More SmartPower™ From Obama: Hey Iran, Can We Get Our Drone Back?

No, seriously. I'm not making this up.

Even ABC News is chortling as the Organizer-In-Chief tries to push the Reset button... all the way back to the Carter administration.

President Barack Obama said today the U.S. has requested that Iran return the highly sensitive stealth drone that crash landed there two weeks ago, but an Iranian general already said that's not going to happen.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said at a news conference... A senior Iranian military commander, however, said on Iranian television Sunday that not only would Iran not turn over the drone, but warned of a "bigger response" to the "hostile act" of crossing into Iranian airspace.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC] Lt. Commander Gen. Hossein Salami said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said told reporters today that "given Iran's behavior to date, we do not expect them to comply" with Obama's request. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also said he didn't expect Iran to hand over the drone...

Impressive. What's next? A Presidential request to pretty-please-stop-building-nukes-with-a-cherry-on-top?

Good News: DHS proposes unmanned border entry with Mexico...

...though I think we already have an "unmanned border entry" -- it's called the entire Southwest.

The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.

This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.

By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.... The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

...A public comment period runs through Dec. 27 on the estimated $2.3 million project, which has support at the highest levels of government from both countries... But U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican member of the House Homeland Security committee, questioned the wisdom of using resources to make it easier to cross the border...

...A small military presence protects the [Mexican] town from the drug-related violence that has engulfed other Mexican border towns. Now with news of the port of entry, residents are already making plans for restaurants and shops, he said... "When it closed nobody crossed and everything went downhill. People began to leave," he said. "Now people are going to return."

Yes, people are going to return. Especially the narco-terrorists who have killed tens of thousands of Mexicans over the past several years.

Was Newt Gingrich right? An Illustrated History of the Middle East

Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm of controversy by stating that the Palestinian people are an "invented" group, that its leaders are unreconstructed terrorists and that it's high time America's leaders started speaking the truth about the situation.

Which begs the question: what really happened in the Middle East? Why is it so dysfunctional? What prevents people of all religions from living in peace? The highlights of The Terrorism Awareness Project's presentation helps explain the real backstory.














Continue on to the rest of the story...

Outrage: Planned South Korean Towers Will Resemble Planes Smashing Into World Trade Center

In what civilized country could this be considered acceptable?

The unveiling of pictures of planned luxury residential towers scheduled to be built in Seoul, South Korea, has sparked instant controversy. The reason is obvious. The towers, which include a so-called “cloud” feature connecting them around the 27th floors, clearly resemble the World Trade Towers in the process of collapsing following the 9/11 attacks.

The designers of the towers, Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, have responded to the controversy by quickly publishing an apology in English. “It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks,” the designers insist, “nor did we see the resemblance during the design process.”

They did not see the resemblance during the design process? The problem with this assertion – apart from its inherent implausibility – is that they have admitted the contrary in Dutch. Thus Jan Knikker of MVRDV told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “I have to admit that we also thought of the 9/11 attacks.”

Eh, Jan - may I suggest you try roasting yourself in a hot stove for, say, an hour -- so you can better empathize with the victims of the WTC attacks?

Naughty or Nice: Administration Hands Iran a Christmas Gift [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

After reading this story, and watching the embedded video, you’ll be asked to participate in a brief survey and asked a few simple questions. 1) Do you smell something fishy? 2) Based on President Obama’s decision in this case, do you still think there’s a chance in Hell he’d ever attack Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons?

December 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Official Confirms Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing Lost U.S. Drone

A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.

With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.

Among the options the U.S. considered were sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.

NATO initially said the drone may have been one that was flying a mission over western Afghanistan before operators "lost control" of it. Officials have since acknowledged that the drone was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance mission.

One official told Fox News on Thursday that the incident is a huge loss and makes the top-secret helicopter tail lost during the Usama bin Laden raid in Pakistan "look like a pittance." The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

There's a good reason that the Democrat Party has, since the days of James Earl Carter, been known as The Party of Weakness™.

Good News: Saudi Prince Calls for Six Additional Arab Countries to Acquire Nukes

More evidence of 'the Arab Spring':

On 5 December Prince bin Turki al Faisal, speaking at the “The Gulf and the Globe” conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh urged the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to become a powerful regional bloc by establishing a unified armed force and defense structure.

