Tea Parties are being watched according to the Canada Free Press

More evidence emerging that that Constitution supporters are considered “domestic threats
By Douglas Hagmann & Judi McLeod

A report published today by Kurt Nimmo states that a Department of Homeland Security fusion center in Florida conducted surveillance on Ron Paul supporters and other political groups. A law enforcement sensitive bulletin dated 4 June 2010, issued by the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, identified one event hosted by Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty that was subjected to official intelligence monitoring by that arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Nimmo notes that the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange was established with the assistance of an $850,000 Department of Homeland Security grant, which is your tax dollars at work. The center is specifically tasked with looking for terrorist leads.

As we detailed in our report dated 19 April 2009 , over a year before the Ron Paul event and today’s article, we informed readers of the existence of a FBI directive issued in March, 2009 that tasked FBI field offices to collect specific times, dates and locations of TEA party and other similar patriotic events. A second directive was issued the following month directing domestic intelligence agencies to perform covert video surveillance and data collection of the participants of the TEA parties. The directive instructed that surveillance was to be performed from “discreet fixed or mobile positions” and was to be performed"independently and outside of the purview of local law enforcement.”

Read all the details here.

I am not the only one who calls it an attack

Marc A. Thiessen writing in the Washington Post also calls it an attack. He says it better than I do.
He says:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got one thing right last week - she described WikiLeaks' disclosure of hundreds of thousands of classified documents as "an attack." Indeed, it was the third such attack in five months that WikiLeaks has launched against the United States and its international partners. WikiLeaks itself has described its struggle in military terms. Founder Julian Assange recently posted a Tweet from one of his supporters declaring: "The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops."

 He also has access to more information than I do so we learn this:

Last week, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the United States does in fact have the offensive capabilities in cyberspace to take down WikiLeaks, but that the Obama administration chose not to use them. This failure to act prompted a patriotic hacker who goes by the name th3j35t3r (the Jester) to attack WikiLeaks himself, repeatedly taking down its Web site.
I am surprised though, that he makes no reference to this:

Wikileaks is willing to tell the world's terrorists where the best spots to hit us are, that is an attack.

Some important links for today

From the Washington Post Politics:
Crist pulls way ahead of Rubio
Pelosi's enforcer not afraid to battle Rahmbo
Oil spill pits Palin against the Republican Party

From Washington Post AP news:
Supreme Court upholds anti-terror law
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has upheld a U.S. law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.
The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.
 
From Washington Post Foreign Service:
Iran bans 2 IAEA inspectors from entering Iran
 
Editorials and Op-Edsand columnists:
Obama's energy pipe dreams
Robert J. Samuelson

"Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political damage control -- his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever."

Barton's BP comments highlight GOP's propensity for gaffes
by Davis S. Broder (ed. note: I wish this weren't so true. Barton may have been correct but it was not the time to do the attention grabbing apology.)

The unreadiness team

THE REPORT is chilling. Optimistically titled "U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team Makes Progress in Securing Cyberspace, but Challenges Remain," it paints a disturbing picture of a national security disaster waiting to happen.

Eyes on the people who enter our military bases

FromPatterico Pontifications blog:

Incident at Fort Gordon
by DRJ
Monday evening there was an incident at Florida’s Fort MacDill AFB in which a man and woman were detained with weapons as they tried to enter the Base.

Tuesday evening a vehicle containing explosives was found at Fort Gordon Army Base in Georgia and a civilian was arrested. He was impersonating a soldier and may have had grenades.

Perhaps incidents like this are common but, in today’s world, it’s something I notice (with help from a friend).– DRJ

I read this blog daily, you should, too

Links on Obamacare, Chicago Politics, Liberal Press bias, Obama's Policies and other news of the day

Rod Blagojevich trial rattles insiders

Scary Chicago politics.... scary for the party in power.  Chicago politicians acting like Chicago politicians.  One pundit asked if this had anything to do with the recent visit over the Memorial Day weekend. If I find the link again I will add it.

From Michelle Malkin:

The Resurrection of Rod Blagojevich
From NRO Online by Jonah Goldberg:

In a Welfare State, How Much Is ‘Enough’?
That’s a question Democrats don’t tend to ask.
 
Stu Tarlow in The American Thinker blog:  
Don't be fooled by Obama's 'incompetence'

It is a tremendous mistake to think that the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will help convince Americans of Barack Obama's incompetence. Obama's true agenda is so insidious that even his inability to handle a crisis serves his greater strategy.

