Tag Archives: Boston Marathon

Thank You, Attorney General Barr

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Just the News posted an article today about a recent action by Attorney General Barr.

The article reports:

The Justice Department will try to reinstate a death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped in the 2013 attack that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

Attorney General William Barr on Thursday told the Associated Press that the department would appeal a court ruling last month that threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence and ordered a trial to determine whether he should be executed for the attack .

Barr said the department would take the matter to the Supreme Court.

I was living in Massachusetts during that time. One of my daughters has a friend who ran the marathon that year and came up on the scene just after the bombing. She was so traumatized by what she saw that she did not want to run the marathon the following year. Eventually my daughter agreed to do it with her and she did run. There is no reason this crime does not deserve the death penalty. It was an intentional terror attack on innocent people.

The article concludes:

Under Barr, the Justice Department has again begun carrying out federal executions, putting three men to death so far and scheduling at least three others next week and in September.

In the Tsarnaev case, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit court found in July that the judge who oversaw the 2015 trial did not adequately question potential jurors about what they had read or heard about the highly publicized case.

What was the evidence? And was he convicted on the basis of the evidence?

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

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Townhall reported yesterday that the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two asylum-seeking brothers who blew up the Boston Marathon, has been overturned by a U.S. Appeals Court.

The article reports:

Dzhokhar’s lawyers argued that the terrorist himself was a victim of intense media coverage and an unfair jury trial. The attack on the 2013 Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded around 280 others. Many of the victims lost limbs and suffered other horrific injuries. 

“A core promise of our criminal-justice system is that even the very worst among us deserve to be fairly tried and lawfully punished,” reads the federal appeals court ruling vacating Dzhokhar’s death sentence. 

In 2015, a jury found Dzhokhar guilty on all 30 charges against him and sentenced the bomber to death. But because Dzhokhar had destroyed the lives of so many Bostonians, his defense attorneys have successfully argued that his death sentence was unfair because the trial should have been moved to a different city — presumably a city where Dzhokhar didn’t kill people. Dzhokhar told investigators that he and his brother’s next target was planned for New York City’s Times Square.

Dzhokhar will be given a new trial on the basis that his previous trial was unfair and should have been moved to a different city.

Let’s contrast that with the trial of General Michael Flynn. After a federal appeals court Wednesday ordered a trial judge to dismiss the case against President Trump’s first national security adviser, Micheal Flynn, the judge refused to dismiss the case.

On July 30th, The Business Insider reported:

A key federal appeals court in Washington DC agreed Thursday to reexamine the fight over whether former Trump national security adviswer Michael Flynn’s guilty plea can be summarily dismissed.

The new order from 10 members of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit comes a little over a month after a three-judge panel there ordered a lower federal district court judge who is overseeing the case against Flynn to dismiss the prosecution at the Justice Department’s request.

Recently declassified information on the Flynn case indicates that General Flynn was targeted as a way to tarnish the Trump administration (article here). There is enough information out there to prove that General Flynn’s guilty plea was coerced and that the charges against him should be dismissed.

Contrast the way our courts are treating someone who was caught after executing a terrorist act and a patriot who served our country for many years. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

There Are Some Amazing People In Our Country

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CBN News featured an article today about Orville Rogers. Orville Rogers runs marathons. That is not particularly unusual until you consider the fact that Orville Rogers is 101 years old.

The video below tells his story:

The article reports:

At 101 years young, Orville Rogers still has a spring in his step and shows no signs of slowing down. the former airline pilot still remembers the day he fell in love with flying. “I was a young boy about ten years old, and (Charles) Lindbergh circled my school house, in 1927, after his transatlantic solo flight,” Orville recalls. “That cemented my desire to be a pilot.”

The article explains why he became a long-distance runner:

He also became a long-distance runner after reading several studies on longevity and exercise.

“Dr. I Min Lee, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, complied a study and her conclusion was that people who exercise very vigorously for long periods of time, could expect to get back in added lifespan, nine hours of added life for every one hour of physical exercise. That is phenomenal.”

