From Other Sites on the Line: 10 May 08

Talking Tough While Walking Backwards

Saniora calls on army to remove Hizbullah from the streets

Cross posted from Jerusalem Post.com
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627050539&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called on the nation's army Saturday to restore law and order across Lebanon and remove gunmen from the streets, accusing Hizbullah of staging an armed coup.


The dream of democracy in Lebanon has been dealt "a poisonous stab by the armed coup carried out by Hizbullah and its allies," he said, saying Beirut was an "occupied, besieged" city.

Addressing the army, he said: "I call on it once again to impose security on all, in all areas, deter the gunmen and immediately remove them from the street ... to restore normal life."

In his nationally televised speech, Saniora also said Lebanon could no longer tolerate Hizbullah having weapons - signaling that the US-backed government was toughening its stand against the Shiite opposition group despite its loss of ground in street fighting in Beirut.
RELATED Beirut shooting during funeral kills 2

But despite his tough talk, Saniora's embattled government appeared unable to move against Hizbullah or force the army to act. The army has stayed out of the fighting and has deployed troops in the last 24 hours.

Saniora also appeared to be retreating from the government decisions that triggered the street confrontation, offering a compromise that would effectively shelve them. The offer, however, was unlikely to be accepted by Hizbullah and its allies who have already rejected a similar compromise from Sunni majority leader Saad Hariri earlier.

Saniora's first comment since fighting erupted Wednesday came as conditions appeared to be mostly calm in Beirut's Muslim sector a day after Shiite gunmen swept through the area. Elsewhere around the country, however, violence appeared to be on the rise.
Some 25 people have died in four days of clashes.

In a Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the capital, a Shiite shopowner opened fire on a funeral procession, killing two and wounding six, police and witnesses said.

In a mountain town east of Beirut, Hizbullah accused a pro-government Druse group of kidnapping two of its members and killing them. A statement held Druse leader Walid Jumblatt "personally responsible" for the safety of a third Hizbullah man.

In Beirut's western Muslim sector, though, the focus of the fighting, most Hizbullah gunmen had pulled out leaving just small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets.

The funeral shooting and the reported kidnapping and execution underlined the state of lawlessness and the sharpened sectarian tensions that have engulfed the country since Sunni-Shiite fighting erupted in the capital's Muslim sector on Wednesday resulting in Hizbullah's takeover of Sunni neighborhoods.

Hizbullah moved Thursday to seize the Sunni neighborhoods of Beirut in a show of force after its leader Hassan Nasrallah accused the government of "declaring war" on his group when it declared the organization's communications network illegal and ordered the removal of the airport security chief for alleged ties to the group.

On Saturday, Beirutis cautiously ventured out in small numbers to streets held by both Lebanese troops and lingering bands of Shiite gunmen.

Beirut had a quiet night after the worst sectarian violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. But the violence moved outside the capital, leaving eight more people dead near the town of Aley late Friday. Another civilian died in the clashes in the southern city of Sidon.

Hizbullah has shut Lebanon's airport by barricading the road leading to it. The seaport also was closed.

From Other Sites on the Line: 9 May 08

Beirut: A Victory For the Dark Side?

Beirut has fallen under the yoke of Nasrallah militiamen. Hezbollah is once again flexing its muscles. What does it mean for Lebanon? What does it mean for the West? Here are two excellent and informative articles on these important new developments.

The first from Aurora at The Midnight Sun:
http://www.themidnightsun.org/?p=2447

BREAKING NEWS: The Dark Side has just burst down the dam.
A free, democratic country is falling under the steely fingers of totalitarian violence. Mayhem reigns.

God help those Lebanese who dream of a free country. I have heard from even a Muslim Lebanese how they hate and fear Hizbullah! And God help, all the more, our vulnerable Christian brothers and sisters in that place.

Beirut has fallen under the yoke of Nassrallah militiamen. A victory some are calling it. Hordes of militiamen running in the streets shooting at civilians and residential areas. TVs, newspapers and magazines are being closed down. Checkpoints are being built. Welcome to the new age, the age of Hezbollah iron grip!

