Legacy

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed the Community Redevelopment Act (or CRA) into law. As a result of "national grassroots pressure for affordable housing", it forced banks to underwrite risky mortgage loans in order to meet the needs of "the entire community."

In 1995 the Clinton administration strengthened the regulations of the Community Redevelopment Act. The CRA enabled consumers to secure mortgages with "no verification of income or assets; little consideration of the applicant's ability to make payments; [and] no down payment."

As the mortgage industry grew, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (government-sponsored entities, or GSEs) became a kind of "jobs program for out-of-work Democrats".

Clinton administration friends and staffers managed the GSEs including Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Jamie Gorelick and Rahm Emmanual. This small group of executives paid themselves nearly $200 million in only six years' time.

The Democratic executives kept journalists and Republicans at bay by spending "close to $150 million on lobbying" in ten years.

Chris Dodd (head of the Senate Banking Committee), Barack Obama and John Kerry were the top three recipients of Fannie's money, together collecting around $360,000.

Over this same time-frame during President Clinton's tenure, the U.S. suffered through a seemingly endless series of terrorist attacks that were treated as "law enforcement" issues.

The attack on the USS Cole was the eighth consecutive unanswered terrorist attack on American interests during the Clinton administration.

The attacks culminated in 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in history. It smashed a United States blinded by the Clinton administration's artificially erected "wall" between the military and intelligence communities.

After the 1996 election, the Clinton administration also came under fire for accepting campaign donations from operatives of the People's Republic of China.

Persons who appeared to be agents of the Chinese government funneled contributions to the Democratic National Committee in direct violation of US election law.

The resulting investigation was hampered significantly because nearly 100 witnesses either refused to be questioned, pled the Fifth Amendment against self incrimination, or left the country altogether. Even so, 22 people were convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the U.S. elections.

Operative Johnny Chung, allegedly using money from the Chinese army, gave more than $500,000 to Democrats at the same time Clinton was approving a controversial transfer of satellite launch technology to China.

Let's not forget Clinton's 1994 veto of a bill that would have opened up a small segment of Alaska's ANWR region to oil exploration. At the time, Sen. Chuck Schumer said, "If we started drilling in ANWR today we wouldn't have a drop of oil for ten years." That was fourteen years ago.

Say, that's quite a legacy. But can America really afford another Clinton or Carter presidency?

McCain-Palin 2008.

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Lines o' the day: Obama votes present on the economy and Iran

I've got several winners. Let's start with The Anchoress:

Obama, Empty suit. Untruthful, blithering empty suit with too many dubious connections. Ask him about the AIG bailout, he votes “present.” If Palin had answered as he did, she’d be excoriated as “stupid” and “not ready.” But he’s The One. Put him in the WH with a Dem controlled Congress and a few judges to name to the SCOTUS and you can just turn out the lights.

Number Two: Iran's president prepares for his visit to New York:

Speaking to reporters at a press conference ahead of his visit to New York, Ahmadinejad also repeated previous anti-Israel comments, calling the Holocaust by Nazi Germany a "fake."

The Iranian President stated that the Jewish state wouldn't survive in any form.

He smirked at a former mantra of the Israeli right of a "Greater" Israel that would include occupied Palestinian territories, saying that while "some say the idea of Greater Israel has expired, I say the idea of a Lesser Israel has expired, too."

Number three: John McCain describes the ramifications of the protest against Iran's nutjob "president" Mahmoud Ahma-asshat (I think that's the way his name is spelled). There's an anti-Iran rally scheduled for Monday and Hillary Clinton was invited. When she found out that Sarah Palin was also invited, she instantly dropped out. Reportedly, the George Soros (a prime backer of MoveOn.org) and Barack Obama teams then swung into action and pressured the rally organizer to disinvite Palin. John McCain's response?

Regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under pressure from Democratic partisans. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Republicans, Democrats and independents alike to oppose Ahmadinejad's goal of a nuclear armed Iran. Senator Obama's campaign had the opportunity to join us. Senator Obama chose politics rather than the national interest.

