LGB post: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34305_Jihad_in_North_Carolina

According to the Jawa Report, the 8th conspirator has fled the country and is in Pakistan.

Yesterday I noted that if your read the indictment against seven home grown jihadis in North Carolina carefully, that there was reference to an unnamed eighth American traitor who had left for Pakistan last October ... with no mention of returning to the US.

Today the it was confirmed that an eighth American connected to the cell was still at large, presumably now working with the Taliban, al Qaeda, or any number of other related violent Islamist groups:

Also Tuesday, the feds said an eighth member of the alleged network is still at large. That person is believed to be in Pakistan, according to a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the investigation…

U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding declined to discuss the alleged eighth suspect’s whereabouts but said the public should not be worried.

“Federal authorities hope to have him apprehended shortly,” Holding said. Holding wouldn’t identify the person, and the defendant’s name is redacted from court papers…

The indictment says the unnamed defendant is a U.S. citizen who went to Pakistan in October 2008 to “engage in violent jihad.” It does not say whether the person returned to the United States. Holding declined to discuss the person’s whereabouts but said the public should not be worried.

Who is this mystery traitor? I’m assuming that the Feds wouldn’t have arrested the seven without having number 8 already in custody. As with Bryant Neal Vinas who was arrested last year but who’s indictment was only unsealed last week, it might be awhile before we learn of his identity.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198229.php

Click here to see a local news report with neighbors reacting: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/multi/residents-react-after-neighbor-indicted-on-terrorism-charges

Thursday, July 23, 2009
Domestic Terrorist at Supermax Says “No GITMO Terrorists Here”

“The government goes out of its way to please its non-Christian inmates,” Says Rudolph

This is an interesting one-off story. Apparently the domestic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, who “is serving a life sentence for a series of bombings that killed two people and wounded scores of others, exclusively told FOX News in a letter dated June 30 that he doubts the Guantanamo detainees will become his fellow inmates at the Supermax prison”

Well thats interesting. Why would an inmate of Supermax have any opinion on his fellow detainees, and why would Fox News care? In any case its interesting to see what this guy on the inside thinks. In fact he had a lot to say about all the concessions made for the Muslim prisoners at Supermax and all the special privileges they get in the interest of being sensitive to their religion.

Among Supermax’s notorious inmates are Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui; “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski; Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols; 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef; and Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent serving life for espionage.

Rudolph, 42, says the prison is already at capacity. “So even if they decide to move the detainees here I do not know where they would put them,” Rudolph wrote. “To house that many detainees staff would have to empty one, two, maybe three entire units.”

Read the full story here http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534426,00.html
A copy of this letter is available on PDF here: http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/rudolphletter2.pdf

Alabama Gets OIF and OEF License Plates

This is just cool, I hope we see stuff like this in other places, it’s disappointing that some states like here in California, have dragged their feet on getting things like Blue and Gold Star family license plates. Hopefully these will be widely available and for only $23 dollars extra, they are pretty easy to get.

Here’s a clip:

On Tuesday, Gov. Bob Riley unveiled the design of the two new tags that were established when the Legislature passed a bill earlier this year.

Riley was joined by Clyde Marsh, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs; Maj. Gen. A.C. Blalock, the adjutant general of the Alabama National Guard; generals from Maxwell Air Force Base and Fort Rucker; and other military members and veterans from the community.

The new tags will be available to veterans of the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq beginning Aug. 1.

Read the whole story on MontgomeryAdvertiser.com

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
U.S. Born Terrorist Admits: Tried to Kill Americans in Afghanistan, Plotting Attacks in America

Shocking to hear, but it seems that a Natural Born U.S. Citizen Bryant Neal Vinas was feeding information to Al Qaeda to help them plan an attack on a Long Island train station, TRAINED with Al Qaeda in Pakistan and attacked U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The LA TIMES is reporting:

Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, is one of only a handful of Americans known to have made the trek to Al Qaeda’s secret Pakistani compounds, and his cooperation is opening a rare window into the world of Western militants in the network’s hideouts, anti-terror officials said.

Vinas has admitted to meeting Al Qaeda operations chiefs and giving them information for a potential attack on New York commuter trains, conversations that resulted in a public alert in November, said the officials, who requested anonymity because the case was ongoing. Vinas told investigators he fired rockets during a militant attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, the officials said.

Pakistani forces captured him in November, and he is now in U.S. custody.

Thank God this terrorist was captured before he could do more damage. Reports say he had regularly ridden on the Long Island transit system, mapping it out, taking notice of how things worked, when circumstances presented opportunity for the terrorists, so they could attack at the most vulnerable places and times. Can you even imagine another catastrophe like that on American soil? With his knowledge of the rail system, Vinas would have ensured the maximum damage and threat to American lives.

His background makes this story even more bizarre.

The retired Peruvian-born engineer, 63, spoke during interviews in recent days in the home he shared with his son: a modest brick house with white siding and a statue of an angel on the lawn. Many houses in the area fly the flags of the United States and the New York Yankees.