Dream on! Hundreds or even thousands of militiamen cannot occupy a city. Pitiful street thugs will never close down free press and Tvs. Dream on, for today is the start of the end of what was once called a resistance, but now is only a milita, specialized in terror and blackmail, holding a whole city, and economy of the whole country hostages for some political gains.

Dream on! A battle is lost but the war rages on, where it should in our hearts in our minds and in our faith in a free, democratic and secular LEBANON!

Dream on Mr. Nassrallah…

Hat tip: Michael

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And more insightful analysis from Findalis' Monkey in the Middle:
http://findalismonkeyinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/05/has-hezbollah-bitten-off-more-than-it.html

Has Hezbollah Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew?

Beirut, was once called the Paris of the Arab World .
A city that was cosmopolitan, vibrant and dynamic. A city that was once renowned for its press, theaters and cultural activities. A city that was the intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist center until 1975 when civil war broke out. This once jewel is now in flames.

The last time Beirut was in flames was during the Second Lebanese War in 2006. Then the IAF flew hundreds of sorties over Beirut, destroying Hezbollah targets, and causing major damage to Beirut's infrastructure.

This time the destruction is being caused by Hezbollah in an attempt to wrest control of the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah first emerged during the Lebanese Civil War in the early 1980s as a militia of Shia followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini, trained, organized and funded by a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In its 1985 manifesto Hezbollah listed its three main goals as the eradication of Western colonialism in Lebanon, the bringing to justice of those who committed atrocities during the war (specifically the Phalangists), and the establishment of an Islamic government in Lebanon.


Hezbollah has popular support in Shi'a Lebanese society and has mobilized demonstrations of hundreds of thousands. Hezbollah receives its financial support mainly from the donations of Lebanese Shi’ites. "According to frequent accounts in the western press, the group also receives considerable support from Iran and Syria", UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says. Syria openly supports and helps Hezbollah.

It was Hezbollah that was responsible for the 1983 US Embassy Bombing in Beirut. A total of 63 people were killed in the bombing: 32 Lebanese employees, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passersby. Of the American dead, eight worked for the Central Intelligence Agency including the CIA's top Middle East analyst and Near East director, Robert Ames, and the entire Middle East contingent of the CIA. An additional 120 or so people were wounded in the bombing.

It was Hezbollah that was responsible for the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombings. In the attack on the American barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and 3 Army soldiers. Sixty Americans were injured. In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured, in the single worst military loss for France since the end of the Algerian war.

Hezbollah was responsible for the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, the 1994 attack on a Jewish Center in Argentina, the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in 1985, numerous kidnappings, torture of prisoners, and attacks on Israel and Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah has not revealed its armed strength. It has been estimated that Hezbollah's military force is made up of about 1,000 full-time Hezbollah members, along with a further 6,000-10,000 volunteers.

Hezbollah organizes extensive social development programs, running hospitals, news services, and educational facilities. Social services have a central role in the party's programs. Most experts believe that Hezbollah's social and health programs are worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Thus they attempt to show to the Muslim population of Lebanon their kinder, gentler side.

Hezbollah was one of the major parties of the March 8 Alliance. This was formed in opposition to the Cedar Revolution that forced the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon. Hezbollah had joined the new government in 2005. In 2006 it demanded a national unity government in which they demanded early elections and one third of the Cabinet seats; effectively, veto power. When negotiations with the ruling coalition failed, five Cabinet Ministers from Hezbollah and Amal resigned their positions.
Hezbollah operates a satellite television station, al-Manar (The Beacon), a radio station al-Nour (The Light) and its own telephone network.

Now you ask what has caused today's temper tantrum.

A Lebanese government decision to declare Hizbullah's telecommunications network illegal amounts to a "declaration of war," the organization's leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday.

