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Did Christie’s ‘Islam Problem’ Lead to the Ahmad Terrorist Attacks? By Lauri B. Regan

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

In a recent column, Bret Stephens recognized that one of the lessons from this past weekend’s terror attacks is that “there is [a]… benefit in the surveillance methods that allowed police in New York and New Jersey to swiftly identify and arrest Mr. Rahimi before his bombing spree took any lives.” A Wall Street Journal editorial that same day noted that “Since 9/11… the NYPD has made great progress in being able to track down terror suspects.” And while the New York and New Jersey police departments deserve high praise for their handling of these attacks and quick apprehension of those involved, I cannot help but wonder if the injuries to its 29 victims could have been prevented.

In the years following 9/11, the NYPD, under the leadership of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, organized the Demographic Unit, a creation of CIA officer Lawrence Sanchez who established it in 2003 while working at the department. The unit was designed as a surveillance program in which undercover officers infiltrated New York and New Jersey Muslim-owned businesses, mosques, and Islamic schools in order to detect terror threats before they were executed. According to a New York Times article:

The goal was to identify the mundane locations where a would-be terrorist could blend into society. Plainclothes detectives looked for “hot spots” of radicalization that might give the police an early warning about terrorist plots. The squad, which typically consisted of about a dozen members, focused on 28 “ancestries of interest.”

Unfortunately, the program was discovered in 2009 and under public pressure from local Muslim communities as well as legal challenges to the program, Kelly’s successor, William Bratton, ultimately closed down the unit. One of the loudest critics of the undercover surveillance was New Jersey governor Chris Christie who, joined by then-Newark mayor Cory Booker, called the program “disturbing” and “deeply offensive.” Christie took issue with the fact that, notwithstanding the Newark police department’s involvement with the program, neither he nor the feds were informed. In 2012 Christie stated, “I know they think that their jurisdiction is the world. Their jurisdiction is New York City. My concern is this kind of affectation that the NYPD seems to have that they are the masters of the universe.”

Christie also reportedly approached Attorney General Eric Holder with his concerns. However, after a three-month investigation, New Jersey attorney general Jeffrey Chiesa “concluded there was no evidence to show the NYPD’s activities in the state violated New Jersey’s civil or criminal laws.” Nonetheless, within several months of that finding, the NYPD caved to pressure and pulled out of New Jersey and by 2014, much to the delight of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, the program was shuttered completely.

One has to wonder what universe Christie is living in in which he believes that terrorists abide by geographic and law enforcement jurisdictional lines. When this story broke, the Associate Press reported that the NYPD was also secretly monitoring the activities of campus Muslim student groups at over a dozen colleges in the Northeast. While not exactly the politically correct thing to do (as we all know from the degrading treatment every American receives going through TSA lines), PC behavior is not going to save us from radical Islam. An honest discussion about the indoctrination that occurs within local Muslim communities, and most especially their mosques, is warranted and necessary rather than the indefensible focus on offending a demographic that is taking no outward steps to help prevent terrorism.

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France: Human Rights vs. The People by Yves Mamou

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

French politicians seem to believe they are elected NOT to defend French people and the French nation, but to impose a “human rights ideology” on society.

The rule of law is there to protect citizens from the arbitrary actions of the State. When a group of French Muslims attacks the entire way society is constructed, the rule of law now protects only the perpetrators.

For Western leaders, “human rights” have become a kind of new religion. Like a disease, the human rights ideology has proliferated in all areas of life. The United Nations website shows a list of all the human rights that are now institutionalized: they range from “adequate housing” to “youth.” At least 42 categories of human rights fields are determined, each of which are split into two or three subcategories.

With what result? More than 140 countries (out of 193 UN members) engage in torture. The number of authoritarian countries has increased. Women remain a subordinate class in nearly all countries.

“Saudi Arabia ratified the treaty banning discrimination against women in 2007, and yet by law subordinates women to men in all areas of life. Child labour exists in countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Powerful western countries, including the US, do business with grave human rights abusers.” — Eric Posner, professor at the University of Chicago Law School

Human rights, originally conceived of as an anti-discrimination tool, became a Trojan horse, a tool manipulated by Islamists and others to dismantle secularism, freedom of speech and freedom of religion in European countries.

On August 13, the Administrative Court in Nice, France, validated the decision of the Mayor of Cannes to prohibit wearing religious clothing on the beaches of Cannes. By “religious clothing,” the judge clearly seemed to be pointing his finger at the burkini, a body-covering bathing suit worn by many Muslim women.

