Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t; Osama Not Happy With Obama
Osama Bin Laden is not very happy with Obama’s outreach and attempt at sweet talking the Muslim world. He made a statement today that Obama is basically Bush II.
Shortly after President Obama landed in Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden’s homeland, a new audio tape purported to be from the al Qaeda leader was aired today on Al Jazeera television network.
“President Obama’s presence in the kingdom obviously touches a raw nerve,” said former counterterrorism official Dick Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. “Bin Laden founded al Qeada in the first place because of the American presence there.”
In his latest audio message, bin Laden warns Americans to prepare for war as the policies of Obama are no different from those of former President George W. Bush in the eyes of al Qaeda.
Bin Laden makes reference to this spring’s violence in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, indicating that he recorded his message relatively recently.
Just keep saying it to yourself: “Hope and Change, Hope and Change.” I don’t think it matters to the radical Islamofascists, whether you are nice or not – could Obama win some people over? Sure, that happens with anyone, but I just hope that some people realize that the true terrorists have one goal and that is the destruction of the West and Israel and they could care less how you speak, how you carry yourself, what your roots were, or how much you try to kowtow… They have a goal and that’s Islamic rule.
Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Bush Officials
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of senior Bush officials who helped draft the policies for EITs. They state that former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller cannot be held accountable for an incident with a Pakistani Muslim that occurred back in 2002.
Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002, had argued that while Ashcroft and Mueller did not single him out for mistreatment, they were responsible for a policy of confining Muslim prisoners in highly restrictive conditions and subjecting them to strip searches and brutal beatings. He has since been deported to Pakistan.
The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, said there was nothing linking the two Bush officials to Iqbal’s treatment. The court’s liberal justices — David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens — dissented, so even a liberal pick by President Obama to replace Souter would not change the mix.
But as we all know, the liberals won’t stop there. They are planning, if not already, bringing up charges against various Bush administration officials that were also party to the documents, legal memos, and policies used on Gitmo detainees. Earlier on C-Span radio and the Washington Journal, Mr. Kessler who is a journalist for Newsmax, and an author of various books regarding the CIA, Secret Service, and Intelligence Community, gave his take on the CIA memos, waterboarding, EITs, what the true technical definition of torture is, and why terrorists and pirates do not fall under the Geneva Convention. The hate and vitriol from liberal callers was astounding. Just when I think that people couldn’t get more vile and hateful they always seem to surprise me!
A coalition of left-leaning advocacy groups filed complaints today with five state bar associations, accusing a dozen former Bush administration lawyers — including Ashcroft and ….
…former attorneys general Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey — of violating professional standards by approving the use of torture on terrorism suspects. The punishment: They want the lawyers disbarred in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and the District of Columbia.
Also on the list: John Yoo, now a law professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law, Jay Bybee, a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Pentagon lawyer Douglas Feith, and David Addington, legal guru for former Vice President Dick Cheney.
If we are going to have these truth commissions, maybe we should have had one for Vietnam and lined up LBJ or we should have interrogated FDR for his concentration camps in the United States during World War II. We should also interrogate all the Democrats who were part of the financial melt down and make them take lie detector tests to get at the bottom of who is honest in the government. I would say we should also go back to the Clinton administration and go back over the Kosovo conflict and the fact that his foreign policies lead to much of the 9/11 attacks in the first place… But it’s always the hate on the left that feels the need to act like the new McCarthyites and go on these despicable witch hunts.
Obama Resumes Military Tribunals for Detainees
But…but…but… I thought Bush was eeeeeevil and stuuuuuuuuuuupid?
What about CHANGE?
Obama will continue the military tibunal system for Gitmo detainees. This was a point of contention for Obama and part of the Bush administration that he brought up and campaigned against last year. However, Obama has flip-flopped (yet again) and will be resuming these activities.
President Obama is planning on Friday to resume the Bush administration’s controversial military commission system for some Guantanamo detainees — which he suspended in his first week in office — according to three administration officials.
Some of the high-profile terror suspects who are being charged in the military commission process include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
The administration officials stressed that the updated system will include expanded due-process rights for the suspects, which administration officials note is consistent with what Obama pushed for as a senator in 2006 in order to improve upon the widely criticized approach created by the Bush administration.
The move could increase tensions with liberal groups, led by the ACLU, which are already furious about Obama’s shift this week to block the release of photos showing prisoners allegedly being abused by U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, called the expected new approach on military commissions “fatally flawed” despite the changes.
“The military commissions are built on unconstitutional premises and designed to ensure convictions, not provide fair trials,” Romero said in a prepared statement released earlier this week after speculation about the restart of military commissions surfaced. “Reducing some but not all of the flaws of the tribunals so that they are ‘less offensive’ is not acceptable; there is no such thing as ‘due process light.’ ”
Two of the administration officials said the president will also leave open the option of starting civilian trials on U.S. soil for some of the detainees. But that, too, is a fiercely debated issue on Capitol Hill because of concerns by lawmakers in both parties about where the terror suspects will be kept during such trials.
BWAHAHAHA!
Rick Santelli (CNBC) Rips Colleague a New One
Would you lie for the greater good or would you tell the truth and be honest about the way you conducts business. I think that these moral hazards and cover ups are what got us into this economic crisis among other outside factors. So what would covering up something else really help? If the data is bad why continue to cover it up and prolong the inevitable?
I know that prolonging the inevitable is favored on Capitol Hill these days, but in my opinion that just makes things worse, suckers more people into the failing financial market, and makes for a worse collapse. Let it go and give us the real facts!
Rick Santelli calls out one of his colleagues at CNBC who offers up the question as to whether or not the media should cover up the truth behind what’s going on in the financial sector for the greater good.
But, as I stated above, is that really for the greater good or is it just for the good of a political agenda and money in the media’s pocket? After knowing what recently occurred at an NBC meeting with Zucker and Immelt exclaiming that CNBC has been too harsh on the President and has criticized his policies too much recently… I can only take what they say at CNBC with a grain of salt because there may be a conflict of interest; like saving their jobs:
