I remember: Jospeh Angelini, Jr.

(Note: This post will remain at the top of the page until 9/12.)

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4



Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn't hang around when his tour ended.

"Gotta get home to the kids," he'd tell the guys in Manhattan's Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini's wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won't be coming home anymore.

"My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, 'Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'" Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn's Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York's theater district. Its motto: "Never miss a performance."

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

"He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me," Donna Angelini said. "I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, 'You wouldn't believe what happened to me today.'"

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
-- Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe's father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived," said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

"If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him," Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way," Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his."

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and 'Pile'

September 21, 2001

Michael's choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.'s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. "It's hard to figure out what's the right place to be in," he said, already having decided to stay with the family. "I want so much to go back there."

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. "We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it," he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. "... but then my officer grabbed me and said, 'Let's go!'" he said. "We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street."

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. "I didn't want him to leave Transit," said his mother, "because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department."

"Since then," Michael said, "I saw him taking on more and more of my father's traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they'll look at me like I'm talking about somebody they don't know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

"Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I'm not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it's hard to live up to."

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving "to get dirty," for loving "making a grab [rescuing somebody]," for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. "They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them," Michael said. "Then he said, 'Stop. I'm tired of pinning these on.'

"He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box," Michael said. "He didn't tell us about half of them. He didn't talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, 'What happened to you?' And he would say, 'Aw, something flashed over me.'

"At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, 'He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he's gonna come walking out.'"

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
--Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

Attacked.

Crime pays: Getting away with terror at British taxpayers' expense

Pictured: Smiling preacher of hate Abu Qatada enjoying an £800,000 home and a life of benefits


The Daily Mail refers to Abu Qatada, the "preacher", as Al-Qaeda's "ambassador to Europe." As if al-Qaeda was a diplomatic service. You're looking at Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

Of course he's smiling. Look at what he's getting:
1. He can't be extradited to Jordan "because his human rights would have been breached."
2. He lives in a $1.6 million house.
3. He receives $100,000 in (British) government benefits.
4. He's under house arrest but meanders freely.
5. Supposedly he's on disability receiving $300/week for a back injury but can carry a knapsack in public. He's not worried that anyone would jail him for fraud.
6. His "45-year-old wife is said to be entitled to child benefits, income support, housing and council tax credits which exceed £800 each week." (that would be approx. $1600.) Plus, "The family is also said to pick up around £210 in income support."
7. AND he gets a tax break: "the couple is exempt from paying the £2,283 yearly council tax bill on their home."

This photograph of the smiling al-Qaeda operative telescopes to the rest of the world the message that the UK officially has signed a suicide pact.

Via Memeorandum: Terrorist Dream Job: Al Qaeda Ambassador to Europe

Not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from Britain since the 7/7 terror attacks, for the simple reason that their quisling allies run the country.

This really is the end of Britain.

Crossposted



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US removes uranium from Iraq

From Associated Press, that arm of the vast right wing conspiracy:
US removes uranium from Iraq.

Let's pay attention to that: The United States military have removed

550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment

which was stored at the nuclear facility in Tuwaitha, Iraq, some 12 miles south of Baghdad.

Again:

• Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program
• At the Tuwaitha nuclear complex just south of Baghdad
• Which included 550 metric tons (over 1.2 million pounds) of "yellowcake", or concentrated uranium
• And multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon

The AP does not say alleged nuclear program. It does not add "according to military experts." It simply says "Saddam Hussein's nuclear program."

Other important points:
1. The yellowcake removed is the last mayor remnant of Saddam's nuclear program. There was more.
2. The military had removed earlier this year four devices for controlled radiation exposure which "contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon".
3. The yellowcake was sold to Cameco, which may have been involved in the Oil-For-Food scam, and is a company in which Soros Fund Management LLC owns a substantial portion.

It Must Suck Being Joe Wilson Today - Joe, you’ve been punk'd!

In other news, Iraqis lead final purge of Al-Qaeda, Islamism is discredited, and We're winning this War on Terror.

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean will be up in a couple of hours. Bear with me - with the rescue of the Colombian hostages, it's going to be huge!

Special thanks to Hip Hop Republican and Larwyn.

Crossposted



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"Lay down your arms", says the mom of Al-Qaeda's emir

Via the Baron, ALGERIA: MOTHER OF AL-QAEDA'S EMIR ASKS HIM TO LAY DOWN ARMS

"El Hadja Zhor", the mother of the national emir leading al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdal, has launched an appeal to her son persuading him to lay down arms.

Sensible words, indeed.

Interestingly, "El Hadja" means an elderly woman in Arabic. Can't she at least be referred to by her name, instead of "the old lady"?



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Al Qaeda "pranks", and not

ABC News has this report, Al Qaeda Supporters' Tape to Call for Use of WMDs

"There have been several reports that al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News in an e-mail.

"Although there have been similar messages in the past, the FBI and [Department of Homeland Security] have no intelligence of any specific plot or indication of a threat to the U.S.," the e-mail said. "The FBI and U.S. intelligence community will review the message for any intelligence value."

The video in question appears to have been put together by jihadi supporter(s) and is already available on a YouTube channel devoted to spreading al Qaeda propaganda.

Counterterrorism blog states the video is

meandering, boring, and difficult to follow--and it certainly was not the product of Al-Qaida.

CT Blog points at the possiblity of a prank. Jawa is not alarmed but remains cautious to the possibility that the video may point to a bacteriological attack on September 2008.

However, in Iraq a new al-Qaeda cell has been created for Iraqis under 16 years old; the cell is named "The Youths of Heaven". And that is no prank. (h/t the Baron)

UPDATE
With al-Qaeda, it's starting to look as if it's a matter of women and children first...



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Note to Obama: No Arabic spoken in Afghanistan, & today's roundup

Afghans don’t speak Arabic

In Afghanistan, it's any of a half dozen other languages — including Pashtu, Dari, and Farsi.

Maybe he hopes they all indulge in Obamaspeak.

The cult goes on:
Via Allahpundit, Obamatopia.

Obamatopia's the future of this:


Campaign spot and Doug Ross are on the same page.

And let's not forget Sweetie:

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Sadr City Residents Battle The Iranian-Backed Mahdi Army

Basra is now free of the Mahdi Army oppressors, so we can expect Mosul (and therefore Iraq) will soon be free of al-Qaeda. Once this is done it will be time to unfurl some well deserved congratulations for our armed forces, the armed forces of Iraq and the people of Iraq. Hopefully the Democrats will see fit to acknowledge the important milestone when Iraq has purged al-Qaeda from all its strongholds. There will always be dead-ender believers, but that is not excuse to recognize the sacrifices and accomplishments of the final defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Will you find this in the headlines?
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8 yr old girl used as a suicide bomber.
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Towards a More Peaceful World. Anyone who thinks that women are peaceful didn't go to an all-girls' school.
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What Is Justice for A Rape Victim?
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Polar bears are now in the endangered list: not a good thing, says Hugh Hewitt.

Bye-bye, ANWR.
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Via Betsy, Too "Complex"? Thomas Sowell explains why the price of oil is going up.
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Via Instapundit, Race and the 2008 Election
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Twelve year old Faryl Smith wows judges and crowd




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This morning's understatement: "Murderous Islamic leader will not be missed"

Headline at the London Times: "murderous Islamic leader will not be missed", even when he was "a youth":

As head of al-Shabaab - "the youth" - he is implicated in the murders of 16 foreigners including the BBC journalist Kate Peyton.

But it was during the reign of the Islamic Courts Union that he came to prominence. His few hundred fighters were credited with providing the courts with their military muscle as they took over much of central and southern Somalia the year before last.

Since their defeat in December 2006, at the hands of Ethiopia's military machine, Ayro has gradually moved away from his former allies in the courts and waged his own Jihadist war against Somalia’s feeble government.

His tactics echoed those pioneered by Iraqi insurgents. His fighters posted videos on the internet warning peacekeepers they would be targeted and claimed responsibility for suicide attacks. Roadside bombs became a daily occurrence in the capital Mogadishu.

Taking out Ayro, who analysts believe trained in Afghanistan with al Qaeda, has been a key objective of US military policy in the Horn.

He was the target of an airstrike last year when US military officials say DNA evidence showed he was wounded. Then, in March, al Shabaab was designated a terrorist organisation by the State Department.

Or, as Ace would put it, Somali Al-Qaeda Leader Succumbs to Chronic Endocrine Fatigue, GBU-15, but Mostly the GBU-15



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Paraguay: Fernando Lugo, Hugo's latest buddy

From the looks of it, Paraguay's new president Fernado Lugo is Hugo Chavez's latest buddy. As you can read in Bridget Johnson's article, Latin America’s Latest Marxist Leader Takes Power in Paraguay, Marxist former Bishop Fernando Lugo is the latest of Hugo's friends to come to power with the help of Hugo's oil money. He joins Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales, and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in the choir paid for by Hugo's money. And I'm not including those suitcases full of money Hugo was sending Argentina's Cristina Kirchner.

This means the least competitive economy in South America is now in Chavez's pocket.

Paraguay has elected former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo in spite of the fact that the Paraguayan constitution prohibits ministers of any faith from standing as a political candidate. Lugo claims to have resigned from his position, but unfortunately for him, the Catholic Church isn't amenable to resignations by ordained clergy since ordination is a Sacrament and carries a lifetime commitment. He may be defrocked.

Here is Lugo's BBC profile, which says that Lugo's ready to put the squeeze on Brazil:

In particular he wants Brazil to pay Paraguay a lot more money for the electricity it buys from their jointly-owned Itaipu dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric plant. He says he will take Brazil to the World Court in The Hague if necessary.

He also wants to establish relations with China

Lugo fits the populist cookie-cutter:

They are protectionists, rejecting Washington's proposals for free trade throughout the Western hemisphere, and preferring to build up a South American bloc as a counterweight to Nafta.

They are populists, using public projects to buy support. They are nationalists, picking fights with the US, the World Bank and, when all else fails, each other.

They are, if not anti-democratic, at least anti-parliamentary, articulating their peoples' contempt for politicians: Bonapartists, if you like.

Monsignor Lugo fits the mould neatly. He is a brilliant orator, whether in Spanish or in the indigenous language, Guaraní.

While he recently tempered his anti-yanquismo, he none the less attacked Washington's unhappy record of backing dictators. And, for all his ideological proximity to Brazil's leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he played on anti-Brazilian nationalism.

Lugo's victory completes the triumph of the radical Left in South America.

Which makes Paraguay ripe for Hugo's Bolivarian Revolution.

The Latin Business Chronicle urges Lugo to follow Chile's example because of the dismal economic conditions after sixty-one years of Colorado party rule:

Paraguay needs to follow Chile's - not Venezuela's - example as a way to reduce the country's poverty and corruption.
...
First and foremost, Lugo should realize that Paraguay's status as the poorest nation in South America is not due to Capitalism, but rather the lack of true free markets. Even after Paraguay became a democracy nearly 20 years ago, the country continued to be dominated by corruption and the rule of influence instead of transparency and the rule of law.

Paraguay has the least competitive economy in all of Latin America, according to the 2007 Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum. It ranks 121 worldwide among the 131 nations the survey looked at. Its low rank was due to such factors as weak institutions, inefficient infrastructure, insufficient macro economic stability, little innovation and low technology readiness. Paraguay is among the countries with the lowest Internet and fixed telephony penetration in Latin America, according to the 2007 Latin Technology Index published by Latin Business Chronicle, which ranked its overall technology level at 15th out of 20 nations in the region.

Meanwhile, the Milken Institute says that Paraguay ranks as the second-worst in Latin America when it comes to access to capital for entrepreneurs. Only Haiti ranks worse, according to the Capital Access Index released in February. Paraguay ranked in 94h place out of 122 nations worldwide.
...
Transparency International gave the country a score of 2.4 (with 10 being best) on its 2007 survey of corruption perception. That makes Paraguay the fourth-most corrupt nation in Latin America.

Lugo will be following Chavez's example,

n contrast, the radical-populist policies implemented in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have increasingly deterred foreign investment and in most cases spurred even more poverty. Corruption has also been growing. Venezuela's international ranking has fallen from 71st place (out of 90 nations) in 2000 - when Chavez became president - to 162nd place this year (out of 179 nations), according to Transparency International. Only Haiti is more corrupt in Latin America.

Unfortunately there possibly are dire consequences in the region's security, since Paraguay has significant organized crime and terrorist activity in the TriBorder Area (TBA), which continues to show in the terrorist radar where meetings attended by Hezbollah and al-Qaeda have recently taken place.



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Al-Qaida No. 2 says 9/11 theory propagated by Iran

Nothing is going to convince the truthers, but here it goes:
Al-Qaida No. 2 says 9/11 theory propagated by Iran

Osama bin Laden's chief deputy on Tuesday denied a theory that Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and blamed Iran and Shiite Hezbollah for spreading the idea to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida's strike against the U.S.
...
One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor.

