From the same people who brought you Stimulus, WTF, Sputnik Moment, and Eat Your Broccoli… a heart-wrenching international blockbuster of our times: Cairo Time… starring Hosni Mubarak, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

Sometimes you need to forget about national interests and remember your heart…

Source:

By Dennis Jones  Sunday, December 6, 2009

In the business world most executives get an annual performance evaluation that reviews the past year’s accomplishments or shortcomings and compares them to previously agreed upon goals and accountabilities.  As 2009 draws to a close, the following is a recap and review that President Obama might receive for his performance over the past year starting with his previous experience:

Prior Relevant Experience

• 3 years in the US Senate (two spent running for President) – no major legislation authored, only credit taken for legislation introduced by others.
• 7 years in the Illinois state senate, a part-time calling that allowed him to serve as a part-time law professor.
• Three years as a “community organizer”.

Selected Domestic Policy Accomplishments

• Tripled the budget deficit to $1.4 Trillion (daily interest on the national debt is now over a billion dollars a day).
• Pushed for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the pork-laden Stimulus of $787 billion that he personally promised would keep unemployment from rising over 8%. In fact, unemployment been over 8% since the ARRA was passed in February and in the 10% range every month since August.
• Championed ill-conceived Cap and Trade legislation based on faulty and fraudulent science.¬† If passed, this legislation would amount to a substantial tax on every American and severely crimp the economy.
• Made health care the number one issue in America and socialized medicine the country’s priority when polls reflect that it is not the first priority of Americans.¬† Meanwhile 8 million jobs have been lost in the worst economic slump since the great depression, Iran and North Korea are accelerating their nuclear programs uncontested and both federal and many state budget deficits are unsustainable.
• Agreed to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, found by the 9/11 Commission Report to be the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, and four other terrorists legal protection and potential not guilty verdicts via a civil trial nearby the site of the attacks.

Selected Foreign Policy Accomplishments

• Failed to get Russia to agree to sanction Iran for its nuclear programs at a cost of selling out Eastern Europe and giving up the anti-ballistic US missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic
• Apologized for America and expressed solidarity with Muslims in his Cairo speech during his four nation trip to the Middle East and Europe. “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism—it is an important part of promoting peace,” he said.
• Schmoozed with dictators Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega at the 34-country Summit of the Americas and again apologized for America: “We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations.”
• Accomplished absolutely nothing on his recent trip to Asia widely panned by the media of both the US and Asia.
• Pondered what to do in Afghanistan for 100 days and then committed more troops. General McChrystal advised him to commit more troops in his one five-minute meeting with Obama three months ago.

Miscellaneous Selected Accomplishments in Random Order:

• Ceded the most power to unelected officials in history creating he largest number of Czars, not elected and not confirmed by Congress, ever.¬† Their qualifications will be another column.
• Changed the image of the US from strength to weakness by his high profile bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia, to Vladimir Putin and to the Japanese Emperor.
• Scolded CEO’s for travel expenses then took Mrs. Obama to a Broadway show via presidential jet.
• Failed to bring the Olympics to Chicago after a very public personal effort.¬† Both he and Mrs. Obama jetted off to Copenhagen, on separate jets, in a highly visible lobbying trip that was unconvincing to the Olympic committee.
• Won the Nobel Peace Prize for accomplishing precisely nothing.
• Sold a flight on Air Force One that over-flew Manhattan and panicked the city.
• Gave high-profile thoughtless gifts, an Ipod to the Queen of England and to Prime Minister Gordon Brown a box of 25 DVD’s of classic American movies.¬† In contrast, the Prime Minister gave Mr. Obama a very thoughtful and symbolic gift—an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet that complemented the oak from the Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute, carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.
• Achieved a record number of cabinet picks that subsequently withdrew due to tax other ethics problems.
• Building a cabinet with the least amount of private sector experience since 1900. Less than 10% of the cabinet members have private sector experience.
• Met with Andy Stern, President of Big Labor’s SEIU 7 times in a record 22 visits (the most frequent visitor according to white house logs) after pledging to keep lobbyists out of the White House.

Summary of Performance:

• Performance generally unsatisfactory.
• Ineffective, lacks leadership skills and experience.
• Has difficulty focusing on agreed-upon priorities.
• Not fiscally responsible or able to adhere to a budget.
• Exhibits poor judgment when dealing with peers and colleagues.
• Not suitable for rehire.