Orville not only ran a number of marathons; he holds two world records in the 90-100 age category. “I entered two races in Boston, Massachusetts March 23rd, 2008: the 800 meter and the one-mile run,” Orville says. “And three weeks before the race in March 2008, my wife died. I talked to my children about it and we agreed she’d want me to continue to compete, so I did. And I won the 800 meters, set a new world record. The mile record, I really slaughtered. I ran it in 9:57.”

Two years ago, Orville wrote his life story in his book, The Running Man. “It tells of my experiences in life, my flying, my running, my giving, and my family life and I hope it’s of a benefit and a help to people who may be questioning how they need to serve the Lord better.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire story. Orville Rogers is an amazing man who has led an amazing life.

The Verdict Is In

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The Associated Press is reporting that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a federal jury. The question now is whether or not he will receive the death penalty.

The article reports:

Tsarnaev folded his arms, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table as he listened to one guilty verdict after another on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death.

The verdict – reached after a day and a half of deliberations – was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer’s startling admission at the trial’s outset that Tsarnaev carried out the terror attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

Tsarnaev‘s defense lawyer, Judy Clarke, has argued that Tsarnaev, who was nineteen at the time of the bombing, committed the crime because he was under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan. That may be so, but it doesn’t excuse what he did. Tsarnaev had (and has) free choice in choosing his actions, and now he is being called to take responsibility for those actions.

Whatever happens to Tsarnaev, the victims of the bombing will never be able to go back to where they were before the event–the loved ones will still be lost and the major injuries will still be there. Executing Tsarnaev will not change anything that has happened, but I am not sure anything will be gained by keeping him alive either.

 

Something To Consider

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As a conservative (and as an American), I am not yet ready to decide who I would like to see run for President as a Republican in 2016. There are a lot of good conservative young leaders in the Republican party who would run a good campaign and do a good job as President. To name a few (but not all)–Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, and Rick Perry. You will notice that Rand Paul is not on my list. That is simply because I don’t know enough about him or his policies. The people on the list are state governors with experience in running a state that they could bring with them to being President. Rand Paul and Ben Carson are both extremely smart men who have run medical practices, but I don’t know enough about their administrative abilities or policies to be convinced–yet. However, that could change.

Last night I attended a fund raiser for Congressman Walter Jones where Rand Paul was the main speaker. There were a number of comments he made about our current state of affairs in America that impressed me.

Senator Paul spoke about the Boston Marathon bombing. As someone who was living in Massachusetts at that time, that event was earthshaking. He reminded us that the Russians had warned us about the brothers who set off the bombs. The brothers had recently traveled to a part of the world known for terrorism. Because of a variation of the spelling of their last name, Homeland Security was not tracking them. How hard would it be to create a computer program that would account for variations in spelling? Senator Paul also pointed out that the government has gotten so busy spying on Americans’ cell phones and emails that it cannot find the terrorist threats in the midst of such enormous amounts of data. He stated,”Sometimes we make the haystack so big we can’t find the needle.” That sounds like basic common sense to me!

Senator Paul also pointed out the need for a debate in Congress before we send American troops into war. The Constitution puts war powers in Congress–not with the President. We need to get back to the Constitution on deciding when and where to send our troops. He also reminded us that in every Middle Eastern country where we have toppled a secular dictator in the name of democracy we have brought instability and chaos. We also need to get back to political leaders who put the good of America ahead of their own political ambition.

Senator Paul also cited some egregious examples of government’s wasting of American taxpayer’s money.

I left the event wanting to know more about Senator Paul’s foreign policy and his specific plans to bring America back to the limited government our Founding Fathers envisioned. I hope to hear more about those things in the future so that I can make an educated choice in the 2016 Republican primary election.

This Year’s Boston Marathon

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On April 21, approximately 36,000 people will participate in the Boston Marathon. Yesterday the Boston Herald posted an article about this year’s runners. If you are interested in supporting a runner, please click on the “Team for Kids” link under the picture at the top of the page.

The Boston Herald reports:

Competition for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society marathon team’s 135 spots was three times as fierce as usual, with more than 500 people applying, team coach Kelly Flynn said. “Every charity, within a month, all the numbers were gone and every charity had a wait list.”

