August 06, 2004

Iraq Evidence Led Feds to Albany Mosque

Information found in Iraq led federal investigators to become suspicious of an Albany, N.Y., mosque leader, FOX News has learned.

Last summer, U.S. troops discovered Yassin Muhhiddin Aref's name, telephone number and address in a book left behind in a vacated terrorist training camp, a U.S. official told FOX News. The book also revealed that Ansar al-Islam, the group running the camp, had given Aref a title:"the commander."

Aref, 34, is the Imam of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany, N.Y. He and one other mosque leader were arrested Thursday and charged with helping an undercover informant posing as a weapons dealer who was plotting to buy a shoulder-launched missile that would be used to kill the Pakistani ambassador in New York City.

Aref and Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, the 49-year-old founder of the mosque and owner of the local Little Italy Pizzeria, were allegedly collaborating with someone who was not a terrorist but an informant participating in a sting operation; no missile ever was exchanged.

Earlier on Thursday, law enforcement officials said the men had possible ties to Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network. However, that link was not noted in court documents.

Ansar al-Islam has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, kidnappings and killings in Iraq, and has ties to the U.S.-led coalition's most-wanted terrorist there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Deputy Attorney General James Comey declined to discuss any alleged ties but said more information about their backgrounds may come out in court proceedings.

Gov. George Pataki hailed the arrests as a victory in the War on Terror.

"The fact is, there are terrorists among us who want to engage in acts to attack us again and take away our freedom," Pataki said in a news conference Thursday afternoon. "Our government, our administration in Washington … and local officials are taking this threat to our freedom very seriously and will continue to be aggressive and proactive against those who would wish to do us harm."

The arrests were in large part due to tips from the public, Pataki and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said. Within the past two years, there have been several arrests in the Buffalo and Syracuse areas of people suspected of having terror ties, including the so-called Lackawanna Six.

"Ultimately, this war against terror … depends on the eyes and ears of the people of America and the people of New York," Pataki said.

Saying the tipsters "know who they are," Jennings said: "We want people to feel good about what happened today because we are on top of it, we are being proactive … to make sure our communities are safe."
[...]

Authorities said the men were paid $65,000 in checks and cash to purchase a missile and disguise the source of the money involved.

The men are charged money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to conceal material support for terrorism. Both could face up to 70 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
[...]

The FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agents executed search warrants at the mosque and two Albany-area residences. Officials said the arrests have nothing to do with the U.S. government raising the terror alert level for New York, Washington, D.C., and Northern New Jersey on Sunday.

The informant told the men he was associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed), an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan that the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization....
[...]

The investigation has been going on for a year, officials said, and several searches in the Albany area related to Thursday's arrests are being conducted.

Comey stressed to reporters Thursday afternoon that the case is not connected to the current terrorist threat and the men charged weren't necessarily plotting terrorist violence.

"This is not the case of the century," he said. "That does not mean, however, that this is not an important case ... We hope it will send a disrupting message to those out there who might be plotting to harm this country ... our agents and informants are putting a full-court press on in this country and around the world."

Although Comey was questioned as to whether Aref and Hossain were entrapped for no good reason, the government official said there is more to the story that will soon be revealed.

"We believe there was ample predication for this investigation ... this is a good case, a solid case, and it sends a message," Comey said.
[...]

The criminal complaint says that during the summer of 2003, when the probe began, the FBI monitored and recorded most of the conversations between the FBI's informant and Aref and Hossain.
[...]
The informant cited had been previously arrested in Albany and had pleaded guilty to a felony related to the fraudulent acquisition of documents. The informant, not a U.S. citizen,is cooperating in the hopes of getting a reduced sentence and has provided information leading to other arrests.

Some mosque members held morning prayers Thursday on a nearby sidewalk; they weren't allowed to enter the building, which is located at 276 Central Ave. near the corner of N. Lake Ave., just a few blocks from Washington Park. The mosque's name means "house of peace."
[...]
The arrests were the second such get for law enforcement when it comes to shoulder-fired missiles.