By Doug Hagmann  Sunday, December 6, 2009

It was January 1, 2009 when passengers aboard an AirTran flight 175 departing from Reagan National Airport became alarmed by a conversation they overheard between two other passengers, dressed in Muslim attire, talking about the safest place to sit on board an aircraft in the event a bomb was aboard. The two Muslim passengers were among a party of nine traveling together from Washington DC to Orlando, Florida to attend an Islamic conference.

According to one witness report at the time, the content of the conversation not only seemed suspicious, but “deliberately” loud or at least loud enough to be over heard by a number of other passengers seated nearby. Those alarmed passengers reported their concerns to the AirTran flight crew, who subsequently caused all 104 passengers, including the 9 Muslims, to deplane while an investigation was conducted. All passengers were rescreened and permitted to re-board, except those nine-(9) Muslims at the center of controversy who were traveling together.

At that time, AirTran made a decision not to allow the Muslims back onto the aircraft. Although the FBI reportedly concluded their investigation of the Muslim passengers, the investigation into the incident itself was not yet fully complete.  Concurrent investigations were incomplete at the time, according to airline sources. To their credit, acting within their rights and in consideration to the safety of all of their passengers, AirTran denied the controversial party boarding back onto the already disrupted flight.

In the end, none of the remaining 95 passengers made it to their ultimate destinations on time, AirTran refunded some tickets and made other booking arrangements due to the incident, which cost the airline dearly in time, money, and passenger goodwill.

More…

Atlas Shrugs

Prepare to be infuriated.

It’s been brought to my attention by several reliable sources that the Defense Department has brought Louay Safi to Fort Hood as an instructor, and that he has been lecturing on Islam to our troops in Fort Hood who are about to deploy to Afghanistan. Safi is a top official of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and served as research director at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

Worse, last evening, Safi was apparently permitted to present a check (evidently on behalf of ISNA) to the families of the victims of last month’s Fort Hood massacre. A military source told the blogger Barbarossa at the Jawa Report: “This is nothing short of blood money. This is criminal and the Ft. Hood base commander should be fired right now.”

ISNA was identified by the Justice Department at the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing conspiracy trial as an unindicted co-conspirator. The defendants at that trial were convicted of funding Hamas to the tune of millions of dollars. This should have come as no surprise. ISNA is the Muslim Brotherhood’s umbrella entity for Islamist organizations in the United States. It was established in 1981 to enable Muslims in North America “to adopt Islam as a complete way of life” — i.e., to further the Brotherhood’s strategy of establishing enclaves in the West that are governed by sharia. As I detailed in an essay for the April 20 edition of NR, the Brotherhood’s rally-cry remains, to this day, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” The Brotherhood’s spiritual guide, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who issued a fatwa in 2004 calling for attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, openly declares that Islam will “conquer America” and “conquer Europe.”

Also established in 1981, the IIIT is a Saudi funded think-tank dedicated, it says, to the “Islamicization of knowledge” — which, Zeyno Baran (in Volume 6 of the Hudson Institute’s excellent series, “Current Trends in Islamist Ideology”) has aptly observed, “could be a euphemism for the rewriting of history to support Islamist narratives.” Years ago, the Saudis convinced the United States that the IIIT should be the military’s go-to authority on Islam. One result was the placement of Abdurrahman Alamoudi to select Muslim chaplains for the armed forces. Alamoudi has since been convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 23 years in federal prison.

The Obama File

Lawyers for a terrorism suspect once held at Guantánamo Bay, who is now facing prosecution in Manhattan, asked a judge on Tuesday to dismiss his case on the ground that his nearly five years in detention denied him “his constitutional right” to a speedy trial.

The terrorism suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was a cook and a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, was captured in Pakistan in 2004.  He has been charged with conspiring to help carry out Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania — attacks that killed 224 people.

His speedy trial motion could foreshadow issues that could arise in the prosecution of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the professed organizer of the 9/11 plot, and four other Guantánamo detainees who Obama ordered sent to New York for trial.

“We respectfully submit that this case presents possibly the most unique and egregious example of a speedy trial violation in American jurisprudence to date,” Mr. Ghailani’s lawyers said in a motion that was heavily censored because of its reliance on classified information.

The motion was originally filed several weeks ago with Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, but it was kept almost entirely under seal pending a review by the government.  The new version, with many pages blacked out, was made public on Tuesday.