Sarah Lucas, a coach for the Boston Children’s Hospital team, said last year’s events struck a nerve in the running community. “People want to show their resiliency and make it as positive as they can instead of shying away and letting the acts affect them,” she said.

The Boston Athletic Association increased the official field of runners by one third, from 27,000 to 36,000. As many as 45 percent of all the runners will be traveling the route for the first time, the BAA reports.

“People’s interest in every element of this year’s marathon — runners included — comes from a determination to show that they will move forward to live their lives as they choose, no matter what someone may have done to try to stop them,” BAA executive director Tom Grilk said. “That is the essence of ‘Boston Strong,’ and it motivates everyone.”

I am so impressed by the runners who will be participating this year. May they all safely complete the race.

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Where’s Waldo ?

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Our relationship with Saudi Arabia has always been complex. We depend on the Saudis to continue trading oil in American dollars. If they decide not to continue doing that, the worth of the American dollar sinks rapidly. Sometimes our relationship with the Saudis results in some really strange events.

After the Boston Marathon bombing, Abdul Rahman Alharbi was named as a person of interest. I reported some of the details of this at rightwinggranny.com in April. Abdul Rahman Alharbi was originally named as a ‘person of interest’ and was scheduled to be deported. Then, after a number of ‘secret’ meetings, he was declared totally innocent of anything and not scheduled to be deported. The mystery deepened–no one seemed to know where he was or what the real story was.

Well, we found him–he was at the White House celebration of July 4th.

Yesterday GlennBeck.com reported:

Abdul Rahman Alharbi, once a person of interest in the Boston Marathon bombing, turned up at the White House for July 4th festivities. He was at one time placed on a watch list and was at one point labeled a threat to national security by the State Department. What in the world was he doing there?

As reported by TheBlaze, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi appears to have been in attendance at the White House’s 4th of July celebration for military leaders and their families. A Twitter account from a person claiming to be Alharbi’s father posted photos of the Saudi national at the event, and a Arab newspaper claims he was invited to attend.

Curiouser and curiouser.

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Unfortunately We Don’t Live In A Vacuum

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This is an article about the eavesdropping scandal currently dominating press reporting on the Obama Administration. I will say offhand that I have very mixed emotions about the intelligence gathering going on. First of all, if the intelligence gathering is so universal and has been going on since 2007, why did it miss the Fort Hood shooting, the 2009 recruiting office shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Boston Marathon bombings? Of these three the Boston Marathon bombing should have been the easiest to foresee simply by looking at the travel records of the older brother involved.To add to my mixed emotions is the fact that Andrew McCarthy, someone I totally trust on matters of terrorism and the role of government, has stated that he is not bothered by the National Security Agency’s intelligence gathering. I have also heard a recent interview of John Bolton, someone whose opinion I also respect, in which he stated that he was not overly concerned about the information gathering.

I am adding to the discussion an article posted in the Guardian by Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. Representative Sensenbrenner released the following statement last Thursday:

Washington, Jun 6 – Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) today sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s application for a top secret court order to collect the phone records of essentially every call made by millions of Verizon customers. 

Congressman Sensenbrenner: “As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the FBI’s interpretation of this legislation. While I believe the Patriot Act appropriately balanced national security concerns and civil rights, I have always worried about potential abuses. The Bureau’s broad application for phone records was made under the so-called business records provision of the Act.  I do not believe the broadly drafted FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act. Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American.”

Since Representative Sensenbrenner was one of the authors of the Patriot Act, I believe he needs to be listened to on this matter.

In his article for the Guardian, Representative Sensenbrenner states:

Technically, the administration’s actions were lawful insofar as they were done pursuant to an order from the Fisa court. But based on the scope of the released order, both the administration and the Fisa court are relying on an unbounded interpretation of the act that Congress never intended.

The released Fisa order requires daily productions of the details of every call that every American makes, as well as calls made by foreigners to or from the United States. Congress intended to allow the intelligence communities to access targeted information for specific investigations. How can every call that every American makes or receives be relevant to a specific investigation?

This is well beyond what the Patriot Act allows.

