U.S. Ups the Ante Against Iran

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The Bush administration will announce a long-debated policy of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism, administration officials said Wednesday night.
...
The decision will be announced jointly on Thursday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the administration officials said. “This is going to be a broad and wide-ranging effort,” a senior administration official said. “We will be freezing assets, and there will be ripple effects of where we can go from there.”
...
The immediate legal consequence of designating the Quds unit as a terrorist organization would be to make it unlawful for anyone subject to United States jurisdiction to knowingly provide material support or resources to it, according to the State Department. Any United States financial institution that becomes aware that it possesses, or has control over, funds of a foreign terrorist organization would have to turn them over to the Treasury Department.

I still think this a good idea executed badly.

h/t to Memeorandum

Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be Officially Labeled Terrorists

From the WaPo

Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists."

The move reflects escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran over issues including Iraq and Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran has been on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1984, but in May the two countries began their first formal one-on-one dialogue in 28 years with a meeting of diplomats in Baghdad.

The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard's vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard's financial operations.

"Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately," said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. "It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people."
more

This is a good idea executed badly.

Further economically dissuading Iran from sponsoring terrorism makes perfect sense. However labeling a regular military unit a group of terrorists sets a bad precedent. The IRG is a government sponsored, uniform wearing, by the book type of military unit. By labeling them as terrorists we have effectively stated that they are not covered by the Geneva conventions. Once we start cherry picking what units are and aren't terrorists the same will be done to our troops eventually by one country or another.

What's needed is another classification entirely like"Sponsor of Terrorists" or somesuch so that we can act against such units/countries/organizations without stripping them of protections rightfully afforded by international law. Otherwise we once again sacrifice the moral high ground in pursuit of the war on terror. And we've lost enough of that already.

Warrantless Wiretapping Approved

From the NY Post:

President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.

...the new law for the first time provides a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.

“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation.

Previously, the government needed search warrants approved by a special intelligence court to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, e-mail messages and other electronic communications between individuals inside the United States and people overseas, if the government conducted the surveillance inside the United States.

Today, most international telephone conversations to and from the United States are conducted over fiber-optic cables, and the most efficient way for the government to eavesdrop on them is to latch on to giant telecommunications switches located in the United States.

By changing the legal definition of what is considered “electronic surveillance,” the new law allows the government to eavesdrop on those conversations without warrants — latching on to those giant switches — as long as the target of the government’s surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be overseas.

For example, if a person in Indianapolis calls someone in London, the National Security Agency can eavesdrop on that conversation without a warrant, as long as the N.S.A.’s target is the person in London. full article

Critics fear that the new law is too broadly worded, an end to privacy, or is likely to be abused. I'd argue that privacy is frequently not guaranteed when communicating with citizens of other countries. Additionally in an age when terrorists are frequently ahead of the curve in using the internet to their advantage there are scenarios when time could be of the utmost import. However I in no way, shape, or form trust any administration permanently with the powers this law grants. But as long as this law requires approval every six months and the law is continually refined in the process I'll concede that it may be a necessary tool in order to prevent terrorist acts on U.S. soil. But once it ceases to serve that purpose or is used for another end I'll be among the first to advocate scrapping it.

Christian Crime Continues

If it weren't for the fact that this guy is probably mentally unbalanced I'd be declaring it International Religious Intolerance Month.

Murder suspect says he was doing God's work

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God's work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

"I believe I'm Elijah, called by God to be a prophet," said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. " ... I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing."

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a "loving" son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as "definitely not a homosexual," said God called on him to "carry out a code of retribution" by killing a gay man because "sexual perversion" is the "worst sin."

Mangum believed Cummings to be gay.

"I planned on sending him to hell," he said.

Cummings disappeared June 4. His charred remains were found June 16, buried on a 50-acre ranch near San Antonio owned by Mangum's 90-year-old grandfather. more

A Hat Tip goes to Andrew Sullivan for pointing out this story. However given the recent attempted church fire bombings by self styled radical Christian activists I find it odd that he opted to use a story about a man who is probably mentally ill to set up his question,"And this is different from Islamist barbarism how, exactly?" when there are much better recent examples available that don't have such an easy answer/defense.