Hemant S. Lakhani, 68, was arrested last August after he tried to buy an anti-aircraft missile in Newark from an undercover agent working with the FBI. Lakhani thought he was dealing with a man representing a Somali terrorist group.

Prosecutors said more than 150 covertly recorded conversations prove that the Indian-born British citizen was trying to deal arms to terrorists.

Also arrested in August were Yehuda Abraham, 76, a New York diamond dealer, and an Indian citizen, Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, 38.

Wow. Great work again on the FBI's part (combined with the intell we got from our military in Iraq!)
It's clearer all the time that Iraq is exactly where we need to be and also that we are indeed fighting a global war on terrorism as all of the recent "gets" and busts seem to involve jihadis in 2 or more foreign countries, as well as our own or that of our allies, all of which span the globe.
To hear the Left and the Dimocrats tell it, we're not accomplishing anything for purposes of our own security by being in Iraq, but this is just one instance of how taking on the enemy over there, protects us over here and illustrates vividly that Iraq (and Afghanistan also) has been serving as the "flypaper" for them to fight us in a place and at a time of our choosing.

August 04, 2004

Nancy Reagan Throws Support to Bush

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, who opposes President Bush's policy on limiting embryonic stem cell research, is backing the Republican's re-election bid.

"The campaign is certainly about more than one issue," said spokeswoman Joanne Drake, who described Reagan on Tuesday as in "full and complete support of President Bush's candidacy."

While the Dimocrats thought they'd pulled such a coup getting Ron "Junior" to speak at Donkey Con, I'd rather our camp had Mizz Nancy's support any day!
The Left just loved it that Ronnie the Little was not only a Dim and hostile to Bush but also were thrilled to have him speak on an issue that President Bush has opposed: (the federal funding of) stem cell research.
What Ronald the Lesser actually advocated was human cloning, which his father and President Bush also would have disliked, as it involves the start of a human life, by fertilizing a human egg cell to make an embryo, then ending that life to use the cells for research.
(What is it with the Dems and their obsession with killing life in the womb?)
More evidence has come out in recent months that stem cell research doesn't lead to the cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's that advocates like Ronald the Lesser and Nancy Reagan had hoped for either.
It's nice to see that Nancy Reagan didn't make this a "make or break" issue regarding President Bush.
She must know that Bush is more her real son than Ronald could ever be!
(And frankly, Bush is more the son of Ronald Magnus than he is George H.W. Bush!)
President Bush is continuing the glorious tradition of the Conservative Reagan Revolution and deserves another 4 years and I'm delighted that lovely Mrs. Nancy feels this way, too.
We all would have given a lot to cure President Reagan and our loved ones stricken with Alzheimer's, like my own mother, while they were alive and I know that President Bush feels this way, also, but when it involves tinkering and killing off the building blocks of human life or embryos and foetuses themselves, that is a bridge too far!

Source: Terror attack to be in early September

More financial institutions than previously disclosed may be at risk of attack, and an al-Qaida operative has told British intelligence that the group's target date is early September, intelligence sources said yesterday.

The operative, described as "credible" by British intelligence, told his debriefers that the attack would take place "60 days before the presidential election" on Nov. 2, according to a former senior National Security Council official. On Sept. 2 President George W. Bush is expected to address the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.

Counterterrorism officials are analyzing data from a computer seized in Pakistan last month to see if financial institutions in addition to the five disclosed Sunday are at risk of attack, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The former senior National Security Council official said he was told by British intelligence that they are interrogating an al-Qaida operative who confirmed that financial institutions are being targeted and that an attack was planned for September.

And a U.S. official familiar with the ongoing analysis of the computer said, "There are references to other things [buildings]" in the al-Qaida computer's data, including a picture of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. "There is mention of other places."

The laptop computer was seized on July 25 following the arrest after a 12-hour gun battle of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Pakistan's information minister confirmed to The Associated Press yesterday that e-mail data retrieved from Ghailani's computer indicated planned attacks in both the United States and Britain. A British official said that the threat to the U.K. was not specific.