Number four: EIB describes the ramifications of the botched rally against Ahmedinejad:

...if the Democrat Party and its extreme kook fringe cannot even unify, if we can't stand as one against the threat by Iran, then what the hell can we unify on? Why the hell should we be worried about the crossing the aisle and trying to break bread, make contact, find some sort of commonality with people like this, who would rather embarrass Sarah Palin and deny her a chance to show up and protest Iran or this group, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, what is there that we have in common with these people? How do you compromise with people who hate the country? How do you compromise with people who want this country to lose military conflicts? The Soros crowd, the far left, how do you compromise with them? Why do you want to walk across the aisle and meet 'em halfway or even partial way? Why don't you instead just want to wipe 'em out politically?

Number five: Jennifer Rubin, writing at Pajamas Media:

But Barack Obama may have been the biggest loser on a number of fronts... Obama is after all struggling to overcome skepticism in the Jewish community. His past affiliation with Palestinian groups, his flip-flop on an “Undivided Jerusalem,” his coterie of advisors who have made troubling comments regarding Israel or America Jews have given pause to some Jews, the vast majority of whom have voted Democratic in presidential elections.  The fact that partisan politics by Obama’s allies — and perhaps his own campaign — submarined an event in defense of both U.S. and Israeli interests will not go unnoticed. Many will ask: “Is bumping Palin off the stage more important than standing up to Ahmadinejad?” It seems so.

Number six: Barack Obama's website, describing his tough stance on Iran.

Diplomacy: Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. Now is the time to pressure Iran directly to change their troubling behavior. Obama and Biden would offer the Iranian regime a choice. If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization, economic investments, and a move toward normal diplomatic relations. If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation. Seeking this kind of comprehensive settlement with Iran is our best way to make progress.

Obama appears to be doing his best to live up to the nom de guerre long assigned to the Democrats: Party of Weakness.

His pathetic, feeble statement is sure to have Mahmoud and Khameini quaking in their boots. No wonder Iran's proxy -- the terrorist group Hamas -- endorsed Obama.

Update: Jewish groups were threatened with the loss of their tax-exempt status if they invited Palin to speak at the anti-Ahmadinejad rally. But ACORN is still tax-exempt?

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The Secret War with Iran

By turns Intriguing and terrifying excerpts from a new book by Ronen Bergman (hat tip: Charles Johnson).

In August 2007, because certain intelligence agencies were not convinced of Israeli claims that President Bashar Assad was engaged in the construction of a nuclear weapons facility, Israel sent sent 12 members of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit into Syria in two helicopters to collect soil samples outside the site in question.

Needless to say, this was a highly dangerous operation. And it very nearly went wrong. The commandos were almost exposed when a Syrian patrol drove past the landing site where the helicopters were parked.

But it was well worth it. The results provided "clear-cut proof" of the nuclear project," ... A month later, Israel bombed the site, and in so doing reemphasized the Begin Doctrine - Israel's insistence that, for the sake of its own survival, it will not allow the deployment by hostile neighbors of weapons that might be used to destroy it...

[The] Syria's nuclear facility - whose purpose he states unambiguously was "the production of plutonium for the manufacture of atomic bombs" and whose construction, he reports, was a tripartite endeavor: "At a series of secret meetings between representatives of the three sides, held mainly in Teheran, it was decided that Syria would supply the territory, Iran the money [$1 billion-$2b.], and North Korea the expertise..."

...The raid on Syria marked an important reassertion of Israeli military capability. The killing of Hizbullah terror chief Mughniyeh in the heart of the Syrian capital in February - for which no party has claimed responsibility - should also have sent a certain deterrent message. The defection to the CIA of top Iranian intelligence adviser Gen. Ali Reza Askari last year was another success.