As I said at the beginning of this article, I have very mixed emotions on this. Because someone in the Obama Administration used the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target conservatives, how do we know that the NSA information will not also be used to target specific groups? We don’t live in a vacuum. Without the IRS scandal, I might be willing to ignore the NSA snooping, but with the IRS scandal, it has a much more sinister look. I have reached no conclusion except to conclude that I need more information.

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This Really Does Not Sound As If It Were Handled Well

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I will admit to being more than slightly paranoid. I live near Boston, and what happened at the Boston Marathon was a serious wake-up call. With this is mind, I am not happy about the way a recent event was handled.

CBS Boston reported yesterday that seven people were caught trespassing near the Quabbin Reservoir. The Quabbin Reservoir is the water supply for Boston. The trespassers were Pakistani.

The article reports:

State Police say there were no warrants or advisories on any of the individuals and “there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing.”

All seven were allowed to leave and will be summonsed to court for trespassing. The FBI is investigating and routine checks of public water supplies have been increased following the incident.

I hope that this is not the whole story. Pakistan is a country heavily infiltrated by Al Qaeda–it is known for fomenting terrorism. A Pakistani scientist is probably the person most responsible for Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb. To allow these people to leave and assume that they will show up in court later seems very naive. I would be willing to let them leave if we tapped their phones and cell phones and put ankle bracelets on them. Otherwise, they may somehow disappear between now and the time of their court appearance.

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We Are Supporting The Terrorists That Want To Murder Us

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Yesterday the Boston Herald posted an article giving some of the details about the government assistance the Tsarnaev family received between 2010 and 2012. The family received more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance–ranging from housing to food stamps and cash.

The article reports:

The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which today met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.

…Transitional assistance officials also told the Herald tonight that the agency was conducting its own investigation into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s family ever notified the DTA about his extended trip to Russia, and has since expanded its probe to include a full history of the benefits received by the entire Tsarnaev family.

This is a very interesting situation. On one hand, if a family is asking political asylum, they may not have the means to get established immediately in the United States. On the other hand, is it practical to give immigrants handouts rather than encouraging them to work? This family had been willing to work–they were simply not successful enough to live in Massachusetts.

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported:

America, the golden door, had already welcomed two of his brothers when Anzor Tsarnaev crossed the ocean with his family in 2002. Anzor’s brother Ruslan, who had immigrated just a few years earlier, already had a law degree and was on his way to an executive job and a six-figure salary. And at first, Anzor, his wife, Zubeidat, and their two sons, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, seemed as energetic and brimming with initiative as their relatives had been. Anzor, a mechanic, fixed up cars. His wife turned a cut-rate apartment in affluent Cambridge into an improvised salon, offering facials at attractive prices

This sounds like a family you would welcome to the neighborhood. But the scene changed:

But over the past four years, even as members of their extended family found their piece of the American dream, the Cambridge Tsarnaevs’ experience in their new land curdled. Money grew scarce, and the family went on welfare. Zubeidat was accused of stealing from a department store. Anzor’s business, never prosperous, faded.

My point in posting this is simple. There was no way to know that the Tsarnaev family was going to become involved with terrorism. The money they were paid was appropriate for the situation they were in–as Americans they were as entitled to it as anyone else. (I know that is not a popular opinion, but it is true–welfare is not the culprit here).

The problem with the Tsarnaevs was the fact that our homeland security does not yet work as well as it should. The attack of September 11, 2001, could have been prevented if egos and bureaucratic rivalries had not been the order of the day (I recommend reading The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright). The bombing on April 15th could also have been prevented had their been more follow up on the tips from Russia and more cooperation between state, city, and government officials. If we are to survive as a nation, we have to learn to work together–and that includes rival bureaucracies. Otherwise, we will see more of what happened during the Boston Marathon. The Welfare Office is not to blame–they are in charge of welfare–our security people are in charge of security.

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Sometimes There Are No Words

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CBN News posted a story today with two interesting bits of information on the surviving terrorist who planted bombs at the Boston Marathon. I will refer to him as Suspect Number 2 because I don’t want to give him the recognition of referring to him by name. Suspect Number 2 is currently recovering from his injuries in a Boston hospital. Unfortunately some of the people impacted by his actions did not have the opportunity to recover–their lives ended very suddenly and very quickly.