The CIA had tipped off Pakistani authorities on the location of Ghailani's safehouse in Gujrat, Pakistan, after tracking down an al-Qaida computer engineer, who had e-mailed the data to Ghailani, 12 days earlier, U.S. officials said.

The computer engineer, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, ran a secret al-Qaida communications system and his arrest was described by a senior U.S. official as the "most significant" of a series of events that led to Sunday's raising of the threat level to "high" for five financial institutions. They are the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup building in New York, as well as the Prudential financial building in Newark and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in the nation's capital.

The former NSC official, who asked to not be further identified, said that the al-Qaida operative in British custody, while confirming that financial institutions were at risk, did not know which financial institutions were being targeted. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

The U.S. official who disclosed yesterday that CIA and other counterterrorism officials are studying the vast amounts of computer data stored in the laptop said that the information on other institutions "does not reach the level of detail" retrieved on the five named Sunday.

Nevertheless, he said, analysts "are continuing to exploit the data to see if anything boils to the surface."

Looks as if we should give a big "Thank you!" to not only the Pakistani military and security forces, but the British intell and police, too!
This information was discovered from a "3-way" bust involving Pakistan, Britain and the U.S.:
Raids in Britain spark hunt for US strand of 'three-way web'

Security officials were hunting terrorist cells in the United States yesterday following indications that an al-Qa'eda computer expert arrested in Pakistan last month had been in contact with individuals in America in the past few months.

US officials said there appeared to be a three-way connection between operatives in Pakistan, the United States and Britain.

 A senior US official told the New York Times that this week's British arrests were "part of this web that emanates from Pakistan", and that "part of what you saw in the UK was a result in part of information gained" from the arrest last month of the computer engineer Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan.

Two Pakistani officials said there was evidence that Khan had been in contact with at least six individuals in the US.
[Where are these 6 evildoers?! We must find them and find them soon!--Jen]

US officials said they believed that Abu Eisa Al Hindi, an alleged accomplice of Khan arrested in Britain on Monday, was a "senior" al-Qa'eda figure.

They told CNN television that he was a "major player who moved operational information between key components of al-Qa'eda", who had been of interest to US intelligence for "some time".
[Shows that our CIA and FBI people are on the case and that the infamous obstacle of the Gorelick "wall" that had divided these 2 agencies has been at least partially knocked down to save us and our country!--J.T.]
They also said that the 12 men held in Britain on Monday could be described as a "cell".
[More good work by our British brethren across the Big Pond!]

The White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, spoke of an "alarming picture" of threats. He said the source of the current alert was not only the data from Khan's arrest, but also a separate "intelligence stream".

The prevailing mood in Washington could best be summed up as anxious confusion yesterday, with politicians and US media outlets baffled by contradictory signals about the freshness or urgency of intelligence surfacing in recent weeks.
[The only confusion was that of Dimocrats seeking political office (or re-election to same) trying to say that the new alerts based on this intell were merely ruses employed by President Bush to increase his political stature and importance.
Only Dims would think about getting their power back first, way before they would actually care about our safety and the security of our country! Fie!]

Senior officials portrayed the White House as taking the lead in a new, US-led operation to interrupt al-Qa'eda operations worldwide. They said Mr Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, had called her counterparts in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan last weekend to urge their co-operation.
[And the Dims also love to say that the Bush Administration doesn't work with our friends and allies, either...Rubbish!--Jen]

However, a senior administration official played down talk of new operations, telling The Daily Telegraph: "The search for al-Qa'eda is always ongoing. Dr Rice is always in constant contact with allies around the world. Whether you call that heightened operations is questionable." Other officials moved to counter claims from the Left, and in Europe, that the Bush administration's latest terrorist warnings were merely an election-year ploy to frighten voters and deny publicity to the Democrats.
[These people must be truly insane to make such claims, but make them they do!
They shouldn't be surprised when the American people don't vote for them in November, either.]