...Bergman also lists a series of sabotage operations that have prevented Iran from being even closer still to the bomb: A leading expert on electromagnetics who worked at Iran's Isfahan enrichment facility found dead at his home last year, and reports of an explosion at his laboratory; three or four planes crashing inside Iran in 2006 and 2007 with personnel connected to the security of the nuclear project on board; insulation units for the centrifuge enrichment process discovered to be unusable; various explosions caused by faulty equipment at the main Natanz facility and at Isfahan, including the wrecking of 50 centrifuges when two transformers blew up at Natanz in 2006. In language presumably negotiated painstakingly with the censor, the last of these incidents is attributed to "efforts implemented jointly with the United States."

...The latest information... is that some 3,000 centrifuges, in 18 cascades, are now enriching uranium, "under great technical difficulties," at Natanz. Nearby, the Iranians are building a plant to hold another 30,000 to 50,000 centrifuges - and building it underground to ensure no repeat of Israel's successful raid on Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak. Already, Natanz is protected by no fewer than 26 anti-aircraft missile batteries, and this and other of its nuclear facilities, he writes (despite others' claims to the contrary), already have the advanced Russian-made S-300 missiles among their defenses.

Meanwhile, at the Parchin military complex, notwithstanding the complacent conclusion of the NIE last year, the Iranians are hard at work on the final phase of the journey to the bomb - having made "considerable progress" in mastering the process of emplacing enriched uranium into the device that starts the devastating chain reaction. They are also making headway, Bergman writes, "in acquiring the expertise required to manufacture nuclear warheads that can be fitted to their missiles..."

...[The book] makes for a horrifying read. Essentially, his book demonstrates an ongoing incapacity - by Israel, the US and the rest of the free world, but, critically, featuring Israel as the first potential casualty - to internalize the extent of the Iranian threat and act effectively to thwart it. The powers that are faced off against expansionist Islam have consistently underestimated the cunning, viciousness and determination of the chief state sponsor of that ideology, Iran, and its various offshoots, proxies and allies, notably including Hizbullah and Hamas.

Time and again, Western weakness, capitulation and inaction has emboldened Islamic extremism. Between 1980 and 1997, for instance, Iran assassinated close to 200 "dissidents" in attack after attack across Europe, and European nations, on the whole, barely lifted a finger to stop them. Why would Iran not be emboldened?

..."Iran and Hizbullah are more sophisticated, effective and determined adversaries than Israel and the United States have previously encountered in the Middle East. These new enemies, the Shi'ites of Iran and Lebanon, have repeatedly outwitted Israel and the West, beating them across the board in politics, in intelligence gathering and in war."

Now Iran is on the brink of attaining the ultimate tool for expanding the Islamic Revolution, the nuclear bomb, and still the international community hesitates and bickers and even undermines its own ineffectual trade sanctions.

Ten years ago, Dr. Iftikhar Khan Chaudry, a former research officer in Pakistan's nuclear project, sought political asylum in the United States, claiming he would be killed if he returned home. In his affidavit, which was found to be credible and led to his being granted the refuge he sought, he detailed how A.Q. Khan had marketed Pakistan's nuclear expertise and materials to clients including Libya, Iraq and North Korea, exposing the clandestine network for the first time... [Chaudry was] present when five Iranian scientists visited Pakistan at the start of the partnership. The Iranians were "introduced to the method in which uranium is processed for the purpose of creating a nuclear bomb... It is also apparent that Iran intends to utilize a nuclear weapon - in the future, when a nuclear weapon would be operational - against the State of Israel..."

The world must act before the Middle East is set afire.

And if anyone thinks Barack Obama would proactively use military force to stop Iran before it launches an apocalypse, they are living in a fantasy world. Nothing Obama has ever said or done would indicate he understands the stakes: how to handle a nation bent on nuclear martyrdom.

A simple example may be found in Obama's fumbled, three-days-in-the-making response to the Georgian Crisis, which some in the press called "Carter-esque" and "Watery".