"The purpose of this lie is clear — (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

Of course, Al-Zawahri has theories of his own:

"Iran's aim here is also clear - to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

According to him, the Crusaders and the Iranians are working together:

Answering questions about Iraq in Tuesday's tape, al-Zawahri said the insurgent umbrella group led by al-Qaida, called the Islamic Nation of Iraq, is "the primary force opposing the Crusaders and challenging Iranian ambitions" in Iraq, he said, referring to the Americans.

As he often does in his messages, al-Zawahri denounced the "Crusader invasion" of Iraq, but in Tuesday's tape he paired it with a mention of "Iranian complicity" or "Iranian agents."

He didn't leave out global warming,

He predicted that global warming would "make the world more sympathetic to and understanding of the Muslims' jihad against the aggressor America."

Still,

In the latest tape, al-Zawahri was also asked if the terror group had further plans to attack Western countries that participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent war.

"My answer is: Yes! We think that any country that has joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred," he replied.

Was the question and answer session replies done by a committe? Maybe:

Queries were submitted on the main Islamist Web site until the cutoff date of Jan. 16.

Took him three months to reply.



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On Saddam’s Order

On Saddam's Order
The Iraqi tyrant didn't "just" aid anti-American terrorist groups; he explicitly ordered them to attack.

What is not debatable, based on the Iraqi Perspectives Project, is that Saddam Hussein's regime funded, trained, and assisted terrorist groups (including al-Qaeda proxies), and sometimes actually ordered them to attack American citizens, American interests, and American allies. To compound the danger, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was simultaneously using its intelligence and security apparatus to plot and conduct terror attacks of its own.

The article lists the groups that Saddam's regime funded, trained, and assisted:

• "Renewal and Jihad Organization"
• Egyptian Islamic Jihad (al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri's group, which merged with Osama bin Laden's terrorists to form al-Qaeda)
• The Islamic Scholars Group in Pakistan
• Pakistan Scholars Group
• "Army of Muhammad" that it knew to be loyal to Osama bin Laden

A September 2001 document mentions Saddam's efforts "make common cause" with a number of Islamic radical groups in Kuwait, including a Shiite group. Another document mentions a Sri Lankan group that volunteered to carry out suicide bombings on Saddam's orders during the first Gulf war. Additional internal memos show Iraqi officials reporting to one another that Hamas was willing through the 1990s to conduct suicide attacks against Americans on behalf of Saddam’s Iraq. These memos also listed Abu Abbas, the notorious Palestinian terrorist, as another man willing to lead his forces for Saddam in attacks against Americans.

Additionally,

The report details the regime's production of suicide vests, IEDs, and car bombs for plots that included targets in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Saddam's embassies in these countries were warehouses for missile launchers, plastic explosives, TNT, Kalashnikovs, booby-trapped suitcases, and grenades. These tools were all available to a regime that had internal orders to attack American civilians, military members, bases, embassies, and ships.

The report where Mark Eichenlaub found all this information is five volumes long. What journalist out there is taking the time to comb through this information, rather than continue to believe that Saddam's Iraq was harmless country that presented no threat to anyone?

UPDATE
While we're at it, Brian Faughnan at the Weekly Standard posts about Iraq's Unheralded Political Progress.
Brian's going to be on next Friday's postcast. Don't miss it!




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The reason why Iraqis have turned against al-Qaeda

Al Qaeda use two 'Down's syndrome' women to blow up 73 people in Baghdad markets

Two women thought to suffer from Down's syndrome may have been unwilling suicide bombers in twin blasts that killed up to 73 people at pet markets in Baghdad today.

The first bomber instantly killed 45 people at a packed pet market in Baghdad in the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in six months.

When Michael Fumento and Matt Sanchez were in my podcast last September, they both discussed how the Iraqi public had turned away from al-Qaeda because of al-Qaeda's terrible cruelty.

This attack today shows how much: as Ed Morrissey explains,

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won't suffice.

The Iraqis have shown al-Qaeda that they are more interested in building rather than destroying, and for that reason al-Qaeda has to prey on the disabled in order to carry out their murderous missions.

Ambassador Crocker: "There is nothing they won't do if they think it will work in creating carnage."

No one is more aware of that than the people of Iraq.



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Afternoon Bhutto roundup:

Aftermath roundup continued on Saturday, December 29
Background On Pakistan: "Why Bhutto and the Elites Hate Musharaf"

1. As prime minister of Pakistan, Ms. Bhutto proved to be one of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia and was dismissed in November 1996 by Pakistan's president for what he called her regime's "nepotism, corruption" and "mismanagement." During her chaotic administration in the mid-1990s scores of people were being murdered in the streets of Karachi every day.

2. Her return to power, or that of her Pakistani People's Party, would almost certainly trigger a return to anarchy and open the door to a Taliban-style fundamentalist coup. Ms. Bhutto dismisses this possibility as "nonsense," asserting that "more than two-thirds of Pakistanis are distinctly moderate" in their religious views.

THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION: NOT WHAT SHE SEEMED TO BE

Bhutto embodied the flaws in Pakistan's political system, not its potential salvation.

Bhutto: Professional assasination?

Qaeda Eyed in Slaying of Bhutto
Assassination Is Laid to Team of Precision Snipers

The attack yesterday at Rawalpindi bore the hallmarks of a sophisticated military operation. At first, Bhutto's rally was hit by a suicide bomb that turned out to be a decoy. According to press reports and a situation report of the incident relayed to The New York Sun by an American intelligence officer, Bhutto's armored limousine was shot by multiple snipers whose armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle, hitting the former premier five times in the head, chest, and neck. Two of the snipers then detonated themselves shortly after the shooting, according to the situation report, while being pursued by local police.

A separate attack was thwarted at the local hospital where Bhutto possibly would have been revived had she survived the initial shooting. Also attacked yesterday was a rival politician, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister who took power after Bhutto lost power in 1996.

Benazir Bhutto: Trail of corruption and kickback charges still in wings for opposition leader, via Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

British Islamists Celebrate Bhutto Murder

Ali Eteraz writes on Pakistan Renewal in the Wake of Bhutto Killing

The techniques of terrorism: no holds barred

Al Qaeda Opens a New Front

American, Pakistan Officials Probe Possibility of ISI Assistance AQ In Assassination; Bhutto Shot By Five Snipers?

More on Bhutto this morning.



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The head Ronulan has spoken: It's all our fault

From LGF: Ron Paul Blames US Policy for Bhutto Killing

Ron Paul blames the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on the "interventionist" policy of the United States, and says Al Qaeda is justified in being "annoyed" at us.

Hot Air has the YouTube:


In Ron Paul's vision, all the problems of the world are caused by America. That he thinks that Al-Qaeda is justified in being "annoyed" at America is reason enough to dismiss him as the crank he is.

Victor Davis Hanson has it right:

If there is any fallout from this tragedy at home, it is to remind us that radical Islam has the ability to change world affairs in a matter of minutes (at least if taking out a democratic leader vying for control of a nuclear Pakistan qualifies), that the war against Islamic radicalism goes on, and that we should look carefully at those who wish to be commander-in-chief in the years ahead.

Investor's Business Daily:

As little confidence as we have in Musharraf, we don't buy into suspicions held by Bhutto's supporters that he ordered her assassination.

But we do share concerns about the lax security Pakistani authorities provided her. Bhutto personally asked Musharraf to beef up measures, such as providing jamming devices to thwart bombs, after she narrowly escaped a similar assassination attempt in October.

By all accounts, Musharraf ignored her pleas and never mounted an investigation of the earlier attempt on her life.

In an Oct. 16 letter to Musharraf, Bhutto reportedly shared information she'd received about three officials within his military intelligence services who wanted to kill her. And she asked him to help secure her safety ahead of the election.

That request, too, apparently fell on deaf ears.

The fact that this successful second attack occurred in Pakistan's military headquarters signals that "there may be some low-level military involvement," terror expert Peter Bergen said.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton agreed, telling Fox News that "radical elements of Pakistan's military" may have had a hand in the attack.

Despite Musharraf's denials, it's well known that Pakistan's military intelligence — the ISI — is infested with al-Qaida sympathizers. And Bhutto tried to push ISI out of politics in her first term as prime minister.

Musharraf also has been the target of at least nine assassination attempts since he signed on to our war on terror seven years ago. But it speaks volumes that Bhutto, back in the country just a few months, would be killed before him.

Al-Qaida, we hear, took credit for the murder. And who is the bigger threat to al-Qaida?

