TUESDAY,  DECEMBER 29,  2009

AND THE IRANIAN THREAT – AT 9:19 P.M. ET:  We have been focusing on the newly revived terror threat, but Iran remains a giant story.  There is rioting in the streets of Tehran.  Some analysts predict that the regime could in fact be brought down by the democracy movement, although that moment does not appear to be close.

There is, in addition, the nuclear program:

VIENNA (AP) -- Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press. Diplomats said the assessment was heightening international concern about Tehran's nuclear activities.

Of course, they need this emergency shipment to build a power plant because so many iPods are waiting to be charged.  It's a terrible problem.  Even Steve Jobs has complained.

Such a deal would be significant because, according to an independent research group, Tehran appears to be running out of the material, which it needs to feed its uranium enrichment program.

The report was drawn up by a member nation of the International Atomic Energy Agency and provided Tuesday to the AP on condition that the country not be identified because of the confidential nature of the information.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, ''the transfer of any uranium yellowcake ... to Iran would constitute a clear violation of UNSC sanctions.''

COMMENT:  Yeah, it would be a violation.  Might have to give them a summons.  The UN just raised the fine on that to $140, and it affects insurance premiums.

The president is facing an avalanche of problems.  He is also facing declining poll numbers and an increasing perception that he's mortal.  Even some reporters believe that.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

BULBS GO ON ABOVE CERTAIN HEADS – AT 8:29 P.M. ET:  Reader Brian Kuhn writes: 

"Watching ABC News tonight, and for the first time EVER, I’m hearing a report on how these terrorists aren’t just downtrodden, poor, backwoods jihadists, but coming from wealthy families as well, and the reporter goes back to Mohammed Atta, a leader in the 9/11 attack, to make his point, listing name after name since ….
 
"Well, duh."

COMMENT:  Please notice how the leftist propaganda about terrorism parallels the leftist propaganda about domestic crime that was pounded into our ears from the fifties onward.  Criminals?  Why, they're just products of their environment.  They're victims.  If we didn't oppress them, they'd all behave.

And the fact is, a good chunk of America, especially "elite" America, bought it, and continues to buy it, because it sounds so respectable, so intellectual.  So, so un-cop. 

That leftist idea was properly satired in the song, "Officer Krupke," in West Side Story. 

Now we're given the same story, by many on the left, about terrorists, despite Harvard studies that debunked the "victim" idea years ago.  Terrorism is based on an ideology.  Victimhood may be part of it, as long as it feeds the ideology, but the ideology comes first.

By the way, one of the most notorious propagators of the terrorist-as-victim myth is Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a vastly overrated man who did a pretty good job in the battle against apartheid, but has, in recent decades, often been an apologist for leftist theology.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

DOT CONNECTING 101 – AT 7:54 P.M. ET:  Apparently the airline bomber, and the Fort Hood shooter, have a friend in common – you know, the way you have a friend on Facebook.  But this is some friend:

The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki, the same Muslim imam suspected of radicalizing the Fort Hood shooting suspect, a U.S. intelligence source has told The Washington Times.

And...

The intelligence official, who is familiar with the FBI's interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said the bombing suspect has boasted of his jihad training during interrogation by the FBI and has said it included final exhortations by Mr. al-Awlaki.

"It was Awlaki who indoctrinated him," the official said. "He was told, 'You are going to be the tip of the spear of the Muslim nation.'"

Uh oh.  Must not say that.  No use of the M-word.

Mr. al-Awlaki had e-mail contact with Maj. Hasan as many as 20 times from December 2008 until the Fort Hood shootings, where Maj. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people. Mr. al-Awlaki praised Maj. Hasan's actions as a "hero" and said all Muslims in the U.S. military should "follow the footsteps of men like Nidal."

Those e-mails were intercepted by the U.S. Government.  And yet, nothing was done.  If proper attention had been paid, it's possible that Fort Hood would have been prevented and the airline bomb plot detected. That is what investigators should be looking at.

In his FBI interrogation, according to the U.S. intelligence official, Mr. Abdulmutallab spoke of being in a room in Yemen receiving Muslim blessings and prayers from Mr. al-Awlaki, along with a number of other men "all covered up in white martyrs' garments," and known only by code names and "abu" honorifics.

The official said such clothing and the lack of familiarity among the men suggests al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula intends to use the men in that room in suicide missions.

Finally...

Yemen's top diplomat said Tuesday that hundreds of al Qaeda militants are in his country and pleaded for foreign help and intelligence in rooting them out.