However his post did however receive and interesting rebuttal from a reader and a thoughtful post by Kevin Sullivan which is well worth reading.

Christian Terrorists Are Inept Too

Three Burleson men who belong to a "radical Christian activist group" were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson, authorities said Friday.

Dayton Lee Calaway, 19, and Michael Philip Plaisted Jr., 18, were arrested Wednesday night near the Victory Family Church after they got bogged down in mud as a fleet-footed deacon chased them from the church in the 400 block of Northwest John Jones Drive, police said.

Two other people drove away, the deacon told officers.

An explosive device in a glass container was found propped against the church door. The suspects apparently tried to detonate the device twice before being interrupted by the deacon, police and Burleson Fire Marshal Stacy Singleton said.

(snip)

On Thursday, Jered Michael Ragon, 18, voluntarily went to the police station for questioning after Calaway and Plaisted implicated him, police Detective T. Catron said. Police called a MedStar ambulance because Ragon's feet were burned, and a emergency medical crew treated him at the station.

Ragon had gotten gasoline on his feet as he tried to destroy evidence from the church fire in the field, and his feet were burned, Catron said.

(snip)

Cmdr. Chris Havens, the Police Department spokesman, said the suspects boasted about belonging to a leaderless group of 10 or 15 who share a belief that society has become too focused on self-improvement and self-gratification and has lost focus on the glorification of God.

"They admit to being Christian and being brought up Christian, but they believe there should be one denomination and one church, not multiple denominations," Havens said.

"They did not say they had a name for their group, other than they were a radical Christian activist group. That was the way they explained their group," he said.

The suspects said the group has three levels of involvement: Bible study, consensual fighting and destructive acts. Because one of their beliefs is free thought, however, participation in all three levels is not mandatory, they told police.

The three admitted to being in a core group of seven that created the explosive weapon as a test to draw attention to the demise of society and to see whether the device would work, Havens said. full article

I know that every religion has its percentage of whack jobs but this is the third attempted bombing this year and the first to not target an abortion clinic (or suspected abortion clinic) plus there was one incident of arson at a Planned Parenthood to boot.

It almost seems like Christian nutjobs are tired of Muslim nutjobs hogging the headlines. Its far more likely that the amount of manpower diverted to keeping tabs on Muslim radicals has given Christianity's radicals some breathing room.

Thankfully their competency level has been zero in the bombing department so far. Let's just pray that it stays that way.

U.S. Scrapped '05 Raid on Top Al Qaeda Leaders

U.S. Aborted Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in Pakistan in ’05

WASHINGTON, July 7 — A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.

The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.

But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said. more

Now if you bought into The Path to 9/11's story this administration has something in common with the last. I can understand the logic of not violating your allies' border with a couple hundred troops. I'm sure there would have been serious political unrest in Pakistan had we done so with or without Mushareff's permission. I am however curious as to why we didn't bomb the meeting site. Perhaps the administration strongly preferred capturing them and pumping them for intel or would have rather let Zawahiri walk and hopefully lead us to Bin Laden.

One thing is for certain. It's going to be hard for the Administration to continue to bill itself as being tough on terror when its choosing to let them wander out of our sights.

Hammas' Kids Show Ends

*spoiler warning*

From the JPost:
Hamas TV on Friday broadcast what it said was the last episode of a weekly children's show featuring "Farfour," a Mickey Mouse look-alike who had made worldwide headlines for preaching Islamic domination and armed struggle to youngsters.

In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, Farfour called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added. more
And thus ends one of the lowest points in TV broadcast history since Urkel.

Suicide Bomb Teams Sent to the US?

From ABC News:

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9.

A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions.
(snip)

U.S. intelligence officials described the event as another example of "an aggressive and sophisticated propaganda campaign."

Others take it very seriously.

"It doesn't take too many who are willing to actually do it and be able to slip through the net and get into the United States or England and cause a lot of damage," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism official. full article

If true, at least we have advanced warning which seems odd. That leads credence to the propaganda argument. If true it'll be a test of the security measures that have been put into place since 9/11.