We have to wonder if under Bhutto, Pakistani authorities would have allowed the mastermind behind 2006's trans-Atlantic sky-terror plot to escape from custody.

Last week, Rashid Rauf, who has ISI connections, went missing from a mosque after police let him pray there. He escaped just days before he was due to be extradited to Britain.

Earlier this year, Musharraf freed from jail an al-Qaida lieutenant who plotted to hit U.S. financial and government targets. U.S. officials privately protested the release of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, but to no avail.

Even so, being realists, we understand Musharraf is still in control of Pakistan. While the terrorists just seem to get stronger under Musharraf's rule, he's probably still the only thing standing between Pakistan and chaos — or worse, a fundamentalist Islamic regime that would have access to nuclear weapons.

A faithful opposition leader and true friend of the West, Benazir Bhutto showed herself to be courageous in a way few leaders are.

Her death is a tragedy not just for Pakistan's fledgling democracy, but for all of us. We only hope that Musharraf has the strength and resolution to fight those who would drag Pakistan back into the Middle Ages.

Via Gerard, Benazir Bhutto: Mob hit in Pakistan

NGOstan is (or was) of course Bhutto's faction. Its chief claim to fame is that it is sponsored by the Western establishment, ie the State Department, the Times, etc, etc. It is clean and sweet and true. At least, relatively clean and sweet and true.

Obviously, it is not a secret that Bhutto herself was a mob queen, at least that many of her associates were gangsters, but the Westernists had an easy solution for this. If they needed to come across as especially clean and sweet and true, they could just condemn Bhutto as a mob queen. She was not offended, at least not unusually offended. You think she didn't know she was a gangster? So, for example, this article by Jemima Khan did not terminate the membership of Imran Khan as a leading capo in NGOstan. If Musharraf goes down, there will be plenty for everyone to eat.

PakMil, NGOstan and Islamists, and how they play the brutal game: read it.

UPDATE:
Deconstructing The Myth Of Benazir Bhutto

Update 2
The Bhutto Assasination: Not what she seemed to be



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Darth goes to Buckingham Palace, and other news

Kudos to the music director:
King Abdullah Visits Buckingham Palace; Greeted by Darth Vader Theme
To make it even better, Stephen King was on the talk show:

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Via Larwyn, Al Qaeda takeover of the Taliban
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I made a brief appearance in Ed Morrissey's podcast, Heading Right to opine on Hispanic voters and drivers' licenses for illegal aliens.

As regular readers of this blog know, I have long believed that there is no such a thing as "a Hispanic vote".

Ed is a most gracious host and the best podcaster around.
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I haven't been following the attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey hearings, but one thing is clear:
Why would anyone put themselves through such a stressful nomination process?

Sister Toldjah has been following the story and notices Feinstein & Schumer's change. More from Belgravia Dispatch.
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The Anchoress asks, Clinton & Bush both thrown a Curveball on Iraq?

As we already know, The Anchoress is brilliant
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Via The Manolo, The Thoughtful Dresser notices that

fashion is full of fat men (sorry Alber, I really love you in every other way) giving normal-sized women an inferiority complex.

Jill Kerr Conway, in her excellent memoir The Road From Coorain, also made that point.

Yet another reason to wear what is well made and looks good on you, not what some dude wants you to wear.
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166,000 New Jobs Created Last Month, Double Expectations
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Special thanks to Doug Ross for his recommendation. Please vote for his blog, and while you're at it, for mine, too; and don't forget Laurie Kendrick in the funniest blog category.




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Military Reports Lower Casualty Rates in Key Iraq Insurgent Strongholds - How low, you ask?

Updated
Military Reports Lower Casualty Rates in Key Iraq Insurgent Strongholds

U.S. combat troop deaths and other violence in Iraq are down significantly in some of the most dangerous places of insurgent activity, including Al Anbar province, military officials in Washington and Baghdad said Wednesday.

How low, you ask?

Maybe most significant was that last week there was not a single military casualty - Iraqi or U.S. - in Anbar, said Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, a Joint Chiefs spokesman. It is apparently the first time since March 2003 that could be said.

As you may all recall, Anbar province used to be al-Qaeda's capital in Iraq.

Bill Roggio: "The darkness has become pitch black" - Osama bin Laden on Iraq situation.

Belmont Club:

Osama laments that "the darkness has become pitch black." That's him looking into his soul.

Things must be boring for reporters in Iraq, indeed.

