RUTHFULLY YOURS

Can any American who has been force fed videos of young men being beheaded by Islamic barabarians, who lived through the national grief of 9/11 be persuaded by McCain’s blather? He was a lousy candidate and a fool who paved the way for the victory of the worst president in American history….rsk
Senator McCain: ‘Torture is a stain on our national honor’
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate on December 9 concerning the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on CIA interrogation methods:

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the release – the long-delayed release – of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s summarized, unclassified review of the so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ that were employed by the previous administration to extract information from captured terrorists. It is a thorough and thoughtful study of practices that I believe not only failed their purpose – to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies – but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world.

“I believe the American people have a right – indeed, a responsibility – to know what was done in their name; how these practices did or did not serve our interests; and how they comported with our most important values.

“I commend Chairman Feinstein and her staff for their diligence in seeking a truthful accounting of policies I hope we will never resort to again. I thank them for persevering against persistent opposition from many members of the intelligence community, from officials in two administrations, and from some of our colleagues.

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http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/6120/150/Welcome to this morning’s headline. It’s hard to imagine more nauseating news, confirming all of our suspicions about what Rino rectum sellout corrupt scumbags are John Boehner and the House GOP leadership.

The $1.1 trillion bill dubbed the “Cromnibus” but which the HFR calls the Crapnibus passed last night (12/11) by 219-206, a margin of 13 votes. The vote was 162R-57D Yes, 67R-139D No. That means if just 7 more Pubs had the spine to stand up to Boehner, the bill would have been defeated, 213-212.

What’s more, the dreaded Shutdown would be blamed on the Democrats, as the No vote would have been lopsided 74R-139D. Indeed, Pelosi argued for a Shutdown and No vote on the House floor yesterday.

This destroys Boehner’s cowardly argument that Pubs had to pass the bill and avoid a Shutdown for which they would be blamed. It is now clear that Boehner and the GOP Establishment is in collusion with Zero to grant unconstitutional amnesty to millions – uncountable millions with subsequent chain migration – of illegal non-Americans.

As the linked article at the top explains:

“Fueled by Boehner’s money, Obama’s amnesty will provide work-permits, federal aid, Social Security cards and drivers’ licenses to millions of illegal immigrants, who will be able to compete against blue-collar worker – including many who voted Democrat in 2014 – for decent jobs.”

Daryl McCann A State of Apocalyptic Psychosis The fantasy that a Palestinian mini-state in the West Bank will “solve” the Middle East’s problems is wearing thin, especially with Egypt no longer on board. The long, sad history of Arab rejectionism has made sure of that

Peter Smith’s splendid Quadrant Online essay, “Dancing at the Wailing Wall”, quotes a Palestinian terrorist: “There will be one country from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.” Though usually not one to agree with Islamic militants, I think our anti-Zionist freedom fighter has got this one right. For the foreseeable future – okay, until the end of time – there will be only one country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. And its name shall be Israel.

The so-called “two-state solution” is dead. Truth be told, the notion of transforming the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) into an Arab Palestinian state has always been a minority view. Haj Amin al-Husseini (1897-1974), the religious and political leader of the Arabs who inhabited British Mandatory Palestine, did not care for it. While he retained any kind of authority, at least, he never aspired to an Arab Palestinian state – neither the maximalist Jordan-to-the Mediterranean version nor the minimalist West Bank adaptation.

In the aftermath of the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, al-Husseini rejected the idea of an autonomous Palestinian entity and instead insisted that the Arabs of the region (formerly known as southern Ottoman Syria) be absorbed into an independent Greater Syria. Come the Second World War, Haj Amin al-Husseini did not conspire in Berlin to become President of Palestine but Supreme Leader of a Nazi-sanctioned, Judenfrei, transnational Islamic state with Jerusalem as the capital – not so much a two-state solution as an integral part of the Final Solution. In al-Husseini’s day, the term “Palestine” was associated with Zionism. Until May 16, 1948, the day after the foundation of the State of Israel, The Jerusalem Post was known as The Palestine Post. An Arab Palestinian flag, an Arab Palestinian identity and an Arab Palestinian nation are all recent innovations.

This excellent and thoughtful column is about mis-education in Australia, but so applicable to the academies in America….rsk

While textbook pages are devoted to Karl Marx, to socialism and the struggle of the working man, nineteenth-century liberalism is almost totally neglected. How is it possible to omit so much, remembering always that this excision is but one of many in the systematic stripping of the past

It was once the case that the political and constitutional history of England and Australia dominated the study of history in schools. But since the mid-1980s historians have largely abandoned these matters for social history. While the apostles of social history might say that what they have to offer is a gain, and it is, the arrival of this new history has also had the effect, intended or not, of crowding out political and constitutional history.