There were two facts reported (neither is a surprise):

The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings stopped talking to the FBI after he was read his Miranda rights.

…Tsarnaev’s parents are not keeping quiet. They plan to fly from Russia to the U.S. today and hold a press conference. They’re seeking permission to bring the body of their son Tamerlan back to Russia for burial.

Meanwhile, new information about Tamerlan has been released. U.S. officials say his name was added to a U.S. government terrorism database 18 months before the attacks.

There is nothing I can add to this information.

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Why?

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Carbonated TV posted a story today about Vice-President Joe Biden‘s remarks at the funeral in Boston for the slain MIT police officer killed by terrorists Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The Vice-President is quoted as saying:

 “I get asked, like my colleagues, almost every day since 9/11, ‘Why? Why? Why?‘”

“Whether it’s al Qaeda Central, or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadists here in Boston, why do they do what they do?”

I’m just a little old retired blogger with no actual security connections, but even to me, the answer is rather obvious:

There are 164 Quran verses that specifically refer to jihad against non-Muslims in terms that include military expeditions, fighting enemies, or distributing the spoils of war.. Among these are: “Fighting is prescribed for you” (Q2:216); “Slay them wherever you find them” (Q4:89); and “Fight the idolaters utterly” (Q9:36).

The above is taken from a book entitled Sharia, The Threat To America, An Exercise in Competitive Analysis, Report of Team B II. The book was written by a team of security experts that included General William G. “Jerry” Boykin, Frank Gaffney, Jr., John Guandolo, Clair Lopez, R. James Woolsey, and Stephen C. Coughlin, Esq.

My question to Vice-President Biden is simple, “If I know why, why don’t you?”

In 2007, the exhibits in the Holy Land Foundation Trial (you can google them and read them yourself) outlined the plan for turning America into a Sharia state. The actions of the Muslim terrorists are consistent with the Islamic beliefs expressed in the Quran. Not all Muslims practice the warlike verses in the Quran, but we need to be aware that a small percentage of Muslims do. That is “why” we had terror at the Boston Marathon. Our government should easily be able to figure that out.

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Our Disfunctional Relationship With The Saudis

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Last Thursday I posted an article about a Saudi national who had been declared a ‘person of interest’ then later a ‘witness’ in the Boston bombings and was scheduled to be deported as a national security threat and then was unscheduled to be deported as a national security threat (rightwinggranny.com). Talk about having a good lawyer!

Glenn Beck at The Blaze added a whole new dimension to the story today. The bottom line is that the Saudi is either on his way out of the country today or will be leaving shortly for Saudi Arabia. How did all this happen and why is it important?

Highlights from the article:

  • A Saudi national originally identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing was set to be deported under section 212 3B — “Security and related grounds” — “Terrorist activities” after the bombing
  • As the story gained traction, TheBlaze’s Chief Content Officer Joel Cheatwood received word that the government may not deport the Saudi national, originally identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi
  • Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject when confronted by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill.
  • An ICE official said a different Saudi national is in custody, but is “in no way” connected to the bombings.
  • A congressional source, however, says that the file on Alharbi was created, that he was “linked” in some way to the Boston bombings (though it is unclear how), and that documents showing all this have been sent to Congress.
  • Key congressmen of the Committee on Homeland Security request a classified briefing with Napolitano
  • Fox News’ Todd Starnes reports that Alharbi was allegedly flagged on a terrorist watch list and granted a student visa without being properly vetted.  Sources close to the investigation also told him the Saudi is still set for deportation.
  • New information provided to TheBlaze reveals Alharbi’s file was altered early Wednesday evening to disassociate him from the initial charges
  • Sources say the Saudi’s student visa specifically allows him to go to school in Findlay, Ohio, though he appears to have an apartment in Boston, Massachusetts
  • Sources tell us this will most likely now be kicked from the DHS to the DOJ and labeled an ongoing investigation that can no longer be discussed.

The article continues:

“We are not sure who actually tagged him as a ’212 3B,’ but we know it is very difficult to charge someone with this — it has to be almost certain,” Beck explained.  “It is the equivalent in civil society of charging someone with premeditated murder and seeking the death penalty — it is not thrown around lightly.”

Beck continued, noting that after Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud on Tuesday, the FBI began backtracking on the Saudi national from suspect, to person of interest, to witness, to victim, to nobody.

Then, on Wednesday, President Obama had a “chance” encounter with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud and Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.

“Wednesday at 5:35 p.m. the file is altered,” Beck said.  “This is unheard of, this is impossible in the timeline due to the severity of the charge….You don’t one day put a 212 3B charge against somebody with deportation, and then the next day take it off.  It would require too much to do it.”

He didn’t mention the fact that Michelle Obama visited this Saudi in the hospital in Boston (she did not visit any other bombing victims).

So what is this about? Glenn Beck looks at it as part of the agreement we have with the Saudis to maintain stability in the Middle East. There is probably a lot of truth in that, but there is one more part. The American dollar is used to trade oil. The Saudis are one of the world’s largest exporters of oil, so they have a fairly strong voice in OPEC. The fact that oil is traded in American dollars stabilizes the value of the American dollar somewhat (despite various QE’s done by the U. S. Treasury) and helps the American economy. One reason that gasoline is so expensive at the pump is that the value of the American dollar has been so undermined by the QE’s, but that’s another story.

I would like to go back to the idea that the Saudis help preserve stability in the Middle East. That is probably true, but at some point we need to examine the price of that stability. We have backed some rather nasty people in the Middle East in order to maintain that stability. At one point we sided with Saddam Hussein against Iran, we supported Hosni Mubarak, and we showed some level of support to Muammar Gaddafi at various times. None of these men were champions of either democracy or free speech. However, Christians in their countries were safer with them in charge than they are with the new leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. Stability isn’t all it is cracked up to be. At some point we need to stand for freedom and democracy. Our alliance with the Saudis does not show a support of either freedom or democracy–Bibles are banned in Saudi Arabia, women are second class citizens, and Christian Churches cannot be built.  It’s time to rethink our Middle East policy. We have allied ourselves with tyrants during more than one administration.

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Some Information To Add To The Pile

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Wikipedia describes the Debka File as “a Jerusalem-based, English– and Hebrew-language, Israeli, open-source, military intelligence website with commentary and analyses on terrorism, intelligence, security, and military and political affairs in the Middle East. The word “Debka” refers to an Arab folk dance.” The Debka File is a respected source of information regarding terrorism.

On Saturday, the Debka File posted their analysis of the Boston Marathon bombing, its aftermath, and what they considered the motive and reason for the bombing. Needless to say, their report has not been included in any of the reports I have heard from the mainstream media. One thing to keep in mind here is the lack of accuracy in the initial reporting of the killings in Newtown, Connecticut. A similar lack of accuracy has occurred in the reporting of the Boston bombing.

The intelligence experts at the Debka File believe that the Tsarnaev brothers were double agents–they had been recruited by the FBI and later turned by the group they infiltrated. There is also a link of Saudi money involved in the operation, which may explain the odd behavior of the State Department regarding a ‘person of interest’ later declared simply a witness who was visited by Michelle Obama during her recent visit to Boston. At first it was reported that the Saudi was scheduled to be deported, the State Department denied that, and subsequent reports say that he will be deported.

The article at Debka File lists the reasons their intelligence analysts believed that the Tsarnaev brothers were double agents. It also gives a few examples of prior agents recruited by the FBI to infiltrate terrorist groups. Please follow the link to the article to see the list.

The article at Debka File ends with four questions it believes need to be answered as soon as possible:

a) At what date did the Tsarnaev brothers turn coat and decide to work for Caucasian Wahhabi networks?b) Did they round up recruits for those networks in the United States – particularly, among the Caucasian and Saudi communities?
c)  What was the exact purpose of the Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath at MIT in Watertown?
d) Are any more terrorist attacks in the works in other American cities?

I think the American people deserve those answers.