The US-backed government on Tuesday declared the military telecommunications network illegal and said it was a threat to state security. The government also said it would dismiss the security chief of the country's only international airport because he was suspected of ties to Iranian - and Syrian - Hizbullah.


Nasrallah vowed to fight any attempts to disarm Hizbullah members saying: "Those who try to arrest us, we will arrest them. Those who shoot at us, we will shoot at them. The hand raised against us, we will cut it off."


"The decision is tantamount to a declaration of war ... on the resistance and its weapons in the interest of America and Israel," Nasrallah said.

He offered a way out of latest crisis, saying the "illegitimate" government must revoke its decisions against Hezbollah.

He said the telecommunications network was "the most important part of the weapons of the resistance" and added Hizbullah had a duty to defend those weapons.


"I am not declaring war. I am declaring a decision of self-defense," he said. The government has "crossed all the red lines. We will not be lenient with anyone."

Nasrallah who commands Hezbollah from the safety and security of Damascus, who sends his children to school in England, cries foul when the Lebanese government finally start to crack down on them.

Hezbollah wants one thing. Total control of Lebanon. To create an Islamic Republic of Lebanon. This state would give Hezbollah total control of the Lebanese military. Its tanks, artillery, and planes. It would give Iran a puppet state on Israel's northern border, to match the puppet state now on Israel's southern border in Gaza.

With 2 puppet states so close to Israel, there would be nothing to stop Iran from attacking Israel either directly, through their proxies or both. A nightmare scenario of an nuclear attack from Iran compounded with attacks from both Lebanon and Gaza.


Hezbollah claimed victory after 2006, saying that it defeated Israel and won that war. Israel's response was the Winograd Commission. Its finding shook the IDF to its core and forced the IDF to make drastic changes to its training programs. The IDF of today is not the one that Hezbollah faced in 2006. It has corrected the mistakes it made.

While the upcoming scenario for the next Lebanese/Israeli war is not yet written, this recent outbreak of violence in Lebanon does make it more inevitable if Hezbollah would seize control of the Lebanese government.
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A note from Radarsite: As we all know, we are engaged in a war of ideas. To win this war we need reliable information and good intelligence. We are grateful to authors such as our friends Aurora and Findalis for their diligent research and their pertinent analysis. We are fighting naked evil, and for the sake of everything we hold dear, we must win. - rg

Latest update from Findalis' Monkey in the Middle:

Yesterday fighting broke out in Beirut. Hezbollah started taking over Sunni neighborhoods and closed the airport off. Today Hezbollah controls 1/2 of Beirut. Although they are handing the neighborhoods they control over to the Lebanese Army, make no doubt that they are in charge.

And what is the Lebanese Army doing? Nothing! They stand by and watch their nation becoming an Iranian puppet. Are their officers afraid that if they try to stop Hezbollah when the takeover is complete they will be taken out and shot? Yes. For that is the modus operandi of terror groups when they conquer a nation. So they sit back and watch, praying for a miracle, but doing nothing to stop the violence.

Read the rest here:
http://findalismonkeyinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/05/lebanon-is-now-in-hezbollah-hands.html

From Other Sites on the Line: 8 May 08

Frontiers of the Human Spirit

Cross posted from Churchill's Parrot
http://churchillsparrot.blogspot.com/2008/05/frontiers-of-human-spirit.html

"To me the greatest issue in this part of the world is not deserting Israel."- Sir Winston Churchill

There is at present but one flag upon Earth’s moon; for only a society which values the liberty and enterprise this flag represents could achieve such a miracle. That flag yet stands alone, a colorful and defiant testament to human imagination against the cold, dead, vacuum of space.Here on earth, another such flag flies ore' a once desolate plain now fertile, thriving, and prosperous; for only a society which values the principles this flag represents could achieve such a miracle. That flag stands alone as well, a proud and defiant testament to human love, loyalty, and commitment against the murderous chaos of hatred.

