RUTHFULLY YOURS

Three young Muslim men who reside in Brooklyn (two native of Uzbekistan, one Kazakhstan) were arrested yesterday in connection with a plot to join the Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIL or ISIS) and carry out violent jihadist attacks either in ISIS-controlled territory overseas or in the United States. In the course of the investigation, as detailed in the complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the FBI used a confidential informant, who pretended to be an ISIS sympathizer, in order to gather evidence. So, as night follows day, the cable news commentary is filled with talk of “entrapment.”

The gist is that the three men were ne’er-do-wells who may have aspired to jihadi combat and martyrdom but who lacked the skills and the means; the FBI, the story goes, managed to infiltrate a slick informant into their circle, and he skillfully steered them into a bunch of crazy talk about killing infidels – which he recorded, enabling the government to file charges and appear to be doing something meaningful about terrorism when, in fact, there was no serious threat. The entrapment commentary is frivolous. Those spouting it either do not know the federal law of entrapment or have not read the allegations in the complaint (which is here).

America has traditionally been a place of refuge for the downtrodden of the world. That was the message in Emma Lazarus’ famous poem, fastened to the base of the Statue of Liberty, and serves as the basis for our beliefs as Americans.

Of all of the countries on the face of the earth, the United States has come to be seen as the country that most embodies compassion. As the grandson of a woman who was slaughtered in Poland during the Holocaust I certainly understand the nearly instinctive urge most Americans have to provide a safe haven for people from around the world who are at risk.

However, we live in historically difficult and perilous times. Because the United States is a superpower, those who would attack us understand that they cannot mount a full frontal assault on our nation. Our enemies and their proxies, terrorist organizations, know that they must engage in asymmetrical warfare which is, in fact, how terrorism is defined.

The Manhattan Republican Party…..http://www.nycrepublican.org/

Legislators from every state want to meet New Yorkers. The new Chairwoman is Adele Malpass and in the short time she has taken over Senator Joni Ernst (Iowa), Rep. Lee Zeldin (NY), Rep. Ann Wagner (Missouri), Potential candidate Carly Fiorina, have spoken to members. Rep. Chris Bingham (NY) is one of the speakers now scheduled and there are many more on the horizon. The Manhattan Republican Party lets the members see and hear legislators who can and will change America. Stay tuned!!!

The Manhattan Republican Party is the official Republican organization in Manhattan formerly known as the New York Republican County Committee (NYRCC). The Manhattan GOP is a volunteer organization that is made up of dedicated individuals who share a common belief in limited government, public safety, and personal liberty, opportunity, and responsibility.

Take a stand against democratic policies in Manhattan and work with us to make a difference. We can bring some accountability and a balance of power back to the greatest city in the world! We need you to get involved to keep New York moving forward.

A friend and brave colleague awaits trial in an Azerbaijani prison, the charges against her so patently ridiculous they would be laughable if a courageous reporter did not face the prospect of an extended stint behind bars. Her real crime? Daring to shine a light on the business dealings of her country’s President and its First Family
Below is a letter from imprisoned Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayilova (left). Apparently written on February 6, it was smuggled from her Azerbaijan prison and published last week in the Washington Post. Ms. Ismayilova is a reporter and commentator for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Frank Csongas, one of her former colleagues at RFERL (where I also worked for much of the last decade), e-mailed it to me in case I hadn’t seen it.

According to the Post, Ms. Ismayilova was a put in pre-trial detention for two months after being accused of inciting a colleague’s suicide. Additional charges have since been brought against her. It seems pretty clear that these charges are a punishment for her reports on the financial dealings of the Azeri President and his family. Without more ado, though, let’s read the letter:

Please forgive my long silence. I was put in solitary confinement after my last letter was passed through these prison bars and published. My cell was searched and all my notes, including lists of things I was requesting from home, were taken. I have not received these back. I guess there are many devoted readers of mine at the penitentiary. They are taking turns reading my notes. That is why it is taking them such a long time to return what they have taken from me.

Having read so many recent stories of schoolchildren around the world being radicalized by Islamic extremists, here is a collection of contrasting education-related activities and news articles I’ve collected over the past few weeks concerning the Jewish State.

I will begin in the Israeli school system itself. Whereas 100 countries marked Feb 11 as Safer Internet Day, Israel’s Ministry of Education, on Feb 8, launched Annual National Week for Online Safety Education in Israel. Throughout the entire state educational system, students engaged in classroom and online activities designed to increase awareness for Internet safety, reduce potential risks, and deal with any harmful online incidents.

100,000 Israeli kids attend a Sci-Tech school – that’s 10 percent of all Israeli high school students (including Muslims, Christians and Druze). The Sci-Tech network builds curricula based on the demand for professionals in various Israeli industries, and it currently has 18 industrial vocational schools. This Bloomberg report shows how Israeli-Arabs (especially women) continue to flourish educationally, at Technion Institute of Technology – one of Israel’s top class higher education establishments.