Intelligence and defence officials told CNN that "overhead surveillance" images showed troubling signs of renewed activity at suspected al-Qa'eda training camps near the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Again, let's hope and pray that we've caught some of the key players in time to shut down their planned attacks here in the Homeland and in the U.K.
We know since the outcome of the Madrid bombings that AQ has had "special plans" for our election and we can only hope that this big attack on Sept. 2 was all they had in the works, but I wouldn't count on it...
Pray and keep your eyes open, America!

New York Post Online Edition: news

Investigators suspect terrorist moles worked at the Citigroup and Prudential buildings to case the skyscrapers as potential targets of car or truck bombs, The Post has learned.

And now federal agents want to comb through employee records of the businesses that operate in the buildings to try to identify the moles, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

The feds suspect that the extraordinarily detailed information about the skyscrapers — which was discovered on an al Qaeda computer in Pakistan — was compiled by accomplices who had time to study Citigroup's 59-story building at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street and Prudential's building in Newark from the inside, the sources said.

Officials who examined the information concluded that the most recent surveillance of the buildings was done in January. There was additional surveillance last year, a law-enforcement source said.
[Surely even Dr. Howard Dean must realize that this is pretty recent.--Jen]

But most of it was done even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and goes back to 2000.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that the terrorists' information was "vulnerability analysis" — which details how well or poorly guarded the targets are — and that there is no indication that it was "tied to any operational plan."

A 30-page terror document indicates plotters spent hours observing the Prudential building — even spending long stretches in a Starbucks across the street — yielding an intimate knowledge of the building's elevators and other details.

The data includes details about security cameras, escape routes and parking.

"In essence, what we were allowed to view was generated by operatives," said Rocco M. Malanga, director of Newark's Office of Homeland Security.

Investigators intend to focus on former employees, including vendors and security guards, because whoever collected the information is believed to have since left his or her job, one source said.

Investigators are not absolutely certain there were moles, but they hope that names of ex-employees will turn up on watch lists or other rosters of suspected terrorists.

The disclosures came amid several other developments in the terrorist alert announced by the federal government on Monday:

* Mayor Bloomberg signaled that the city remained open for business by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, another of the possible terrorist targets.

"New York is not going to be cowed," he said at a Bryant Park press conference. He called yesterday "a normal day in New York City."

* First Lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters showed solidarity with employees at the Citigroup Center by stopping to chat with diners in the building's atrium.
[That should have perked the workers up...particularly the lovely Bush Twins!
Of course, Lady Laura's a vision, too.
While Tha-RAY-Za is making us all feel bad about eating at Wendy's and telling members of the press to "Shove it!," Laura and her girls show the world what real ladies do, which is to be brave and beautiful in the face of the enemy!]

* Increased security at bridges, tunnels and other checkpoints created major traffic jams — and there are indications the headaches aren't going away soon.

* Severe restrictions on truck traffic created problems for restaurants and markets that depend on fresh produce.

* Heightened concern about terrorism led to a jump in the number of suspicious packages reported to police. More than 40 were reported by evening rush hour, compared with the 25 that are typically reported for a full day.

My heart really goes out to New Yorkers, especially--y'all hang in there and continue to go about your lives so bravely, but alertly!

It would not surprise me at all if there were AQ terrorist moles in these buildings, as both an electronic bug and a likely human mole(Yes. He was a Muslim.) were discovered and eliminated at the Pentagon itself not many months after the 9/11 attacks:

[...]
A second series of internal memos from his staff showed that a Muslim who was employed as an auditor and granted a "top-secret" security clearance was not an American citizen.
    "He possesses a Social Security number tied to multiple confirmed aliases," a May 2002 memo said. Another paper said, "Using the improper granted interim clearance, [the employee] visited numerous installations where he had access to sensitive information. ... The Department of Justice Joint Terrorism Task Force is currently considering a criminal investigation into this matter."