From The American Thinker:
A Sneak Preview of the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque
By Stella Paul
 
From Investor's Daily:
Reversing A Mistake

Medical Care: Monday's headline from Reuters — "Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model" — is a warning. In the not-too-distant future, the headline will be used again, except "U.S." will replace "Canada."

Howie Carr in the Boston Herald:
Barack Obama didn’t part the waters - he just made them dirtier

On the day of the memorial service for the 11 dead on the oil rig last week, Barack flew to San Francisco for a fund-raiser on behalf of the hideous Sen. Barbara “Botox” Boxer. It was held in a mansion owned by a member of the Getty family, of Big Oil infamy. And yet nary a word among the usual Ivy League pukes on MSNBC and in The New York Times [NYT].

An IBD Editorial:
Colombia Election Skunks The Media

 Elections: Loopy Green candidate Antanas Mockus was hailed in the press as Colombia's next president. But the voters had someone else in mind and stunned with Sunday's result. It exposed Mockus' rise as pure media hype.

Just a start on the day's news and opinions.

About that Protest at the private home

Read about all the alarming connections:

President Obama Deeply Connected To Organizers Of Recent Angry Street Mob Actions

by Andrew Marcus

President Barack Obama and his administration, is shamefully deeply connected to the people and organizations that recently organized street mob protests, terrifying a teenage child in his own home, and storming bank buildings (violating how many Federal laws?) in a show of uncivil disobedience (intimidation).

Read it all.

Terrorism, a new word in the administration

If you watched the news over the weekend or yesterday you already know about this. The administration is again using the word "terrorism." I think this news story tells it well, it is from the New York Post.

Obama wakes up

White House turn on terror

by Ralph Peters

Something big is happening. Big enough to alarm the White House. So big that the administration did an abrupt about-face regarding terrorism.

A week ago, failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad wasn't even a Muslim, but a 40-something white male and, as Mayor Bloomberg insisted, probably an opponent of ObamaCare.

Then, after Shahzad's apprehension, we were told that he was just another "one-off" in the tradition of Islamist terrorists who aren't really Islamist terrorists at all, but distraught homeowners unable to meet mortgage payments or victims of our prejudice (such as Maj. Nidal Hassan, the traitor and butcher of Fort Hood).

Vigilant: In one sign of heightened alert, NYPD Emergency Service Unit members patrolled the financial district last week.

Even generals who knew better lined up to deny that Shahzad was part of a terror network.

Then wham! Over the weekend, the Obama administration unleashed a reverse-course media offensive -- deploying Attorney General Eric Holder, terror czar John Brennan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and plentiful back-channel messages from staffers.

Instead of Shahzad being a one-off, Brennan tied him to the Pakistani Taliban and stressed to TV viewers that there are dangers we're "taking very seriously."

Clinton and others warned Pakistan that it must crack down on militant strongholds in North Waziristan, hinting that Islamabad's failure to do so might lead to direct US intervention in Cambodia (uh, sorry, that's Pakistan).

But the administration's biggest policy reversal to date came from Holder, the longtime advocate of terrorist "rights," who offered one of the most belated acknowledgments in history when he told a TV network, "We're now dealing with international terrorism."

Holder, of all people, now wants Congress to change the rules for Miranda rights, giving the government more time under a "public-safety exception" to permit extended questioning of terrorist suspects before arming them with lawyers.

And there wasn't a single mention of "man-caused disasters" this time around. Every administration point person talked "terrorism." Next thing you know, somebody in the White House will use the term "Islamist terrorist."

And we may even be "alledgedly" back in a War on Terror.  Read the rest.

Even more secrets on how we caught him

This is from WCBSTV in New York City but since I started this yesterday afternoon many people have it.  Michael Yon has a facebook post that it is not that big a secret, but he is in Afghanistan and privy to quite a few secrets.  I just think news media should be a little more careful.  Loose lips still sink ships just like they did in WWII.

In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

This is what Michael Yon says:
Cell phone tracking is widely recognized by the enemy here. Taliban have often attacked cell towers and cell employees.

I wonder why we alway tell them how we did it?

It seems to me if we could keep this a secret they wouldn't know how to do it better the next time. This is from Politico but they are not the only ones telling how we caught him.

Cellphone led FBI to Times Square car bomb suspect arrest

by Mike Allen

The number from a disposable cellphone led FBI agents to the suspect arrested Monday night for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening, according to a senior official.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official said.

Thanks, Mike and the rest of you newsers, I know they needed that information.
Read more:

A Dubai Flight was turned around

And three passengers were removed.  Hmm.... didn't hear that on CNN last night. This is from Yahoo News, via Lucianne.