So Rajendra Pachauri has finally announced his resignation from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a decision at once momentous and spectacularly irrelevant.

It’s momentous because the IPCC is one of the world’s most powerful organizations, with presidents and prime ministers across the globe in thrall to its prognostications of climate doom, and the fate of nations and economies partly decided by its ongoing insistence (against all evidence) that “global warming” remains a credible crisis which can only be solved by throwing stupendous quantities of taxpayer money at it.

And it’s spectacularly irrelevant because the bearded, cricket-loving, ice-shunning groper was never more than an empty figurehead, probably chosen – a bit like UN Secretaries General – because he fitted the right ethnic and socio-political profile rather than because he had a particular skill set which qualified him especially for the job.

He was, after all, a railway engineer by training, not a physicist or a meteorologist or a climatologist.

Carson is rated +5 by AAI, indicating pro-Arab pro-Palestine voting record. (May 2012) rsk
For More Information Contact:
Alex VanNess | vanness@securefreedom.org | (202) 719-2421

CENTER RELEASES DOSSIER DOCUMENTING A HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE MEMBER’S EXTENSIVE TIES TO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

(Washington, D.C.): House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently appointed Rep. André Carson (D-IN) to a coveted position on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. This panel is charged with oversight of the United States’ most sensitive national intelligence capabilities and operations. These include any directed at Islamic supremacists seeking to impose worldwide – through violent and, where necessary, through stealthy forms of jihad – the totalitarian program they call shariah.

Many Arabs and Muslims see the meeting between Obama and Qatar’s al-Thani as a gift to Qatar for its continued support of Islamic radical groups across the Middle East, including Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

On the eve of Obama’s meeting, Egyptian sources revealed that Qatar was providing weapons and ammunition to members of the Islamic State in Libya. The sources said that 35 Qatari aircraft were involved in the resupply.

Arab political analysts are also concerned about Obama’s ongoing attempts to appease Iran, which continues to expand its presence in Arab countries such as Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon — as well as in Syria, where it is deeply involved in backing Hezbollah and operating along the border with Israel. A Reuters report revealed that Iran also has hundreds of advisors in Iraq.

The centenary of the artistic movement known as Dada is coming up in 1916 and it ought to produce a lot of nonsense. The word “Dada” is supposed to come from the Kru language in Africa, and refers to the tail of a sacred cow. Up till then, the purpose of art had been to say something about humanity, and how to be a human being. Dada had the contrary purpose that there is nothing to say about human beings. The artist’s mockery and nihilism is supposed to be proof of his superiority to the stupid public.
The moving spirit was the Romanian Tristan Tzara (a pseudonym meaning “sad in the country”). He had fled to the safety of Zurich, neutral in the First World War, and there he attracted like-minded writers and painters from almost all European backgrounds. They sat in cafés and argued and wrote manifestoes. Of them all, James Joyce was the only one with real talent, but Finnegan’s Wake, that unreadable effusion, shows how Dada had got to him. In the wake of Dada came Surrealism, Socialist Realism, and today’s conceptual art in which humanity doesn’t feature at all. Adolf Hitler gave all such work a longer hold by calling it degenerate and having it destroyed. Unfortunately, his view that the purpose of art was to inspire racism is a kindred absurdity. Tzara and his coterie were preparing to make the world a worse place at the very same month that a million men were being killed or wounded in the Battle of the Somme so that the world could be a better place. Their centenary is likely to be celebrated with lots of anger expressed against the politicians who got Europe into that war. The city of Zurich, I notice, is already planning visits to cafes, readings, and who knows what. It is only fitting that the final word on Dada should go to tourism.

Robert Joseph is senior scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy and a former undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. William Tobey is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University and a former deputy administrator for nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Obama administration’s negotiations over nuclear matters are a disaster. The administration’s defenders are vigorously rebutting allegations that President Obama has made too many concessions in the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Their defense is a simple statement of fact: There is no agreement yet, so how can the critics be right? They assert that we must wait until the outcome is agreed upon before we can assess it. The concern, however, is both bipartisan and international — with many Democrats voicing alarm and with Israel and the Arab states alike frustrated that a seemingly desperate administration has placed Iran’s interests above those of its allies. While Obama’s defenders are technically accurate in that Iran has not yet agreed to what has been placed on the negotiating table, press reports citing U.S. officials have provided information on the status of all key issues under consideration and the likely provisions of an agreement, if Tehran is ultimately able to take yes for an answer. Of course, if current negotiating trends continue, the terms could get even worse than described below. They certainly won’t get better. The concessions already acknowledged by U.S. officials include: