WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge has tossed out most of the government’s evidence against a terrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. ~breitbart.com

Good thing we’re not treating this like it’s a war. I’ll bet our soldiers didn’t read him his Miranda rights either.

The good news is that I’m sure that we have an overabundance of lawyers such that we could send a lawyer with every squad fighting around the world in order to ensure that every terrorist captured by US forces gets proper representation from moment one of their capture. Then once we arrest them properly we can send them stateside to bankrupt ourselves with costly trials that may or may not get them probation if we’re lucky and set them free if we’re not.

Security for 9/11 Trials in NYC Will Cost More Than $400M
Cost of Trying 9/11 Terrorists Could Go as High as $600 Million

New York City projects it will cost more than $400 million to provide security if the pre-trial preparation and trial of the suspects in the Sept. 11 terror attacks takes two years, which insiders say is virtually certain, according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

It will cost another $206 million annually if the trial runs beyond two years, which some fear is possible, the mayor’s office estimates.  ~abcnews.go.com

The Christmas underwear bomber pleads innocent. Not guilty plea entered for Nigerian bomb suspect

On the bright side we are doing everything possible to protect his and every other radical islamic terrorist’s legal rights as US citizens!

Except that Obama has basically said that no matter what the outcome of KSM’s trial that he will never be let free. This kind of negates the whole rule of law thing.

These are some of the reasons why we should not treat these men who attempt to attack us as common criminals.

KCNA Demands Closure of U.S. Secret Prisons

Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) — The special rapporteur for torture issue of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN special envoy for human rights and anti-terrorism, addressing the recent 10th meeting of the council, declared that an international investigation would be conducted into the secret prisons operated by the United States.

They denounced the atrocities committed by the U.S. as the “most horrible acts,” asserting that they would not allow the U.S. to evade its responsibility for them with ease on account of the replacement of the U.S. administration and that the investigation should be continued till everything has been clarified.

This is a proper step taken by the international community against the U.S. which has committed ceaseless human rights abuses in different parts of the world under the signboard of “war on terrorism.”

The U.S. set up a secret prison in Guantanamo of Cuba in the wake of the “September 11 incident” and established such prisons in different countries of the world and even on warships.

It arrested many people and has kept them in custody for a long period, ruthlessly violating their freedom and human rights.

26,000 people are now detained, without having even a chance to stand a fair trial, the most elementary human rights.

They are put to beating, sleep depravation, water boarding, sexual torture and other forms of mediaeval torture. Guiltless people are disappearing without being known to the outside, while undergoing unbearable pain.

These are the hideous human rights abuses quite contrary to the humanitarian principles of modern international law including the “Geneva Convention” and international law on human rights.

Precisely for this reason the International Committee of the Red Cross in a report in 2007 defined the U.S. atrocities as “cruel and inhuman contempt of personality” and “torture.”

What merits a serious attention is that the U.S. is trying to keep the secret prisons censured by the world.

This is evidenced by the fact that the U.S. attorney general, while announcing the “new standard for the operation of the facilities for ‘suspected terrorists’” in Guantanamo on March 13, blustered that it is inevitable to operate these facilities in a way to tighten national security.

These outbursts cannot but sound very surprising as they are let loose without let-up under the pretext of “examining” the closure of the secret prison in Guantanamo.

During the office of the Bush administration the U.S. left no means untried to cover up the operation of secret prisons with such crafty words as “national security”.

The new U.S. administration is echoing such words only to reveal its intention not to close them.

The U.S. had better close as early as possible the secret prisons ill-famed for lots of human rights abuses. ~kcna.co.jp

Great.

Quiet Muslim-Only Town in N.Y. Founded by Alleged Terrorist

HANCOCK, N.Y. — If you didn’t know where to look, you’d probably never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.

The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents. There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it is what can’t be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.

Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle there.

The town has its own mosque, grocery store and schoolhouse. It also reportedly has a firing range where residents take regular target practice. Gilani established similar rural enclaves across the country — at least six, including the Red House community in southern Virginia — though some believe there are dozens of them, all operating under the umbrella of the “Muslims of the Americas” group founded by Gilani.

