July 23, 2005
At least 83 dead in Sharm el-Sheik bombings
83 Die in Car Bombs at Egyptian Resort
A rapid series of car bombs and another blast ripped through a luxury hotel and a coffeeshop in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, killing at least 83, a hospital official said. Terrified European and Arab tourists fled into the night, and rescue workers said the death toll could still rise.
[It's been rising all night from 45, to 75, now 83...horrible.--Jen]
The attack, Egypt's deadliest terror hit ever, appeared well coordinated. Two car bombs, possibly by suicide attackers, went off simultaneously at 1:15 a.m. just more than 2 miles apart. A third bomb, believed hidden in a sack, detonated around the same time near a beachside walkway where tourists often stroll at night.
[Charming. Wonder if anyone will stroll there ever again?]
A total of 83 people had been confirmed dead, said Dr. Saeed Abdel Fattah, manager of the Sharm el-Sheik International Hospital where the victims were taken. Among the dead were two Britons, two Germans and an Italian, he added, and Czech officials said one Czech tourist was also killed. Rescue workers were still searching for victims at some attack scenes.
Several hours after the attacks, a group citing ties to al-Qaida
[This is a phrase we're all too familiar with by now, isn't it?]
claimed responsibility for the explosion on an Islamic web site. The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, was one of two extremist groups that also claimed responsibility for October bombings at the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34. The group also claimed responsbility for a Cairo bombing in late April.
[...]
The United States, Israel and European and Middle Eastern countries condemned the attacks, and neighboring Jordan said it was immediately tightening security at its tourist sites.
Pope Benedict XVI deplored the attacks, calling them "senseless acts," and appealed to terrorists to renounce violence.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak flew into Sharm el-Sheik and went directly to inspect the scene at the Ghazala hotel. Heavily armed security forces guarded Mubarak as he walked past the bomb-ravaged complex and spoke with officials.
[...]
In addition to the 83 known dead, at least 119 others were wounded, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.
At least eight foreigners were among the dead, Al-Adli said. The dead included British, Dutch, Kuwaitis, Saudis and Qataris, one security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was giving information not yet included in the official statement.
[We've got Muslims killing Muslims again, as well as kaffir and infidels.]
[...]
"The country's going to come to a stop. That's it!" sobbed Samir al-Mitwalli, who arrived in Sharm only a month ago to work as a driver. "Who's paying the price? ... Whoever did this wants to destroy the economy."
[Uh, yes. They want to punish Egyptian "collaborators" for profiting from non-Muslims in non-Islamic acitivities like going to nightclubs and women swimming in revealing bathing suits.]
The string of attacks stunned a town that has long been dedicated to scuba diving at the famed coral reefs.
Sharm el-Sheik has expanded at a furious pace in recent years, making it a major player in Egypt's vital tourism industry, drawing Europeans, Israelis and Arabs from oil-producing Gulf nations. Mubarak has a residence where he spends the winter, and the town has been the host to multiple summits for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
[Don't forget: President Bush was here for a conference with Arab leaders only 2 years ago!]
The attacks last fall in Taba ended a long halt in Egyptian militant violence. The last major attack had been in 1997, when Islamic militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at the Pharaonic Temple of Hatshepsut outside Luxor in southern Egypt.
[This one gave me the chills, as I had been to this very place in 1988.
The terrorist killers just opened fire on unarmed, unsuspecting tourists (like I was!) and gunned them down.]
"This is a security farce," said Omar Ezzideen, owner of a children's clothing store in a nearby mall whose windows were shattered. "How can something like this happen here? How could (explosives) enter here? The national economy is based on this."
The terrorists are busy, spreading death, suffering and fear everywhere, aren't they?
Not only were there these bombings in Sharm yesterday, but there was also a
bomb in Beirut right after Dr. Condi Rice paid a surprise visit and of course, there were the failed attempts in London the day before that.
As I remarked below, I think this Sharm attack is definitely related to the Israeli pullout from Gaza, targeting as it does the meeting place for various talks on Arab-Israeli peace in the past few years.
(But
Hamas has denounced the bombings, so this wasn't their handiwork...or was it?)