These “Muslim textile affairs” reveal two types of jihad attacking France: one hard, one soft. The hard jihad, internationally known, consists of assassinating journalists of Charlie Hebdo (January 2015), Jewish people at the Hypercacher supermarket (January 2015) and young people at the Bataclan theater, restaurants and the Stade de France (November 2015). The hard jihad also included stabbing two policeman in Magnanville, a suburb of Paris, (June 2016); truck-ramming to death 84 people in Nice on Bastille Day (July 14), and murdering a priest in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, among other incidents. The goal of hard jihad, led by ISIS, al-Qaeda, and others, is to impose sharia by terror.

The soft jihad is different. It does not involve murdering people, but its final goal is the same: to impose Islam on France by covering the country in Islamic symbols — veils, burqas, burkinis and so on — at all levels of the society: in schools, universities, hospitals, corporations, streets, beaches, swimming pools and public transportation. By imposing the veil everywhere, soft Islamists seem to want to kill secularism, which, since escaping the grip of the Catholic Church, has become the French way of “living together.”

No one can understand secularism in France without a bit of history.

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Paris Climate Deal Picks Up Momentum at U.N. Gathering After 30 more nations ratified global agreement By Valentina Pop

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

UNITED NATIONS—A global climate agreement moved closer toward taking effect by the end of the year, as 30 more nations ratified it Wednesday during a special meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The deal, championed by the Obama administration and struck last year in Paris among 195 countries, sets out a global plan to take steps aimed at limiting climate change. But it can enter into force only once 55 countries representing 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions—the main cause for a steady rise in global temperatures—have ratified it.

As of Wednesday, one of the two conditions—the number of countries—was met, as 60 countries have now ratified it, representing 47.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters—the U.S. and China—ratified the deal earlier this month. A further 13 countries committed to ratify the deal by the end of the year.

“I’m evermore confident that the Paris agreement will enter into force this year,” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said during the event Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the “warriors for the planet” for taking action, noting that the months of July and August were “the hottest months ever recorded on the planet,” and expressed hope that the Paris deal will enter into force before the next U.N. meeting on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November.

If the agreement enters into force this year, the U.S. would be prevented from pulling out for 4 years, potentially binding the hands of the next president—even if he or she was intent on reversing course.

President Barack Obama sought to implement the Paris agreement, one of his legacy projects, before the end of his term.

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A Debate About Terror More than Hillary Clinton, the election is about the Democratic Party’s mind-set on terrorism. By Daniel Henninger

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

The Commission on Presidential Debates, which is in charge of Monday night’s cage match between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, lists three topics on its website for the 90-minute debate: America’s Direction, Achieving Prosperity and Securing America.

Moderator Lester Holt, a news man, knows that as of last Saturday, this debate is mostly going to be about an Afghan-American named Ahmad Khan Rahami and a Somali-American who stabbed nine people in a Minneapolis mall.

If they can get in a few thoughts on “America’s Direction,” that’ll be nice, but national security—terrorism—has muscled its way to the top of a presidential campaign’s stack of issues. We were there last in 2004, when Americans decided they’d take George W. Bush over John Kerry in the lingering shadows of 9/11.
Now the choice is these two.
Ahmad Khan Rahami’s pressure-cooker bomb blew up in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, about five blocks from where I live. Within the hour, my phone was buzzing with the same text message from family and friends: “Are you all right?” This is the way it is now. Thousands of identical texts—are you all right?—surely poured into St. Cloud, Minn., Saturday after the stabbing spree.

On whether Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump is better able to deal with the mass-murder compulsions of Islamic terrorists, opinion polls before Saturday essentially said Hillary is ahead by a point or two. You might expect that on so grave an issue, a former secretary of state and two-term U.S. senator would be ahead by more than a nose of someone she describes as totally unfit to be on the same stage with her.

But he is, and they’re tied, so the American people must be seeing something the conventional media wisdom can’t or won’t on terrorism. CONTINUE AT SITE

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The Glazov Gang Video: My Escape From Islam’s Rape and Death Sentence — a Lejla Colak Moment

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

There is a campaign designed as a rescue mission for Lejla, arranged by Anni Cyrus’ Live up to Freedom. Please continue to help: https://www.gofundme.com/lutfmission.

This special edition of The Glazov Gang presents the Lejla Colak Moment with Lejla Colak, a brave Bosnian journalist who survived Islam.

Lejla discusses My Escape From Islam’s Rape and Death Sentence and sends her gratitude to Anni Cyrus and all others for snatching her out of the hell that Sharia’s guardians had planned for her.

And make sure to watch the special edition of The Glazov Gang that presented the Afshin Sohrabzadeh Moment with Afshin Sohrabzadeh, a brave dissident who was brutalized by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Afshin sends out a personal message to Anni Cyrus, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Jamie Glazov and all the others who have reached out to save and heal him:

There is a campaign designed as a rescue and healing mission for Afshin, arranged by Anni Cyrus’ Live up to Freedom. Please continue to help: gofundme.com/HopeforPersecuted.

Read Pamela Geller standing up for Afshin in Breitbart: HERE.