Update:
In today's blogger's call, I had the opportunity of asking Senator McCain if he could comment on the news. His reply was,

I hope Harry Reid and the media get to hear about it.

This success is directly related to the surge - the Sunni sheiks joined in against al-Qaeda, and now the Shia are doing the same thing....
Overall, it's a great success story I look forward to seeing it reported on CNN & other unbiased outlets.

You can read more about the Iraq report here.

James Joyner has more on McCain's bloggers' call.


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Threats?

Mariane Pearl drops lawsuit against al Qaeda in NY

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has dropped a lawsuit against al Qaeda, other radical groups and Pakistan-based Habib Bank Ltd over the abduction, torture and murder of her husband, court records show.

Lawyers on behalf of Mariane Pearl filed the lawsuit in July which sought unspecified damages against "those terrorists, terrorist organizations and the supporting charitable and banking organizations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel Pearl."

A notice of voluntary dismissal was filed late on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan that stated Pearl had decided to dismiss the case.

"The withdrawal was done for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit," a spokesperson for Pearl's lawyers Motley Rice told Reuters.

Hat tip Siggy.

Al-Qaeda in New Jersey under scrutiny

Al-Qaida associates in N.J.:

The FBI's elite Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark says it is not only monitoring a number of North Jersey residents with ties to al-Qaida, but that agents have quietly "disrupted" their activities and even deported a few.
...
This unusual glimpse into the inner workings of North Jersey's primary counterterrorism force revealed the following:

• Task force investigators have discovered that every major terrorist group in the world, including Hamas and Hezbollah, has at least one North Jersey contact. The lone exception is Afghanistan's ultra-fundamentalist sect, the Taliban.
• The task force is currently conducting more than 400 counterterror investigations. These range from probes into Bin Laden's network to neo-Nazis to environmental terrorists.
• Each month, a task force "response" squad receives as many as a dozen new tips about possible nuclear, biological or chemical terrorism in New Jersey. These range from citizen concerns about a mysterious powder to the report that three ships were sailing to New Jersey with radiological material on board. Squad members were even dispatched to Emerson last month after school administrators received a threat to blow up schools.
• Undercover agents attend all professional football games at Giants Stadium. Agents also plan to monitor the upcoming Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park Racetrack.
• Task force agents routinely travel overseas. One is currently in Iraq; another is in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, helping to question suspected al-Qaida captives at the U.S. naval base there. Newark-based agents also played a role in the investigation of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and provided information to assist the interrogation of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

In weighing his own fear of an attack, Cruise noted that northern New Jersey has a wide range of tempting and vulnerable targets, from tunnels and bridges to sports venues, shopping malls and chemical plants.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following this story over the years. LGF points to the Paterson area.

Never mind the Fort Dix six earlier this year, and anthrax letters that were sent from a mailbox two miles away from my house six years ago.


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This comes as no surprise

BBC's Newsround fed youngsters Al Qaeda propaganda, claims ex-spy chief

Newsround is aimed at viewers aged between six and 12.

On its website it answered the question concerning 9/11, "Why did they do it" by saying: "The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al Qaeda - who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks."

After the public complained, the text was amended.

It now reads: "Al Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East.

"People linked to al Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the U.S.A, and in other countries."

Now take a look at that statement:

People linked to al Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the U.S.A, and in other countries

In the Beeb's fevered mind it's OK to tell young children that the murder of 3,000 innocent people is justified because "Al Qaeda is unhappy".

I agree with Dame Pauline,

Dame Pauline, who headed the Government's Joint Intelligence Committee and is described as the most formidable female diplomat Britain has produced, said the new version was even worse.

"It still says it's all America's fault, and now for daring to be involved in the Middle East at all," she said.

"It wasn't 'people linked to' al Qaeda who killed 3,000 people that day, it was al Qaeda itself.

"Osama bin Laden even boasted of the attacks. Is the BBC really saying that if you're 'unhappy' it's quite normal behaviour to murder people?

"Is the BBC so naive as to take al Qaeda's propaganda at face value? Or is there something more sinister at work here?"

Dame Pauline knows what she's talking about: she is Britain's former spy chief and a former BBC governor.

Biased BBC has been following the story since June.



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Radioactive in Jersey City, Hitchens, and other items

Via Pamela by way of Larwyn, Radioactivity at accident site in Jersey City? Conflicting reports...

