Recently in Terrorism Category

Dan Rather slips here and refers to Obama as Osama. And yet the Osama-loving, I mean Obama-loving MSM dismissed this Southern California prophet as a mere Fear Engineer when he said that Obama will hand the country over to folks like Obama. Eat some crow, you silly doves.*

* nonliteralness disclaimer for the sarcasm-challenged.

On a less sarcastic note, I've long felt that the election will not go to a black liberal whose name rhymes with Public Enemy #2 (Public Enemy #1 always was Saddam, my more hawkish friends insist). Colin Powell, maybe. He's a military heavy who rhymes with no discernible enemies.

I, for one, think the notorious new New Yorker cover is good satire. Obama should show a little more of a sense of humor about it.

"If you would diminish something, you would first increase it," said Lao Tzu a few millennia ago. In precisely that fashion, people like Stephen Colbert and the New Yorker editors are defusing a jingoist scare tactic by amplifying it in a comical way. Obama's best tactic is to laugh along at it - while saluting Old Glory, sporting a flag lapel pin, and munching on some apple pie.

A "clash of civilizations" could become self-fulfilling prophecy, especially as politicians and partisan pundits use anger at Muslims to redirect attention from domestic failings. Americans and the Muslim world are polarizing increasingly. Consider the manner in which Investor's Business Daily (subscription only) subtly conflates "Muslims" and "enemies" in a July 3, 2008 editorial on Pakistan and Pervez Musharraf:

Rewind to 9/11 and imagine the strongman of a Muslim country sheltering bin Laden and dictating to the White House the terms of how we can bring him to justice... If we were reliving those raw days -- back when we were still pulling bodies from Ground Zero -- we would justifiably tell this Muslim leader to stand aside while we invade the territory where our enemy's holed up. And we would withdraw not a moment before we flushed him out of hiding and put his head on a pike... Ultimately, the commander-in-chief must decide who's running this war against Muslim terrorists -- him or a Muslim general.

Imagine if the word "Muslim" were replaced above by "black" or "Jewish" -- you would find it hard to believe that the writer would escape a sharp rebuke.

This piece also shows that the newspaper's editorial board is obviously unaware that Musharraf resigned from the army more than six months ago; and the piece revealed great ignorance on many other issues too. I wish that they would all sit down to carefully read Steve Coll's Ghost Wars before they attempt to make sense of who caused what in that part of the world.

As Israel nears her 60th birthday, this is major food for thought: Hamas airs a "documentary" showing that Jews supposedly plotted the Holocaust to weed out the weak and gain international sympathy. They release it just a couple of weeks before the day when the world remembered the victims of the Holocaust. The media largely ignores this outrage, because Hamas represents the "persecuted" Palestinians. I write about the lessons we need to learn from this -- with the insight of my pal Valerie Harper, who took her amazing Golda Meir character to the big screen recently -- in my column this week:

"Sadly, as we marked this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, 'never again' seems further from reach than ever. Jews continue to be targeted, be it in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, or the repeated desecration of Jewish graves in Berlin. Holocaust denial has became accepted as legitimate thought in some circles and has become a foreign-policy talking point in the regimes of others.And when I, a gentile columnist, have written about the outrage of Holocaust denial, I've received far too many letters defending the deniers.

'Jews don't care about anybody but the Jews,' wrote one Canadian reader. '...Only a fool would trust a Jew to play fair with gentiles. ... They're laughing at you for falling for their lies. Don't be such a sap.'

Hamas is doing its best to stoke that disbelief in the true nature of the Holocaust, while fanning the flames of hatred for the Jewish people.

On April 18, Al-Aqsa TV - which brought Palestinian kiddies Farfour the martyr mouse and Assoud, the Bugs Bunny rip-off who vowed to 'eat' the Jews - aired an 'educational' program that accused Jews of perpetuating the Holocaust to weed out the weak among their ranks and simultaneously gain international sympathy.

This, of course, walks a fine line with Hamas' contention that the Holocaust never happened..."

Read the whole thing!