Sixty years ago that flag was raised for the first time among the others of the international community. Ever since, many in that community have sought to bring it back down. They say it is their hunger for justice which compels them, their rejection of an illegal puppet state foisted upon indigenous peoples, their indignation at the machinations of international power brokers who helped bring this state into being. These are lies, for the same case could be made against the majority of nation-states in that international community. What compels them is plainly and simply envy; puny, petty, pathetic, and murderous envy.

As the Qassam rockets continue to rain down upon her, as Syria and Hezbollah ever vow to once again attack her, as her allies and friends do little more than wag their fingers at her, we pray: stand tall proud Israel, for you are truly an icon of the very best humankind has to offer. What would it say of our civilization were we to abandon you and leave you to be overrun by the dark tide of chaos? And having done so, how long would it be before that tide consumed the rest of us? Truly, your fight - order over chaos, life over death - is the fight of all human civilization.

Would that we all soon realize that!In our ongoing attempts to help bring about this realization, we offer the following :
Our own masterful overview of the nascency Israel’s nationhood The Israel Project's "Things You Should Know About Israel at 60"

Excellent tribute to Israel from our dear friend Roger of Radarsite

Excellent tribute to Israel from our dear friend E.D. Kain of NeoConstant

Excellent tribute to Israel from our dear friend Snooper of A Newt One

Happy Sixtieth Israel! You are a beacon upon the frontiers of the human spirit. May you remain so forevermore!

Cheers,
Charlie

From Other Sites on the Line: 7 May 08

288/434

Why Islam Cannot Reform

A note from Radarsite: Following 9/11, in order to try to discover for myself the true nature of this purported Religion of Peace, whose ardent followers had just been responsible for the worst attack ever to take place on American soil, I began to research Islam. I started by reading the Qur'an, at the painfully slow rate of 5 hate-filled pages a day. It soon became apparent that this revered Book of Peace had more in common with Mein Kampf than with the New Testament. In fact, there were many similarities between the two. Both were filled with violence and threats of violence, both shared an arrogant contempt for those who dared to disagree with their authors, both advocated for the complete and utter subjection of all unbelievers, and sought an eventual worldwide hegemony.

Both are difficult books to endure. And basically for the same reasons: incessant redundancy, awkward literary style and structure, an annoying tendency to digress and wander off subject; and, although both books were written by undeniably powerful and charismatic leaders, both displayed a fundamental lack of basic literary ability.

However, for me, the most difficult part of the laborious challenge of the Qur'an was in wading through page after page of the incessant and obsessive hatred and violence -- by this author's count, of the 434 total pages in my Penguin Classics version of the Qur'an, 288 pages contained some form of usually quite graphic violence, invariable directed against the unbeliever or the apostate.

For me, the question had been resolved. Resolved by the power of unquestionable numbers. 288/434. No longer could anyone ever convince me that the Qur'an is a Book of Peace, that had merely been misinterpreted. Numbers don't lie, people do.

However, as our recent unfortunate national divide so clearly demonstrates, many of us are still in a quandary about Islam and the Qur'an. We are still confused, still attempting to equate Islam with other religions. We still hold out hope that those Moderate Muslims can get in there and perform the necessary surgery and cut the malignant cancer of extremism from the suffering body of Islam.

The following excellent article from Jihad Du Jour, I believe, presents us with one of the clearest and most irrefutable arguments against this kind of comforting delusion. Only by understanding the true nature of our enemy do we have a chance of defeating him. -- rg

cross posted from Jihad Du Jour.com
http://jihadidujour.blogspot.com/

There are deluded Jews and Christians who believe that the barbaric attacks against non-Muslims and even fellow Muslims alike throughout the world are being perpetrated by members of a small, extreme, perverted brand of Islam and that "true" Islam is probably just like modern Christianity or Judaism; that all that is needed is for moderate Muslims to take back their religion from the radicals. Then there are the deluded Jews and Christians who have actually read the Quran for themselves and realize that the barbarity of Muslim terror we see today is indeed rooted in the very essence of Islam and argue that we must not condemn the religion when all that is needed is for Islam to go through a reformation and modernization as Christianity and Judaism has done.

