IRIS Blog

Consider this story in the light of the Democratic drive for due process for terrorists or the closing of the Guantanamo Bay camp. The Saudis et al finance these interminable trials of little consequence:

In the most recent disappointment for federal prosecutors in a domestic terrorism case, a jury last week did not reach a verdict in the Miami case for the second time. The case involved a bizarre plot to blow up the FBI Miami office and Chicago's Sears Tower.

In the Holy Land case, involving a Dallas charity which was said to have provided "blood money" to finance overseas suicide bombings, one defendant was cleared of the charges and jurors deadlocked on charges against the others.

Jurors in a 2003 case against a Tampa-area man and his associates, who allegedly supported a reign of terror by a violent Palestinian group, acquitted two men and could not agree on the charges against the main defendant.

The Justice Department's domestic terrorism record to date has provoked criticism of its early strategy of going after homegrown terrorist cells and the people who fund plots well before deadly events occur.

Yet independent commissions have urged the FBI to become more aggressive at detecting threats and neutralizing them before they explode.

How do respectable liberals like Jimmy Carter, Avram Burg and Ramsey Clark morph into radical Leftists after leaving office? They were that way all along, and the Leftist-dominated media covered up the evidence. In 20 debates, for example, Barack Obama faced not a single question about his anti-Semitic pastor Wright, or his close ties to unrepentent Weatherman terrorists. Here are some charming vignettes about the Weathermen courtesy of Ann Coulter:

....Asked why he would be friends with the likes of Weatherman Bill Ayers, Obama said: "The notion that ... me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

That's a slick answer -- even "Clintonian"! -- but the problem is, Ayers and his Weatherman wife, Bernadine Dohrn, won't stop boasting about their days as Weathermen.

It's not simply that they haven't repented. To the contrary, those were their glory days! And Ayers isn't just someone who lives in the neighborhood: He and Dohrn were there at the inception of Obama's political career, hosting a fundraiser for Obama at their home back in 1995.

Besides wanton violence, including a dozen bombings of buildings such as the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, historic statues and various police stations, the Weathermen's "revolutionary" activity consisted primarily of using the word "motherf-----" a lot, dropping LSD, coming up with cutesy phrases -- like "the Weather Underground" -- and competing over who could make the most offensive statements in public. (I also believe Dohrn may have set the North American record for longest stretch without bathing.)

At one rally, Dohrn famously praised the Manson family for murdering Sharon Tate and others, shouting: "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!"

In a better country, just saying "Dig it!" in public would get you 20 years in the slammer.

Dohrn has recently tried to clarify her Manson remarks by saying it was some sort of "statement" about violence in society and, furthermore, that she said it while under sniper fire in Bosnia. Also recently, the members of the Manson family have distanced themselves from Ayers and Dohrn.

At other rallies, Dohrn said, "Bring the revolution home, kill your parents -- that's where it's at."

After a Chicago Democratic official, Richard Elrod, became paralyzed while fighting with a privileged looter during the Weathermen's "Days of Rage," Dohrn led the Weathermen in a song sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay":

Lay, Elrod, lay,
Lay in the street for a while
Stay, Elrod, stay
Stay in your bed for a while
You thought you could stop the Weatherman
But up-front people put you on your can,
Stay, Elrod, stay
Stay in your iron lung,
Play, Elrod, play
Play with your toes for a while

Only because of a merciful God is the author of that ditty, Ted Gold, not teaching at Northwestern or the University of Illinois now, alongside Dohrn or Ayers. That's because Gold is no longer with us, having accidentally blown himself up with a bomb intended for a dance at Fort Dix for new recruits and their dates.

While trying to assemble the bomb at an elegant Greenwich Village townhouse that belonged to one of the revolutionaries' fathers, the bungling Weathermen blew up the entire townhouse, killing Gold and two other butterfingered revolutionaries. Leave it to these nincompoops to turn their glorious Marxist revolution into an "I Love Lucy" sketch.

So in addition to being stupid and violent, the Weathermen were also incompetent terrorists. Would that Timothy McVeigh had been so inept!

If he had only said he bombed the building in Oklahoma City to protest American "imperialism," McVeigh, too, could be teaching at Northwestern University, sitting on a board with and holding fundraisers for presidential candidate B. Hussein Obama.

The chickens have come home to roost. The New York Times has been blithely unconcerned with the way it loses readers because of its Leftist propaganda. They really do intend to go down with the ship.

The stories keep coming showing that Global Warming (i.e. the man-made catastrophic kind) still remains very much a theory:

The world's oldest tree has been found in Sweden, a tenacious spruce that first took root just after the end of the last ice age, more than 9,500 years ago.

The tree has rewritten the history of the climate in the region, revealing that it was much warmer at that time and the ice had disappeared earlier than thought....

It had been thought that this region was still in the grip of the ice age but the tree shows it was much warmer, even than today, [Prof Leif Kullman at Umeå University] says.

“Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change,” he says.

The summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today, though there has been a rapid recent rise as a result of climate change that means modern climate is rapidly catching up.

Today it was also reported that the founder of Greenpeace has stated that there is no proof of human involvement in Global Warming.

(Hat tip: Alan Hoffman)

And again:

Two Israeli security guards were found shot to death at a factory in a small city east of the Mediterranean coastline city of Netanya Friday morning.

The community of Nitzanei Oz is also almost adjacent to the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Tulkarm, to where security forces speculate the murderer(s) escaped following the shooting.

The two victims were identified as Shimon Mizrachi, 53, of Bat Hefer, and Eli Muserman, 51, of Alfei Menashe.

Around 7 AM Friday morning, the local Magen David Adom emergency services dispatcher received a report of gunshot injuries in the northern area of the town's industrial zone, the area closest to Tulkarm. When its crew arrived on the scene, the paramedics discovered that the two victims were already dead.

Security forces immediately threw a dragnet around the area in an attempt to capture the murderer. IDF forces entered Tulkarm to search for the terrorists as well. Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israel Radio reported today that two 'previously unknown groups' claimed credit for the attacks. One of those is a branch of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which recently secured amnesty deals (including another yesterday) with Israel for its members in exchange for a promise of good behavior.

Sources said the terrorists planned a mass murder at the factory, located in the city’s Nitzanei Shalom [Buds of Peace] industrial zone. After murdering the two men, however - one of whose guns was found in his car, instead of on his person - the terrorist entered the building only to discover that he was alone, as all the workers were on vacation for the Passover holiday.

The Yesha Council (Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria) stated, "It is no coincidence that the attack occurred just a day after Israel announces it willingness to pardon more terrorists... These concessions and gestures tell our enemies that terrorism pays off... Palestinian terrorism must be defeated, not negotiated with."

Security sources said it is believed the terrorists came from Tulkarm, which the Israeli government transferred to PA control within the framework of the Oslo Accords.

On August 1, 2002, Shani Ladni, a truck driver who frequented the same industrial zone, was murdered there by terrorists. The attack was enabled by the Defense Ministry's removal of a curfew around Tulkarm as a confidence-building gesture to the PA shortly beforehand.

The Nitzanei Shalom Industrial Park was one of nine industrial zones established in 1995 to help provide work for Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

This last sentence doesn't make sense, because economics are supposed to be the root cause of terror.

Here is an interesting point about Israel's controversial security fence from another account:

The gunmen had initially intended to infiltrate Israel but returned to the industrial complex after they were unable to penetrate the security barrier, Army Radio reported.

The UNIFIL "disarmament force" discovered an actual Hizbullah weapons shipment during a disarmament patrol. So they ran away, returned to their base, hid the incident from the media, and covered up the event in the middle of a larger report delivered weeks later. IRIS told readers from the moment the idea was announced that the disarmament force was a fraud:

Armed Hizbullah militants warded off members of UNIFIL last month when the peacekeepers discovered a truck carrying weapons and ammunition.

On March 30, UNIFIL troops on patrol discovered the truck, chased it down and pulled it over. When the troops approached the vehicle, armed Hizbullah men exited the truck and threatened the troops at gunpoint. The UNIFIL patrol then returned to their base.

The incident, referred to in a semi-yearly report submitted to the UN Security Council by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, was not reported in the media at the time.

This reminds me of a song:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
("No!")

Bravely ran away away.
("I didn't!")

When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
("I never!")

Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
("You're lying!")

Bravely taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Robin!

-Monty Python and the Holy Grail

For a change of pace, here's a good-news story out of New York:

A postal worker is credited with saving a 1-year-old girl's life by catching her after she fell out of a second-story window in Albany, New York.

Lisa Harrell was delivering mail to a home late Monday morning when she noticed a baby in a window above the front door. Harrell says the next thing she knew, the baby had fallen into her arms.

When the baby's mother realized what happened, she ran outside and grabbed the girl from Harrell. The woman thanked Harrell and then ran down the street to her mother's house.

Paramedics checked the baby at the scene but found no injuries.

No charges are being filed against the mother, who says she had placed her daughter on a bed that was up against the window. The mother says her back was turned when her daughter crawled out the open window.

The former president was caught stretching the truth again:

The Bush administration explicitly warned former US President Jimmy Carter against meeting with members of Hamas, said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday.

Attending a regional meeting on Iraq's security and future, Rice contradicted Carter's assertions that he never got a clear signal from the State Department. Rice told reporters that the US thought the visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice said. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

In an interview with NPR, Carter said the State Department did not warn him off the trip.

So much for the "tiny minority of extremists" theory:

The number of Palestinians who support attacks against Israelis continues to rise and more than half of them favor suicide bombings, according to a poll published this weekend.

The survey also showed that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is still more popular than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The percentage of Palestinians who support "resistance operations" against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present. Support for this option was highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing.

Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now.