Obama... threatened [Russia] with a UN resolution (which Russia can stop with its veto), and-even worse--pointed out how impolite it was to invade another country now, in violation of the Olympic spirit...

How could Obama defend an Israeli action against Hizbullah, Hamas, or Syrian rockets-or an Iranian Holocaust-bomb? Anyway, how often has the UN lifted a finger to protect the sovereignty of its members-especially Israel? The UN won't even condemn the 8,000 cross-border rocket attacks on Israeli territory from Gaza, or enforce disarmament of an increasingly lethal Hizbullah, as required by the UN's own Resolution 1701.

Obama's staff was even worse. Instead of chastising Russia for invading and bombing civilians, his team criticized... McCain. Susan Rice, Obama's top foreign policy advisor (in line to become his National Security Advisor), went on Hardball to suggest McCain himself was responsible for some of the escalation of violence, accusing McCain of "shooting from the hip" and claiming McCain's "very aggressive, very belligerent statement" may have "complicated the situation."

[Obama's] lack of moral clarity, discomfort with America's role as leader and defender of the free world, and weak grasp of right and wrong in foreign hotspots is disturbing. It is Carter-esque, which invites aggression from troublemaking countries who act against our allies when they do not fear American repercussions.

It is no time to have an amateur in the White House.

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Dutch Report: Attack on Iran due in a matter of weeks

Brian at Snapped Shot reports an ominous story by Joost de Haas en Bar Mos (Der Telegraaf -- Netherlands). The machine translation:

The Dutch intelligence service AIVD has in recent years [executed] a top secret operation carried out in Iran with the aim of infiltration and sabotage of the armaments industry in the Islamic republic...

The operation [was] described as extremely successful [and] was recently discontinued in connection with plans for an imminent U.S. air strike on Iran.

...Tehran is suspected of [building] an atomic bomb and refuses to comply with the requirements of the West to stop enriching uranium.

...One of the agents, who under the supervision of the AIVD managed to infiltrate into the Iranian industry, [was] recently recalled in the U.S. because the decision would be taken within a few weeks with unmanned aircraft to attack Iran... Among the potential targets are allegedly not only nuclear plants, military installations but also partly caused by the AIVD have been identified...

...It involved parts for missiles and launching vehicles...

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'Jihad at Sunset'

Eagle-eyed Brian at Snapped Shot spotted this AFP advertisement for terrorism. Its helpful title? Jihad at Sunset.

He suggests another title for this masterpiece: Future IDF Target. If AFP doesn't like that one, how about Let's go kill some civilians!

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"Obama: Dangerously unprepared to be President"

John McCain's ads continue to hammer Barack Obama on his inexperience and verbal gaffes. This particular ad is called "Tiny", representing Obama's description of the threat posed by a nuclear Iran.

McCain's campaign didn't take my suggestion that they target ACORN with an ad entitled "Ask about our 'Crack-for-Votes' program!"

Hat tip: Powerline

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Iran says it will send a man into space

Iran's state television says that the Iranian space agency aims to send an astronaut to space within 10 years:

The report Thursday quotes Space Agency chief Reza Taghipoor saying the mission's timing will be decided over the next year. It gives no other details.

...Iran has stepped up its space ambitions in recent years, worrying world leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

I also hear they're having trouble getting volunteers.

While they've promised to send a man into space, they haven't committed to getting him back to Earth.

Update: LGF commenter MilkOfMalfeasance adds Iran says it will Photoshop a man into space.

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'Wake up and prepare for the war'

IOL (South Africa) reports that Al Qaeda's North African wing has issued a call for 'holy war' in Mauritania. The statement comes on the heels of a military coup that overthrew the government led by President Abdallahi.

"Raise the banner of jihad and let us bleed and have our limbs severed until we bring back a caliphate styled along the lines of the Prophet's way," the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abu Mus'ab Abd el-Wadoud, said in a statement posted on the Internet on Tuesday.