“This motion asks one primary question,” the lawyers, Peter E. Quijano, Michael K. Bachrach and Gregory Cooper, wrote.  “Can national security trump an indicted defendant’s constitutional Right to a Speedy Trial?  We respectfully submit that the answer is emphatically and without qualification, ‘no.’’”

This is the same Obama who chose to be the first President not to recognize the National Day of Prayer. One of the classic Obama quotes from his “message” is:

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering

Ummm, how exactly is this gathering the world’s most diverse? They are all muslims! Does that just automatically make it diverse? Largest maybe, but diverse? The full “message” was posted by the L.A. Times. To use a quote from Hussein Obama him. LET ME BE CLEAR – YOU DO NOT speak for me:

Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions.

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat. The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God.

This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj. Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration’s commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.

On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.

(Nov. 23, 2009) — Obama is about to sell out —for political expediency—the brave troops of the American and Nato forces which have been fighting a bitter war in the mountains of Afghanistan for nearly 8 years.

The report comes from an Arabic News Agency, Al-Watan, in Saudia Arabia.  Chaptomatic’s translation of the report reads as follows:

Kabul, Islamabad: (agency name)

A well-informed Afghani source confirmed details of secret discussions happening between (name?) of the Taliban movement, among them the designated minister of war, and the American ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. (and there was agreement). The same source [said there was] complete agreement before the American ambassador party request and it resulted in US conditions for proceeding.

Ambassador Eikenberry proposed that the movement be granted sovereign power / authority in Kandahar state and Helmand and Orzkan and Kanr and Nuristan, in exchange for the ending of attacks on American bases in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Media blog, Membri Blog identifies the minister of war as Ahmad Mutawakil, the Taliban foreign minister — evidently they are the same position.

This report is unconfirmed by direct sources, but a report by the Christian Science Monitor yesterday indicates that the Pakistani government was asked by the Obama regime to sound out in support of Obama’s planned betrayal of the American and Afghan people.

Najmuddin Shaikh, formerly the top bureaucrat in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, said the Taliban could be brought to the negotiating table if they saw a greater American military commitment and more investments in the Afghan countryside.

“It’s a little premature for talks [with the Taliban],” Shaikh said. “There has to be a change in the ground situation, things happening in the next six to eight months that shows the ‘ink spots’ strategy – [McChrystal's idea of protecting Afghan population centers] – is taking hold, that some foot soldiers are being weaned away, then talks become possible.”

Nevertheless, behind the scenes talks with mid-level Taliban officials already have begun, and Pakistani officials think they could rapidly accelerate now that Karzai has begun his second term.

“We’ve already been talking to them [the Taliban],” said a senior Pakistani official in Islamabad, who couldn’t be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. “If the US helps the process, some arrangements can be worked out for political reconciliation. I’m not for a moment suggesting that it’s an easy task, but otherwise you will be fighting these people for the next hundred years.”

ThreatsWatch.org has issued its own enlightening commentary with many informative links on this possibility that Obama is negotiating surrender:

It would also fit in consistently with Ambassador Eikenberry’s leaked cables recently railing against a ’surge’ in forces in Afghanistan. He wouldn’t voice such without thinking he has his hands on something else. Could this be it? The surrender of 25% of Afghan territory in exchange for some form of ceasefire?

One would hope not. But if so, this demonstrated type of ‘effort’ in Afghanistan would prove to be the strongest indication that it may be time to advocate the full pullout of American forces from Afghanistan.

If this is true, then not one more drop of American blood for a path that resembles Pakistan’s path. You recall Pakistan’s series of surrenders touted as agreements, right?

Commentators on the net are indicating that if this news of negotiations between Eikenberry and Mutawakil is true, there will be immediate demands from the opposition parties in the United Kingdom, Canada and other Nato Allies for withdrawal, on the grounds that such a course of action is a slap in the face to America’s allies who have spent the blood of their own nationals for years, supporting the American action in Afghanistan.  The doubt alone, that this is true, will greatly weaken the alliance.

Muhammad ud-Deen via AP

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam in Yemen with alleged terror links, whom Maj. Nidal Hasan corresponded with.

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam in Yemen with alleged terror links, whom Maj. Nidal Hasan corresponded with.