The social history approach does not always enhance our understanding of the past, for it produces a very odd account of the past when it stumbles into areas where it lacks understanding. Take slavery. According to the History 9 textbooks, slavery in the British Empire was abolished as the result of a social movement. Now while such a movement was very influential it was not in itself sufficient; legislation was required to abolish slavery in the British Empire in 1833.[1] The failure to mention this might create the impression that somehow it just went away because people protested. This is a typically adolescent view of social change and ignores the complex ways change actually occurs. [2]

It would help students to know that in 1772 the English courts declared slavery unlawful in England when the Court of King’s Bench set free a Virginia slave who had been brought to England, on the basis that there was no slavery in England.[3] The case was cited and applied in a habeas corpus case involving the illegal detention of an Aboriginal boy in New South Wales in 1861.[4] Students should also know that the Governor of New South Wales declared in 1788 that Australia would not permit slavery.[5]exhibition building

The regimes of Turkey, Iran, and Syria all have large Kurdish minorities, and apparently do not want Kurds within their states to seek either autonomy or union within an independent Iraqi Kurdistan, and view an independent Kurdistan as a possible ally for Israel.

ERBIL — There is a sense of unity throughout Iraqi Kurdistan. The two political rivals, which have controlled Kurdistan’s politics for decades, appear to have “buried the hatchet” deep enough to withstand any continuing differences over policy and tribal interests. The Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP], which represents the Barzani Clan, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK], which represents the Talabani Clan, remain well represented in the parliament with the KDP controlling 38 out of 111 seats and the PUK 18.[1]

There is little public mention of this past rivalry; here, clan-centered local politics seems to have been replaced by a grander vision of a future independent Republic of Kurdistan. The only major decision regarding this future development is the question of the proper timing for the declaration. There are, however, a few variables that may delay the birth of this new, non-Arab state in the Middle East.

One variable is the fate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL]. The Kurds appear to have regained their self-confidence after a late-summer scare when ISIL forces inflicted a series of defeats on Kurdistan’s peshmerga troops. American bombing raids, Iranian Qods Force volunteers, and pro-Iranian Shia militia helped stabilize the military landscape even as Western investors fled the region.

Another variable is U.S. State Department pressure on the Kurds to remain within the Iraqi state. It appears that economic reality combined with American persuasion have succeeded in postponing the birth of the Kurdish nation-state.[2]

On Tuesday evening, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro delivered the keynote address at a conference on “America’s Standing in the World” held at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. In his speech, Shapiro warned Israelis not to assume that the results of last month’s midterm elections have made his bosses in Washington powerless in pressing for Palestinian statehood.

“Here is a caution, lest anyone jump to conclusions,” he said. “Divided government, in which one party controls Congress and the other the Executive Branch, does not necessarily mean foreign policy gridlock.”

On the contrary, he added, “Presidents often surge and engage even more intensively in national security affairs in their final years in office.”

Don’t worry, Mr. Ambassador. Israel is under no illusions on that score. Obsessions die hard, after all. And an American administration that is enabling Iran to laugh its way to nuclear armament (among other international catastrophes) has but one piece of low-hanging fruit to pick — and pick on — before going down in history as the disaster it has been all along.

Nothing new there.

Nor was it a surprise that the State Department rushed to dispel rumors, based on a Haaretz report earlier this month, that the U.S. was about to threaten Israel with sanctions over settlement construction. Though neither the Obama administration nor the extreme left-wing Israeli newspaper is trustworthy, in this case, the latter sounded plausible — which goes to show how much faith Israel has lost in its strongest ally.

It is in this context that two recent events must be taken. One is the fall of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on December 2, paving the way for new elections in March. The other is the death of senior Palestinian Authority official Ziad Abu Ein on Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s coalition collapsed as a result of internal battles regarding the so-called “peace process” — a euphemism for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. To put it simplistically, the key divide that separates the two main parliamentary blocs concerns the issue of whether the onus for a peaceful two-state solution rests on Israel. Those who believe it does understand American pressure. Those who pay attention to Palestinian words and deeds — which jibe with global jihad — view the Jewish state as under assault.