Abd el-Wadoud said the soldiers who toppled President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in the northwestern African state last week were probably acting upon a green light from "infidel states; America, France and Israel". "Wake up and prepare for the war."

Under the deposed president, Mauritania, which spans Arab and black Africa, was an ally of the United States in its war against al-Qaeda... An al-Qaeda attack on the Israeli embassy in February highlighted Mauritania's status as one of the few Arab countries with diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Tuesday's web statement condemned what it called "apostate regimes ruling the Islamic Maghreb ... that enslave their people (and) have always raised the banner of democracy in their fight against Islam, while people see that most of them assumed power through military coups," el-Wadoud said.

The United Nations issued a strongly-worded memo condemning the coup.

In related news, the AP reports that twin bombings in Algeria killed 11 people a day after a suicide bomber killed 43.

No group has claimed responsibility for either attack. The bombings, however, follow a string of violent attacks claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The extremist group started off as a local insurgency movement but has more recently tied up with Osama bin Laden's global terror network, adopting the al Qaeda name.

The group has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks against government and Western interests in Algeria. In December, near-simultaneous car bombs exploded outside United Nations offices and a government building in Algiers. The death toll in that attack was 41, including 17 U.N. workers. The group also claimed responsibility this month for a suicide attack on a police station in northern Algeria.

I believe that militant Quakers are likely behind this series of attacks.

Photos: Getty Images/AFP and ABC.Net Australia/AFP.

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Ukraine and Poland both want missile defense systems that Obama says are 'unproven'

Deutsche Welle reports that the Ukraine is prepared to join Poland in implementing the U.S. missile defense shield.

Perhaps it was the couple of dozen SS-21 Ballistic Short Range missiles that Russia fired into Georgia that convinced them.

Or the fact that Poland that was threatened with a "nuclear attack" by Russia if the former country implemented a missile shield.

You know, that's the same missile defense system that Senator Obama says is "unproven" and whose funding he promised to cut...

...the same missile defense system that 87% of Americans support in polling conducted by Opinion Research and CNN.

And the very same missile defense system that's achieved a 97% success rate since the decision to deploy was made in 2002.

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Irony-meter breaks: Iran blames Michael Savage for 'Islamophobia'

Iran's media claimed today that Michael Savage's radio show is "fueling Islamophobia in US" (no mention of Iran's stated plans for "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization" as a factor).

A recent lawsuit filed by radio host and author Michael Savage against Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is one of the latest acts of racism against Muslims in the United States... Savage, who is often criticized for his fascist and racist opinions, sued Washington-based CAIR for copyright infringement, saying the council had rebroadcast over four minutes from his radio show The Savage Nation on their website as an example of the bigotry and hatred against Muslims in the US.

The excerpts had placed the San Francisco-based host's hateful comments against Islam, Muslims and their holy book, Qur'an, on their website. Savage had also linked CAIR to terrorist organizations... However, the incident has indicated that there is a good deal of effort in US media to somehow make a connection between Islam and terrorism.

In his show, Savage linked CAIR with the September 11, 2001 attacks, proving that there are radio and TV programs which can freely express racist ideas just as there are magazines which freely publish insulting images of the Prophet of Islam and a Guantanamo Bay that desecrates the Qur'an... In line with Savage's accusations, the federal government has recently claimed that CAIR had once provided Hamas with $12 million in funds. Savage's claim was also backed by US Republican Sue Myrick, who says "Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States."

Her comments come while CAIR vice-chairman received the ACLU's 2003 Liberty's Flame Award 'for contributions to the advancement and protection of civil liberties...' ...It seems [Savage] has cleverly used the federal court as a means to attract more listeners to anti-Islam comments on talk shows such as his, which are backed by authorities as a sign of support for the so-called freedom of speech.

Interestingly, Iran's president Ahmadinejad's radio show seems just a tad more inflammatory than Savage's, because it promises the destruction of both America and Israel.

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years...

...Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable...

Shhh... no one tell the New York Times.