While bin Turki’s call for the GCC to pool its military resources is nothing new, his idea of supporting Gulf countries acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if Israel and Iran do not constrain their nuclear programs represents the edge of a precipitously slippery slope.

Bin Turki told his audience, "Why shouldn't we commence the building of a unified military force, with a clear chain of command. But, if our efforts and the efforts of the world community fail to bring about the dismantling of the Israeli arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and preventing Iran from acquiring the same, then why shouldn't we at least study seriously all available options, including acquiring WMDs, so that our future generations will not blame us for neglecting any courses of action that will keep looming dangers away from us."

...Bin Turki’s comments should not be dismissed lightly... [he is] the son of the late King Faisal, is a grandson of the late King Abdul-Azizz, brother of Foreign Minister Prince Saud and Prince Khalid, Governor of Mecca province and a nephew of the current King Abdullah... Bin Turki is currently a co-chair of the C100 Group, an organization set up to foster understanding between Islamic countries and the West and is head of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

All praise due to Obama.

Presidents Behaving Strangely [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

At some point (like now) it’s appropriate to ask Barack Hussein Obama “what can you be thinking?”

12/6/11

'Obama urging US lawmakers to soften Iran sanctions'

By REUTERS

Senator Mark Kirk, co-author of proposal approved 100-0 by Senate to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, says Obama administration trying to undermine sanctions.

Dan, I beg to differ. This isn't 'strange' behavior on the part of President Obama.

He's doing precisely what he was taught to do.

Media Struggle To Keep Their 'Narrative' Alive [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Here’s a rather factual news story from the UK's Telegraph reporting the rise of the Islamist bloc in the wake of Egyptian elections. It's headlined Egypt elections: Islamists seize two-thirds of votes.

But let's review the last paragraph and the Muslim Brotherhood line spoon-fed and eagerly swallowed by the Telegraph’s reporter. See if you can stop yourself from laughing.

###

Seeking to allay the fears of Egyptian liberals, Essam el-Erian, the deputy leader of the Freedom and Justice party, said: “We represent a moderate and fair party. We want to apply the basics of Sharia law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights.”

The ludicrous Bill Kristol hardest hit.

Absolute Must Watch: The Anti-Israel President

You'll get chills watching this.

Click here to pass it on.


Via: Right Scoop.

It's official: we're in the midst of Jimmy Carter's second term

Welcome back, Carter! Does this scene look familiar?

Regarding Iran, remember when then-presidential candidate Obama's website read as follows: "Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions"?

That kind of tough talk really showed the Mullahs, eh?

In related news, I believe I've come up with an excellent proxy for the level of economic distress felt around the world thanks to our feckless Democrat leaders. I call it O-FAIL, which stands for the Obama Financial Anxiety Index Level™.

O-FAIL takes all of the world's instability, hysteria, deficit spending, money printing, fears of energy disruption, terrorism and war -- and encapsulates them into a single, easy-to-understand number.

The higher O-FAIL gets, the worse things are around the world. Check out the O-FAIL index. You can see that over the past couple of years, immediately after the election of Barack Obama, it began going parabolic.

O-FAIL is also known as the price of gold.

The last time it was this high, in inflation-adjusted terms, one James Earl Carter was President.

Carter's second term -- confirmed.


Update: SCOAMF's Gallup Job Approval Falls Below Carter's!

A Love Letter to Ahmedinejad

"Do me a favor. Don't be a good neighbor to her anymore. Or I'll send you a love letter... [shouting] ...straight from my heart, f***er! Do you know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a f***ing gun, f***er! You receive a love letter from me, and you're f***ed forever! You understand, f***? I'll send you straight to hell, f***er!" --Frank Booth in the motion picture Blue Velvet

From these lips to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's ear:

Rogue states with nascent nuclear weapon programs (cough, Iran, cough), consider yourselves on notice. The Air Force has started taking delivery of Massive Ordnance Penetrators. Yup, the 30,000-pound bunker busters, known as MOPs, designed to penetrate 30 stories of reinforced concrete (Oh, and the massive bomb’s name is almost as charged as the term, Pre-Dawn Vertical Insertion, if you get what I’m sayin.)

