Obama's New Gambit - Releasing One Third Of The Guantamano Inmates

President Obama has another big idea. He's going to release 55 Gitmo inmates, one third of the total inmate population.

The timing, some might say is just a little bit awkward, since it's come to light that a former Gitmo detainee who was released under similar circumstances, Sufyan Ben Qumu, led the attack on our Libyan consulate and the supposed safe house that saw our Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American murdered in horrendous circumstances.

Most of the inmates being released are said to be Yemini. Based on the usual percentage of released recidivists who go back to waging jihad against America, there are probably at least 25 to 30 of these people we will face again as jihadis.

The Obama Administration has released a lot of Gitmo detainees, sometimes with unforeseen results that  almost border on the comic because of the amateurism involved. But this is the largest single mass release, and the first time the Obama Administration has ever released a public list of jihadis they're cutting loose. According to the Obama Department of Justice:

"In the over two years since the [Guantanamo Bay Review] Task Force completed its status reviews, circumstances have changed such that the decisions by the Task Force approving detainees for transfer no longer warrant protection," the DOJ lawyers wrote in their notice to the court.

 "The efforts of the United States to resettle Guantanamo detainees have largely been successful – they have resulted in 40 detainees being resettled in third countries because of treatment or other concerns in their countries of origin since 2009. In addition, 28 detainees have been repatriated to their countries of origin since 2009.

In other words,the DOJ is damned proud of its efforts in freeing jihadis to fight again. I'm sure our intel people and the men and women in uniform who have to call President Obama commander-in-chief are just thrilled.

US Embassy In Yemen Attacked As Islamoseethe Continues

The American embassy in in Yemen's capital, Sanaa was stormed by a mob of rioters who breached the embassy perimeter and reached the compound grounds, although they were unable to get into the main building. The U.S. flag was burned and replaced it with the black flag of jihad bearing Islam's declaration of faith — "There is no God but Allah."

Unlike Libya and Egypt, Yemeni security guards were quick on the scene and used tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowd, and a number were arrested.Four people were killed and 34 others reportedly wounded, but there were no Americancasualties reported.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi swiftly condemned the attacks, ordered an investigation and promised to arrest the culprits, saying the attack by a "rowdy crowd" was part of a conspiracy to derail Yemen's close relations with Washington.

And that really was the best news out of the Middle East for America when it came to it.

The U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia saw its flag seized and burned by rioters, and angry demonstrations are still occurring at the sacked American embassy in Cairo, although nothing like the violence on 9/11.This time, police used tear gas to disperse the protesters instead of looking the other way and unlike Tuesday, the police kept the protesters away from the embassy's main compound.

In Iraq, the Shi'ites have already forgotten who spent blood and treasure to liberate them from Saddam.They predictably went through the usual threats,violence and flag burning in Baghdad's Sadr City,Basra and Najaf, although they did not attack the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The protests were led by the Iranian backed Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib al-Haq militia and by Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

If al-Khazai's name rings a bell, it's because he was a leader Iran’s “Special Groups” in Iraq, and masterminded the 2007 operation in Karbala in which five U.S. servicemen were kidnapped and murdered execution style. He was captured by American troops two months afterwards, but was put back on the streets by the Obama Administration as part of a prisoner exchange in 2009, something that I'm sure tore the guts out of the families these brave men left behind.

And in Berlin, the entire American consulate in the Zehlendorf area was evacuated after an employee reported a strange smell from an envelope.

The protests, which are occurring in various parts of the Muslim world are supposedly based on outrage over a movie that was never even released called 'The Innocence of Muslims' whose trailers appeared on YouTube.

The vast majority of the protesters have never seen it, of course, but that isn't really necessary to work them into a frenzy. This was really all about asserting turf on the anniversary of 9/11, at least in Libya and Egypt. And in Egypt, about the release from American custody of the Blind Sheik who was deeply involved in the first World Trade center bombing and whom Egyptian Preisdent Morsi has already made a major cause inEgypt.

For almost four years, these people have received a message from us that America is to blame, starting with President Obama's speech in Cairo.

To twist a phrase from President Obama's spiritual mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, those appeasement chickens are coming home to roost. And we haven't seen the end of it.

As an aside, the 'film' if it can be called that has an interesting back story. The 'filmaker', who gave his name as 'Sam Bacile' and claimed to be an Israeli Jew is actually an Egyptian Copt with a fairly slimy background living in Southern California, who has now gone into hiding.

Jihadi Cockroaches Anwar al-Aulaqi And Samir Khan Killed

Some great news today..Anwar al-Awlaqi was a 40-year-old Muslim cleric who specialized in recruiting potential jihadis for terrorism, and Samir Khan was the co-editor of al-Qaeda's slick internet mag Inspire.

The good news is that both of them caught the wrong end of a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone and are now crispy halal critters.

The strike took place this morning five miles from the town of Khashef in Yemen’s northern Jawf province, 87 miles east of the capital, Sanaa.