But an expert in religion disagrees:

The QandO Blog, 11 Jan 2006, Pope says Islam can’t reform
Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.

There are Muslims who believe that Islam can reform but they too are deluded:

FaithFreedom.org Why Can't Islam be Reformed?
This is the position of many modern Muslims, including Irshad Manji the author of “What Is Wrong with Islam, Today”. A great number of Muslims realize there is something wrong with Islam, but they erroneously believe the problem can be solved through the miracle of reinterpretation; and that they can keep the Quran and believe in Muhammad but somehow do the opposite of what he did and said and still call themselves Muslims....You ask: "Can Islam be reformed?" No, it can't! To reform Islam you have to first get rid of Muhammad and second get rid of the Quran. You have to take out a great portion of that book which is violent. The rest is nonsense and absurdity. But this you can't do, because you have no authority to do such a thing. Muhammad said that he has perfected his religion (Q. 5:3). How can you improve something, which is perfect? You can't change the Quran. You can't reform it. All you can do is to reinterpret and, for example pretend, "slay the unbelievers wherever you find them" means something else.

Then there is the website Muslims Against Sharia who argue that the Quran is not the literal word of Allah; that Islam, in its present form, is not compatible with principles of freedom and democracy; that Muslims must remove all the evil passages from Islamic religious texts; that there is no one religion that is superior to another; that Sharia Law must be abolished; that Seventh Century practices such as stoning, cutting off body parts, marrying and/or having sex with children or animals must be condemned; and hundreds of other suggestions to make Islam more like Christianity or Judaism.

If somehow one could actually change one letter of a book whose wording letter for letter was fixed by no one but Allah, and dutifully followed the advice of Muslims Against Sharia and actually purged Islam of all of its barbarity then we would have in our hands a slim book with the Title "The Quran" and a sole, blank page bound in leather.

But this would not be enough, the other leg of Islam, the Sunnah is the second source of Islamic jurisprudence without which one cannot practice Islam. The Sunnah: the way of the prophet, his sayings, deeds, etc. One could compare these two legs of Islam to Christianity: the Quran, or the word of God, is like the Old Testament, and the Sunnah, or the deeds and sayings of Mohammed, are like the Gospels: the sayings and deeds of Jesus.

But while the deeds and sayings of Jesus are of humility, love, and peace, the deeds and sayings of Mohammed are of narcissism, hate, and military conquest. While the message of Jesus is "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," the message of Mohammed is "Stone all those who disbelieve." No, I'm afraid that all of the Sunnah must be purged as well.

"But," you may protest, "if we remove all the evil from the Quran and excise all that is vile in the Sunnah, then there will be nothing left to follow in Islam!"Precisely.As to what happens to Muslims who try to practice even the slightest deviation from the absolute written word of Allah:

Reuters, 28 Apr 2008, Hardliners torch "heretical" Indonesian mosque-police
Hundreds of hardline Indonesian Muslims burnt a mosque early on Monday belonging to a sect that has been branded heretical by most Muslims, police said.The attack in West Java's Sukabumi district came after a government team recommended this month the Ahmadiyya sect be banned because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of Islam.I believe that the government in Indonesia has a perfect right to ban a religious group because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of Islam. I believe we in America and Europe should follow their example and likewise ban all of Islam because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of modern civilization.

