IRIS Blog

AP poll: Americans Optimistic for 2007

By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 30, 7:22 PM ET

Seventy-two percent of Americans feel good about what 2007 will bring for the country, and an even larger 89 percent are optimistic about the new year for themselves and their families, according to the poll.

That fits with a long-term trend suggesting that Americans are generally an optimistic lot. Polling over recent decades is replete with optimism, and with a tendency for people to feel more positively about their own situations than that of the country overall.

Poll: Americans See Gloom, Doom in 2007

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer 12/31, 8:36 am

Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster. These are among Americans' grim predictions for the United States in 2007.

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of another terrorist attack next year, more than five years after the Sept. 11 assault on New York and Washington. An identical percentage think it is likely that bad guys will unleash a biological or nuclear weapon elsewhere in the world.

There is plenty of gloom to accompany all of that doom.

Seventy percent of Americans predict another major natural disaster within the United States and an equal percentage expect worsening global warming. Fewer than one-third of people, or 29 percent, think it is likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq.

The problem is that the mainstream media has become so ideologically driven that facts are simply collected to support predetermined conclusions. The other day my son asked me to see one news organization's photos of the year. I told him that I bet that there would be one of Palestinian victims of Israelis, which, of course, there was.

(Hat tip: Dan Friedman)

Saddam Hussein Executed
Shouts "Long live jihad!" and "Allah Akhbar!" while carrying Koran

Leftist Blogs Lament Saddam Execution

Veiled UK TV Christmas Speaker is a Jihad Activist

For 33 years, the US government has been aware that Yasir Arafat supervised a terrorist operation in which two American diplomats, as well as one Belgian ambassador, were assassinated. Thank you, Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger, for making this mass murderer your most honored foreign official.

DECLASSIFIED
PA/HO Department of State
E.O. 12958, as amended
May 4, 2006

SECRET
NO FOREIGN DISSEM / CONTROLLED DISSEM

THE SEIZURE OF THE SAUDI ARABIAN EMBASSY IN KHARTOUM

In the early evening hours of 1 March 1973, eight Black September Organization (BSO) terrorists seized the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum as a diplomatic reception honoring the departing United States Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) was ending. After slightly wounding the United States Ambassador and the Belgian Charge d?Affaires, the terrorists took these officials plus the United States DCM, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador, and the Jordanian Charge d?Affaires hostage. In return for the freedom of the hostages, the captors demanded the release of individuals, mostly Palestinian guerillas, imprisoned in Jordan, Israel, and the United States.

The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack, using a Fatah vehicle to transport the terrorists to the Saudi Arabian Embassy.

Initially, the main objective of the attack appeared to be to secure the release of Fatah/BSO leader Muhammed Awadh (Abu Da?ud) from Jordanian captivity. Information acquired subsequently reveals that the Fatah/BSO leaders did not expect Awadh to be freed, and indicates that one of the primary goals of the operation was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests.

Negotiations with the BSO terrorist team were conducted primarily by the Sudanese Ministers of Interior and of Health. No effort was spared, within the capabilities of the Sudanese Government, to the secure freedom of the hostages. The terrorists extended their deadlines three times, but when they became convinced that their demands would not be met and after they reportedly had received orders from Fatah headquarters in Beirut, they killed the two United States officials and the Belgian Charge. Thirty-four hours later, upon receipt of orders from Yasir Arafat in Beirut to surrender, the terrorists released their other hostages unharmed and surrendered to Sudanese officials.

The Khartoum operation again demonstrated the ability of BSO to strike where least expected. The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/BSO relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to what occurred in Khartoum.

Saddam to Hang by Sunday

Machine Gun Found in Palestinian Vehicle Stopped at a Checkpoint
It was to be used in a terror attack. Olmert has announced dismantling of 29 checkpoints, which will logically facilitate many more successful murders.

Evelyn Gordon offers the latest refutation of Jimmy Carter's embarrassingly sloppy anti-Israel diatribe:

In a column published in last week's Boston Globe, former US president Jimmy Carter complained that ever since his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid came out, he has been called "a liar, plagiarist, anti-Semite, racist, bigot, ignorant, etc."

I have not read the book. But the column alone proves that some of those epithets are justified.

For instance, Carter complains that "an enormous wall snakes through ? what is left of the West Bank ? obviously designed to acquire more property and protect the Israeli colonies already built." Aside from the misleading terminology (the barrier is mostly fence, not wall) and the false implication of massive annexation (more than 90 percent of the West Bank remains on the Palestinian side), there is an obvious problem with his "obvious" explanation of the fence's objective: Not only does Israel claim that its purpose is stopping suicide bombers, but the evidence supports that claim.