Both Awlaki and Khan were U.S. citizens, which means some of the usual suspects on the Left ( I'm looking at you, Glen Greenwald) are bewailing this...but then so is Ron Paul. They seem to have forgotten that Awlaki and Kahn are traitors according to the rather strict definition given by our Constitution, and thus subject to summary execution since they chose not to surrender and go to trial and were actively engaged in hostilities against the U.S. They were subject to death or capture, whichever worked out. They won't be missed.

U.S. intelligence had been tracking Awlaki for quite some time, and a local tribal leader said Awlaqi had been moving in the provinces Marib and Jawf for the past three weeks because he was worried about being targeted in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province, the main area where his tribe lives.

There's an interesting political subtext here. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP) has actively been involved in the local 'Arab Spring' movement seeking to oust Yemen's Saleh regime. Of late, Saleh has been co-operating quite a bit with U.S. intelligence and some of the opposition see this as a ploy for Saleh to remain in power.

Another complex part of the mix is that Yemen has become a sort of proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran just like Bahrain was, with Iran backing the rebels and the Saudis backing the Saleh regime. This may be a sign that the Obama Administration has finally come to its senses about the so-called Arab Spring the president helped unleash and is trying to cut its losses somewhat.

In any event, it's a excellent end for two really evil men. And I use that term loosely.

PS: ABC News also refers to these creatures as 'jihadis'. *Gasp* Are elements of the dinosaur media finally starting to catch up to Joshuapundit??!!? What's next? Using the "T" word?

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Sec. Clinton Blasts House Bill With Aid Requirements for Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, 'Palestinians'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is livid over a proposed House bill out of committee that would impose strict new requirements on U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Palestinian Authority.

Th Secretary of State wrote In an angry letter she wrote to members of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Clinton claimed the bill “would be debilitating to my efforts to carry out a considered foreign policy and diplomacy, and to use foreign assistance strategically to that end.”

Mrs. Clinton actually threatened to lobby the president to veto the bill if it's passed.

So, what are these horrific restrictions she's so upset about?

For example, as one condition to continue to get the billions in baksheesh they receive from us, the Pakistanis would need to prove that they are assisting in an US investigation on who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), said in her opening statement Wednesday that the measure would send a clear message to the country in which Osama bin Laden hid for years without detection.

Pakistan, she said, is “on notice that it is no longer business as usual and that they will be held to account if they continue to refuse to cooperate with our efforts to eliminate the nuclear black market, destroy the remaining elements of Osama Bin Laden’s network, and vigorously pursue our counter-terrorism objectives.”

“I think the prospect of a cutoff of assistance will get their attention and that the games being played with our security will finally stop,” she added.

Lebanon will not receive any US aid if a Hezbollah member occupies a top government or policy post (they dominate the cabinet).The 'Palestinian Authority' must terminate incitement against Israel in the media and in the schools, cooperate with Israel on security matters,attain statehood via negotiations with Israel rather than an end run to the UN. And the 'Palestinian' Authority must not allow members of Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, to be part of its government directly or indirectly. In other words, in order to get the $510 million of our tax dollars President Obama has set aside for them, The 'Palestinian Authority' must simply abide by the agreements it signed, the Oslo Accords and the Road Map.

The Egyptians would be required to keep the peace with Israel and the other provisions of the Camp David Accords, while Yemen would have to be be free of human rights abuses. And the flow of US foreign aid to all of these countries could only continue if the Obama administration was able to certify that no members of terrorist organizations groups or their sympathizers were serving in their governments. The countries also have to meet certain anti-corruption standards.

The Republican in the House said the bill would serve U.S. national interests while scaling back overall spending. “In this difficult geopolitical and economic climate, the American people deserve a policy that is based on American principles, looks out for American interests, and wisely invests American dollars,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, said Wednesday. In other words, foreign aid ought to be reserved for our friends, or at countries that serve our interests, not our enemies. What a concept, eh?

Both Granger and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Nita Lowey (D-NY)favored attaching strings to aid for Pakistan and the other Middle Eastern countries named.

Brad Goehner, a spokesman for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House committee, told the Post that the letter was “disappointing, particularly given the current debt crisis, that the Obama administration is fighting to keep sending taxpayer money to foreign organizations and governments that undermine U.S. interests.”

I have to admit, I can't imagine why Mr. Goehner would be disappointed at this late date after watching this president and his team operate for over two-and-a-half years.

It's worth taking a look at how this has played out in real life so far.

Both Lebanon and the 'Palestinian' Authority have received billions in US military aid, going back to the Bush Administration. Lebanon's went to the Shi'ite dominated army which is now fully integrated with Hezbollah, while a lot of the shiny new equipment the US equipped Mahmoud Abbas' forces with ended up in the hands of Hamas after Fatah was chased out of Gaza.

Just this May, the United States along with Qatar and the World Bank pledged to give billions of dollars in aid that we don't really have to Egypt and Tunisia in order to keep the two countries economies afloat.

As part of the measures, Obama promised of $1 billion in debt relief to Egypt, and offered an additional $1 billion in loans.