Three passengers taken off New York-Dubai flight

DUBAI (AFP) – Emirates Airlines said on Tuesday that three passengers were removed from a New York-Dubai flight, after US officials said a suspect in an attempted New York bombing was arrested trying to fly to Dubai.

"Emirates can confirm that its flight EK 202 (from New York to Dubai on May 3)... was called back by the local authorities prior to departure. Three passengers were removed from the flight," the airline said in a statement.

"Full security procedures were activated, including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage. Emirates is cooperating with the local authorities," it said.

US officials said earlier that a Pakistani-American suspect in an attempted car bombing on Saturday in New York's Times Square was arrested while trying to flee on flight from New York to Dubai.

New York police chief Raymond Kelly has said more than one person may have been involved in the attempted bombing, but offered no specifics.

"Nuff Said

Remember this when you think Obama is the only president that didn't know the difference between terrorists and criminals.
4 Block World

Lawyers who helped detainees identified

Fox news broke the story:

Exclusive: Unknown DOJ Lawyers Identified

by: Mike Levine

A day after a conservative group released a video condemning the Justice Department for refusing to identify seven lawyers who previously represented or advocated for terror suspects, Fox News has uncovered the identities of the seven lawyers.

The names were confirmed by a Justice Department spokesman, who said "politics has overtaken facts and reality" in a tug-of-war over the lawyers' identities.

"Department of Justice attorneys work around the clock to keep this country safe, and it is offensive that their patriotism is being questioned," said Justice Department Spokesman Matt Miller.

The video by the group Keep America Safe, which dubbed the seven lawyers "The Al Qaeda 7," is the latest salvo in a lengthty political battle.

For several months, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has led an effort to uncover politically-appointed lawyers within the Justice Department who have advocated for Guantanamo Bay detainees or other terror suspects.

"The administration has made many highly questionable decisions when it comes to national security, " Grassley said in a recent statement. "[Americans] have a right to know who advises the Attorney General and the President on these critical matters."

An extensive review of court documents and media reports by Fox News suggests many of the seven lawyers in question played only minor or short-lived roles in advocating for detainees. However, it's unclear what roles, if any, they have played in detainee-related matters since joining the Justice Department.

Even a small role is a conflict of interest, plus we wonder why he keeps getting such people in government roles.  Well, no, we don't really wonder, just wish it wasn't so.
Read the whole article.
via Lucianne.com

DHS is Busy, Busy,

And somehow I don't think we are getting any safer.  This is from their own press release, I guess they think we are going to be pleased.

Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Meeting with Faith-Based and Community Leaders
Release Date: January 28, 2010
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today met with leaders from Muslim, Sikh, South Asian and Arab communities—key partners in homeland security that contribute to many different parts of American life and exemplify the diversity that is a hallmark of our country—to discuss ways the Department can increase engagement, dialogue and coordination, and enhance information sharing between DHS and faith- and community-based groups.

"In times of crisis, leaders of faith-based communities and other grassroots organizations often play a critical role in the broad and timely dissemination of accurate information," said Secretary Napolitano. "Strengthening our partnerships with faith- and community-based groups will allow improved information sharing and better coordination in preparing for, assessing and responding to threats."

During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano and leaders in attendance examined existing information sharing capabilities such as the Secure Community Network—a model for information sharing with faith- and community-based communities designed to quickly improve overall security awareness in a crisis situation—and discussed ways to expand and enhance current initiatives and partnerships.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov/crcl.

Feel better now? I didn't think so. I don't think any of those were Christian faith based organizations, where were they?  hat tip to Jim H Little

More Bad News from the Obama Crowd

This is from Politico.
Islam envoy retreats on terror talk

President Barack Obama’s new Islamic envoy, Rashad Hussain, changed course Friday — admitting that he made sharply critical statements about a U.S. terror prosecution against a Muslim professor after initially saying he had no recollection of making such comments.

“I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated,” Hussain said, referring to a 2004 conference at which he discussed the case.

Hussain’s reversal came after POLITICO obtained a recording of his presentation to a Muslim students’ conference in Chicago during which he can be heard portraying the government’s cases towards professor Sami Al-Arian, as well as other Muslim terrorism suspects, as “politically motivated persecutions.” Al-Arian later pled guilty to aiding terrorists.

The comments touched off criticism from conservative commentators, who questioned whether someone who held those views should represent the United States in the Muslim world.

This is a real Good Grief!! moment.  We have so many of these from this administration.
Read more lots more to see there.

How Much Damage can Brennan Do To his reputation?