Marvelous news...THUD.
If the Pentagon's toughest security can be breached like this (and let's hope this was yet another security lapse left over from the Clintoon Administration!), then that of Prudential or Citigroup would be a piece of cake, sad to say!
These people have proved time and again that they are serious about killing us and have applied themselves for years to planning our destruction so I think it should be a "no-brainer" that we likewise apply ourselves to eliminate or incarcerate them before they can do it to more of us and I'm glad to see that our security agencies seem to be working pretty hard to do just that.
We already lost 3,000 American civilians in peacetime on 9/11 and that's 3,000 too many!
Let's vow that not another innocent soul loses their life through jihadi terrorist murder on American soil--that's the only campaign issue there is in my book, now and in the foreseeable future.

August 02, 2004

Poll: No boost for Kerry after convention
Not only didn't Kerry get his expected post-convention "bounce," but the latest CNNGallupUSAToday poll showed Bush leading sKeery 50%-47%!
And in more good news, St. Paul, MN mayor Randy Kelly--a Democrat--announced that he'd be endorsing Bush, too, joining his fellow Dems ex-NYC mayor Ed Koch and Sen. Zell Miller.
Check out the reasons Mayor Kelly, a member of Minnesota's Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party, gave for his backing of the President:

The mayor called Bush's Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, "a good man," but added he thought it unwise to change national leadership during the war in Iraq and said he thought a Kerry administration would "jeopardize the economic recovery that we are experiencing."

What's so killingly funny about this is that Kerry and the Dims adamantly deny that any recovery has taken place under Bush at all, much less because of things he's done to stimulate the economy!
Bravo, Mr. Kelly, for putting what's good for this country ahead of party politics!
On to November 5 and may the best man win...and we all know who that is!

Blasts Rock Iraqi Churches

Assailants triggered a coordinated series of explosions outside five churches in Baghdad and Mosul during Sunday evening services, killing 11 people and wounding more than 50 in the first major assault on Iraq's Christian minority since the 15-month-old insurgency began.

Separate violence beginning the night before killed 24, including an American soldier, and wounded 101. The toll included a suicide car bombing outside a Mosul police station that killed five people and wounded 53, and clashes in Fallujah between U.S. troops and insurgents that killed 12 Iraqis and wounded 39 others.

The unprecedented attacks against Iraq's 750,000-member Christian minority seemed to confirm community members' fears they might be targeted as suspected collaborators with American forces amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.

"What are the Muslims doing? Does this mean that they want us out?" Brother Louis, a deacon at Our Lady of Salvation, asked as he cried outside the damaged Assyrian Catholic church. "Those people who commit these awful criminal acts have nothing to do with God. They will go to hell."
[Well, Duh, Brother Louis.--J.T.]
[...]
"This (attack) isn't against Muslims or Christians, this is against Iraq," Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi told The Associated Press.
[...]
Muslim clerics condemned the violence and offered condolences to the Christian community.

"This is a cowardly act and targets all Iraqis," Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, spokesman for radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told Al-Jazeera television.

Mohammed Fadil al-Samara'i, an official with the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, blamed terrorist groups and others "who profit from creating civil disturbances in Iraq."

The attacks on the churches signaled a vast change in tactics for insurgents, who have focused many previous attacks on U.S. forces, Iraqi officials and police in a drive to push coalition forces from the country, weaken the interim government and hamper reconstruction efforts.

To escape the chaos here, many of Iraq's Christians have gone to neighboring Jordan and Syria to wait for the security situation to improve.

Many who remained watched with fear as Islamic fundamentalism, long repressed under Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, thrived...

The AP is making stuff again....Saddam didn't repress Sunni Baathist fundamentalism at all, but he did repress Shiites, Christians, Jews and Kurds.
I'm assuming that the Iraqi police and security forces are getting better and making it harder for Zaqarwi and his boys to hit police stations and government officials, so they went after ordinary Christian citizens in unprotected churches.
God rest the souls of those killed and may He heal those who were wounded.
The only thing for it is for us to totally defeat the forces of the Enemy and that will mean that the Iraqis themselves help us a lot more with cooperation and information.
God helps those who help themselves and our soldiers will help the Iraqis to defend a free, secular Iraq!