Federal authorities say Gilani was also one of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed responsible for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland, Ore.

Shoe bomber Richard Reid has been linked to the group, along with convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad. But it is Sheikh Gilani who creates the most controversy and concern.  ~foxnews.com

November 2007:

Amid reports that the U.S. military surge has helped to stabilize insurgent attacks in Baghdad and a recent Pew Research Center poll that found 48 percent of Americans now believe the U.S. military effort in Iraq is going well, up from 30 percent in February, Biden said, “This whole notion that the surge is working is fantasy.” ~swamppolitics.com

But wait there’s more! Biden and an entire committee of Democrats told Petraeus that his surge was a failure –even as it was being implemented– and Biden himself all but demanded that the troops should be pulled out immediately.

Democrats tell Petraeus that Iraq surge has failed

Democratic leaders in the Senate bluntly told the US military commander in Iraq today that President Bush’s troop “surge” strategy had failed in its prime objective – to force a political settlement between Iraqi factions.

…“We should stop the surge and start bringing our troops home,” Joseph Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman, said as General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Iraq, prepared to testify before the committee. ~timesonline.co.uk

Biden voted against the surge. He claimed it would fail. He claimed it had failed. Until finally faced with overwhelming evidence of it’s success he did what any rational, sane, and ethically fairminded thinking person would do– he claimed all the credit for it’s success!

SEN. BIDEN: No. The surge helped make that–what made is possible in Anbar province is they did what I’d suggested two and a half years ago: gave local control. They turned over and they said to the Sunnis in Anbar province, “We promise you, don’t worry, you’re not going to have any Shia in here. There’s going to be no national forces in here. We’re going to train your forces to help you fight al-Qaeda.” And that you–what you had was the awakening. The awakening was not an awakening by us, it was an awakening of the Sunnis in Anbar province willing to fight. ~msnbc.msn.com

In one telling and insightful paragraph Joe Biden tells us everything we need to know about what kind of man Joe Biden is. Disregarding the hard work, blood, sweat and tears of those who made the surge a success Biden nevertheless claims the credit for himself and his running mate Obama. What class.

Far from–look, the bottom line here is that it’s–let’s–the surge is over. Here’s the real point. Whether or not the surge worked is almost irrelevant now. We’re in a new deal. What is the administration doing? They’re doing what Barack Obama has suggested over 14 months ago, turn responsibility over and draw down our troops. We’re about to get a deal from the president of the United States and Maliki, the head of the Iraqi government, that’s going to land on my desk as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee saying we’re going to set a timeline to draw down our forces. The only guy in America out of step is John McCain. John McCain’s saying no timeline. They’ve signed on to Barack Obama’s proposal. ~msnbc.msn.com

The Jawa Report- “Joe Biden has become a parody of his own caricature.”

Katrina Vander Heuval:

Last month, the bipartisan Rand Corporation concluded in an important report that the very notion of a “war on terror” is counterproductive, and that intelligence and police cooperation should be the centerpiece of our strategy. More recently, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman — no milquetoast when it comes to using military force — criticized the Dems’ position on Afghanistan as ill-conceived “bumper sticker politics.” Friedman quoted a valuable Time article by Afghan expert Rory Stewart. Reporting from Kabul, Stewart explains: “A troop increase is likely to inflame Afghan nationalism because Afghans are more anti-foreign than we acknowledge, and the support for our presence in the insurgency areas is declining … The more responsibility we take in Afghanistan, the more we undermine the credibility and responsibility of the Afghan government and encourage it to act irresponsibly.”

Stewart, a longtime observer of Afghan politics, makes clear that the temptation to throw more military forces at the problem may do more harm — to our security, to the Afghan people who are already angry about mounting civilian casualties, and to the stability of a region whose underlying conflicts require political resolution not more US or NATO troops.  ~alternet.org

Shattered windows and bomb scares are growing threats for recruiters working to find young men and women to join the U.S. military, according to a new report that claims attacks on military recruiting stations are on the rise.