It's also to punish Muburak for working with the Israelis and for oppressing the terrorists' brothers who Hosni prefers to keep under lock and key, given what happened to his predecessor.
I'm getting fairly scared myself of late as you just can't tell where the next bombs will go off anymore.
I said that it would be get pretty rough as Israel and the Paleostinians approach the August 17 withdrawal date, so hold onto yourselves.
Let's pray for more 7/21's, where the jihadis failed miserably to pull off their attacks and hurt no-one.
July 22, 2005
British cops show readiness to use lethal force to stop terrorists
Winner says stop 'playing cricket' with terrorists
For many people this morning's shooting at Stockwell Tube must have sounded like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a man chased down a subway escalator by armed police, cornered in a train and shot five times at close range.
For Michael Winner, the film director who sent Charles Bronson out to clean up the streets of New York 30 years ago in Death Wish, it was a sign that Britain is finally coming to terms with the challenge of terrorism.
Terrorism experts said that the South London shooting was an unavoidable use of lethal force, the first result of new rules of engagement given to the security forces to deal with the threat of suicide bombers: shoot for the head, not for the body, in case you detonate explosives on the suspect's body. If officers thought the man was carrying explosives, they had no choice.
Mr Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, went further than that. He told Times Online: "I think the police shooting the terrorist was absolutely right.
"Our whole approach to terrorism is absurd. We need new laws to detain people without trial - we are at war. We are playing cricket and they're playing mass murder. Police powers should be massively increased, as well as police numbers."
Mr Winner's comments will earn him no thanks from the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner,Sir Ian Blair, was at pains today to say that "any death is deeply regrettable". Since the suicide bombings of July 7, Sir Ian has done all he can to stop the terror attacks dividing London's ethnic and religious communities.
And the fact that the suspected suicide bomber was shot so many times also caused some disquiet today - even before the dead man was identified. The Muslim Council of Britain said it had received a number of phone calls from ordinary Muslims worried that the police had adopted a "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Inayat Bunglawala, a Council spokesman, said: "There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear. We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy."
Mr Winner was unrepentant: "The so-called politically correct liberals have on their hands the blood of many of our citizens already. Tragically, the number will vastly increase before anything sensible is done about it."
Let's hope that Mr. Winner isn't correct about this.
Looks to me as if the police over there have finally gotten some sense!
Hopefully, Ian Blair can be brought around, too.
The fact that the 2nd Amendment is alive and well here and that our police are normally armed (whereas in the UK, I don't they have been) makes me feel as if there are many citizens in the U.S. who can stop a terrorist killer before he strikes.
As for those "distressed Muslims," don't do anything to make the cops "shoot to kill" you.
In this perp's case, he was wearing a heavy coat on a hot summer day and wouldn't halt when the cops told him to, but ran.
Heaven knows what this bad boy was going do, but now he can't.
Better one dead stupid man who's behaving suspiciously the day after more attacks than 55 going about their normal lives.
Wide-eyed in Gaza
NRO's Barbara Lerner believes that when Israel pulls out of Gaza on August 17, we'll be in more danger here at home and that Islamist terrorism will be given another shot in the arm so therefore, we should urge President Bush to stop PM Sharon from effecting the withdrawal. She explains why here:
Eyeless in Gaza
I couldn't disagree with her more.
The fact that Sharon has gone ahead with the withdrawal, even in the face of large and semi-violent protests and the opprobrium of "Far Right" Zionists who think he is "betraying" Israel and the Gaza settlers, speaks volumes about the level of his commitment to see this thing through and to give the "Palestinians" the state they've been saying for decades that they want.
Ms. Lerner should also have reason to believe that Sharon has the backing of President Bush, if not the rest of the "Quartet," if we can even speak of that group as a viable force, which I wouldn't.
Sharon knows that Bush's support is all that he needs, after he has won that of most Israelis.
Even though he was ahead of events, the person who predicted what will happen next was WOT web warrior Steven den Beste and that was over a year ago, when Arafat was still alive.