Cross-Posted at Planck's Constant

A final note: It would be great sin of omission on the part of Radarsite to post an article such as this without acknowledging the tireless efforts of our good friend and Islamic scholar Ben from A Newt One, who has been proclaiming these same warnings of the enormous dangers that this cult of Islam presents to the West. Hopefully our present and future leaders will come to these same conclusions and protect our vulnerable nation from this evil onslaught. We shall see...

http://anewtone.com/

Voted by Fox News at GOP Hub

America's Dishonor: Selective Outrage, Selective Justice

On February 28, 1993, the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducted a raid on Mount Carmel, a property of the Davidians. The raid resulted in the deaths of six Davidians and four ATF agents after a firefight broke out. Following this confrontation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laid siege to Mount Carmel for 51 days, during which the FBI and ATF conducted around-the-clock operations including psychological warfare (psyops) on the occupants of the complex. The government's siege on the Branch Davidians ended on April 19 when federal agents released CS tear gas into the building, and several fires broke out, spreading quickly through the structure. Approximately 76 Branch Davidians, 21 of whom were children, were killed in the ensuing blaze. Autopsies confirmed that many of the victims, including David Koresh, had died of single gunshot wounds to their heads.On February 28, 1993, the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducted a raid on Mount Carmel, a property of the Davidians. The raid resulted in the deaths of six Davidians and four ATF agents after a firefight broke out. Following this confrontation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laid siege to Mount Carmel for 51 days, during which the FBI and ATF conducted around-the-clock operations including psychological warfare (psyops) on the occupants of the complex. The government's siege on the Branch Davidians ended on April 19 when federal agents released CS tear gas into the building, and several fires broke out, spreading quickly through the structure. Approximately 76 Branch Davidians, 21 of whom were children, were killed in the ensuing blaze. Autopsies confirmed that many of the victims, including David Koresh, had died of single gunshot wounds to their heads.

The Departments of Justice and the Treasury each conducted investigations in 1993. In 1999, when evidence about the use of pyrotechnic tear gas became public, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed former Senator John Danforth as a Special Counsel to investigate the events at Waco. Danforth issued a report concluding that the fire was started on the inside by Davidians. The FBI agents that fired the tear gas used pyrotechnic Flite-Rite grenades to shoot tear gas into the wooden building, though sworn testimony by FBI agents and supervisors claimed that no pyrotechnics were used, or even present at any time.

The government put some of the survivors on trial. All were acquitted of conspiring to murder federal agents, but some were convicted of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter.


On March 30, 2008, a Child Protection Project crisis center run by ex-member of FLDS Flora Jessop received the first of the phone calls making allegations of abuse, setting off large emergency responses that sometimes involved dozens of police officers.
Texas law enforcement officers entered the ranch on April 3, following allegations of physical and sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl.
The call was the basis for a large-scale operation at YFZ Ranch by Texas law enforcement and child welfare officials, beginning with cordoning off the ranch on April 3. Troopers and child welfare officials searched the ranch,including the temple's safes, vaults, locked desk drawers, and beds. Authorities believed the children "had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse," a state spokesman said.

They removed 52 girls on the 4th, and eventually a total of 462 children went into the temporary custody of the State of Texas. The children were being held by the Child Protective Services at Fort Concho and the Wells Fargo Pavilion in San Angelo, where they are housed until authorities decide who will have custody of them.

133 adult women chose to leave the ranch when the children were removed, in many or all cases for the sake of contact with the removed children. Children under the age of four were allowed to stay with their mothers until DNA testing to identify family relations was finished; once DNA testing is complete, only children under 18 months will be allowed to stay with their mothers indefinitely.

For more on this go to Wake Up America:
http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/04/documents-detail-abuse-at-yfz-ranch.html

Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) was the leader of a controversial Mormon fundamentalist polygamist sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) from 2002 to 2007. Jeffs' position in this organization was reportedly that of absolute ruler. Jeffs gained international notoriety in May 2006 when he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of extralegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls. He was arrested in August 2006 in Nevada, and agreed to be taken to Utah for trial. In May and July of 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts—including sexual conduct with minors and incest—in two separate cases. His trial, which began early in September of 2007 in St. George, Utah, lasted less than a month, and on September 25 the verdict was read declaring him guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice. On November 20, 2007 he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life and has begun serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison.

