RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/351128/national-security-right-goes-silent-andrew-c-mccarthy

The jihad rages on, but the War on Terror is over.

There is no longer a national-security consensus — no longer the political support for wartime defense measures, much less offensive combat operations. While the enemy continues to fight, our will to break the enemy’s will has vanished. After a contentious week, that much is clear. The controversy swirling around shadowy intelligence programs hasn’t gotten to the bottom of those programs, but it tells us everything we need to know about . . . us.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dog that did not bark is a metaphor worn out by journalists. This week, though, the lack of a bark was loud and clear: The bark of the national-security Right defending the wartime powers of the presidency. For a variety of reasons, many of the protagonists have developed amnesia about how we came to have the programs now provoking all the cavil: the debates over the PATRIOT Act and FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

After a series of attacks through the Nineties, the 9/11 atrocities destroyed the World Trade Center, struck the Pentagon, and killed nearly 3,000 Americans. In the savage clarity, our nation finally realized that what I’ve called “kinetic Islam” — a combination of militant jihadists and their sharia-supremacist enablers — was at war with the United States. The PATRIOT Act was a product of our vigorous and persuasive contention, on the national-security right, that the challenge was an enemy force, not a criminal-justice problem. That challenge demanded a national war-footing, not judicial due process.
It was precisely this contention, moreover, that beat back the Left’s effort to intrude the judiciary into the collection of foreign intelligence — constitutionally, a paradigm executive function — when FISA was overhauled in 2008.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/351120/big-politically-correct-brother-mark-steyn The bozo leviathan sees everything . . . and nothing. Every time I go on his show, my radio pal Hugh Hewitt asks me why congressional Republicans aren’t doing more to insist that the GOP suicide note known as “the immigration deal” include a requirement for a border fence. I don’t like to tell […]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/8932201/to-draw-a-line-between-moderate-and-extremist-islam-is-to-miss-the-point/

“I do not understand why we are so desperate to exculpate an ideology which, at the very least, lends itself too easily to a messianic authoritarianism and viciousness. There may be much in Islam which is agreeable — a respect for the elderly, a commitment to charity, a certain high seriousness, self-discipline and so on — but many of its tenets are simply antithetical to much that we believe in and cherish.”

There’s an Islamic school in Birmingham which is very highly regarded. It’s called Darul Uloom — the same name as the school in Chislehurst which was recently the subject of an arson attack. In fact, that’s how I stumbled across it. Anyway, Darul Uloom in Birmingham is a good school not only academically, but also for the emphasis it puts upon neighbourliness, integration, and decent and friendly dealings with non-Muslims. In short it is a model school of its kind; it will surely not turn out furious jihadis, will it? The school encourages multi-faith dialogue, it urges upon its pupils the need to treat all members of the community with respect. Why does it do this? The school explains by means of a quotation on its website. It’s a story about Maalik Bin Dinaar, an early follower of Muhammad:

Once Maalik Bin Dinaar rented a room next to the home of a Jew. His room was adjacent to the entrance of the Jew’s home. The Jew spitefully always deposited garbage and filth in Maalik’s entrance. Even his musalla (prayer place) would at times be soiled. This treatment continued for a long period, but Maalik Bin Dinaar never complained.
One day the Jew came and said: ‘Does the garbage I deposit in front of your room not distress you?’
Maalik: ‘It does distress me, but I wash and clean the place.’
Jew: ‘Why do you tolerate so much distress?’
Maalik: ‘Allah has promised substantial reward for those who contain their anger and forgive people.’
Jew: ‘Truly, your Deen (religion) is beautiful. It commands toleration of even the hardships presented by enemies.’
The Jew was so affected by the beautiful conduct of Maalik Bin Dinaar that he embraced Islam.

So, there we are — even spiteful, filthy, enemy Jews can be redeemed.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/life/mind-your-language/8927441/that-red-line-were-not-supposed-to-cross-what-exactly-is-it/ Last August President Barack Obama said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a red line. He repeated the phrase in December: red line. Why should the line be red and what happens if it is crossed? A simple, unhelpful answer is that the metaphor is taken from a safety gauge […]

In our thatched house deep in the Mekong Delta, we listened to the banned Voice of America, the volume low.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323744604578477250958085788.html?mod=hp_opinion

My father died three years ago. For months after his death, I had a recurring dream in which my entire family, my mother, siblings, aunts and uncles were together for a crawfish boil, Cajun and Vietnamese style. Amid the revelry and drone of the back-porch fans, I would see my father. But my euphoria would vanish as I realized that he, looking lost and out of place, was dead and should not be there.

Born in 1927 in Hue, Vietnam, my father took part in the nationalist resistance against the French occupation, serving in a reconnaissance unit. During one mission a bomb exploded, killing many. My father was taken prisoner and his parents were informed that he was MIA. For a while he was even mistakenly declared dead, and a sheet of paper commemorating his ultimate sacrifice for the country is one of the few possessions that have followed us over the years.