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The Pretentious Badge of Poverty By Marilyn Penn

Posted By on September 22nd, 2016

I haven’t read Bruce Springsteen’s memoir, “Born to Run,” but I read Dwight Garner’s review of it (NYTimes 9/21/16) and was incredulous about the following declaration: “Mr. Springsteen’s father was a frequently unemployed bus driver among other blue-collar jobs; his mother a legal secretary. They were fairly poor. In their houses – half-houses, more often – there was generally no telephone and little heat.” Bruce grew up in the 50’s and 60’s in the state of N.J. – not in Yoknapatawpha County in the backwoods of Mississippi. In America during the the 50’s, two thirds of all homes had phones and though air conditioning was not yet common, heating certainly was. I won’t quibble about whether or not these statements are partially true but I will say that a boy whose mother was a legal secretary was not poverty-stricken, so why the desire for that illusion? Does it increase his creds as a man of the people to boast that despite being a member of the 1% now, he came from dirt-poor beginnings?

Wealthy democrats in America are often confused and guilt-ridden about their extreme affluence. Hillary Clinton ranted about being in debt when she and Bill left the White House, a statement that was not only a lie but a telling one reflecting her embarrassment about their net worth. Do politicos believe that wealthy people can’t be seen as empathic towards the need of the poor? How strange, considering the billions of dollars that wealthy people have bestowed upon charities to help the needy not to mention to improve parks, libraries, schools, hospitals,, museums, cultural centers – urban environments that exist for all members of society to use and enjoy.

Once upon a time America was super-proud of those super-rich democrats Jack and Jackie Kennedy whose White House was decorated in a manner befitting lifestyles of the rich and famous. No false modesty or embarrassment in the elegant couture of our fashionable first lady or the family compound on Cape Cod – rich meant cultured, sophisticated, articulate and charming. Today, despite the preponderance of so many billionaire democrats – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, George Soros, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, Oprah, Kanye and Beyonce, David Geffen – to name but a few – wealth is more commonly associated by the media with the Koch Brothers in a pejorative way that implies Republican influence peddling and nefarious finagling. The NY Times, whose advertisers represent the shops frequented by the 1% and merchandise too expensive to be labeled, uses its editorial and op ed pages to disparage the very audience at which the ads are pitched.

This is what we know as cognitive dissonance and it should make us squirm with its inherent dishonesty. There was a time when lower middle-class people were proud of being productive workers who didn’t consider themselves poor. Many of them were immigrants who came from the old country where poor meant people without enough to eat, without a house to live in, without the opportunity to work and support a family. Coming to America meant coming to a land of opportunity with free education and the chance to work hard and move on up – if not in one generation, certainly in two. Those people would not have exaggerated their poverty – that would have stripped them of their dignity. Today’s mores allow super-rich celebrities and politicians to tout their humble beginnings as proof of how deserving they are of their subsequent fortunes. I’d prefer reading that Bruce Springsteen was proud of his legal secretary working mom and a father who tried to find work wherever he could. I suspect that any family with enough expendable cash to buy their son a guitar probably had enough for a phone and portable heater. Bruce deserves his fame and fortune by virtue of his creditable talent – no need to flaunt his deprivation of a phone which jars us by ringing so untrue.

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University Sponsors a Ball Pit for Students to Sit In and Talk About Hurt Feelings It was called a “vent tent.” By Katherine Timpf see note please

Posted By on September 21st, 2016

Students at the California State University–Northridge sat around in a big ball pit (which they a called a “vent tent”) and talked about hurtful words and their feelings as part of a school-sponsored inclusive language campaign.

According to video and documents obtained by Heat Street, the campaign lasted for a week, was put on by the University Student Union (USU), and cost more than $1,000 in student fees. It’s not clear exactly how much of that money was spent on the ball pit rental, or if there is any research supporting the idea that sitting in a ball pit while having a discussion provides any educational and/or therapeutic benefits.

The USU also printed out posters featuring several words and phrases that it deemed offensive and posted them all over campus. Some of the phrases are actually very offensive (“this b****,” “you are such a f**,” and “you stupid w****”) and others are much less harmless (such as “you’re being so crazy”) but in both cases, the posters are pretty useless. As for the less harmless ones, it’s clear that something like “you’re being so crazy” is often used in a lighthearted manner, perhaps to describe someone who is being silly, and therefore doesn’t really deserve a blanket warning against its use in all cases. As for the clearly offensive ones? Well, as Heat Street’s Jillian Melchior points out, “it’s pretty inconceivable that a university would feel the need to teach college students that it’s not nice to say, for instance, ‘you stupid w****,’ ‘this b****,’ or ‘f**.’”