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The Heroes Among Us

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Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon is something everyone will remember for a long time. During the aftermath of the explosion, there were ordinary Americans who did extraordinary things. Some were first responders, marathon first aid staff, and others who were there in case of medical emergencies at the finish line, but there was one ordinary American who acted in an extraordinary manner.

Carlos Arrendondo  is the man in the cowboy hat pictured in numerous news stories of the events immediately following the explosion. NBC News posted his story on Tuesday, the day after the Marathon (CAUTION: the picture in the NBC story is graphic). Mr. Arrendondo was at the Marathon to show support for a group running for fallen veterans, one of them his son, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Since the death of his son, Mr. Arrendondo has become a peace activist.

Jeff Bauman is the man whose life was saved due to the actions of Carlos Arrendondo. Mr. Bauman’s lower leg was blown off by the explosion. The actions of Carlos Arrendondo remind us that there are heroes among us. Mr. Arrendondo is not a perfect person with a perfect past–he is a man who when placed in a horrendous situation which required immediate action was not afraid to take the necessary action. That is the definition of courage.

 

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Why Energy Independence Is Important

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UPDATE:  Since I posted this story, it has changed. The Saudi national named in the story is not scheduled for deportation. The connections between his family and terrorism are still the same as they are listed in the story. That has not changed.

As the debate on the Keystone Pipeline continues, there is one aspect of energy independence that we need to pay more attention to–where our oil comes from.

The following chart was posted at a website called Window on State Government:

U.S. Crude Oil Supply by Source, 2006: U.S. total production accounts for 33.5%, imports from OPEC nations account for 31.4%, and imports from non-OPEC countries make up 35.0%.

Just for the record, there was another thought-provoking chart on that sight:

Cost Structure of Gasoline: We paid $3.24 per gallon of regular gasoline in March 2008. 72% of that in the cost of crude oil, 13% is taxes, 8% is refining and 8% is distribution and marketing. Numbers may not total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration.

I posted the above graph because the gasoline tax is about to go up in Massachusetts, increasing the amount of profit the government makes from every gallon of gasoline sold in America to more than 13%. I think that is obscene.

Anyway, back to the actual subject of this article. Note that nearly a third of our oil imports come from OPEC countries. Remember that most OPEC countries are not free democracies–they are Islamic dictatorships. One of the least free of the OPEC countries is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis also claim to be our friends. Well, maybe.

Yesterday, as Americans heard the news that the Saudi national who had been detained after the Boston Marathon bombing was innocent, Front Page Magazine posted a story about the culture of clans in Saudi Arabia. First of all, I need to mention that I posted a video last night stating that Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi, the Saudi who was detained, will be deported back to Saudi Arabia next week due to security concerns. Since the Saudi culture is one of clans rather than country, let’s take a look at Alharbi’s clan as described in the Front Page Magazine article:

Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:

As was stated in the video posted, America doesn’t arrest Saudis connected to terrorism–we simply deport them.

Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi may be innocent of everything except having questionable relatives (something we can all understand), but it would be interesting to know if the actions we are taking would be different if we were not so dependent on Saudi Arabia to be a voice friendly to America when OPEC meets.

Energy independence is a good idea because it not only protects us if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, but it also allows us to act to protect America from terrorism without having to worry if we will lose our oil supply.

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The Terrorism Of The Middle East Arrives In Boston

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I live in Massachusetts. The Boston Marathon is part of the Massachusetts tradition. It was a shock to see terrorism come to the Marathon.

Boston.com posted some of the details of the blast today.

The article reports:

Investigators have also recovered components of the bombs, enabling them to determine what they consisted of two 6-liter pressure cookers packed with nails, ball bearings, and other metal. The makeshift bombs were placed in black duffel bags, the official said.

Putting nails, ball bearings, and metal objects in these pressure cookers assures that there will be serious injuries. This type of bomb has been used in Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.

Bombs with this type of shrapnel have been used by Hezbollah against Israel for a number of years.

This was a horrendous event. I am sure that those responsible will be found and held accountable. Forensic science is very thorough–there will be sufficient evidence to find the people who did this. However, that really doesn’t make life any easier for the families that were impacted by this event. Please remember them in your prayers.Enhanced by Zemanta