Al Sharpton at the White House It sometimes seems as if he spends more time there than anywhere else. Why? By Brendan Bordelon

This, the tail end of 2014, is Al Sharpton’s moment.

Despite the firebrand minister’s shrinking physical stature, his presence on the national stage has never loomed larger. From Ferguson to Cleveland to Staten Island, black men dying at the hands of police have catapulted America’s racial obsession to new heights — carrying Sharpton along with it.

He stands solemnly with Michael Brown’s family at televised press conferences. He appears alongside Eric Garner’s grieving widow on Meet the Press. He delivers nightly sermons on race from his prime-time perch at MSNBC. Though the rehabilitation is far from perfect, it’s a far cry from the days of Tawana Brawley, Freddie’s Fashion Mart, and “white interlopers.”

How to explain the strange new respect accorded to Sharpton? Start with the White House.

Considered politically toxic by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Sharpton has been enthusiastically embraced by President Obama. He has bragged about helping to pick a new attorney general and communed with the current one. In fact, a much-quoted Politico profile last summer described Sharpton as Obama’s “go-to man on race.”

Given the reports of phone calls and text messages frequently exchanged between Sharpton and top Obama officials, a complete accounting of the relationship may be impossible. But a perusal of the White House visitor log — which shows 61 visits by Sharpton since 2009 — illustrates the extraordinary access Sharpton has had to the president and his top advisers.

The Democrats’ CIA report overlooks the indispensable clues enhanced interrogation provided.

The location and elimination of Osama bin Laden was among the greatest achievements of the American intelligence community in the War on Terror — and “enhanced interrogation” had nothing do with it, according to the Senate Democrats’ “torture” report, released earlier this week. According to the much-touted study, “the vast majority of the documents, statements, and testimony highlighting information [that enabled the bin Laden operation] from the use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, or from CIA detainees more generally, was inaccurate and incongruent with CIA records.” The minority report released by six Senate Intelligence Committee Republicans claims differently.

The majority report documents that the CIA had information about Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, the courier whose identification and tracking made possible the bin Laden raid, as early as 2001, and that over the next year they obtained a telephone number and e-mail address believed to be associated with him, details about his age, physical appearance, and family, and information that he was closely tied to bin Laden. According to the majority report, all of this information preceded the use of enhanced interrogation on any CIA detainees.

The CIA, meanwhile, has insisted on the importance of enhanced-interrogation techniques. In a May 2011 radio interview, former CIA director Michael Hayden said, “What we got, the original lead information — and frankly it was incomplete identity information on the couriers — began with information from CIA detainees at the black sites.” Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee around the same time, CIA director Leon Panetta stated that “the tipoff on the couriers came from those [detainee] interviews,” a claim he reiterated two years later on CNN’s State of the Union. Other CIA officials testified similarly.

How is one to assess these claims?

Two methodological problems that plague the majority report are likely crucial here. First, the report relies entirely on documentation, which even the report admits is incomplete. Not a single person involved in the CIA’s rendition, detention, and interrogation program — from top officials to interrogators — was interviewed.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether we crossed the line, but Feinstein’s story goes too far.

The Senate Intelligence Committee spent roughly $50 million on its investigation into the CIA and apparently couldn’t find Michael Hayden’s phone number.

The committee portrays Gen. Hayden, the former CIA director, as a liar who deceived Congress about the agency’s interrogation program, yet the committee couldn’t be bothered to interview him.

That’s because the committee, led by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, didn’t bother to interview anyone. The committee didn’t want to include anything that might significantly complicate its cartoonish depiction of a CIA that misled everyone so it could maintain a secret prison system for the hell of it.

The Feinstein report scores some points. It makes plain that the CIA program wasn’t adequately controlled, especially at the beginning, that it went too far, and that the agency became too invested in defending it.

But the thrust of the report is devoted to the proposition that torture, or harsh interrogation, never works. This is important to critics of the CIA program because they are almost never willing to say that torture is wrong and that we should never do it — even if it sometimes works and potentially saves lives. They lack the moral conviction to make their case solely on principle.

Even though its executive summary runs more than 500 pages, the report lacks basic context, specifically an account of the post-September 11 environment in which nearly everyone expected another attack and wanted to do everything possible to avoid it. This is why the likes of the impeccably liberal Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, could say after we captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2003 that we should be “very, very tough with him.”

The interrogation program was born against this backdrop. No one was saying of KSM, “Let’s give him some dates and olives and hope, once he finds out what nice people we are, he spills his guts and gives up Osama bin Laden’s location.”