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Report: Clintons block release of 9/11 movie

The Los Angeles Times reports that a new documentary depicts how the Clintons blocked the release of the ABC docudrama Path to 9/11.

...a new documentary called "Blocking the Path to 9/11," to be given a screening tonight, makes the case that former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have pressured television and studio executives into quashing the DVD release of ABC's 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11." The privately financed documentary argues that the Clintons, who decried the original miniseries as a right-wing hatchet job, are out to salvage their political influence and legacy at the expense of free expression...

...Even before its network broadcast, "The Path to 9/11" sparked fierce opposition from Democratic leaders, who called on Disney, which owns ABC, to cancel the program. While those attempts eventually failed, ABC conceded to last-minute edits to the $40-million, five-hour miniseries, which aired over two nights.

The miniseries, written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, offered a fictionalized account of the government's bureaucratic missteps that led to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. The series, which earned seven Emmy nominations and drew a combined audience of about 25 million viewers, was seen as being especially critical of the Clinton administration for bungling efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

Compare and contrast:


In the months leading up to the 2004 Presidential Election, a major motion picture was released. Fahrenheit 9/11, a movie written and directed by Michael Moore, pilloried the Bush administration for its "unjust" actions in pursuing the war on terror.


While portrayed as a documentary, critics pointed out that Moore's movie contained more than 50 major inaccuracies. Democrat Ed Koch called the film, "propaganda" and Slate's Jack Shafer said, "no court would be inclined to find in Moore's favor if a critic accused him of lying once or twice or 12 times in Fahrenheit 9/11."


Despite all of the criticism, Moore was feted at Cannes and other major film festivals.


Moore was also honored with a Presidential Box seat at the Democratic National Convention along with ex-President Jimmy Carter.


By election day 2004, Moore's film had grossed around $120 million.


On August 21, 2006, ABC released the synopsis of its mini-series, "The Path to 9/11." The docu-drama is a "dramatization is based on The 9/11 Commission Report and other published sources and personal interviews."


The film portrays the events leading up to 9/11 in a dramatized fashion. Scenes include "...a plan to capture bin Laden and bring him to the U.S. to face justice [that] is never approved for action... [later] the simultaneous bombings of two U.S. embassies... push the Administration to respond with an ineffective missile strike that some think merely elevates bin Laden's stature in the Muslim world."


In 2004, the Washington Times reported that the Clinton administration had four opportunities to kill or capture Bin Laden and failed to act each time.


According to the Times, Sandy Berger -- Clinton's national security adviser -- worried, "if the plans failed and al Qaeda launched a counterattack, 'we're blamed.'"


Berger later admitted to stealing and destroying Top Secret documents related to "the Administration['s] knowledge - and inaction - regarding al Qaeda presence in the U.S. in 1999 and 2000... stolen were crucial notes in the margins of these drafts which reveal the thinking and agendas of the Clinton Administration relating to the mounting terrorist threat."

Richard Miniter discloses the real reasons why Berger risked his career and reputation to steal the 9/11 documents.

My informed sources suggest that what Berger destroyed were copies of the Millennium After-Action Review, a binder-sized report prepared by Richard Clarke in 2000—a year and half before the 9-11 attacks. The review made a series of recommendations for a tougher stance against bin Laden and terrorism. There are 13 or more copies of this report. But only one contains hand-written notes by President Bill Clinton. Apparently, in the margin beside the recommendations, Bill Clinton wrote NO, NO, NO next to many of the tougher policy proposals.

You can see why Clinton might be happy to see these records vanish down the memory hole... So Berger was stuffing in pants and socks and later shredding the evidence that President Clinton did not want to take a tougher line on bin Laden, following the 1998 attack on two U.S. embassies that killed 224 people (including 12 American diplomats).

[Now Hillary] makes Berger one of her top three foreign policy advisers... and I have a few questions:

Did she bring him aboard to reward him for his criminal destruction of classified material? Or did she sign him up because of his stellar record in fighting bin Laden in the late 1990s?

