CIA Victim Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

On March 1^st 2003 intelligence officers arrested the person the 9/11 Commission concluded “was the principle architect of the September 11th attacks.” This man is thought to have had, or confessed to a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, the Bali nightclub bombings, and the shoe bombing attempt on American Airlines Flight #63. The man’s name is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. (KSM) 

Mr. Mohammed confessed under CIA interrogation that “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in Karachi Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”

It is widely reported that the first thing Mr. Mohammed said upon being captured in Pakistan was…..I won’t answer any questions until I meet with my lawyers in New York.

Mr. Mohammed had planned for America to criminally prosecute him in a civilian court of law should he be captured.  That is not what happened.

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In an instant, children lost their fathers.  Mothers lost their children.  Spouses, grandparents, brothers and sisters all perished.  In all, 259 passengers died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie Scotland in December 1988.  Eleven people more died on the ground when the plane debris crashed.

Because the plane’s departure had been delayed, it blew up over land rather than the ocean.  An exhaustive search for parts led to clues that investigators followed.  Detective work worthy of a Sherlock Holmes novel led authorities to two Libyan suspects.  Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi was convicted of the crime in a Scottish court and sentenced to life imprisonment.  (Note: The conviction was appealed and some international observers question the fairness of the trial.  However, in 2003 Libya’s United Nations Ambassador submitted a letter to the UN Security council formally “accepting responsibility for the actions of its  officials” in relation to the Lockerbie bombing and offered to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the deceased)

Remains of Pan Am #103

Last week Mr. Megrahi was released from prison on “compassionate” grounds due to his being terminally ill.  When convicted terrorist Megrahi arrived in Libya, he received a hero’s welcome in violation of a promise Libya gave Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that his return “be dealt with in a low-key and sensitive fashion.”

I have two main problems with Megrahi’s release.  They both deal with motive.

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Senator Kennedy and President Obama

In 2004 the Democratic Presidential nominee was Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. During the presidential campaign, Edward Kennedy orchestrated a change in Massachusetts law so in the event Kerry won the Presidency, Republican Governor Mitt Romney would Not be able to pick his replacement as per existing law. Instead, at Kennedy’s initiative, the Democratic legislature in Massachusetts passed a bill that mandated the people vote in a special election to be held at least 145 days AFTER a Senate seat ever became vacant.

Fast forward five years. Senator Kennedy, nicknamed the Lion of the Senate, is extremely ill with brain cancer. The Democrats, with the defection of Arlen Spector and Al Franken’s victory in Minnesota, now have the magical 60 seats in the Senate. Sixty Senate seats allows the majority party to prevent the minority from filibustering, which is the main tool a minority party uses to exert some measure of limits upon the party which holds the majority of the seats.

Now that Massachusetts has a Democratic Governor, Democratic Senator Kennedy is trying to get the law changed again. The proposed new law would once again allow the Governor to unilaterally choose a replacement Senator should that become necessary due to the death, incapacity or resignation of a sitting Senator.

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“I believe in America. America has made my fortune”. So begins the movie that won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Greed, family, loyalty, respect, honor, power, and a father’s legacy are just some of the powerful themes in this movie that many people, myself included, rate as their favorite.

I’m speaking of the movie The Godfather. I’ve watched the film at least ten times and still marvel at its brilliance.

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First off, let me say that anybody using filibustering loudness to prevent conversation during public events is doing a truly terrible thing.  Engaging in intimidation to limit debate on controversial subjects deprives society of the political oxygen that legitimizes government. That is true whether it is left wingers shouting out when conservatives try to speak on college campuses, or right wingers yelling out opposing voices at healthcare town hall meetings.

Condecendingly, the White House, members of Congress, and the more liberal media outlets have said many disparaging things about the people attending healthcare town hall meetings. That concerns me not because the slurs are true, but rather because they’re not. Attacking the motives of a mostly organic response to uncertain healthcare change shows complete ignorance for what animates these powerful political currents.

Obviously some of the town hall protesters have an agenda.  However, if a reporter found out that one of the passionate speakers at a town meeting was paid to speak by an insurance company, it would have turned into the biggest story in the country. Don’t you think MSNBC would spend an entire week highlighting a Republican operative discovered to have gone to a town hall meeting in another state so as to berate a Congressman.  While some of the people at town hall meetings surely could be “plants”, it is obvious that the vast majority of them are not.

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Bill Clinton

An attractive, young, brilliant politician with great charisma assumes the Presidency and Democratic hope is rampant that important change will bless our nation. The year is 1992, and just as Barack Obama entered the White House thinking the possibilities were limitless, Bill Clinton began his term in office with similar thoughts.

Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama’s detractors feel both men needlessly slighted people in uniform very early in their Presidencies. Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the military….and Obama’s news conference quote of the “Cambridge police acted stupidly” was interpreted by many as disrespecting core traditional American institutions.

Both Presidents knew their “political capital” was greatest right after the election, and wanted to spend much of it in the worthy pursuit of improving the healthcare system.  Clinton gave his wife the role of changing the 15% of the economy that deals with healthcare. Obama delegated that duty to liberal Congressional leaders.

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In May I posted “The Stock Market is up 30%. What does that mean?”  I explained how the Dow Jones Industrial Average had traded between 8,000 and 9,000 since October 2008 (excluding the March 2009 meltdown) and that “The question to ask yourself is whether the market eventually establishes a new trading range 20% higher and closer to 10,000…or 20% lower and closer to 6,500?”

THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE CLOSES 

Oct 9th 2008      8,579               April 9th 2009     8,083

Nov 9th 2008     8,870               May 9th 2009     8,547

Dec 9th 2008      8,691               June 9th 2009     8,763

Jan 9th 2009       8,599               July 9th 2009      8,163

Feb 9th 2009      8,270               Aug 9th 2009      9,370 (Breakout?)

Mar 9 2009        6,547 (The Bottom)

Last Friday the government released the latest job claims number.  The 247,000 American jobs lost in July was enthusiastically received as further proof that although things are still very difficult, the trend is strongly suggesting better times are in our future. (Earlier in the year over 600,000 jobs were being lost per month)

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The Five Living Presidents

General Douglas Macarthur famously said ”old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”  I think the same can be said more accurately of ex-Presidents. 

I like the way American ex-Presidents mostly keep a low profile once they’ve left office.   They…and only they….. know the extreme rigors of the job….and thus seem to leave their political sword sheathed once they’ve left public office.

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There were elections held in Lebanon a few months ago.  The terrorist group Hezbollah, a proxy organization of Iran, used a mushroom cloud as their symbol on its Lebanon election posters.  For Israelis there is little doubt that mushroom cloud is meant for them.  After all, on numerous occasions Iranian President Amademajad has said the solution to the Middle East is to “wipe Israel off the map” and that ”Israel is a one bomb country.” Even Rafsanjani, the man leading the current political fight against Amademajad, has said that “Muslims should use nuclear weapons against Israel.”

Hezbollah's Flag

When the leader of a nation denies the existence of the holocaust and refuses to recognize your right to exist…..history has taught it is suicidal to ignore such a matter. Israel faces such a situation today in regards to Iran.

For the past six years France, England and Germany have negotiated with Iran in an attempt to encourage them not to build nuclear weapons.  During that time the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has provided United Nations members with numerous reports critical of Iran in regard to the transparency of their nuclear program and about actual and potential violations of existing Iranian agreements concerning their enrichment of uranium.  The United Nations Security Council has imposed various sanctions upon Iran for their failure to comply with rules and agreements relative to their nuclear program.

The fact is Iran is on the path towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. 

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