And if you want to be even more depressed, read the reader comments, which include this gem from a woman in Redondo Beach:

"Holocaust 'denial' is a misnomer. Nobody denies the Holocaust. Some people have noticed irregularities with some aspects of the official holocaust story and have raised questions. For example, why haven't the mass graves at the death camps been opened up to estimate the number of victims and see what we can find out about who they are or how they died? Why hasn't anybody demanded information about a relative they believe was murdered in one of the death camps? How exactly did the gas chambers work and how did they dispose of all the bodies?

All reasonable questions but instead of answers, you get called a bigot and anti-semite for asking them. For that reason, people will continue questioning the holocaust. It's not bigotry that leads people to holocaust revision, it's simply curiosity."

To which one reader from New York responded:

"Christina, I could not agree with you more. It's not bigotry to find the truth. The real bigots here are the stiff-neck mutated counterfeit jews that reasons with their own vile vehement that spews forth without intelligences, along with their brain dead following.."

Feeling truly ill yet? There was a positive comment over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to lift one's spirits (the last line cracked me up, anyway):

"I'm surprised the PI let Bridget Johnson's opinion on here.

The popular opinion on the far left is that the Jewish people and Israel are the root cause of all violence, poverty and hate in the Arab world. Without Jews, none of it would exist.

I'm sure they would have felt sorry for them as they were being cooked early in the late 30s, had they been around to see it, but now that they have recovered, prospered and are white and wealthy, they are a target.

Hamas could fry babies, and they do in a sense, and they would be the noble ones to the far left, because they aren't wealthy.

Keep the faith Bridget and if your letters smell of lattes and incense, save yourself some grief and throw them away."

Why are these Palestinians, including children, celebrating? Because a terrorist group newly named after fallen Hezbollah kingpin Imad Mughniyeh sent a gunman into a rabbinical seminary last night and opened fire, killing eight and wounding nine as they studied the word of God and prepared for Purim. Thousands of Palestinians celebrated the massacre in the streets.

More from the AP, including the quote of the day:

"Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev harshly condemned the shooting and said the Palestinian government must take steps against the extremists — not just denounce their attacks.

'Tonight's massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment,' he told The Associated Press. 'It is clear that those people celebrating this bloodshed have shown themselves to be not only the enemies of Israel but of all of humanity.'

...Israeli defense officials said the attacker came from east Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian section of the city. Jerusalem's Palestinians have Israeli ID cards that give them freedom of movement inside Israel, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attacker walked through the seminary's main gate and entered the library, where witnesses said some 80 people were gathered. He carried an assault rifle and pistol, and used both weapons in the attack. Rosenfeld said police were also searching for an explosives belt.

...Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. 'The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack,' he said. 'The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood.'"

Why, she's lobbying for members of the Muslim Brotherhood who face trial in Egypt. Why?

"I decided I wanted to do human rights work on behalf of people around the world who have been harmed by US imperialism.

Part of why I am here, also, is to draw attention to the parallels between the military courts here and the same kinds of courts that are being used to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay by the US.

...If we [America] really want to promote democracy in this region then we cannot silence the voices of the Muslim Brotherhood because they're the moderate voice here and they are the ones who are actually working for democracy."

Al-Jazeera also asked Sheehan, who waxed even more about her commitment to telling Egypt what to do, how a recent visit to the National Council of Women in Cairo went. Her response was absolutely classic:

"I didn't really understand a lot of what was going on. There was a lot of yelling in Arabic."

Bwahaahahaa!!!

But for Cindy's reference, the Muslim Brotherhood is not a moderate democratization savior. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef has called the Holocaust a "myth," the Brotherhood has advocated taxing Christians extra, is linked to violent acts and nefarious terrorists over the decades, promotes strict Islamic dress code for women and segregated schools (as well as separate female curriculum), promotes the Caliphate, allows democracy only up to what is deemed allowed by Islam, and lives by the motto: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

Heck, maybe she knows all that and loves 'em anyway...