CHILLING NEW APPLE WARNING

Terrorists may try to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, the Citigroup Center and other high-profile economic institutions with car or truck bombs, the federal government said yesterday.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the warning — the most detailed since Sept. 11 — was based on new, highly specific information from "multiple sources."

The intelligence indicates terrorists must have "cased" their targets because they know details of the insides of the buildings — even the location of security cameras and escape routes.

Past Homeland Security alerts have tended to be vague and general. But yesterday's announcement was extraordinary:

* Ridge named five targets — the NYSE, Citigroup's Midtown tower, the Prudential Building in Newark, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

* Ridge cited a specific method of attack. "The preferred means of attack would be car or truck bombs," he said.

* The government raised the alert level, from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) specifically for "the financial-services sector."

But Ridge and Mayor Bloomberg stressed that no time frame emerged from the intelligence.

"We know where but not precisely when" an attack is planned, Ridge said. The alert will remain at least until the Nov. 2 elections.

Sid Caspersen, head of New Jersey's counterterror office, described the terrorists' plot as "a long-term operations plan developed over months, perhaps years."

The Homeland Security secretary wouldn't go into detail about the "unusually specific information" that triggered the heightened alert. But a source told The Post that it came from Abu Talha, a major al Qaeda figure arrested in Pakistan in July by Pakistani officials acting on a CIA tip.
[Now, you see, the CIA still is capable of getting good "humint!"--Jen]

The Washington Post reported that "a treasure trove" of information was found on two laptop computers recovered in Talha's hideout when he was arrested after a shootout.

Citing Pakistani sources, The New York Times said that Talha, is a 25-year-old computer whiz who operated al Qaeda's secret communications system.

The material obtained from Talha included drawings of some buildings, indicating where elevators and security staffers are positioned, the source said. The Washington Post quoted a suspected terrorist as saying, "Getting up to the higher floors is not very difficult if you go there midweek, as I did."
[...]
The Washing Post also described unprecedented teamwork by the nation's intelligence community that led to yesterday's announcement.
[Even without the White House yet implementing the suggestions of the 9/11 Commission, which they will do as soon as tomorrow, the changes put in place by the Bush Administration are working!]

Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin led a meeting that included operatives from the agency's Counterterrorism and Terrorist Threat Integration centers, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. All of those groups were once prohibited by law, or disinclined by habit, from working together.

Officials stressed yesterday that the alert was based on fresh information, some obtained in the last 24 to 36 hours.

City officials said that they had been briefed and that new anti-terror measures have been taken.

Bloomberg noted that New York has been on orange alert since 9/11, but would take even more measures.
[A lot of we Americans who live in the Heartland didn't know this, but it's true: NYC never goes off orange alert, poor things!]
[...]

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, at Bloomberg's City Hall briefing, said Manhattan-bound trucks will now be banned from the Williamsburg Bridge.

Later, the Port Authority announced that the inbound Holland Tunnel would be closed to commercial traffic starting today. And police said that the Manhattan-bound lanes of the Battery Tunnel would also be off limits to trucks and commercial vans.

Kelly had a closed-door meeting last night with the security directors of 13 major financial firms, including Morgan Stanley, NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, MetLife, JPMorgan Chase and the NYSE, the Police Department said.

Ridge downplayed the possibility of a radioactive "dirty" bomb or biological attack, but Kelly said heating vents in potential targets would be secured.
[...]
Ridge said the targets apparently were selected because they were "iconic" and attacks on them would disrupt the U.S. economy.

But he and Bloomberg insisted the new information would not change plans for the Republican convention, which begins four weeks from today at Madison Square Garden.