The service apparently got its first production MOP in September and has been stockpiling them ever since. That’s a decent turnaround since April when the Air Force gave Boeing a $28 million contract to deliver eight MOPs and their associated loading equipment. The service gave Boeing a follow-on $32 million contract for eight more MOPs in August. No word on why that deal cost an extra $4 million when it appears otherwise identical to the April contract.

The Air Force has modified several B-2 stealth bombers to carry two of the GPS-guided bombs, apiece. This pretty much tells you all you need to know about the type of mission the MOP will be used for; a super bunker-buster carried by our most survivable heavy bomber. It’s meant to threaten nations like Iran and North Korea with the prospect of an air strike that can take out their most hardened targets.

I’ve got to say, this is pretty timely, given the recent flood of publicity surrounding Iran’s alleged progress toward building a nuclear weapon. While the MOP is big and costly, the West may have more subtle ways of putting kinetic pressure on states like Iran.

God Bless Our Troops This Thanksgiving Day and Those Who Support Them*.


*The delusional Ron Paul hardest hit

The Truth About Ron Paul: Delusional, Power-Hungry and Dangerous

Interviewed on Neal Cavuto's Fox News show this afternoon, GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul claimed that "a third of the crowd was with me last night [at the debate] and more than a third of the country is with my ideas."

Really?

So a third of the country agrees with:

• A man who claims that bloodthirsty Islamist terrorists are morally equivalent to Americans?

• A man who vocally encourages the despicable 9/11 Truther movement?

• A man who embraces virulent anti-semites and is inspired by those who despise Jews?

• A man whose foreign policy prescriptions are so "far left" that they are outright dangerous?

• A man whose strongest supporters vilify Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Ed Meese, Sarah Palin, etc.?

• A man who despises Israel, a beacon of freedom in an otherwise barbaric Middle East?

• A man so power-hungry that he refuses to rule out a third-party run, which would very likely help reelect Barack Obama?

Jeffrey Lord offers the quintessential summary of Ron Paul for conservatives:

The Ron Paul campaign is really about re-educating America to what can only be called Neoliberalism. Which, based on the evidence and writings of its supporters, appears to be a thin gruel of free markets and non-interventionism seasoned heavily with anti-Semitism, morally obtuse Neo-Confederates, and an outspoken contempt for both conservatism and conservative leaders past and present.

Mexican drug cartels now operating freely in the U.S., thanks to the staunch border security efforts of the Obama administration

Courtesy of the peerless Borderland Beat, may I present more evidence that our beloved baritone DHS chief -- Janet Napolitano -- was correct when she asserted that the border was "as secure as it's ever been"?

Which is to say, it's as insecure as ever, thanks to a very public campaign to promote illegal immigration by the Holder Justice Department and the Obama administration.

• Mexican Zeta Cartel Members Arrested in Chicago on Various Drug Trafficking Charges:

CHICAGO – Twenty defendants are facing federal narcotics charges here, including five alleged members of a Chicago-based cell of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel who were responsible for transporting millions of dollars in drug proceeds between Chicago and Mexico, federal law enforcement officials announced today...

...A joint investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in the charges, as well as accumulated seizures during 2010 of more than $12.4 million cash and approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area...

• Drug Cartels Operating out of Dallas:

Federal agents say Dallas is a hub for the Mexican drug cartels... "We've listened, through wire taps, and we know the organizations' commanding control cell are talking to commanding control cells in Mexico - directly to the trafficking cartel heads," says Drug Enforcement Agency Agent James Capra.

Capra says the Gulf Cartel, La Familia, and the Sinaloa Cartel all have a presence in Dallas... The drug mules who carried loads in for the cartels are living in Dallas as well. Moises Albino Castillo was one of those mules... "I traveled as a drug mule three times. I brought in 15 kilos of marijuana on my back two times," he says.

...Capra tells us drug dealers are willing to establish themselves through violence in Dallas... "We do know that in the past two years, there's been 12 different homicides that we've actually tracked back to drug trafficking groups," he says... It's all part of the cartels' plans to move their drugs through the Valley to Dallas and then to the rest of America.