Again, more Gazans support these operations (65.1%), compared with 42.3% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Palestinian public is divided on the rocket attacks on Israel: 39.3% said the firing of these rockets was "useful" to Palestinian national interests, while 35.7% said they were harmful.

The poll results showed a general feeling of frustration with regards to the future of the Palestinian cause and the peace process in light of the ongoing Israeli military operations and the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israelis are frustrated with the peace process as well. Why don't they support terrorism?

This contradicts everything you think you know about the root cause of the 'peace process.'

The UN Population Division says that the drop in Muslim and Arab fertility rates is the highest in the world. Over 25 years, Iranians have gone from an average of 10 children per woman to 1.8. The number of children per woman in Egypt is 2.5 and is 3 in Jordan. In Israel the fertility rate is 2.8. The annual number of Jewish births in Israel has risen 40% since 1995 (112,455 in 2007 compared to 80,400 in 1995), while the number of Israeli Arab births has steadied at 39,000.

(Hat tip: Arthur Horn)

Unfortunately, Israel's leftist political leaders keep stalling the day when Arabs tire of fighting Israel's security services.

Zakariya Zubeidi, until not long ago the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Jenin, is no longer hiding from the Israel Defense Forces. In an interview he said, "We've shut down the Al-Aqsa Brigades...in part because of the conflict between Fatah and Hamas. Look, it's perfectly clear to me that we won't be able to defeat Israel." "Back in [Arafat's] day we had a plan, there was a strategy, and we would carry his orders....Everything that was done in the intifada was done according to Arafat's instructions."

"We failed entirely in the intifada. We haven't seen any benefit or positive result from it. We achieved nothing. It's a crushing failure. We failed at the political level - we didn't succeed in translating the military actions into political achievements. The current leadership does not want armed actions....When [Arafat] died, the armed intifada died with him." "I got tired. When you lose, what can you do? We, the activists, paid the heavy price. We've had family members killed, friends. They demolished our homes and we have no way of earning a living. And what is the result? Zero. Simply zero. And when that's the result, you don't want to be a part of it any more. Lots of other people, as a result of the frustration, and because Fatah doesn't have a military wing any more, have joined the Islamic Jihad."

More of the never-ending jihad attacks in Israel:

A Hamas sniper who wounded an aide to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Mati Gill, was aiming for the minister and the group he was leading, the organization told a French news agency late Friday afternoon.

Gill was listed in light to moderate condition at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon after being shot and wounded by a Palestinian gunman Friday while he and Dichter were touring an observation point overlooking the northern Gaza Strip. Dichter was not hurt.

Dichter and Gill had taken a 15-member delegation of the Board of Governors of the Canada Israel Committee (CIC) to the overlook near Sderot in order to familiarize them with the situation in southern Israeli communities bordering Gaza, which have come under frequent Palestinian rocket fire....

Religious Affairs Minister Yitzhak Cohen went to visit Gill in Barzilai Hospital and Mati told him: "Yesterday we went to an hachnasat sefer Torah [a ceremony commemorating a synagogue's acquisition of a new Torah scroll] in Sderot. I want the people to know that they can continue shooting but we will respond with more hachnasot sefer Torah."

What an obscene comment (at least as reported). Classical Judaism demands that murderous attacks be stopped through military action, not through religious foolishness.

A YOUGOV poll commissioned by the Doha Debates has concluded that nearly one-third of all Arabs believe that Saudi Arabia is at greater risk from religious extremism than any other country in the world.

The poll adds weight to the vote at a session of the Doha Debates held on March 3 in Doha, where the motion “This house believes that Muslims are failing to combat extremism”, was carried by more than 70% of the audience.

In the YouGov survey, nearly half of all Arabs in the Gulf, Levant and North Africa said they have met someone who holds extreme religious views.

Asked under what conditions violence is permissible, more than 60% cited Western interference in a Muslim country, while 55% said offensive words or behaviour was a trigger.

More than half the respondents also believed that poor religious leadership is to blame for today’s extremism – although seven out of 10 said the size of the problem had been exaggerated.

Many Westerners immediately point out that this is 'hypocrisy' because anti-Western Muslim vitriol is off the charts. It is not because the principle subcribed to is not the Western idea that fairness is important. Rather, the operant principle is that Islam must be supreme. One translation of "Allahu akhbar" is "Allah is better," and therefore Muslims require better treatment.

More evidence that man-made catastrophic global warming is a myth:

The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.

The WMO points out that the decade from 1998 to 2007 was the warmest on record. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74C.

Less than a degree in 100 years? That's what all the fuss is about?

Note that the hysterics have taken a new tactic: because temperatures can be measured, they have begun spouting the ultimate slogan for confirmation bias. It isn't hot weather that proves global warming; it's extreme weather. This way, whenever someone notices extreme weather, the cause is global warming. Despite this, Lloyd's of London is warning that a Lack of Natural Disasters is Putting Pressure on Insurance Firms.