Bill Clinton's legacy and Hillary Clinton's hopes for the presidency rested on Berger's ability to purge the National Archives of the incriminating material.

In truth, the Clintons were unwilling to take any risks that would result in the capture or assassination of Bin Laden, presumably because it could have damaged their poll numbers.


Unembarrassed about these actions, Berger and other former administration officials have complained bitterly about ABC's film. Berger himself called one scene, "a total fabrication."


Democratic members of Congress have also requested the ABC alter or remove the film from distribution. The EIB Network reports that Democrats sent a, "...letter threatening ABC's license for their owned and operated television stations..."

The Democrats should be ashamed of themselves. But they won't be; and that's precisely why the party is coming apart at the seams. And the convention will demonstrate that in stark, ominous terms.

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The Middle East Crisis explained

Haven't seen a better summary than this:

I can’t fathom why there’s even any semblance of moral equivalence given between these two groups:

Group 1: We want to kill ALL of group 2.
Group 2: We don’t want to be killed by group 1.

(Group 2 is then EEEEVIL.)

Related: What really happened.

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Al Qaeda's 'Mata Hari'

Okay, perhaps ABC is prone to hyperbole. But this does seem somewhat... er... problematic for the peaceniks among us ("Officials believe arrested neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui is a danger to the U.S."):

When she was arrested in Afghanistan last month, Aafia Siddique allegedly had in her possession maps of New York, a list of potential targets that included the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the subway system and the animal disease center on Plum Island, detailed chemical, biological and radiological weapon information that has been seen only in a handful of terrorist cases, as well as a thumb drive packed with emails, ABC News has learned.

..."She is the most significant capture in five years," said former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who said she lives up to her reputation as an alleged terrorist 'Mata Hari.'

...Only a "handful" of captured alleged Al Qaeda associates have had the kind of detailed information on weapons of mass destruction that Siddique, who attended MIT as an undergraduate and earned her PhD in neuroscience at Brandeis, had in her handbag, multiple current and former US intelligence and law enforcement officials told ABC News.

US authorities are analyzing Siddique's saliva, hair, and fingernail scrapings to determine, if possible, what evidence they can find of any exposure to chemical, biological or radiological materials with potential use in weapons of mass destruction, sources said.

"Her education troubled us. We know that she's extremely bright. She's radicalized. We knew that she had been planning, or at least involved in the planning, of a wide variety of different operations, whether they involved weapons of mass destruction or research into chemical or biological weapons, whether it was a possible attempt on the life of the President," said Kiriakou...

"We knew that she was involved with a great deal and we had to bring her into custody."

When nabbed... on July 17th, she also had in her possession a one gigabyte digital media storage device - a thumb drive - whose contents included a large trail of emails that authorities are now poring over, sources said...

Those e-mails, a source involved in the investigation said, are between "what she described as 'units' and what we would call 'cells'." [Messages indicated] the possibility of "an attack" on Plum Island Disease Center, a secure US government facility off the tip of Long Island, New York where research into foot and mouth disease, swine fever and other animal pathogens is conducted by the Department of Agriculture and security is provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

...She has also been twice married; once to a nephew of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Her name reportedly rolled from KSM's lips when he was captured and interrogated [Ed: through H2O-boarding? Shhhh... don't tell the protesters who routinely waterboard themselves.] by US intelligence officers. She has also been linked to Adnan El Shukrijumah, a pilot and suspected al Qaeda member...

By the time of Siddique's capture last month, she had become something of a cause celebre among some human rights activists who believe she was "disappeared" five years ago by the Pakistani government, perhaps at the request of the United States...

They saw Siddique slumped over in a wheelchair, the result of having been shot twice with a nine millimeter side arm after she allegedly grabbed [an] M-4 Carbine and opened fire [on US officials].

I'd wager she's another militant Quaker bent on quihad!

Hat tip: STACLU

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