Now I'd like you to consider these stories with the following context, as reported little more than a week ago:

• Immigration agents ordered not to arrest illegal aliens, even those caught committing felonies:

Chris Crane, president of the union that represents the nation’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, has provided the House Judiciary Committee [with] internal ICE emails [that] verbally ordered officers in the field not to arrest illegal aliens who did not have prior criminal convictions--even if they were fugitives evading deportation orders or were individuals who had illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and were thus committing a felony.

“Increasingly, ICE headquarters leadership refuses to put directives to supervisors, agents and officers in the field regarding law enforcement operations in writing... Orders and directives are given orally to prevent the activities of ICE's leadership from becoming public,” Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council 118, testified. “Agents and officers in the field are frequently under orders not to arrest persons suspected of being in the United States illegally.

And our border remains wide open with states that dare to enforce existing immigration law targeted by the Obama administration.

There's something very sickening about this perversion of the American legal system. And someday, hopefully very soon, Eric Holder will be facing the criminal charges he so richly deserves.

Another Day, Another Massacre in Syria

Caution: extremely graphic footage.

Just to keep everything straight in my mind... as I understand it, the Obama Doctrine consists of the president staying completely silent on:

...murders of peaceful protesters by Iran's vicious dictators
...murders of peaceful protesters by Syria's vicious dictator
...the Occupy kooks who riot, rape, pillage and otherwise erode the civil society
...Iran's continual threats to wipe America and Israel "off the face of the Earth"
...murders of Christian Copts by "freedom-loving" Egyptians
...incessant rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel
...the continued build-out of Iran's nuclear weapons program
...murders of Libyan civilians by the late, unlamented dictator Gaddafi
...the transit of the Suez Canal by Iranian warships in an outright provocation of Israel
...Iranian military personnel operating with impunity in Venezuela on missile technology
...a failed narco-terror state descending into civil war on our unprotected southern border
...being found in Contempt of Court by a federal judge over the Gulf drilling moratorium
...defying a de facto injunction by a federal judge who threw out all of Obamacare
...the union thugs who have issued countless threats against Governor Walker

However, the president is willing to courageously speak out on:
...How our Egyptian ally should step down
...Israel's construction of apartments in its capital city
...How awesome unions are for Wisconsin
...How awesome the economic recovery is
...How awesome all of the new green jobs he's saved or created are

Crystal clear.

World War IV? Secret German Report Details a Super-EU Able to 'Take Over Economies of Eurozone Countries'

The Telegraph reports that Germany's leaders have laid down a secret contingency plan for hostile economic takeovers of sovereign members of the EU.

And what could possibly go wrong with that? Besides, of course, a failed Viennese artist with a tiny mustache, a world war, and tens of millions dead?

[A] leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries.

It discloses that the EU’s largest economy is also preparing for other European countries, which are too large to be bailed out, to default on their debts — effectively going bankrupt. It will prompt fears that German plans to deal with the eurozone crisis involve an erosion of national sovereignty that could pave the way for a European “super state” with its own tax and spending plans set in Brussels...

...The eurozone contagion is threatening to spread to Spain and France... The six-page German foreign ministry paper sets out plans for the creation of a European Monetary Fund with a transfer of sovereignty away from member states.

The fund will have the power to take ailing countries into receivership and run their economies. Even more controversially, the document, entitled The future of the EU: required integration policy improvements for the creation of a Stability Union, declares that the treaty changes are a first stage “in which the EU will develop into a political union”. “The debate on the way towards a political union must begin as soon as the course toward stability union is charted,” it concludes.

The EU is dead: its leaders just refuse to acknowledge what everyone else in the world knows. It allowed countries to violate their terms of membership, it facilitated outrageous amounts of debt, and it helped promote the contamination of the entire world financial system.

The fuse was lit long ago. The only question is how many weeks (not months) it will all take to implode.