The Nature of the Beast

Courtesy of LGF

This one makes the Hammas' Version of Mickey Mouse look tame. An elementary school play complete with suicide belts and AK47s

Eco-terrorism Case Revisited

Last night I posted about a group of radical environmentalists that may be sentenced as terrorists and today I ran across a discussion over at TMV between Shaun Mullen and Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters that originally started about hate crime legislation but moved on to include terrorism laws.

Captain Ed stated:
"This is the problem with hate-crime legislation — and perhaps with terrorist legislation as well . . .Both specifically criminalize motive, rather than leave them as a component of an objective crime itself. Beating up a gay person should carry the same penalties whether hate motivated it or not. Similarly, terrorism as a civil crime (ie, not in the context of foreigners attacking the U.S.) also creates a thought-police mentality that is pretty seductive to people determined to stamp out evil — in their subjective opinion of it."

and

"I’m starting to think that hate crimes and terrorism designators both take us down a dangerous road. If the criminal act doesn’t carry enough deterrent through normal penalties, then increase the penalties for everyone who commits them — whether it be battery, arson, or murder. Let the motivation prove the crime rather than become a crime in itself. Otherwise, we invite a thought-police mentality that will ensnare American liberty more than it does evil."

He probably does a better job than I did of getting my point across.

Additionally over at the LA Times there is a piece written by the sister of one of the persons convicted in which she does raise a decent point:

"And nearly 10 years ago, he burned down a horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore. It is for this final act that the U.S. government considers him among the ranks of Osama bin Laden, Eric Rudolph and Ramzi Ahmed Yousef."

"If you call my brother a lawbreaker, I won't argue. But labeling him a terrorist dilutes the meaning of terrorism. And you demean all the Americans, and all those around the world, who have died in real terrorist acts."


The more I think about it the more I dislike motive based sentencing. It seems to me that it would be easier to prove and ultimately more effective to enact an "organized and premeditated" sentencing enhancement that would, in the case of hate crimes, be universally fair and in the case of terrorism be universally applicable regardless of the level of death or destruction.

Should a Group of Radical Environmentalists Be Considered Terrorists?

From ABC News:

A Group of 11 Militant Environmentalists Could Be Sentenced as Terrorists Without Having Killed a Soul
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

The FBI has called them "the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat," and their members include four of the Bureau's 11 Most Wanted homegrown terrorists. Yet in more than 1,100 acts of arson and vandalism, the members of the Earth Liberation Front have never killed a single person.

Defining terrorism has always been tricky, and in trying to do so, the federal government has acknowledged that there is "no single universally accepted definition of terrorism." But just as when it comes to identifying pornography, lawyers and law enforcement officers have traditionally relied on an ability to know it when they see it.

The government saw it 16 months ago when federal agents arrested 10 members of the loose-knit activist group and an affiliate organization, the Animal Liberation Front, in an action called Operation Backfire.

At the time of their arrest, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called the cell's $40 million dollar arson campaign -- which targeted, throughout five Western states, a horse slaughterhouse, SUV dealerships, a scientific research center, logging companies and a ski resort -- "a pattern of domestic terrorism activities."

Lawyers and activists defending the saboteurs insist, however, that the terrorist label is a scare tactic. Acts of arson and property damage, they claim, have never been the stuff of terrorism indictments, and the label is intended by the government to stir public outrage, increase the length prison terms and augment the government's rolls of imprisoned terrorists.

Today in Eugene, Ore., a federal judge will sentence Stanislas Meyerhoff, 29, the first of the 10-member cell that called itself "the family." The other nine defendants will each be sentenced over the next several weeks.