First, the fence was only inaugurated two years into the intifada, as Israel's death toll from terror attacks approached the 500 mark. Carter not only fails to mention this, he disingenuously implies that it has existed for decades by preceding his diatribe with the phrase "for 39 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land..."

Second, Israeli casualties of Palestinian terror have declined by almost 50 percent a year since construction began in 2002, indicating that the fence is in fact serving its stated defensive purpose.

To obscure this inconvenient fact, Carter offers an astounding alternative explanation: "Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2004 ? which they claim is the reason for reductions in casualties to Israeli citizens."

Even overlooking the six-month inaccuracy - Hamas announced the "lull" only in February 2005 - this "explanation" ignores the fact that the drop in casualties began fully two years earlier, following Operation Defensive Shield in spring 2002. Thus by the intifada's third year, October 2002 through September 2003, the Israeli death toll was already a whopping 47% lower than the second year's figure.

EVEN MORE astonishing, however, is Carter's disregard for the fact that Hamas has proudly claimed credit for various deadly attacks even since February 2005 - including the firing of hundreds of rockets at southern Israel and the cross-border raid that kidnapped one soldier and killed two this past June.

U.S. Is Holding Iranians Seized in Raids in Iraq
Iran is our enemy. When will we join the war they started?

Court Upholds Saddam Death Sentence
Unfortunately it is years overdue, his assistants in war crimes have been unscathed, and Baath party members are permitted to operate in the open. But it is an extremely important step in the right direction, which was modeled during the denazification of Germany.

Olmert Okays Removal of 27 IDF Roadblocks
Speechwriters are already at work for Olmert's tough talk following the next suicide bombing.

Islamic Forces Retreat in Somalia after Ethiopian Airstrikes
The most important new front in the Global Jihad. Unfortunately, few of the good guys' team even realizes it has any significance.

It's official. American Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones announced a series of steps to arm and train Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah security services. The only problem is that Fatah is a terror organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and America, as these posts document:

Abbas' Fatah Declares War on US "Without Mercy"

'Moderate' Abbas Promoting Vicious Anti-Semitism

Arafat Agreed to House Secret Iranian Bases Inside PA

Fatah Leader: Abbas Will Destroy Israel in Stages

Fatah Leaders Advocated Kidnapping Policy

Abbas Approves Reward Payments for the Family of Today's Suicide Bomber

Hitler Wins Fatah Primary

This is just a small sample.

For the first time, an official decision has been made that Iran is responsible for the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia. This is further evidence that Iran is not, as many liberals claim, "all bark and no bite." Iran is not only a place where "Death to America" is openly chanted; it is a place where the slogan is actively implemented:

The Iranian government financed a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia and must pay $254 million to the victims' families, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth allows families of the victims of the Khobar Towers bombing to seek their compensation from assets that have been seized from the conservative Islamic regime in Tehran.

Nice use of the term "conservative" by the AP. At least Iran was spared the label "ultraconservative," which the Pope received, as did Newt Gingrich.

Though Lamberth has previously ruled that a survivor of the blast could seek payment from Iran, Friday's ruling was the first time Tehran has been blamed for the deaths of the Americans in the bombing.

"The defendants also provided money, training and travel documents to Saudi Hezbollah members in order to facilitate the attacks," Lamberth wrote....

Lamberth relied heavily on testimony by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who investigated the bombings.

Two Iranian government security agencies and senior members of the Iranian government itself provided funding, training and logistical help to terrorists who carried out the attack on a dormitory that housed U.S. Air Force pilots and staff in Saudi Arabia, Freeh testified.

More Details on the Sandy Berger 9/11 Coverup
This could be one of the greatest scandals in American history. Of course, the mainstream media is not interested. The bottom line is that we do not know what he destroyed.

Rape Charges Dropped Agaist Duke Lacrosse Players
Kidnapping and other sexual charges still stand. This case has been an ongoing travesty of justice in which reputations have been raped.

Islamists have not skipped a beat since taking over Somalia. Now they have declared war on neighboring Ethiopia:

Somali Islamic Leader Issues War Declaration on Ethiopia

Somalia is now in "a state of war," the country's Islamic leader said Thursday, despite an earlier pledge to return to peace talks with the government.

As shelling continued near the government's garrison town of Baidoa, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys called for all Somalis to join the fight against neighboring Ethiopia.

"All Somalis should take part in this struggle against Ethiopia," he told The Associated Press. "If you cannot fight you can contribute in other ways to the effort," Aweys said by telephone.

Three days of clashes between Islamic fighters and government forces who are backed by Ethiopian troops have left more than 100 people dead.