Other features of the campaign included a spinning wheel with offensive words, which students would spin and then discuss whether they found the language offensive, and a board where students could write for themselves which words they considered to be harmful. According to Heat Street, one student apparently wrote “When I hear the word ‘edgy,’ it makes me feel triggered,” but it’s not clear exactly just what in the fresh hell that student was talking about, or what people on campus are going to be expected to do about it. After all, “edgy” is pretty universally seen as a harmless word. Should people on campus be expected to suddenly stop using it because one random person considers it offensive for some random reason? I feel like the answer there is pretty clearly “no.”

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U.S. Gives Boeing, Airbus Go-Ahead to Send Airliners to Iran The U.S. government has given Boeing and Airbus Group the all-clear to deliver jetliners to Iran Air in one of the highest-profile trade breakthroughs since nuclear sanctions were lifted on the Islamic Republic.By Robert Wall and Doug Cameron see note please

Posted By on September 21st, 2016

Fly the frindly skies of Jihadair…..rsk
Some deliveries may occur as early as this year

The U.S. government has given plane makers Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE the all-clear to deliver jetliners to Iran Air in one of the highest-profile trade breakthroughs since nuclear sanctions were lifted on the Islamic Republic in January.

Western powers removed sanctions on Iran in return for the country agreeing to constrain its nuclear program. Business has been slow to materialize, though, amid concern among western businesses of running afoul of continued U.S. restrictions on doing business with Iran.

Iran Air announced in January it planned to buy Airbus planes, but the transaction stalled amid a lack of approvals from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control rules. OFAC had to approve the license because a portion of Airbus planes are made in the U.S.

Airbus, which was first to secure a plane deal with Iran, was first to receive the green light to transfer 17 planes to Iran Air, signaling the tide may be turning for doing business with Iran. Hours later Boeing, the world’s largest plane maker by deliveries, said it too had received its corresponding license.

Airbus on Wednesday said some of those deliveries may occur as early as this year, a spokesman said.

Boeing aims to sell 80 jets directly to Iran Air as part of a proposed deal valued at up to $17.6 billion. It would be among the largest by a U.S. firm since the sanctions were loosened. Boeing said Wednesday it remained in talks with Iran Air about an existing tentative deal on plane purchases.

Boeing’s sales team has visited Iran several times this year, though no senior executives have been in attendance.

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Alleged Attacker at Israeli Embassy in Ankara Is Shot by Security Officials say assailant is believed to have approached the embassy with a knife By Dion Nissenbaum Rory Jones

Posted By on September 21st, 2016

A man with a 12-inch knife was shot and wounded Wednesday by police guarding the Israeli embassy in Turkey’s capital, officials said, bringing a swift end to a threat in a country battered by terrorist attacks.

The alleged attacker was shot in the calf by a Turkish police officer as he approached the embassy, shouting slogans and carrying the knife and a bag, Turkish officials said.

The Ankara governor’s office identified the suspect as Osman Nuri Caliskan, a 41-year old from Konya in central Turkey with no criminal record. It said Mr. Caliskan didn’t appear to have ties to any political organization and may be mentally unstable.

Mr. Caliskan was taken to a nearby hospital. All staff in the well-protected Israeli embassy were safe, said Israeli officials, who thanked Turkish police for their quick response.

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Germany Arrests Teenage Refugee With Islamic State Link Latest in series of arrests amid concern about potential terrorists among influx of migrants By Ruth Bender

Posted By on September 21st, 2016

BERLIN—German police said Wednesday they arrested a 16 year-old Syrian refugee with connections to Islamic State who had been planning a bomb attack, the latest in a series of arrests of suspected radical Islamists and terrorists among the over one million migrants that came to the country last year.

The teenager, who police didn’t identify in keeping with German privacy laws, had radicalized in only a few months after coming to Germany with his family in January last year, Cologne’s police chief Jürgen Mathies said in a press conference.

“This shows how fast a radicalization can unfold,” Mr. Mathies said. “The teenager changed his behavior drastically in only three months.”

Searches of the young man’s cellphone found evidence that he had been in contact with a person connected to Islamic State living abroad, prosecutors and police said.

In such chat conversations, the young man had received instructions on how to build a bomb as well as information on where explosives should be placed to have an impact, senior Cologne prosecutor Ulf Willuhn said. He also discussed whether Islam allowed the killing of nonbelievers, Mr. Willuhn said.

The teenager expressed his “unmistakable readiness” to commit such an attack, said Klaus-Stephan Becker from the Cologne police. Police, however, had no indications that he had begun to buy any of the materials needed to make explosives, Mr. Mathies said.

The arrest follows several others lately of recently arrived refugees suspected of planning terrorist acts as well as two terror attacks this summer committed by refugees.

Recent opinion polls showed rising fears among voters about further attacks as well as widespread discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in hundreds of thousands of often undocumented migrants into the country last year without even the most cursory background check.