His remarks on Israeli disengagement still ring true over a year later and he adroitly ties in Israeli actions with our pursuit of the WOT in Iraq.
You really should read the whole thing and click around while you're over there, but here are the key parts:
[...]
But once the wall is in place, and Israeli forces have been withdrawn from Palestinian territories, Israel will largely be able to ignore the Palestinians; at least to the extent that the war will no longer occupy center stage in Israel politically and economically. The wall will deprive the Palestinians of the only real weapon they had in the war. And when violent civil war breaks out amongst the Palestinian factions, their situation will become immeasurably worse in every way.
There will be far more Palestinian casualties than there have been in Israeli operations, because the Palestinians will not be as restrained as the Israelis have been. And once civil war begins, international support for the Palestinians will plummet. (Even further than it already has.) And if that happens, it's not likely to end any sooner than the Lebanese civil war did.
Palestinian "unity" was always a myth but even the semblance of unity is breaking down. Once it ceases to be possible to even pretend that there exists some Palestinian leader who can make diplomatic deals on their behalf, then it no longer makes any sense even for the Europeans to demand that Israel negotiate with "The Palestinians" and make major concessions to them. Who, exactly, among the Palestinians would Israel make such a deal with, and why would there be any reason to believe that the Palestinians would live up to the terms of such a deal? (Even ignoring the fact that they've never come even remotely close to complying with the terms of any previous deal they've made.)
Now even the pretense of unity is breaking down.
[We've seen this on an almost daily basis in the Paleo areas since Abbu Mazen took over the PA.--Jen] Major Palestinian militant factions are beginning to try to treat with Israel independently, or to deny that they are doing so. And they're making concessions, though the offers they're making remain preposterous.
[...]
...He [Arafat] says that completion of the wall will kill off the "roadmap", and he's right: once the wall is complete, Israel won't need the "roadmap". (But he's also wrong. The "roadmap" can't be killed because it was never alive.)
Arafat has denounced Sharon and claims that Sharon is "not serious about peace". Of course, Sharon is looking for peace for Israel and damned well doesn't care if the Palestinians end up killing each other. What Arafat is actually worried about is the fact that Sharon has found a way to wrap the situation up in a way which is moderately satisfactory for Israel, without Palestinian consent and without Palestinian cooperation. Arafat does want peace, but the only peace he wants for Israelis is the peace of the grave. Now he sees his last hope of achieving that vanishing in months when the wall is completed.
[...]
One of the dirty little secrets of this struggle is that most of the Arabs despise the Palestinians and don't want anything to do with them. Some of them have forcibly expelled large numbers of Palestinians who had been living within their borders. Part of why they've supported the Palestinian struggle is because they don't want the Palestinians living in their nations. But that's exactly what the Saudis are claimed to have proposed.
So I don't think this is a credible offer, but it's a noteworthy event nonetheless: it abandons the "right of return". Under the agreement, Israel would not have to absorb an influx of Palestinians.
That, combined with reports that Syria is also beginning to talk to Israel (albeit making initial demands at least as preposterous as the demands made by Hamas), and that Egypt is putting pressure on the Palestinians, makes me cautiously optimistic that things are beginning to work out the way I hoped they would.
This is yet another sign that the invasion of Iraq was a valuable step in the process of winning this war, and that as hoped it is having strong effects in the entire region.
How prescient Den Beste is will be revealed in the next few weeks, but I think he's bang on the money, even though there have been "developments" since he wrote this good piece, most of which he foresaw:
Arafat's dead, Lebanon is trying to reestablish its sovereignity from Baathist Syria, Egypt is trying, however painfully, to come around to cooperating with the Allied Coalition and to enact democratic reforms and Syria, under Bashir, is under huge pressure from the West to follow "Palestine" and end its support for terrorist murder in both Israel and Iraq.
Dr. Condi was in Israel today meeting with Sharon about the "day after" disengagement:
Rice, Sharon discuss 'day after'
A few hours before Rice's visit, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the West Bank settlement of Ariel and – in a move sure to displease the Palestinians – pledged that the Ariel settlement bloc would always remain a part of Israel.