The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in the Fort Hood massacre told a radical Muslim imam, “I can’t wait to join you” in the afterlife, in one of several e-mails exchanged between the two men, ABC News reported on Thursday.

An unnamed official “with top secret access” told the network 18 e-mails were exchanged between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, from Dec. 2008 until June of this year.

Other e-mails, the official said, included discussion of when jihad is considered “appropriate,” and if it is acceptable for innocent people to die in suicide attacks.

“Hasan told Awlaki he couldn’t wait to join him in the discussions they would having over non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife,” ABC quoted the official as saying.

Hasan — with an annual salary around $92,000 — also wrote, “My strength is my financial capabilities,” the source said. Investigators have found the Army major donated as much as $30,000 per year to Islamic “charities.” American authorities have found several such charities to be conduits to terrorist networks.

A military analyst told ABC: “It sounds like code words … That he’s actually either offering himself up or that he’s already crossed that line in his own mind.”

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan’s repeated contact with al-Awlaki. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn’t linked to terrorism.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called it disturbing that Hasan has e-mail contact with the radical cleric in Yemen, but stressed that his review is separate from the criminal investigation into Hasan and should not be interpreted as a finger-pointing exercise against Muslims or anyone else.

Investigators have said e-mails between Hasan and the imam did not advocate or threaten violence. After the shootings, al-Awlaki’s Web site praised Hasan as a hero.

Gates would not comment Thursday on whether he considers the Fort Hood attack a terrorist act. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent, told a Senate hearing that he does, and urged a government investigation “to learn whether the federal government could have acted in a way that would have prevented these murders from occurring.”

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, questioned whether the government failed to connect dots about Hasan.

“We must better understand why law enforcement, intelligence agencies and our military personnel system may have failed in this case,” Collins said.

Hasan’s psychiatry supervisors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center had expressed concerns in May 2007 about what they described as Hasan’s “pattern of poor judgment and lack of professionalism.”

President Barack Obama already has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan, including his contacts with al-Awlaki, concerns raised about Hasan by some of his medical colleagues, and whether warnings were properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Results of that inquiry are due Nov. 30.

The Pentagon said Thursday it will scour its procedures for identifying volatile U.S. military service members hidden in the ranks following the Fort Hood shooting rampage and lapses that might allow others to slip through bureaucratic cracks.

“It is prudent to determine immediately whether there are internal weaknesses or procedural shortcomings in the department that could make us vulnerable in the future,” Defense Secretary Gates said.

A 45-day emergency investigation will examine personnel, medical, mental health, discharge and other policies in all corners of the vast Defense Department. It will also look at ways to improve security and emergency response at Defense Department facilities.

“The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers,” Gates told a Pentagon news conference.

The quick review will be led by two former Pentagon officials, former Army Secretary Togo West and former Navy chief Vernon Clark.

A longer, second review lasting about six months will look at what Gates called “systemic institutional shortcomings.” Gates, who has fired several top officials in three years heading the Pentagon, did not address any possible consequences of the inquiries he announced Thursday.

Gates broached little new information about the case of Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the shootings at the Texas military post on Nov. 5.

Both Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the chief goal of the Pentagon probe is preventing another such attack and improving future responses by disaster teams.

West was Army secretary in the mid-1990s and later became secretary of veterans affairs. Clark was the chief of naval operations from 2000 to 2005.

In 2007, Gates named West co-chairman of a panel created to review rehabilitation care problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the National Naval Medical Center in suburban Bethesda, Maryland.

In 1995, as President Bill Clinton’s Army Secretary, West ordered a review of the Army’s racial climate, including whether there were ties between extremist groups and members of the military. The investigation was prompted by the arrests of two paratroopers in connection with the murders of two black people and concerns that the two men may have had ties to white supremacist groups.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The problem, however, is just the opposite. I very much trust our due process system to be exceedingly fair to a terrorist who will put great value in his opening statement.

But, that is beside the point. As James Galyean noted, and this is well worth repeating:

Documents from that discovery production [ in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case ], which were never supposed to be provided to anyone outside the defense team, were later found in an al-Qaeda hideout.

Further, let’s be honest — we know that no President of the United States would chance a man like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed going free. Barack Obama would not risk a civilian trial without being sure of a conviction. This then amounts to a show trial, but one where the prosecutors will have to comply with discovery requirements that will potentially put classified material into the hands of Al Qaeda.

It has happened before.