Wake up, world. Islamists see the world entirely through the prism of jihad, and therefore only know one policy: aggression. Most jihads are easy to repulse: simply recycle the Reagan Cold War policy of opposing the jihad everywhere. Shipments of arms to every country under jihad attack would shut down most aggression immediately, without any commitment of American soldiers in most cases. Unfortunately the West is operating under a Leftist paradigm and therefore have the policy of throwing the blacks in southern Sudan, the Jews in Israel, the Christians in Lebanon, etc. under the jihadi bus as a form of appeasement. Muslims will not "like" us for this, or for building a "mini-mosque" in Israel's airport, or serving only Halal food in public schools in Copenhagen and Berkshire. They will just interpret it as proof that infidels will respond with dhimmitude when approached with aggression. As the Koran instructs.

A former national security adviser to President Clinton, Samuel Berger, stashed highly classified documents under a trailer in downtown Washington in order to evade detection by National Archives personnel, a government report released yesterday said.

The report from the inspector-general for the National Archives, Paul Brachfeld, said Mr. Berger executed the cloak-and-dagger maneuver in October 2003 while taking a break from reviewing Clinton-era documents in connection with the work of the so-called September 11 commission.

" Mr. Berger exited the archive onto Pennsylvania Avenue," the report says, recounting the story the former national security chief told investigators. "He did not want to run the risk of bringing the documents back in the building. ? He headed toward a construction area on 9th Street. Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the archives and the DOJ, and did not see anyone. He removed the documents from his pockets, folded the notes in a ?V' shape, and inserted the documents in the center. He walked inside the construction fence and slid the documents under a trailer."

According to the report, Mr. Berger said he retrieved the documents after leaving the archives complex for the evening and took the papers to his office. It is not clear how long the documents were unattended at the construction site, but the report suggests it was a few hours, at most.

The former national security chief said he cut three documents up in his office and discarded them in the trash. Mr. Berger returned two other documents after archivists notified him that some records were missing, but his efforts to retrieve the others from the trash collector were unsuccessful....

A leading authority on classification policy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, said Mr. Berger's behavior was reminiscent of a "dead drop," when spies leave records in a park or under a mailbox to be retrieved by a handler.

"It seems deliberate and calculated," Mr. Aftergood said. "It's impossible to maintain the pretense that this was an act of absentmindedness"....

One employee "did not believe there was enough information to confront someone of Mr. Berger's stature" and delayed acting as a result, the report said....

At that time, Mr. Berger insisted that he accidentally removed and destroyed the records. When he pleaded guilty last year, the former national security chief admitted he acted intentionally.

Sandy Berger 'Hid' Archive Documents
What was Clinton's National Security adviser trying to conceal?

IDF: Hezbollah Almost Back to Full Combat Strength
So much for the fraud known as the 'International Disarmament Force'

'If Not for War, Labor would have Changed Israel'
How inconvenient

Saudis Release 11 Detained Ex-Guantanamo Inmates
They served a few months since the US released them to Saudi custody. Now they will resume jihad, of which the Saudis are the world's most ardent proponents.

Finally, some publicity for the extensive Muslim enablement of the Final Solution, thanks to Max Boot:

It is worth noting that Muslims were not as blameless in the genocide of the Jews as Ahmadinejad and his ilk would have it. Arabs were, on a small scale, cheerleaders and enablers of the Final Solution. The most famous example was Haj Amin Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem (and uncle of Yasser Arafat), who took refuge in Berlin in World War II. A rabid Nazi, he personally lobbied Hitler to kill as many Jews as possible and even helped out by recruiting Bosnian Muslims to serve in the Waffen SS.

Robert Satloff, one of the world's smartest Arabists, reveals other links between the Arabs and the Holocaust in his groundbreaking new book, "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands." He shows how the Nazis set up the machinery of death in North Africa. Although "only" 4,000 to 5,000 Jews died before the Allies liberated the area in 1943, many more were consigned to forced labor camps in hellish conditions.

"Arabs played a role at every level," Satloff wrote. "Some went door to door with the Germans, pointing out Jews for arrest. Others led Jewish workers on forced marches or served as overseers at labor camps."

Nazis are still revered by Muslims. See, for example, Hitler Wins Palestinian Primary.

Six Kassam Rockets Strike Israel Wednesday Afternoon
The media and Israeli leaders are still using the bizarre "ceasefire" term

Iran 'Now Nuclear Power' with 1,400 Uranium Mines. Britain, Israel, US to 'Vanish Like the Pharaohs'

Woman Calls Cops to Complain about 'Bad Crack'
Great moments in crime

Don't watch it yourself. But most soldiers listen to obscene rap and metal anyway. This song, at least, will help educate them about our enemy and inspire them to get in touch with their righteous anger.

Here, for comparison, is the rap-for-Islam that your tax dollars are funding.