Sharon's declaration, following the protests over the last three days and less than a month before disengagement from Gaza, seemed designed to underline to Rice that he takes the letter given to him by President George W. Bush when the two met in April 2004 very seriously, as well as to reassure his Likud supporters that withdrawal from Gaza will not be followed by a deep withdrawal in the West Bank.
[...]
In greeting Rice, Shalom said Israel is "on the verge of a most crucial and decisive moment in the implementation of the disengagement plan," which he said has provoked a "difficult internal debate," and on the other hand "brings new hope to us and our future generations."
Shalom said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had for eight months said he was too weak to deal with the terrorists effectively, but "as the actions of the last two days have shown he does have the ability to stand up to Hamas, what he has lacked so far is the will."
Shalom said that actions to stop Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror must not be "a temporary response to specific attacks, it must be adopted as a proactive strategy and a principle of policy, so peace efforts can have a chance of success."
So, Sharon has hit the ball into Abbas's court, where it belongs.
It's up to him and the various groups of IslamoCrazies in the Palestinian areas to make their newly isolated, but un-occupied state free, democratic and terror-free.
Whether this can be accomplished remains for us all to see...
It is going to be a hairy few weeks and months, make no mistake.
Once the "Palestinians" realize that they've been isolated, their reaction won't be pretty.
Certainly not at first.
But whom the gods would destroy, they will first give what they want.
The Paleos will get their state, probably to their sorrow, despair, and even doom.
The only way out of this mess is through it--We can only thank God that President Bush did some thinking outside of the box, approached the problem in a new way and stopped the inane go-nowhere "peace process."
Maybe once the smoke clears after the internecine fighting is over, some "moderate" democracy-loving Muslims will be left to pick up the pieces.
The U.N. guy is hopeful (Heh-heh. Aren't they great at happy talk?):
Gaza withdrawal could help jump-start Mideast peace, UN envoy tells council
[...]
Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the pullout will proceed despite "the absence of any demonstrable leadership on the Palestinian side."
"Indeed as Israel has repeatedly stated, this initiative can pave the way to implement the road map, and lead the parties back to the road to a negotiated resolution of the conflict," Gillerman told the council.
De Soto's speech was followed by a day-long council debate that Arab nations called to focus on last week's approval by the Israeli cabinet of the final details of the separation fence in Jerusalem, which will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the capital.
Algeria's UN Ambassador Abdallah Baali said the fence's completion, expected in September, was "a serious development" that would completely isolate Jerusalem from the West Bank.
Arab nations have criticized Israel for ignoring a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in July 2004 demanding that Israel demolish the structure as ordered by the World Court.
In the same Den Beste essay I linked above, he talks about the "right of return" and Palestinian demands for a capital in (East) Jerusalem, a demand now made moot by the erection of the fence around Jerusalem proper:
The sure demonstration that the Palestinians never abandoned their goal of a one-state solution was that they never relented on their demand for the "right of return". That was always the deepest and most important issue, because it was the one concession that Israel could never make and would never make. If Israel had accepted it, demographic trends would have resulted in a Palestinian majority inside Israel within 30 years, permitting the Palestinians to take over via the ballot box what they never succeeded in conquering via armed struggle.
The public rhetoric about the "right of return" has never truly dealt with the true purpose of that demand, but no one in a position of power has ever been fooled by that rhetoric; they all know what it really meant. It has always been the key point; it has always been the one concession Israel could never make and would never even consider making.
[...]
...Once the wall is complete and Israel disengages from the West Bank, there will be no hope that the Palestinians could eventually take Israel back. And there is a very high chance, approaching certainty, that the Palestinian interfaction power struggle would turn violent and lead to an extremely bloody Palestinian civil war similar to the one that took place in Lebanon.
[...]
In every way, the decision to build the wall puts time on Israel's side, where time used to be viewed as being on the side of the Palestinians. Once the wall is complete, the Israelis can withdraw their military forces from the West Bank. Part of why the Palestinian power struggle hasn't turned violent is that the Israelis have been keeping the peace. When they are gone, it will turn ugly very rapidly.
And with the wall in place, it will become far more difficult for the Palestinians to make attacks on Israel.