If government prosecutors can convince Judge Ann Aiken that Meyerhoff and the others -- all of whom have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson charges -- are terrorists, then they will be sentenced following federal "terrorism enhancement" guidelines, which could multiply their sentences sevenfold and land them in supermax prisons. more

I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't be sentenced as terrorists for several reasons. First being the fact that no human was harmed or killed in the process of their crimes. Secondly because once we have used the laws to stiffen punishment for property damage what is left when there is an actual loss of life? Either life is of greater value than property or it isn't. Finally should they be sentenced as terrorists it sets a really strange legal precedent in which having a political motivation to commit a crime becomes as or more important than the severity of the actual crime.

One thing is for certain, should they be sentenced as terrorists these cases will be the appellate courts for years and could end up before the Supreme Court. I'td be safer in the long run to just give them the max on all 5 charges and be done with it. But then again, I'm not a prosecutor out to make a name for myself.

Hezbollah in this Hemisphere

From the Blotter:

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.

An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials.

(snip)

They are men like Mustafa Khalil Meri, a young Arab Muslim whom Telemundo interviewed in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second-largest city and the center of the Tri-border region. There is nothing particularly distinctive about him, but beneath the everyday T-shirt he wears beats the heart of a devoted Hezbollah militiaman.

“If he attacks Iran, in two minutes Bush is dead,” Meri said. “We are Muslims. I am Hezbollah. We are Muslims, and we will defend our countries at any time they are attacked.” full article

Now you and I both know that W had to have known about this before the press did. That makes his lax stance on border security completely unforgivable. Literally we are talking about the difference between corporate profits and meaningful national security. How many experts (Lou Dobbs doesn't count) have pointed to our southern border as being a major problem?

Think about it. If Israel feels threatened enough by Iran to take action we could be looking at acts of terrorism from within our neighbors borders. At what point in time does that become an acceptable trade off for oh say cheaper lettuce?

Here's the real problem, one party doesn't want to irritate it's donors and the other doesn't want to irritate it's voters. Therefore the odds of any current candidate being willing to do something until after the fact are presently slim to none.

Midtopia has few good points on this issue as well.

Hamas vs Disney

From the AP:

Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' wants Islam takeover

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press WriterTue May 8, 4:59 PM ET

Hamas militants have enlisted the iconic Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic dominion and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience — little kids.

A giant black-and-white rodent — named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a Mickey ripoff — does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and Israel on a children's show run each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled, "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel. more

Update from Spiegel.de and Reuters:

On Wednesday, after this story went live, the Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti announced that the Hamas-affiliated television station al-Aqsa TV had complied with a government request to pull the show "Tomorrow's Pioneers" for "review." He said the use of a cartoon character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and work toward world Islamic domination was a "mistaken approach." more

I'm sure the photo of thousands of heavily armed animatronic George W. Bush-es being loaded onto Disney cruise ships that accompanied Disney's cease and desist letter had absolutely no effect on the decision making process.

Update:

A spokeswoman from Walt Disney Co.'s headquarters in Burbank, Calif., did not immediately return messages asking for comment but later left me voicemail asking that I never call again.

6 arrested in plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix

From the Star Ledger:

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In a statement released this morning that confirmed an earlier report on nj.com, The Star-Ledger's Web site, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the men planned to "kill as many soldiers as possible."

The alleged plot included conducting surveillance of the Army base and purchasing multiple firearms, including hand guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, according to the federal complaint released this morning.

The bust came after several of the suspects were lured by a secret informant to a meeting with an arms-seller, according to the complaint.

Some of the would-be attackers have been living illegally in the United States, while others are legal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a sixth was born in Jordan, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
(snip)

The men - several of whom are relatives - had videotaped their practice sessions in Pennsylvania, according to the complaint. That videotape, in which they fired assault weapons and railed against America, led to their arrests.

They made the mistake of bringing it to a retail store, seeking to get a copy burned to a DVD, according to the complaint. A store employee who later watched the tape called the FBI who began immediately investigating. full article

Kudos to the FBI.

But my question is what kind of idiot turns that kind of stuff over to a clerk? Thats even more stupid than taking naked pics of your significant other to the photomat. And what kind of suspicious behavior did they have to exhibit for the clerk to watch the tape? Walk into the store and say,"Excuse me, Imperialist Infidel, I need this tape transferred to DVD."?