They may actually plan attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit. There are maybe hundreds of them -- 200, 300, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told the Times of London.

COMMENT:  Do we need a map drawn for us  Will the president now grow up and realize that all his "outreach" does no good with people like this?  We are facing a threat similar to the Japanese kamikaze of World War II.  If someone is willing to give up his life gladly, he becomes a human bomb – a bomb with the best guidance system ever devised, the human mind.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

ON SECOND THOUGHT – AT 7:26 P.M. ET:  It's pretty clear that the Obama political wing realizes the president has a serious problem with the airline terror incident.  Mr. Obama was out front again today, escalating his rhetoric, as if to prove that he's serious about this:

President Obama said Tuesday that a "mix of human and systemic failures" allowed a known extremist to board an airplane with explosives, and he demanded that federal officials report quickly to him on airline security procedures.

Well, let's see, it's four days after the incident and the pres is first making demands.  The things he's saying we knew about from Junior Scholastic on Saturday.

"It's essential that we diagnose the problems quickly and deal with them immediately," Obama said from Hawaii, where he is vacationing.

Let the record show that he went right back to vacationing after the statement, which was made without a tie on.  Nothing like presenting an image of authority.  Next, a bikini?

Obama added: "When our government has information on a known extremist, and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been, so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred. And I consider that totally unacceptable."

Several words are missing.  One is "terrorist."  The other is "jihadist."

Reader John Catherwood wonders whether Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be the first Obama cabinet officer to walk the plank.  Of course, they'll put her through security before allowing her on the plank.

December 29,  2009   Permalink

QUICK, A PILLOW!  A BLANKEE! – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  I consider this a national emergency, as serious as war itself.  From AP:

WASHINGTON – After a sleepless, overnight flight to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, President Barack Obama made a not altogether surprising admission. He was tired.

I feel my heart breaking already.

Who could blame him? The president was on his ninth foreign trip to his 21st country; he added a 10th trip the following week. The year had been bookended by the two most intense periods of his young presidency — the early decisions to bail out the nation's banks and automobile industry, steps the president deemed unpopular but necessary, and his December orders to deploy 30,000 additional U.S. troops to fight the war in Afghanistan.

Well, actually the bank bailouts began under Bush, but who needs facts?  As for the rest, that's what presidents do.

Not that the commander in chief really thinks he can escape his duties, even on an island. Amid golf, tennis, gym workouts and dinner, Obama has been called on to monitor the airliner attack in Detroit last Friday...

Wait.  Didn't he apply for this job?  What does he want, overtime?  Look, we'll give him his letter of recommendation and he can go.

That weight was particularly striking during the president's exhaustive, three-month review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Images of a visibly tired Obama, his black hair now flecked with gray, greeting the bodies of fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base and walking through rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery sparked rumors that he was skipping meals and losing weight.

Is this a weird story, or what?  The reporter obvious adores the guy – maybe a little too much.  She's writing about soldiers killed in action and she's worried about her guy losing weight?

And people wonder why we say that a good chunk of the media is in the tank for Obama.

Aides who have known Obama since before he took office say he seems more sober than he did a year ago, but also increasingly focused on the issues facing the country.

Now just wait a second.  What are they admitting here about the "old" Obama?  Weren't we told by the media during the campaign that he was the Second Coming? 

You mean he wasn't?

As a presidential candidate, Obama was known to get grumpy about grueling travel schedules, questioning why so many events had to be layered on top of each other and why the days had to be so long. He not only hated being away from his family for long stretches but, in his typically rational style, questioned the reasoning behind the craziness of the campaign trail. Aides came to dread having tell him about certain aspects of his schedule.

I don't know how much more of this I can take.  Do we laugh?  Do we cry?  This is the president of the United States we're talking about.  Maybe he thought it was Student Government.

But for all of its stresses, the presidency has provided Obama ways to cope. He persuaded advisers early on to let him keep his beloved BlackBerry to stay in touch with a handful of friends outside the White House. Aides try to include time in his schedule for morning workouts in the White House gym and weekend rounds of golf.

Good God, this is embarrassing.  Imagine what historians will think.  Compare please to Lincoln fighting the Civil War, or FDR, in a wheelchair, fighting World War II.

In a city where virtually anything can become political, Obama has said that one of the things he values most about his wife and daughters is the refuge they provide him from the folly of Washington.