Worst of all, the wall de facto draws the line of demarcation for the two-state solution, and the longer that it exists without any formal agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, the less chance there would eventually be of renegotiating the border, even if the Palestinians ultimately accepted a two-state agreement.
[I think the only question to be faced in the future is whether the Paleos can hang onto and run their "state."--Jen]
Meanwhile, America's war continues and shows no sign of being abandoned, and the deep American strategy in the war (to inspire political and cultural reform in the entire region) has become apparent. Our efforts to try to create a functioning democracy in Iraq are, and are intended to be, a profound threat to the corrupt autocratic governments in neighboring nations, and since they're the primary source of support for the Palestinians, it's a threat to the Palestinian cause as well. (Which is probably why many of the "foreign jihadis" in Iraq have been Palestinians.)
[Don't forget that Zaqarwi himself , head AQ troublemaker in Iraq, is Palestinian.--J.T.]
With these attacks on the London Tube and the revelations they've brought, it's already been a long, hot and tiring summer, but it's not over.
However (particularly if you believe the Bible), we know that the Good Guys are going to win and the IslamoNazis don't have a lot going for them, especially given the fact that they worship death and murder.
The Israelis have fought and died for almost 60 years for this--it's high time they had the ability to enjoy their lovely and blessed democracy in peace and prosperity.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and let's K.B.O.
[Steven den Beste, I miss you and the Civilized World needs you to help fight this war!
I hope you can overcome some of your delibitating health problems--which I can relate to myself--to do some more of your incomparable commentary.]
Good on ya, John Howard!
Ozzie PM John Howard wins the Man of the Hour award for his stirring speech yesterday condemning terrorism.
As he and Brit PM Tony Blair gave a joint press conference in the wake of 4 attempted bombings of London public transport, he calmly, but firmly and eloquently rose to the occasion of saying what needed to be said when the 2 leaders were attacked by Leftist journalists (Are there any other kind?) about the Iraq war:
John Howard sets a reporter straight (if possible)
Can I just say very directly, Paul, on the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq, that the first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away, to use the vernacular. And no Australian government that I lead will ever have policies determined by terrorism or terrorist threats, and no self-respecting government of any political stripe in Australia would allow that to happen.
Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq.
And I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq.
Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor. Are people by implication suggesting we shouldn't have done that?
When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on the 7th of July, they talked about British policy not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn't be in Afghanistan?
When Sergio de Mello was murdered in Iraq -- a brave man, a distinguished international diplomat, a person immensely respected for his work in the United Nations -- when al Qaeda gloated about that, they referred specifically to the role that de Mello had carried out in East Timor because he was the United Nations administrator in East Timor.
Now I don't know the mind of the terrorists. By definition, you can't put yourself in the mind of a successful suicide bomber. I can only look at objective facts, and the objective facts are as I've cited. The objective evidence is that Australia was a terrorist target long before the operation in Iraq. And indeed, all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggests to me that this is about hatred of a way of life, this is about the perverted use of principles of the great world religion that, at its root, preaches peace and cooperation. And I think we lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse through a perverted ideology of people and their murder.
Wow.
Trey Jackson has the video if you didn't see it on TV or if you'd like to see it again or keep it for your files--it's worth keeping.
(And if you're feeling generous, do hit the tip jar for Trey; his bandwidth costs are outrageous and his video clips are singular.)
To be honest, Howard not only elucidated the righteous "cause" of the WOT, but he "saved" Tony Blair who was choking...again.
Before the bombings in London on 7/7 and yesterday, we used to think Tony was so eloquent, but he hasn't been handling these emergency press conferences very well and if I were English, I wouldn't be assured in the least by his lame "Remain calm." exhortations.
John Howard has had the fate of being in the eye of the storm when terrorist killers have struck;
not only did he happen to be visiting Blair in Britain when they endured a second wave of (attempted) terror bombings as well as being in charge when 88 Australians were murdered in Bali, but he was in Washington, D.C. on 9/11 and saw the smoke from the Pentagon.
He's learned the firm lessons of fighting terrorism at first hand.