Irving, Texas (WBAP) -- Irving police are searching for a father suspected of killing his two daughters Tuesday night. At about 7:30 police got a cell call from a woman saying she had been shot, but didn't know her location. Police searching the area where the call originated were unable to locate the vehicle. An hour later, responding to a call of a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot, police found two female victims dead of gunshot wounds.

Investigators have identified the two as 17 year-old Sarah Yaser Said, and 18 year-old Amina Yaser Said.

They are now looking for the father, Yaser Abdel Said. He is said to be fifty years old, 6'2", weighing about 180 pounds. Said was last seen wearing a black turtleneck, tan slacks, and a brown coat. He is believed to be armed and dangerous.

Read this whole alarming article at Atlas Shrugs:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/01/texas-honor-kil.html


So what's the point? Where's the dishonor?
Consider this: In every one of these instances, when allegations of child abuse or endangerment are uncovered, with varying degrees of success, our law enforcements officials swing into action -- even if that action might later be considered by some as overly-zealous, they do indeed act. The individual criminal perpetrators are identified and arrested, and those innocent victims of the cultists are rescued and helped to rehabilitate back into normal society. The charismatic cult leaders themselves are arrested, tried and convicted and sent to prison -- or in some cases, killed, either by their own hand or in the ensuing shootouts. Although the individual scenarios may not have always been perfect, these criminal cults were nonetheless successfully disbanded and justice was eventually served.

In every case but one.

In one particular case, in one particularly gruesome cult, although individual criminal cultists may at times be found liable and arrested for their individual crimes against society, the cult itself thrives and grows stronger every day. The cultist leaders flourish and preach the deadly teachings of their revered leader daily, without fear of our law enforcement officials. Assured and confident in their immunity, they remain untouchable and uncensored. And their innocent children remain at peril, their freedom and, as we have seen, their very lives remain in jeopardy.

The cult is Islam and the leader is Mohammed
and he is laughing at our helplessness, our pitiful inability to bring ourselves to act against him. He preaches our doom and calls for our downfall and we pretend not to hear him.

In his evil name, two lovely young American girls have been murdered by their own self- righteous and unrepentant father. They have been murdered by Islam. And what is our response? We will hunt down the criminal father and if we can we will prosecute him according to our laws for murder. But isn't he merely a follower, merely a faithful believer, acting on the tenets of his religious beliefs?

But will we then go to the source? Will we prosecute the evil cult itself? Will our worthy law enforcement officials raid their compounds and their meeting places and round up the murderous leaders and arrest them? Will we tear down their buildings and successfully disband the cult as we did with the FLDS and the Davidians?

We have proven ourselves capable of moral outrage; but why not here? Why not Islam?

We all know the answers to these questions, don't we? And herein lies our national dishonor.

Sorry, Sarah and Amina, you'll have to wait a while longer for your justice, for your true murderers to be identified and punished. You'll have to wait until this great but divided nation of ours finds its moral compass and once again discovers that buried but inherent courage to act against evil, regardless of the perils involved.

But there are those of us who will not forget you, who will make certain that you will not wait in vain. The time will come. We will find our way again, we will rediscover our inherent courage, and we will act.

Racism: The Arabs, the Jews and me

A note from Radarsite: Once again an article is born out of the comments thread. Sometimes, it seems that by attempting to respond to someone's statement we find that we have crystallized our own thoughts on the subject: in the process of explaining ourselves to someone else, we explain ourselves to ourself. Recently, a reader left the following comment to my Happy Anniversary Israel! article http://radarsite.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-anniversary-israel.html
By reposting this comment and my (updated) response to it here again it is not my intention to try to embarrass one of my readers -- who has made several previous thoughtful comments on Radarsite -- but rather to address the subject of this particular comment, which is, I feel, important and worthy of further discussion. Ironically, the commenter is apparently in agreement with the general thrust of my article; however, it is their reasons for agreeing that I find myself at odds with.

I will be very interested in my other reader's responses to this discussion. And, of course, if the original commenter wishes to respond to this new article I will gladly post their comments.