Yeah, and the greatest folly of all was electing a guy who thought it would be easy.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

GOP ON THE ATTACK – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:  Related to the story just below, the Republicans aren't wasting any time in branding the Obama administration, correctly, as soft on terrorism.  From The Politico:

Republicans have wasted no time in attacking Democrats on intelligence and screening failures leading up to the failed Christmas Day bombing of Flight 253 — a significant departure from the calibrated, less partisan responses that have followed other recent terrorist activity.

This incident was clear-cut, and the United States had been given warning – by the terrorist's own father – that the kid was a bit off. 

The strategy — coming as the Republican leadership seeks to exploit Democratic weaknesses heading into the 2010 midterms — is in many ways a natural for a party that views protecting the U.S. homeland as its ideological raison d’etre and electoral franchise...

...“In the past six weeks, you’ve had the Fort Hood attack, the D.C. Five and now the attempted attack on the plane in Detroit … and they all underscored the clear philosophical difference between the administration and us,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

Good.  Make those contrasts and don't withdraw the criticism.  The GOP must make clear its differences with this administration.

“I think Secretary Napolitano and the rest of the Obama administration view their role as law enforcement, first responders dealing with the aftermath of an attack,” Hoekstra told POLITICO. “And we believe in a forward-looking approach to stopping these attacks before they happen.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) went even further, telling FOX News that the Christmas attack proved President Obama’s talk-to-your-enemies approach might actually be encouraging terrorists.

“[S]oft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo, these things are not going to appease the terrorists,” he said. “They’re going to keep coming after us, and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security.”

Now Republicans must counter with a plan of their own.  We hope, of course, that all attempts at terror are defeated.  But the last year – since Obama took the oath – has been distinguished by the sheer number of incidents, Fort Hood being the most deadly.  A strong argument can be made that terror groups feel empowered by Obama's projection of weakness, or even indifference.   Terror is both a military and law-enforcement issue, but the Dems put too much emphasis on the latter.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

A KATRINA MOMENT - AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  The Obamans are having their Katrina moment, following the attempted terrorist airline bombing.  And they well deserve it.  From The New York Times:

HONOLULU — To the list of phrases it may be best for political leaders to avoid after a major security incident, add “the system worked” right after “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

Just as the public did not really share President George W. Bush’s assessment of how things were going after Hurricane Katrina, so too was there a good deal of skepticism when President Obama’s homeland security secretary declared faith in a system that failed to stop a guy who tried to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas Day.

Brownie didn't last long as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Janet Napolitano, she of Homeland Security, must be wondering how quickly she'll be sent back to Arizona. 

Napolitano is also the culprit who coined the phrase "manmade disaster" to replace "terrorism."  I suspect that "manmade disaster" is now part of history, unless applied to Ms. Napolitano herself.

Ms. Napolitano’s statement was just one of the targets for criticism after the botched Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane approaching Detroit. Critics also took aim at Mr. Obama for continuing his Hawaii vacation for three days before appearing in public to address the threat, and they cast the incident as part of a broader assertion that he is not serious enough about terrorism.

And the critics are correct.  One gets the sense that, secretly, the very exotic Mr. Obama blames the United States for the incident, and others like it.

By late Sunday, administration officials realized they had a problem on their hands, and made sure that Ms. Napolitano would clarify when she made a previously scheduled appearance on the “Today” show on NBC the next morning. Still, she was being chided by editorial writers across a spectrum from The Washington Post to The New York Post.

The Washington Post's editorial page once again showed its independence from the party line by rapping Napolitano's knuckles. 

Ms. Napolitano, a former Arizona governor and federal prosecutor, has drawn conservative arrows before for eschewing terms like “war on terror.” But she appears comfortably safe in her job. White House officials consider her one of the stars of the cabinet for what they see as her firm handed management of an unruly department comprising 22 agencies and 180,000 employees.

As they used to say in the 1950s about Lewis Strauss (pronounced "straws"), the irascible head of the Atomic Energy Commission, "Admiral Strauss is a man who manages things." 

When you're safe in a critical security job just because you manage personnel matters well, there's something very wrong.

December 29, 2009   Permalink

THE LEFT AT ITS WORST – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  There are some stories that are so appalling that they must be reported, even though they are, at least for now, local.  Consider what is happening in the symbolically left-wing city of Berkeley, California, home to a goodly number of awful ideas:

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous.