Those pledges were unfortunately given before anyone really knew what was going to happen in either country. In Egypt, the situation is extremely unsettled and the likely rulers when it all sorts itself out will be the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt becomes President Obama's Iran. And the money they're being given isn't going to change the fact that Egypt has a population of 80 million people it has no ability to feed.

As for Tunisia, it has a much better chance of economic recovery, but the political sitution doesn't auger well for it being a democracy. In fact, in new ‘democratic’ Tunisia, one of the first acts of the Commission of Political Reform was to pass laws ensuring that all ties to Israel will be severed permanently. Tunisia's tiny Jewish community, one of the few left in the Arab world, are already in the process of leaving.

The bill will likely pass the House, but probably not the Democrat majority senate without some moderation, and even then President Obama is not likely to sign it. But I have to applaud Congress for finally at least trying to draw the line at funding hostile countries with money we can ill afford unless they agree to perform in accordance to our national interest.

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The Inkjet Bomb Plot

The latest manifestation of the Religion of Peace involved a number of explosive devices utilizing ink toner cartridges as containers..some set to explode in midair ala' Lockerbie and two who were mailed to Chicago area Jewish synagogues.

The toner cartridges were an ingenious way of getting past the scanners,using an innocuous and frequently shipped item to get past the scanners.

A FedEx package intercepted in Dubai and a UPS package stopped in England were both constructed out of close to a pound of PETN explosive powder hidden inside the toner cartridges. PETN is the same explosive used in the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was trained inYemen. The amounts of PETN discovered in the bombs in Dubai and England were seven or eight times greater than the amount used in the Christmas Day bombing .

Had a plane exploded in mid-air and crashed in the populated areas of Nottingham, Leicester or Derby, all within a 10-mile radius of the airport, the death toll would have been huge.



"The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden in the printer," said a Dubai police statement. That means that the devices scheduled to go via air freight were designed to be detonated remotely, so there were obviously local jihadis in England and probably in the US who were part of the plot.

The packages all originated in Yemen, and were allegedly prepared by al-Qaeda, or one of its affiliates. I say allegedly because at this point, the brand name 'al-Qaeda' and the tactic of Islamist terrorism has become so widespread that attributing it to al-Qaeda has simply become a rhetorical convenience.

Part of the problem in Yemen is that history is repeating itself.

Abdullah Ali Saleh, Yemen's dictator has long been the recipient of US aid to the tune of $150 million per year in military aid, training by US personnel and a matching amount in humanitarian and development aid. Most of the military aid and training hasn't gone to fight al-Qaeda, but to shore up the 32-year reign of Saleh from his political enemies. In fact,members of Saleh's clan have been the main recipients of the weapons and training.

There is an openly operating al-Qaeda base in in the Yemeni province of Al Gouf, in the high desert just to the south of San'aa, the capitol.US and Saudi drones have both transmitted intel on the base. It's where Ibrahim Hassan Al Asiri, the Saudi Arabian bomb expert and planner of the latest attack is reported to be stationed, and where the Christmas Bomber was trained.Yet President Saleh categorically refused to allow the US to land Marine counter terrorism forces and Delta Force commandos from the USS Boxer to take the base out, or to allow US aircraft to overfly Yemeni territory to attack it.

If this sounds suspiciously like the situation in AfPak to you, only on a smaller scale, that's entirely correct. A great deal of US blood and treasure could have been saved in the US had simply gone into Afghanistan after the Embassy bombings in 1998, put some boots on the ground, destroyed al-Qaeda's bases there,and taken a slew of prisoners to be interrogated forcefully and then left. Instead, we simply allowed it to fester...just as we're doing in Yemen.

America used to operate differently when someone had the bad sense to try and attack us.

So far, the Obama Administration's response has been to dispatch teams to Yemen to train Yemeni security personnel in better techniques designed to detect bombs of this kind. Given how al-Qaeda and Islamists in general have infiltrated all areas of Yemeni society, that's unlikely to be effective.

There are several inconvenient truths we can garner from this, if we haven't already.

First, the entire rationale for us going into Afghanistan - to prevent it from becoming a failed state and a haven for Islamist terrorism ( now mostly lumped together for political correctness under the term 'al-Qaeda') is flawed. Far more terrorism has originated in Pakistan than ever originated in Afghanistan.There will always be another failed Islamic 'state' to take on the role of training ground and enabler..not to mention the radicalized home grown jihadis now being created in the West by a whole network of Saudi funded radical mosques and madrassahs.

Second,until we make the consequences for attacking us or aiding and abetting those who do far too high for these countries to bear, we will continue to live on a knife edge. As long as we refuse to confront the established Islamic nation-states that fund, harbor and encourage ideological jihad against the West, all our sophisticated and expensive counter-terrorism strategies are simply a matter of playing whack-a-mole, and the game will never end. Eventually, we're going to miss one and a relatively inexpensive jihad attack is going to cost hundreds if not thousands of lives.

As far as the home front, the problem is not entirely one of security. I think by now most astute observers have pretty much figured out that Islam is Islam, and that while a great many Muslims merely desire to live peaceful lives the ideology is what it is, and we are eventually going to have to come to terms with that and find ways to control the spread of radical Islam in the West.

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