Here, then, is the original comment and my reply:

Jews are the market dominant minority of the middle east. That is why they are hated so much. Instead of admitting that Jews are probably genetically smarter than other races, Muslims come up with strange conspiracies to rationalize their inability to build successful, modern societies.

---------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your comment. Although, I have to say, I can only agree with your last statement. As to the rest --

I think that Jews are hated by Arabs because they are Jews; it's an integral part of their "religion" and their culture. To look for any other explanations is, to me, beside the point, and perhaps in an odd way lends a certain credence to their murderous lunacies.

Also, I cannot buy into the racially "genetically smarter" concept any more than I can buy into the "genetically dumber" theory that was proposed here earlier about blacks. To me, I'm sorry, but this is what racism is. Pure and simple. It is the attempt to bring people into line with some pseudo-scientific formula; and such attempts have almost invariably proved disastrous.

I believe that I am a wholly original mysterious creation, capable of almost anything, worth much more than my IQ, or any other test devised by man to circumscribe the essence of my being. I believe that I am not living a proscribed life, predetermined by my genetic make-up. I believe that I am a product of my mother's genes and my father's genes; but that I am also an absolutely unique creation, who has never before existed on this planet. I refuse to believe that I am a slave to my genetics, that I have no control over my own destiny. Where I am at this particular moment is, I firmly believe, due almost entirely to my own actions -- or lack of actions. This belief gives my life meaning and hope.

In my view, the differences between Arabs and Jews is cultural, not genetic. One culture upholds the importance of educational achievement above all else, the other one upholds the importance of generational revenge. Guess whose going to succeed in this life?

I find this whole discredited social/political construct of genetics unsavory and weirdly reminiscent of those loony but inevitably deadly Nazi (and pre-Nazi Germanic) racial theories.

There is such a thing as the individual human spirit which, though undefinable and intangible, can be the determinate factor in one's existence. To attempt to describe people by race or nationality or genetics is to ignore this fundamental element of one's character.

Racism, again in my view, is just another form of simplistic thinking, driven by personal insecurities. We are dealing with competing cultures, one is born to succeed, the other is born to hate. This is not a genetic problem, it is a societal problem; and, in the final analysis, it is a parental problem.

From Other Sites on the Line: 4 May 08

United States is drawing up plans to strike on Iranian insurgency camp

Cross posted from Snooper at A Newt One:
http://www.anewtone.com/2008/05/war-news-iranian-republican-guard-makes.html

From Times Online:

The US military is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilize Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards' special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi'ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.

Despite a belligerent stance by Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities on the back burner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary in 2006, the sources said.However, US commanders are increasingly concerned by Iranian interference in Iraq and are determined that recent successes by joint Iraqi and US forces in the southern port city of Basra should not be reversed by the Quds Force. [...]

From Ace:
[...] Seems to be yet another sign of growing US confidence in Iraq -- it seems we've been afraid to do this previously, fearing the response of the Iraqi Shiites. But with Maliki now getting tough with Iran, and apparently with public support, it's now on the table.The report says that Iran may escalate the conflict if we strike their territory. I can only hope so. [...]I agree, seeing that there has been a state of war between the USA and Iran since Jimmy Carter's Defective Administration and Iran has been fighting a proxy war with the USA in Iraq for several years now.

Cuffy at Perfunction has the video from the Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln that has arrived off the coast of Iran. It is said that they already have targets programmed - SOP - but still on the ready. Cuffy also shares links to Iranian news media which are apparently in panic mode and that they laud the socialist democrats in the USA...go figure.

This has been brewing for decades folks and it is soon coming to a head. The diplomatic efforts through the years has resulted in one thing and one thing only - the delaying of the inevitable.

Note from Radarsite: There is of course another alternative: If we just have a little more patience and rely on the proven efficacy of Western diplomacy and UN inspections, no doubt the Iranians will eventually see the light and will voluntarily give up their foolish pursuit of nuclear weapons -- Right?