Aside from the militantly anti-intellectual nature of the idea – not unusual in liberal precincts – this is a gratuitous insult to black and Hispanic students.  The school is, in effect, saying that the science labs are a bit too difficult for these kids.  No they're not, not with the proper encouragement and guidance.  Black and Hispanic kids "do" science all the time.  Please note:

Sincular-Mertens, who has taught science at BHS for 24 years, said the possible cuts will impact her black students as well. She says there are twelve African-American males in her AP classes and that her four environmental science classes are 17.5 percent African American and 13.9 percent Latino. "As teachers, we are greatly saddened at the thought of losing the opportunity to help all of our students master the skills they need to find satisfaction and success in their education," she told the board.

COMMENT:  You can be sure that it's white leftists who came up with this idea.  In the 1960s it was white leftists in New York, led by the extremist New York branch of the ACLU, who championed "community control of schools" and "open admissions" in city colleges.  Those measures came close to destroying the greatest urban school system in the United States and did destroy the "poor man's Harvard," City College of New York.  The college is now recovering thanks largely to a gutsy Hispanic leader, Herman Badillo, the nation's first Puerto Rican-born congressman, who led the battle to restore standards to the revered institution.

Berkeley does it again.  Don't be shocked if other "progressive" schools get the same idea.  After all, when you're destroying English and History, why not go all the way?

December 29, 2009   Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  From Matthew Continetti's excellent summation of political 2009, in The Weekly Standard:

You won't find it in the "year in review" features in the papers and newsweeklies, but the story of 2009 was that a young, attractive, postpartisan presidential candidate decided to govern as a partisan liberal. The results have been declining public support, bad legislation, demoralized lefties, and a resurgent conservative movement. The gap between the American people and those who govern them from Washington, D.C., is widening.

It turns out John Edwards had a point: There really are two Americas. There's the America of the "expert" schemers, planners, and centralizers inside the Beltway, who think they know what's good for the people, whether the people like it or not. And there's the America of just about everyone else. They are no doubt the ones Irving Kristol had in mind when he wrote, "The common people in such a democracy are not uncommonly wise, but their experience tends to make them uncommonly sensible."

COMMENT:  That is correct, and the Weekly Standard piece is well worth reading. 

But a cautionary note:  Continetti's analysis also covers the fact that the national Republican Party remains unpopular.  We'll be writing about that because it is a liability that can severely impact what should be a successful 2010 for our side.

December 29,  2009   Permalink

MONDAY,  DECEMBER 28,  2009

IS THIS THE END OF SOCIOLOGY? – AT 8:57 P.M. ET:  One of the standard lines of the left is that crime is caused by "the socio-economic circumstances of inner-city peoples," and assorted stuff like that.  Consider please:

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg say 2009 is another record-setting year in crime reduction.

New figures released Monday show overall crime in the nation's largest city is down 11 percent from last year and 35 percent since 2001. Murders are down 11 percent. The only major crime that is rising is felony assault. It's up 2 percent.

The figures reflect a nationwide trend.

FBI crime figures for the first half of 2009 show crime falling across the country. Murder and manslaughter fell 10 percent for the first half of the year.

COMMENT:  Now, wait a minute.  We are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and crime is falling?  Even in a city like New York?

Yeah.

And it happened during the Depression as well.

But, didn't we learn in sociology..?

Yeah. 

So what should we do?

Contact your college and try to get your money back.

December 28, 2009   Permalink 

BULLETIN – AT 7:40 P.M. ET:  From The Politico: 

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reversed course Monday and admitted the U.S. air travel security system failed after a Nigerian man allegedly attempted to blow up a plane on Christmas Day.

Now we know, don't we?

And, gee, I'd thought everything worked so smoothly.

December 28, 2009   Permalink

PURE DECEPTION – AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  Al Qaeda, knowing it has the attention of the world, spoke out today on the reason behind the airliner bombing – what the trendy left likes to call the "root cause."  Al Qaeda noses are growing longer already:

Al-Qaeda claimed the failed December 25 bombing of a US-bound aircraft in a statement picked up by US monitors Monday as the jihadists threatened attacks on Western targets and Yemen vowed no let-up in its campaign against them.

Al-Qaeda's Arabian peninsula franchise acknowledged in the posting on the Internet that a "technical fault" had caused the failure of the plot against Friday's Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, SITE Intelligence said...

...He used explosives technology developed by the mujahedeen in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) "manufacturing department," it added.

And...

The posting also called on Muslim soldiers in Western armed forces to repent for their service and kill all "Crusaders" by every means available, SITE added. 

"Crusaders" is a code word for Christians.  Calling on Muslims in Western forces to kill "Crusaders" is a call to repeat the Major Hasan massacre at Fort Hood.