Outrage: Family of Brian Terry Receives Eric Holder's Apology For Fast and Furious AFTER Politico Publishes It

One of the most stunning revelations to arise during Eric Holder's testimony last week regarding Operation Fast and Furious was the fact that the DOJ had never issued an apology to the family of Brian Terry. The Border Patrol agent met his demise courtesy of Holder's Orwellian plan to demonize American gun-owners, and was but one victim among hundreds.

In fact, during his testimony, the embattled Attorney General refused to apologize to the family.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn asked Holder if he has apologized to Terry’s family for what happened to him because of the DOJ’s controversial program. Holder replied that he hasn’t.

“I have not apologized to them, but I certainly regret what happened,” Holder said.

Cornyn followed up, asking if Holder has “even talked to them.”

“I have not,” Holder replied.

Cornyn offered Holder the opportunity to apologize to Terry’s family, during the hearing, for his murder. “Would you like to apologize today for this program that went so wrong and that took the life of a United States law enforcement agent?”

Holder expressed his sadness without apologizing.

Fearing a public relations debacle after his testimony, Holder issued an apology shortly thereafter.

But a family friend of the Terry's told The Daily Caller that Holder's belated apology appeared in Politico before the family had seen it.

Politico reported Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder sent a “private letter” to the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, apologizing for his death. But friends of the Terry family question the Department of Justice’s apparent decision to leak that letter to media before both his parents had read it.

...friends of the Terry family told The Daily Caller on Thursday that they haven’t received it...

...If what [they] said is true, either Holder never sent his “private letter” to Terry’s parents or someone at the Justice Department leaked it to Politico before its recipients received it.

A follow-up story indicated that Terry's sister had received an email apology prior to Politico's publication. That said, other family members -- including the parents -- had not seen the email prior to its online publication.

Consider: Holder had never apologized to the family of Brian Terry until he was forced to do so -- through sheer embarrassment -- by the House Judiciary Committee. Holder then sent an email apology, not even a written letter, to one of the family members. And without even waiting for it to get to Terry's parents, Holder then released the letter to the DNC's online public relations arm -- Politico -- in the hopes that it would absolve him of the stain of his outrageous conduct.

Terry's parents still blame Holder for their son's death.

Given the A.G.'s record of fabrications, deflections, misdirections, and outright lies regarding Fast and Furious, it's clear that only a Special Prosecutor will be able to discover the truth regarding Eric Holder's lawless operation.

Obama Making The World Safe For Political Islam [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Hillary Clinton gave a major foreign policy address on Monday articulating the Obama Administration’s updated policy toward the Arab uprisings, and it didn’t get the news coverage it deserved. That was probably to be expected, since her speech revealed a pronounced tilt toward the Islamists vying for political power after the “Arab Spring”, a tilt that will discomfit many Americans. Luckily, some people were paying attention. Here are two reactions from solid Middle East analysts with disparate viewpoints and approaches who both reacted to Hillary’s remarks with similar raised eyebrows.

This is actually very important, especially if you are concerned about where Obama is leading our country.

More Questions Than Answers in Secretary Clinton’s Remarks on the Arab Uprisings

One of the consequences of Secretary of State Clinton’s speech will be for people in the Middle East to conclude that the United States now endorses Islamist parties.

-- Robert M. Danin, Council on Foreign Relations, November 8, 2011

It’s Official: Obama Administration Promotes Islamist Regimes; Insists They are Moderate

But now there can be no doubt that Obama’s Middle East policy is engaged in what might be the biggest blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy.

-- Barry Rubin, PJ Media, November 8, 2011

I urge you click on the links and read both items. Then pass them on.

Israeli officials: Former UN atomic chief ElBaradei was an Iranian agent

Chalk this up as another U.N. success story. Dan from New York explains:

Apparently, when the findings of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear weapons program are compared to earlier reports crafted by “moderate” Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei, the obvious conclusion is that ElBaradei was working for the Mullahs. ElBaradei has since moved on. He’s now one of the leading candidates vying to be Egypt’s president.

###

ynetnews.com, 11/9/11

Israeli officials: ElBaradei an Iranian agent

Senior state officials accuse former IAEA chairman of covering up for Islamic Republic during his term, allowing Iranians to move ahead with nuclear program while playing for time. 'He is a despicable person,' one of them says.

Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency report stating that Iran has been working on developing a nuclear weapon design proves that the former UN nuclear watchdog chairman "was an Iranian agent".

The former IAEA chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, is an Egyptian diplomat who even won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

For years he defended the Iranian nuclear program, claiming that it was peaceful, thus allowing the Iranians to continue their activity with the nuclear watchdog's seal of approval.

According to one of the state officials, the new report published Tuesday proves "just how much he was working for the Iranians.

"He simply rescued Iran and was constantly busy covering up for them, causing serious damage by allowing the Iranians to fool the entire world and play for time. History may judge him as the person who helped Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.

"The things exposed now are not new. These are old things which were hidden and not published," the official added. "Now it turns out that ElBaradei led an active policy of concealment and disregard. This is very serious. He is a despicable person."

"ElBaradei didn't just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world," added Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Agency. "He was dishonest his entire term. He is the one who stopped the Security Council from imposing serious sanctions, providing the Iranians with precious time."

Gee, after the multi-billion dollar Oil-for-Food scandal; the IPCC Global Warming Bunko Scam; mass-murder in Darfur; the Rwandan genocide; accusations of rape and child pornography in the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, and Sudan; and ties to a North Korean counterfeiting operation, who could have suspected a corrupt U.N. was helping the Iranians acquire nukes?


Related: "The Atomic Mahdi."

Reading the Tea Leaves [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Lots of firecrackers going off simultaneously right now hinting at greater pyrotechnics to come.

On Sunday, I noted that Israel's "Mr. Peace" is warning of war, a link to a story in which Israel’s president, uber dove Shimon Peres, warns that "A military strike on Iran is growing more likely than the diplomatic option." Today comes news that Israel’s #2 man, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, not only seconded Peres, he went a step further. As the JPost reports, “Addressing the IAEA report, the reported contents of which have been leaked to various international newspapers in recent days, Barak said, ‘we've known these things for years. ... ‘We know more [about Iran] than The Washington Post knows and we know more than the IAEA does,’ he added.” Read about that in “Barak not optimistic about international will to stop Iranian nukes.”

Of course, no situation analysis is complete without taking into account the psychological dimension. So here we have Jewicidal far-left Haaretz columnist, Akiva Eldar, writing in full panic mode beseeching Obama, a foreign head of state, “to stop the duo of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, before it is too late.”

Then there are anecdotes I’ve received from Israel indicating that as of late the Home Front Command has been helping the general populace prepare for trouble.

Lastly, there’s this question raised by the National Review: "Why Won’t Obama Sanction Iran’s Financial Lifeblood?"

I think all visible signs indicate the Israelis aren’t waiting around for the answer. But I could be reading the signals wrong. Israel may yet decide to placate the West, avoid “destabilizing the region” and do what it’s told: put its future in the hands of the Mad Mullahs in a grand gesture of self-sacrifice.

That’s always good for a slap on the back from the U.S. president and a front page obituary in the New York Times.

Stay tuned. Say a prayer. We shall see.

For the background story, please see "The Atomic Mahdi."

Shock: Militant Quakers Kill 70 In Nigeria

Did I say Militant Quakers? I meant radical Islamists.

Residents fearfully left their homes Saturday to bury their dead in northeast Nigeria following a series of coordinated attacks that killed at least 67 people and left a new police headquarters in ruins, government offices burned and symbols of state power destroyed.

A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks in Borno and Yobe states, with the worst damage done in and around the city of Damaturu [where] a car bomb exploded Friday afternoon outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks, killing many uniformed security agents, Bulama said.

Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a bank and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble... Two suicide bombers detonated explosives inside vehicles in the nearby city of Maiduguri on Saturday night... Bulama said Nigerian Red Cross statistics showed at least 63 people died in and around Damaturu. Sambo said government estimates suggested as many as 70 people could be dead there.

...Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north. Its name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, but instead of schooling, it rejects Western ideals like Nigeria's U.S.-styled democracy that followers believe have destroyed the country with corrupt politicians.

...An AP count shows the group has killed at least 327 people this year alone.

It's safe to say that CAIR is right when they say that their political system is a "religion of peace."