Howard bitch-slapped the Lefty woman reporter with the right response, but she was only echoing what the hard-line Muslim clerics in Londonistan are saying even today as well:
Change foreign policy - top Muslims
To repeat the world's favorite mayor (Rudy and not Ken Livingstone):
"We're right and they're wrong."
God bless John Howard and God bless Australia!
(It must be a wonderful country to produce men like Howard and Tim Blair!)
H/T to Powerline, Roger Simon and NRO's the Corner.
Gitmo soldiers give Dem. Senators a piece of their mind
Inside the Ring
Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week.
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican.
Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, last month invoked widespread military outrage when he compared Guantanamo to the prison labor systems used by communist tyrant Josef Stalin, Cambodia's Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler.
"They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag."
Hooah!
These men have been asking for this for a long time and it's high time they were held accountable for their irresponsible criticisms.
(Still can't believe Kennedy was dumb enough to show his face to these fine soldiers after what he's said about them, but it's only fair that the "accused" be allowed to face their accusers and set the record straight.)
July 20, 2005
Maybe President Bush wasn't smirking at the Dems last night...
There was a lot of partisan sniping that President Bush was "smirking" during his press conference announcing the nomination of Judge Roberts, but off-camera, where the TV audience couldn't see, we missed this:
So cute!
Boy, will he be embarrassed when he grows up and realizes he was fidgeting at the White House in front of the President at his Daddy's proud hour!
(Hope he didn't get a spanking.)
A good looking middle-aged white guy with a pretty wife and adorable little children--Can this nice man fit in with the Star Wars-bar-scene-kinda weird Lib 5 (Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy and Stephens) on the SCOTUS?
Hap tip to GOPVixen
July 19, 2005
President to announce SCOTUS choice tonight at 9:00 PM ET
Bush to announce court choice - Jul 19, 2005
President Bush has decided whom to nominate to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court and was poised to announce his pick in a prime-time Tuesday night address.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the Bush administration was asking television outlets to broadcast the speech live. Bush's spokesman would not identify the president's choice.
But there was intense speculation that it would be Judge Edith Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
The televised speech was scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.
I'm sure whoever the President names will be a fine person...and a Conservative!
As long as he/she thinks and rules like Justices Scalia, Rehnquist and Thomas, they'll be OK with me.
All the Lib spin on this Supreme Court nominee reminds of the fuss they put up before the new Pope was announced.
The Leftist Libs were mad that the College of Cardinals had chosen a...GASP! Conservative Catholic!! Oh, no!
No gay marriage?! No lady priests?! No gay archbishops?!
Nope. The cafeteria is still closed.
They were shocked and appalled.
Expect pretty much the same reaction when President Bush picks a real Conservative and strict Constitutional constructionist tonight.
Let the howling and the machinations for the Borking commence: we evil Republicans are going to make sure this excellent jurist is confirmed and Senators Schumer, Leahy, Kennedy and Reid and George Soros and his flying monkeys at MorOns.org better get used to it!
Did you hear about the First Lady's trip to Africa in the MSM?
Laura Bush and daughter Jenna sit with children as they visit the Kagarama Church, Thursday, July 14, 2005, in Kigali, Rwanda.
Here are 2 good (but rare) accounts of the trip the First Lady made to Africa last week, accompanied by First Daughter Jenna, after the G8 talks:
IOL: Africa moved me, says Laura Bush
U.S. first lady says world will help Africa
U.S. first lady Laura Bush said on Friday her weeklong trip to Africa had been very emotional and the developed world was committed to helping the continent.
Bush visited programs to fight AIDS, help women and educate children in South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda. She met with orphans and women with AIDS during her travels.
Lady Laura and Jenna were also going to see daughter
Barbara who's been doing volunteer work with child AIDS patients in Capetown, South Africa:
On Wednesday, Barbara remained behind - and behind the scenes - in Cape Town, South Africa, where she has been working as a hospital volunteer with young AIDS sufferers and other patients.
(Well, the AP
did report it, but hardly anyone was supposed to notice.
Betcha you didn't know about Barbara's work, either.)