And the root cause:

...a statement posted on an Islamist website in the name of Al-Qaeda threatened revenge for this month's attacks, in which 68 suspected militants were killed in eight days. Tribal sources and witnesses said many of the dead were civilian bystanders.

That is nonsense.  Every indication we have points to the idea that the airline bombing had been planned for many weeks.  A Christmas-day attack is not a last-minute idea. 

Expect more "root cause" talk from Al Qaeda.  This is the way they use events to propagandize, and to attract the sympathy of the Western left. 

December 28, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA SPEAKS – OH, NO! – AT 7:02 P.M. ET:  Barack Hussein Obama Jr., president of the United States, including its territories and possessions, took time out from the important work of swinging a golf club today, to speak out on the airline terror bombing.  Get ready for nothing:

President Barack Obama said today "we will not rest" until the U.S. finds everyone responsible for a suspected terrorist's alleged attempt to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day.

You think?

"We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us," said the president, who interrupted his vacation in Hawaii to make his statement.

Violent extremists?  No.  As Charles Krauthammer said, a guy who kills an abortion doctor is a violent extremist.  These are jihadists, Muslim fanatics, but the president can't get those words out of his mouth.

"The American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season," Obama said.

Just during the holiday season?  Do they get overtime for this?

He said Washington must "keep up the pressure on those who would attack our country," adding that the situation required much more than just efforts to "simply strengthen our defenses."

Simply?  Does he understand how complex that is?

"The American people should remain vigilant but also be confident," Obama said.

"Those plotting against us seek not only to undermine our security but also the open society and the values we cherish as Americans."

Translated into English:  We won't do anything to upset the civil liberties crowd.

As I said, get ready for nothing.

The defender of liberty then turned his attention to Iran.

He noted the U.S. joins the international community in "strongly condemning" the violent and "unjust repression" of Iranian citizens.

He said that the world had watched with "deep admiration" the courage and conviction of the Iranian people.

Oh, I'm so moved by that stirring statement.  A real Reagan, this one.

The Iranian government has to respect the rights of his own people, he said.

And a Lincoln, too.

"History will be on the side of those of who seek justice," Obama said, saying the U.S. will continue to bear witness to "extraordinary" events taking place in Iran.

Bear witness?  That is our policy?  You mean, watch it all on TV between trips to the gym?  What the president is saying is that we intend to do nothing. 

For those interested:

After his statement, the president resumed his vacation with a round of golf at Luana Hills Country Club.

The Obamas and a group of guests dined at Alan Wong's last night.

In a media pool report from Anne E. Kornblut, White House correspondent for the Washington Post, the Obamas settled down for dinner shortly after 8.

Among the items on their menu were butter-poached Kona lobster and ginger-crusted onaga.

We're all so impressed.  The man was a great candidate, but has a tin ear as president.

December 28, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA GAINS IN RASMUSSEN POLL – VIEW WITH CAUTION – AT 9:33 A.M. ET:  President Obama registers a rare bounce in the Rasmussen poll.  View the numbers with caution, however.  This poll was taken over a holiday weekend, which may not yield the most accurate results.  Also, the president might have gotten a brief bounce after the airline terror incident, a "rally round the chief" effect.  That is speculation.  We'll have to watch the polling as we exit out of the holiday spirit:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12.

He was -21 just six days ago.

Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That’s the first time in more than two weeks the President’s overall approval has topped 46%. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove of the President’s performance.

That's a six-point gap.  But it was 12 points six days ago.

COMMENT:  The wild swing, and the holiday disruption, makes us emphasize, once again, that these are tentative figures.  The president will not be coming back to a Washington that is happy or optimistic.  Severe challenges await him, especially internationally, but domestically as well. 

And if a terror attack is successful?  No one knows the impact that would have on a president who promised us peace in our time.

Bah, humbug!

December 28, 2009    Permalink 

IRANIAN UPRISING – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  As we're watching airline terrorism, street terrorism is being committed by the mullahs of Iran against their own people.  Another day of demonstrations is underway, met by violence, as Fox News reports:

At least 15 people were killed during massive anti-government protests in Tehran when opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets, Iranian state television reported Monday.

Remember, you're getting this from state television, which means the mullah regime.

The report said 10 people killed during Sunday's fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups, apparently referring to opposition supporters.

The other five who died were killed by "terrorist groups" in a "suspicious act," the report said, without elaborating.

The five may be government security thugs.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices on Monday, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country's reformist movement, opposition Web sites and activists reported.