13 August 2007: A minor accident that took place at Hoboken and Summit Avenues in Hoboken, New Jersey Sunday night - a mere 6-mile drive from the Empire State Building in Manhattan prompted the response of police to the scene as the driver of one of the vehicles fled on foot after the accident. But the police were summoned for another reason – the vehicle from which the suspect in the hit-and-run fled contained a “box” in the trunk containing “radioactive” symbols. According to a law enforcement source close to the Northeast Intelligence Network interviewed shortly after 5:00 this morning, sensors carried by police that measure radioactivity sounded an alarm that indicated higher than acceptable levels of radioactivity, prompting a response from HAZMAT and other officials. Police, fire and HAZMAT officials established a safe perimeter around the accident scene, and the driver of the car containing the box or device emitting radioactivity was caught several blocks from the scene.

This event took an unusual twist, however, when Fox Channel 5 news reporter from New York City was reporting live from the scene. As he was describing the event, a voice coming from the reporter's ear piece was picked up by his microphone: "TELL THEM NO RADIOACTIVITY" was the message clearly heard as isolated as a sound file HERE. Viewers can clearly see the befuddled reaction by the news reporter to the message from his ear piece in the video clip below, and the confused response to the complete change of information by the television anchor.

You must read the rest of that report.
Here's the video of the TV newscast mentioned in the report

The incident took place less than 72 hours from the NY city "dirty bomb" threat.
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Thomas Barnett has a Nice analysis of the sub-prime "crisis"
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Hitchens lays to rest the Foolish myths about al-Qaida in Mesopotamia:

To say that the attempt to Talibanize Iraq would not be happening at all if coalition forces were not present is to make two unsafe assumptions and one possibly suicidal one. The first assumption is that the vultures would never have gathered to feast on the decaying cadaver of the Saddamist state, a state that was in a process of implosion well before 2003. All our experience of countries like Somalia and Sudan, and indeed of Afghanistan, argues that such an assumption is idiotic. It is in the absence of international attention that such nightmarish abnormalities flourish. The second assumption is that the harder we fight them, the more such cancers metastasize. This appears to be contradicted by all the experience of Iraq. Fallujah or Baqubah might already have become the centers of an ultra-Taliban ministate, as they at one time threatened to do, whereas now not only have thousands of AQM goons been killed but local opinion appears to have shifted decisively against them and their methods.

The third assumption, deriving from the first two, would be that if coalition forces withdrew, the AQM gangsters would lose their raison d'être and have nothing left to fight for. I think I shall just leave that assumption lying where it belongs: on the damp floor of whatever asylum it is where foolish and wishful opinions find their eventual home.

A must-read!

Via Gateway Pundit by way of Larwyn, The US Military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe. The astonishing part about this headline is that it comes from Der Speigel.

Davids Medienkritik says,

We would speculate that SPIEGEL editors have finally reached the realization that the version of reality they have painstakingly crafted for the German public since the conflict began - one of failure, disaster, debacle and quagmire for the Americans in Iraq - is no longer tenable when compared to the facts on the ground and will ultimately collapse on their heads like a flimsy house of cards. But with many American Democrats still in full irrational disaster-mode on Iraq (despite obvious recent improvement with the surge) this seems a somewhat unusual and perhaps premature move.

Don't expect the NYT to wake up any time soon, though.---------------------------------------------------------------
Phyllis Chesler has an excellent article on how The Legal Jihad Is Already Underway
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Moron in Macon.
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Exclusive: Hillary's first TV ad debuts
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More from Matt: 4 Million Muslims Marching for an Imam
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Behold the Trunki:

What's for breakfast?, and other morning questions

Blueberry pancakes, that's what!

Did Gonzo Lie?

From Maria,
Back to the Future in the Middle East?

Past presidents and statesmen as diverse as Madeleine Albright, James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Brent Scowcroft have weighed in with various remedies to our supposed blunders in the Middle East since September 11.

Apparently, Americans are supposed to forget these supposedly brilliant strategists' dismal records of dealing with Middle East terrorism, Islamic radicalism and murderous dictators. However, their three decades of bipartisan failure helped bring us to the present post-9/11 world.

So before the United States abandons its present policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should at least recall the past record - which may be best summed up as the ying of Democratic appeasement and the yang of Republican cynicism.

From Larwyn,
An Intent to Misinform?

So, You Want to Join al-Qaeda?