Well, if you're reading this and you work in or near these buildings, may God bless you and protect you!
Keep your eyes open and try to stay calm, although I'd be a nervous wreck, particularly if I'd been working down in lower Manhattan on 9/11.
This represents a lot of good work on the part of our people--and that includes the CIA, the FBI and Homeland Security, plus the NY leadership like Nurse Bloomberg, Ray Kelly and NY's Finest and Bravest-- and the Pakistanis, too.
It could be that the AQ operative woman they caught at the Texas/Mexico border [See story below.] last week who was on her way to NYC may have supplied some other info in addition to whatever Abu Tahla told us.
And then there's those detainees at Gitmo.
I'm going to hope and pray that we got onto the Evildoers in time to stop an attack, because they'd love to kill a lot more "infidels" and to inflict harm on our powerful financial institutions.
They hate our robust capitalist economy because they equate it with Jews and the Muslim "sin" of charging "usury."
We love you, New York (and our nation's capital, as well)-- so stay safe and beautiful!
Speaking of beautiful, they're also putting extra security on the Statue of Liberty, which reopens to the public today after being closed since the 9/11 attacks.
Let Freedom Reign!

August 01, 2004

90 Percent of Afghans Registered to Vote

Nine out of 10 eligible Afghans have signed up for landmark October elections, the United Nations said Sunday, a resounding endorsement of a democratic experiment supposed to help Afghanistan turn its back on years of debilitating war.

Women and ethnic minorities are strongly represented among those registered for the first-ever direct vote for president. But parts of the south risk being left behind because of stepped-up attacks on election workers and Afghan and U.S. security forces.

First tallies since the eight-month registration drive began winding down on Saturday show that 8.7 million of an estimated 9.8 million eligible voters have collected ID cards for the Oct. 9 election. Forty-one percent of those registered were women.
[Go, Afghan sisters!--Jen]

"The participation is amazing," U.N. spokesman David Singh said. "There was a lot of skepticism about this process at the beginning, but the targets have been fulfilled."

The turnout is a relief for the world body, which has overcome misgivings about Afghanistan's readiness for elections under strong pressure from the United States. The vote had been delayed from June because of slow progress disarming warlords' private armies. A vote for Parliament was put off until next spring.

It is also a boost for President Hamid Karzai, who is widely expected to defeat 22 rivals to secure a new five-year term. The U.S.-backed interim leader was still saying in June that 6 million registered voters would be enough.

We are overwhelmed with joy at the sheer enthusiasm of the people," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said. "It's essentially the first important step toward a successful and legitimate election process."

Afghans have flocked to register in the north, west and center of the country, where regional leaders - including opponents of Karzai's drive for a centralized state - have encouraged their supporters to sign up. Ethnic rivalry in a country deeply scarred by years of infighting has also encouraged communities to make sure they are fully represented.
[...]

Shootings and explosions have killed at least nine election workers since May, including a worker and a would-be voter killed Wednesday by a bomb in a mosque used as registration center in Ghazni province. Afghan officials said a mine seriously injured three election workers in Uruzgan on Friday.

The American military says it has killed than 100 militants in the region since mid-May, opening the way for registration teams.

Maj. Jon Siepmann, an American spokesman, said attacks against civilians were likely to continue as part of militants' "increasingly desperate strategy" to disrupt a poll they dismiss as an American-orchestrated charade.

He insisted overall security was steadily improving.

Wonderful!
(I don't think the US itself has 90% voter registration!)
No matter that the Dims didn't mention the liberation of Afghanistan at DonkeyCon; we did a terrific thing when we liberated these people from the Taliban!
The Afghans are hungry for Freedom and Justice to prevail in their country which they love so much and their enthusiasm to sign up to participate shows this.
Karzai has done a marvelous job, also, as interim President and is widely loved and respected.
I'm looking forward to him being returned for a "real" 5-year term in October.
(And I envy the Afghans that they don't have Dumbocrats in their country with a complicit media that bombards you with their propaganda 24/7 as we do here in the more "enlightened" "Great Satan!")