 Power Line pundit Paul Mirengoff has a post on him and his recent statements.  Here are a few of his comments:

 "Have we ever had a high level national security official who made as many foolish comments as John Brennan, President Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser? I can't recall one."

"Brennan's latest words of wisdom pertain to the issue of recidivism among former terrorist detainees."

"You know, the American penal system, the recidivism rate is up to something about 50 percent or so, as far as return to crime. Twenty percent isn't that bad,"

Brennan may be agnostic on how to deal with potential "ticking time-bomb" scenarios. But at least he's clear that there's no real problem with the large-scale release of terrorists where we can expect one in five of them to engage in future terrorism

He ends with this

Obama should relieve Brennan of his counter-terrorism duties so that he can devote more time to visiting Islamic centers.

I've left much of the article out of this post, go read it all.

Obama and the Trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed

The Washington Post has an article saying he is "planning to insert himself" into the selection of the place KSM should be tried. 

Oh really, do they really think he had nothing to say to Eric Holder about this when he turned it over to him to decide?  If that is truly the case he is far more inept than I thought.  I think this was done with the full concurrence of the President. It is insulting, and he has done it to himself, to think he had nothing to do with the selection or the type of trial it would be.  Is he not THE PRESIDENT of the United States?

Here is what the WaPo says:
Obama will help select location of Khalid Sheik Mohammed terrorism trial

By Anne E. Kornblut and Carrie Johnson

President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash.

Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.

Administration officials acknowledge that Holder and Obama advisers were unable to build political support for the trial. And Holder, in an interview Thursday, left open the possibility that Mohammed's trial could be switched to a military commission, although he said that is not his personal and legal preference.

Read it all here.

Vindication for the Bush Administration?

From Wall Street Journal Online
Cheney's Revenge
The Obama Administration is vindicating Bush antiterror policy. Dick Cheney is not the most popular of politicians, but when he offered a harsh assessment of the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism last May, his criticism stung—so much that the President gave a speech the same day that was widely seen as a direct response. Though neither man would admit it, eight months later political and security realities are forcing Mr. Obama's antiterror policies ever-closer to the former Vice President's.
Read the rest.

A Moral Delimma? Not in my mind.

Jonathan Tubin in Commentary Magazine has a article concerning a PBS American Experience program.
 The Most Unethical Act: Losing a War

Tonight, PBS’s American Experience series will broadcast a new documentary titled The Bombing of Germany, about the strategic-bombing campaign carried out against the Nazis by American forces in World War II. Coming from the liberal-leaning PBS and in an era where denunciations of American military actions — even in the “good war” against Nazi Germany — have become commonplace, it would have been no surprise if this film was yet another revisionist attempt to decry Allied tactics as immoral....

....It is telling that the documentary treats the achievement of air superiority over Normandy before the D-Day landings in France as the Allied Air Forces' greatest achievement.....

The most devastating line of the film is its last, in which historian Conrad C. Crane, director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute, confronts the moral dilemma of killing civilians in a righteous war against an immoral opponent. While the question of the deaths of civilians is one we must ponder, Conrad insists, “The most unethical act for the Allies in World War II would have been allowing themselves to lose.”

This is a concept that applies not only to the war against Hitler but also to the one that America is currently fighting against Islamo-fascists. 

Read it all, it is very interesting, especially for us who are old enough to remember WWII and all it entailed.

High-Value Interrogation

Long-Awaited High-Value Interrogation Group -- HIG -- Finally Formed
From ABC News Jake Tapper's blog
Following the Jan. 20 disclosure that a special interrogation team for high-value terrorist suspects was not yet operational -- months after it was supposed to have been -- the Obama administration approved the charter to create the High-Value Interrogation Group, or HIG, an administration official tells ABC News.
The HIG charter was signed last week by National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones (ret.).
For background and the rest of the story, read here.

Did the Buck Really Stop with Eric Holder?

Powerline has a post up on the Christmas panty bomber discussing the treatment of him by the justice department. They've called it Obama's Folly. Here is how it starts:

This afternoon the Justice Department released Attorney General Holder's five-page letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the case of Umar Abdulmutallab. The letter is powerful evidence of the damage wrought by the three pillars of Obamaism.

Holder first takes responsibility for the treatment of Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant, with the agreement of the Obama administration's entire national security apparatus: "I made the decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab with federal crimes, and to seek his detention in connection with those charges, with the knowledge of, and with no objection from, all other relevant departments of the government." He then defends this treatment of the case: 

Read his defense and further discussion of this subject here.