Vinas abruptly left home in September 2007 after talking about wanting to study Islam and Arabic, his father said. A year later, after a truck bomb killed 55 people at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, FBI agents from the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed the family, relatives said.

The agents told the family Vinas was in Pakistan and asked about his travels and religious conversion, saying they were checking on Americans in Pakistan after the attack, the father said.

Read the whole story on LA Times website, it is a long read at 3 full pages, but its well worth it! 

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Obama/Gates/Senate Cowardly Cut Critical Defense Spending in Favor of Agenda

I am very sad today to read that Senate voted to cut out $1.7 Billion for the Raptor F-22 jets today. First of all this is basically a political statement. It probably doesn't make a whole mess of difference to our national defense in general, the whole issue was about 7 planes.

But those 7 planes could have saved lives, and it was more important for Obama and handful of self-interested politicians to make a political statement with them, than to just give our troops the tools and weapons they were PROMISED.

This report from the Associated Press pretty much pissed me off.

The Senate voted to terminate further production of the Air Force's topline F-22 fighter jets Tuesday, giving President Barack Obama a major spending victory and siding with the Pentagon's desire for smaller jets better suited to 21st century wars. F-22 supporters complained the action would be a blow to long-term national defense — and cost thousands of jobs in the middle of the recession. The 58-40 vote to cut the money from a $680 billion defense bill was a hard-fought victory for Obama, who had threatened to veto defense spending legislation if it included funds for more F-22s. Wavering lawmakers heard repeatedly from Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other senior administration officials.

The raptor was under fire from all sides, by President Obama (and Democrats), who wants to find any reason he can to cut defense spending so that there's more for his other pet projects - never mind leaving our pilots at a disadvantage.

Well President Obama, if I could, I would tell you that I think your playing hissy-fit with our defense spending budget and cutting just 7 jets ( 7 compared to over 140 that we already bought ) just looks childish and stupid.

Obama has the cajones to call jet fighters that quite frankly kick ass, a waste of taxpayer dollars, while he turns around and proposes massive government spending programs that are literally going to flush trillions down the tube and help NO ONE.

That just tears me apart. Sometimes I really wish you could literally SLAP sense into people, but as gratifying as that might feel to me, they still wouldn't be any smarter.

Now lets see what John McCain, great GOP presidential candidate of 2008 had to say.

The NEW poster boy of fiscal conservatism. I expected better from him, I probably should not have, but he is a war hero so I did.  Really he should be smart enough to see that this is political posturing, NOT sensible budget snipping. COST OVERRUNS? The F-22 did go over R&D expectations...but those are SUNK COSTS already... and they were necessary to develop the F-35. Without the R&D from the F-22 there would be no F-35. His argument makes NO SENSE. Why pour money into developing an amazing state of the art weapon, and then trash it?

Thankfully, SOME people have their heads screwed on straight and not jammed up their...nevermind.

This brings up a major point that I think a lot of the news agencies are ignoring. The F-35 which I have seen SEVERAL papers, including this AP report refer to as "Next-Generation" is INFERIOR to  F-22.

It's only "next generation' in the sense that it A) is better than the previous generation f-14/15/16s, and B) hasn't been widely tested/distributed/manufactured yet.



The F-35 is an international fighter, it's going to be sold to countries all over the world as their main battle fightier for probably the next 20 years at least. But seriously SINCE WHEN has America been content with having equipment only 'as good' as the rest of the world? Our troops deserve the BEST.

The F-22 outperforms the F-35 hands down, and while it is true that the F-35 is a modular design that is well-suited to such a variety of tasks that it DEFINITELY deserves a place in our defense systems, its absolutely not a replacement for the F-22.

So I call BS when these politicians try to justify cutting F-22s because the F-35 is 'the future'

Nope.

Final Word: Carl Levin pretty much summed it up for you.

Changing the way we do business in Washington...  so I guess the new way to do business in Washington is to push your political agenda of socialist redistribution programs, and justify it by trying to make yourself look good as a fiscal crusader by eliminating weapons systems that put America above other nations.

Overall I think this is purely to give Obama more power. He didn't save anyone any money because he's just going to spend that 1B on something else...he did hurt our military, but I'm sure our brave men and women can handle it, and take it in stride. But really I think Obama just wanted to prove that he could kill a great weapons system simply because he can.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIxeHYBgfpp_jhHxYl0L09nT-ypgD99J3K0O2

 

ADDITION - Mackenzie Eaglan from the Heritage Foundation says "Air Force leaders have repeatedly testified they need 243 F-22s to maintain air superiority. The purchase of only 187 would leave the Air Force able to fly unchallenged in only one theater, not two. Led by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Pentagon is budgeting on the assumption that future U.S. military operations will resemble those of today, i.e., they will be dominated by counterinsurgency and irregular warfare."

And even if our current military fight is in the middle east and most of our time is spent without worrying about air superiority, we still have to be prepared for a modern war, you make assumptions about your enemies at your own peril.

"Many who criticize investment in next-generation platforms want to change American foreign policy. But weakening traditional military capabilities to force the United States to limit the scope of its global leadership is the wrong answer."