First Hamas TV had Farfour, the Mickey Mouse knockoff who was beaten to death by an Israeli agent. Then there was Nahoul, the bumblebee who beat cats and now has apparently died from illness because of the Gaza blockade. Now comes Bugs Bunny knockoff Assud, who has claimed that he will "eat" Jews ("I, Assud, will get rid of the Jews, Allah willing, and I will eat them up"). The twisted kids' show, "Pioneers of Tomorrow" -- "pioneer" in this case not meaning someone who makes scientific advances or a contribution to society, but someone who blows him or herself up -- is still hosted by psychopathic little Saraa, who calmly decries "filth of Zionists" while giving approval to Assud's plans for a Jew buffet.

Watch the video, and see what this world's come to. I predict in the next episode that Saraa and Assud will show kids how to put Jews in their Playskool ovens.

I'd sure weep salty tears for the guy who sawed off Daniel Pearl's head, by his own admission. He's up for the death penalty now, along with five other Gitmo inmates, for murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks (remember those?). I hope after waiting this long that the cases are ironclad, but there's already going to fuss about the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded. (He's lucky he didn't get his back hairs plucked out one by one.) I also hope that Americans will hear as many of the ugly details as possible regarding how these men orchestrated nearly 3,000 deaths in New York, D.C. and Pa. -- and remember what KSM said about Encino native Pearl: "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan."

Accompanying a story in The Sun about British spy planes picking up Taliban talking in Brummie and Yorkshire accents -- yes, British Muslims are going over there to fight for the Burqa Enforcement Brigade -- was this great photo. These Taliban have everything they need -- guns, ammo, and apparently a potluck green-bean casserole cradled by the second guy from the right.

When you're in a cave, where do you plug in the crock pot?

If you want to burst the enthusiasm of soldiers in Iraq, few words can do it like these two: Commo Blackout.

It means two very significant things, and, in the death-as-commodity environment of Baghdad that I knew in 2005, it was hard to judge which was worse. On the one hand, it meant all instant communication with the outside world was cut off. No Internet, no phones. Mail was delivered, but it took days any way.

The other thing it meant was that somebody was dead, or pretty close to it. Commo Blackout is the Army's way of keeping parents and spouses from being informed of a soldier's death by a passing comment in a grocery store, or via a reporter arriving at a door step ahead of the Notification Team.

There's a lot just about any Joe can complain about with regard to the Green Machine, but the dedication to supporting families is not really one of them. They honestly do the best they can, and inconveniencing troops for a couple of days so the most solemn ceremonies can be conducted as best possible is not even a question.

Of course, as soldiers, when you've survived another day, it's hard not to curse at prety much all involved when you walk to the phone trailer and find a scribbled note on the door, one that effectively says: "you're wife's just gonna have to wonder if you're alive, 'cause somebody else's is about to find out that her husband ain't."

I bring this up because an interesting trend has recently developed on my personal blog, Reasons to Believe. I've been posting a lot there lately, because over in the other Valley, my little town of Monrovia has been having a gang war in recent days. Certainly nothing akin to Baghdad, but enough to give me strange tickles, and make sure the personal protective systems for my family are in full working order, just like I would before a patrol in combat.

Anyway, while the traffic for my blog has spiked significantly, I've been getting a lot of referrals from Google, many of which are searches for those same two words. They all lead to this post: Things That Go Boom, Things That Do Not.

Now, two years seperated from the war zone, my heart sinks at that thought. Somewhere, somebody is getting the worst news possible. Somewhere not far away, someone else thinks she might. At some Army post in the south, or maybe Texas, a new bride who goes to bed worried each night hasn't heard from the love of her life for a week. Her nervous query has been met with a polite, stilted re-assurance from the head of the Family Readiness Group, "ah, don't worry, they're probably on a Commo Blackout." Knowing she already asks enough silly questions about the strange system in which she finds herself, she decides to figure that one out on her own.

My post, I assure you, supplies no solace.

I wonder if her silent world will awaken with a ring of the phone. Or, a knock at her door.