After he was released, my father moved to Saigon. He pursued many avenues to earn a living, and eventually founded a successful import and export company, trading auto parts. During the late 1950s and 1960s, he traveled to France, Holland and around Asia for work and pleasure.

I have pictures of him from this period—white shirt, sleeves rolled up, standing next to the Eiffel Tower; or in a business suit, leaning against a car, trench coat over one arm, a cigarette casually dangling from his lips. Upon my arrival, his fifth daughter, in the early 1970s, my father was at the peak of his career, happily married with six children, a generous sponsor to many friends and relatives.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/14/the-felonious-fibbers/ Thousands of Americans are languishing in federal prisons for lying to federal officials. Federal officials themselves often get a pass when they tell a whopper to Congress. It’s a double standard that must end. The problem starts at the top with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. His career in prevarication began as an […]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/14/white-house-defends-high-bills-africa-trip/

GREAT BANG FOR TAXPAYERS’ BUCKS? WILL THE TRIP END TRIBAL WARS AND JIHADS IN AFRICA THAT KILLED MILLIONS? WILL MUGABE WHO DESTROYED ZIMBABWE MEND HIS WAYS? WILL WARLORDS AND THUGS WHO OPPRESS THEIR PEOPLE TRADE SPEARS FOR PLOWSHARES? WILL THE UPROOTING AND OUTRIGHT THEFT OF WHITE OWNED FARMS IN SOUTH AFRICA HALT?….RSK

The White House Friday defended the first family’s upcoming weeklong trip to Africa, which could cost taxpayers up to $100 million, as “great bang for our buck.”

“There will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you tend to have very longstanding and long-running impact from the visit,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.

The Obamas’ trip, at a time of “sequestration” budget cuts, will take them to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa from June 26 to July 3. Citing a confidential planning document, the Washington Post reported that the trip will cost between $60 million to $100 million.

The excursion will involve military cargo planes airlifting 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines, and three trucks to carry bulletproof glass panels to cover the windows where the first family is set to stay. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship with a fully staffed medical trauma center will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Fighter jets will fly in shifts to provide around-the-clock protection over the president’s airspace. The trip will reportedly involve hundreds of Secret Service agents.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama also had planned to take a safari in Tanzania, which reportedly would have required a special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles in the event of a threat from wild animals. But the safari was canceled in favor of a trip to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner.

Mr. Rhodes said Mr. Obama already has traveled extensively to Asia and to Latin America, and he said some people think the president’s trip to Africa “is overdue.”

“Africa’s a critically important region of the world,” he said. “This is a deeply substantive trip and one that has been highly anticipated on the continent. And, frankly, there’s been great disappointment that the president hasn’t traveled to Africa until this point, other than a brief stop in Ghana.”

http://pjmedia.com/blog/this-is-not-the-kings-army-house-oks-war-powers-scolding/?print=1 The National Defense Authorization Act headed to the Senate after a significantly bipartisan passage in the House today contains a caveat added to remind President Obama of his responsibility to get permission from Congress before using military force. “This is not the King’s army,” said Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), who introduced the NDAA amendment […]

http://pjmedia.com/blog/stop-the-farm-bill-fdrs-socialist-structure-still-violating-farmers/ The massive farm bill being considered by the House of Representatives — the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (H.R. 1947) — exemplifies the regulatory excess that characterizes the federal government today and which dominates our agricultural policy. Much of this government control began implementation in the 1930s, led by advisors and aides […]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/13/do-americans-love-big-brother/

It began with the Department of Justice seizing telephone logs of Associated Press reporters. Journalists were outraged by that attack on their First Amendment rights, but since the public really doesn’t much like the media, the storm faded. Then Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA analyst, leaked documents to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, and the storm became a hurricane.

President Obama, in California on Friday to meet with China’s president, reassured Americans with, “Nobody is listening to your calls.” Too late. Intelligence experts had joined Snowden in a flurry of tell-all revelations.

Former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente beat Snowden to the punch by a month. Though unsupported by secret documents, Clemente answered a question from CNN’s Erin Burnett about what the FBI could learn about past telephone conversations. “We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said,” Clemente told Burnett, adding, “Welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak, whether we know it or like it or not.”

The following night, with CNN’s Carol Costello, Clemente amplified his comments and said all the content and every detail of communications — including phone calls, emails, online chats, credit card purchases and Web surfing — are automatically recorded and stored, including the words in every phone call.

Clemente was foreshadowed in 2006 by former AT&T engineer Mark Klein, who testified that AT&T had given the National Security Agency (NSA) full access to its customers’ phone calls and had also shunted all of its Internet traffic to the NSA from a secret room in its San Francisco office.