The report, issued by a not-for-profit group that supports members of the military, calls the incidents — including the spray-painting of graffiti — “attacks,” and claims there have been more than 50 since March 2003.

“The peace protesters are not peaceful,” said Catherine Moy, executive director of Move America Forward, which released the report. “They are violent. They are causing havoc in an illegal manner on recruiting offices across the United States.”  ~foxnews.com

This should not be a surprise at all since good communist have always supported ‘resistance’ and revolution in the face of the ultimate evil (America).

Besides attacking recruiting stations anti-war communists have decided that abridging the religious rights of others is fair game as well.

I’m talking about this clueless and insulting article at Time.com (to both audiences and the troops).

The author mentions how tough it is for far-leftist-liberal Hollywood, “to turn this war into edifying entertainment for the mass audience.” How tough could it be?

…there’s a slew of American movies on the subject: In the Valley of Elah, The Kingdom, Rendition, Lions for Lambs and Redacted–and soon, Badland, Grace Is Gone and Charlie Wilson’s War. Most are worthy; some feature Oscar-winning actors and directors. And so far, all show how tough it is to turn this war into edifying entertainment for the mass audience. ~time.com

Obviously, it’s pretty damn hard for liberals to make edifying war movies. But then we know they would have an easier time making movies about the glorious revolution of Hugo Chavez. (Minus the creation of AK-47 factories and the closing of media outlets who dissent from Chavez’s dictatorship.) Their ideologically colored glasses won’t allow them to see anything heroic, useful, or dramatic in this war (or our soldiers). And unfortunately they think that audiences are too stupid to realize that they should revel in the anti-american education the left is trying to give them.

But quality, or lack of it, was irrelevant to audiences. They avoided both films like summer school. ~time.com

Imagine that. Why won’t American audiences take their medicine?

As a critic, I give the Iraq films now in release passing marks for good intentions and audiences an incomplete for poor attendance. ~time.com

What this film critic brings to light is the incredible disadvantage that Hollywood labors under. That is, the albatross of their own liberal anti-american politics. With films like Lions for Lambs and Redacted filmmakers seem to have reached the nadir of their preachy influence. Americans stubbornly refuse to convert to the ‘New Patriotism’ which looks a great deal like old fashioned treason and subversion but is now marketed by progressives as, “dissent,” the new and highest form of patriotism.

For example, a host of liberals will accept nothing less than defeat in war for American troops. Murtha (and Obama) says that our criminals, uh, I mean, rapist cold-blooded murderers, er, American soldiers can’t win this war. Harry Reid said the war was lost a long time ago.

All hail the new patriotism! Long may she waive.

This is ancient wisdom that some state department employees don’t understand and would dispute, with tears if they have to. No wonder our government is so disfunctionally lame.

Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty
Top State Dept. Officials Face Angry Questions

Some quotes from the WashingtonPost article:

…Service in Iraq is “a potential death sentence,” said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. “Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now,” he said to sustained applause.

…Thomas reminded them, according to an audiotape of the session, that “every member of the Foreign Service, there can be no doubt, has agreed to worldwide availability. Every member . . . has taken an oath to the flag and the country.” If volunteers come forward for the unfilled posts, he said, “we will cease this operation. But if not, we will continue. . . . If we have to, we will redirect assignments.” ~washingtonpost.com

My guess is that the dissenters here are really saying that diplomacy doesn’t and cannot work in Iraq. It apparently only works in peaceful countries where peace already reigns. But then that would make their cushy paper-pushing jobs kind of superfluous, wouldn’t it?

Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name. ~nytimes.com

Whoops, Frank has inadvertantly stepped over the line and into Godwin’s law.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.  ~nytimes.com

If Syria had a partly constructed nuclear reactor Iran’s is probably much further along, wouldn’t you think? They’ve been at it far longer and are highly motivated.