Laura was joined by Britain's First Lady Cherie Blair to commemorate the victims of the Rwandan massacre.
Jenna really seemed to get into her new role as a humanitarian diplomat--she's really growing up and maturing and has come a long way the days of using a fake ID to get a margarita--and she's a natural with kids.
I'm still hoping for that White House wedding in the next few years!
I love the Bush ladies and while I know President Bush is so proud of their work, I'll bet he missed them like crazy.
Of course, he had nothing waiting for him at home but the nagging press gaggle and their obsession with Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, and "Fire Karl Rove" 24/7...That would drive me to drink and almost has already!
July 17, 2005
Firm link discovered between AlQueda and London bombers
Bomber's link to Al-Qaeda 'grass'
INVESTIGATORS have established a firm link between al-Qaeda and the London bombers after an Islamist terrorist in jail in America identified the British man who led the murderous attacks 10 days ago.
Security officials in the United States have confirmed that self-confessed al-Qaeda member Mohammed Junaid Babar had admitted knowing Mohammed Sidique Khan, the oldest of the British bombers who killed at least 55 people.
[Khan is also thought to have been the "leader" of the group.--Jen]
Babar, who was arrested after returning from an al-Qaeda "terror summit" in Pakistan early last year, identified Khan from photographs shown to him late last week.
The revelation that an al-Qaeda member was associating with one of the London bombers long before the July 7 bus and Tube blasts reinforces the growing impression that British intelligence failed to spot obvious warning signs of an imminent attack.
Other disturbing security failures are now known to include:
• The Leeds-based bombers, far from being quiet and law-abiding, had been banned from three local mosques for as-yet undisclosed unacceptable behaviour;
• The failure of a police anti-terror operation to pick up five of 13 suspects, among them, it is claimed, Khan;
• A known al-Qaeda operative suspected of masterminding the July 7 attacks visited the United Kingdom two weeks earlier but was not placed under surveillance; and
• The Aylesbury-based bomber, Germaine Lindsay, was - according to US officials - on a "watch list" but the British lost track of him.
Babar himself is a Pakistani-American and self-confessed al-Qaeda "sleeper" agent who has already admitted to helping an earlier plot to blow up pubs, train stations and restaurants in Britain.
[...]
The global scale of the plot is also becoming clearer. British detectives have arrived in Cairo to question an Egyptian biochemist suspected of being the bombmaker.
Reports in Pakistan yesterday suggested four arrests had been made in the Osman Town neighbourhood of Faisalabad at the request of British investigators.
Now Scotland Yard is poised to send its own detectives to Manhattan to quiz Babar about his claims.
American security expert John McLaughlin, a former acting head of the CIA, said the British investigation had already demonstrated that the al-Qaeda threat was "more widespread than a few isolated guys".
[...]
The reports on Babar appear to corroborate suggestions made last week by French police that there is a link between the July 7 bombings and the attack thwarted by British police in March last year in a co-ordinated raid codenamed Operation Crevice.
Babar, 30, quickly "turned" on his former colleagues once in custody and gave authorities information about a Pakistani terror cell's plot against London discos, bars and restaurants.
During Operation Crevice police seized half a tonne of ammonium nitrate, the explosive material used in devices such as the Bali bomb, and made eight arrests in 24 different locations in England. But French authorities suggested last week that there were 13 suspects in Operation Crevice and five had escaped, possibly among them Khan, a teacher whose driving license was found near the Edware Road blast.
More details have also emerged about Lindsay, the Jamaican-born Briton thought to have carried out the Russell Square underground attack. He worshipped at the same mosque in Brixton as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker" named by the United States in conjunction with the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The tendrils of terror spread out from London and Leeds to Egypt, Pakistan and even the U.S...
Isn't it exhausting and infuriating that this has all been going on right beneath British (and American) noses?
If you ever needed proof that the WOT is global and that we all need to join together to fight it (and that includes the French!), the revelations about the 7/7 bombings give us all the proof we need.
It's going to be a long war because so far these Islamofascist killers are one step ahead of us and their communication and cooperation skills seem to be better than ours--This must change for us to achieve Victory!