The bloodshed, some of the heaviest in months, drew an especially harsh condemnation from one opposition leader, who compared the government to the brutal regime that was ousted by the Islamic Revolution three decades ago.

The American response thus far has been restricted to a bland statement issued by a low-level spokesman for a division of the White House.  We're not talking Churchill here.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed concern about the "increased repression" in Iran.

Well, that's a relief.  Sweden has taken the side of democracy.  I don't recall seeing this before.  In Sweden they call it the hard line.

COMMENT:  This can easily grow into the story of 2010.  An overthrow of the mullah regime won't solve the nuclear issue, but it will go a long way toward reducing the threat.

December 28, 2009   Permalink

THE PLOT DEEPENS – AT 8:09 A.M. ET:  More detail is coming out on the airline bomber's actions before Christmas day.  From AP:

LAGOS, Nigeria — A Nigerian official says the man accused of trying to bring down a U.S. airliner bought his ticket with cash in Ghana eight days before the flight departed Nigeria.

Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, says Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's ticket came from a KLM office in Accra, Ghana. Demuren said Monday that Abdulmutallab bought the $2,831 round-trip ticket from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit via Amsterdam on Dec. 16.

Demuren declined to comment about Abdulmutallab's travels in the days before he boarded his Dec. 24 flight from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam, saying FBI agents and Nigerian officials view the information as "sensitive." He says Abdulmutallab checked into his flight with only a small carryon bag.

COMMENT:  So, let's see:  This poor, oppressed man – an obvious victim of American imperialism, capitalism, and NBC programming – buys an expensive ticket, in cash, in a country not his own, then boards an airliner for a long trip...without any luggage. 

And no one noticed, or cared to notice.  Buying tickets in cash, and boarding without luggage, are two of the most prominent red flags in civil aviation. 

Unbelievable.

December 28, 2009   Permalink

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, THEY REALLY MUST TALK – AT 7:48 A.M. ET:  As the Brits say, there is a bit of bother over whether the airline perp acted alone.  From London's Daily Mail:

Home Secretary Alan Johnson today declared he did not believe the Christmas Day airline bomber was acting alone.

He must chat up our secretary of Homeland Security, Janet "Big Sis" Napolitano, who said exactly the opposite. 

British security services are now hunting for possible accomplices of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as they probe his links in the UK.

Mr Johnson said: 'We don't know yet whether it was a single-handed plot or (there were) other people behind it - I suspect it's the latter rather than the former.'

The minister also confirmed this morning that Abdulmutallab had been put on a UK watch list after he was refused a student visa following an application to study at a bogus college.

He suggested the U.S. authorities should have been warned about the British ban, which was issued last May, saying he 'doubted' there had been any 'hiccup' in procedures.

'If you are on our watch list then you do not come into this country. You can come through this country if you are in transit to another country but you cannot come into this country,' Mr Johnson said.

I like this guy's directness.  Bring him here.  Give him a job.

The revelation will increase incredulity that the 23-year-old, who was also on a U.S. watch list, was not stopped before he boarded the Amsterdam-Detroit flight on Christmas Day.

Ah yes, incredulity.  We're shocked, shocked, that something went wrong.  Like at Fort Hood.  Like at
9-11.  Like at...what's the next one to come?

December 28, 2009   Permalink

EXTRAORDINARY – AT 7:37 A.M. ET:  The Nigerian family of the airline terrorist has now issued a public statement, extraordinary for its forthrightness and moral dignity.  Some highlights:

Our family, like the rest of the world, were woken up in the early hours of Saturday, 26th December, 2009 to the news of an attempt to blow up a plane by a young Nigerian man, who was later identified as Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab is the son of Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru AbdulMutallab, the head of this Family.

Prior to this incident, his father, having become concerned about his disappearance and stoppage of communication while schooling abroad, reported the matter to the Nigerian security agencies about two months ago, and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago, then sought their assistance to find and return him home.

This confirms reports that the family did notify authorities, including "foreign" (apparently meaning American) authorities of the son's behavior.

The disappearance and cessation of communication which got his mother and father concerned to report to the security agencies are completely out of character and a very recent development, as before then, from very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern. As soon as concern arose, very recently, his parents, reported it and sought help.

Note the phrase "any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern."  The gun is smoking.

The family will continue to fully cooperate with local and international security agencies towards the investigation of this matter, while we await results of the full investigation.

Fair enough.  Fine statement. 

December 28,  2009   Permalink