The insanity of political correctness never ends.

Think back to September 11, 2001. The men who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon, and into the ground were all fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. The immediate concern of all Americans, especially those who spend their lives on airplanes, was national security. The government took over control of the airport security scanners, multiplied the number of security personnel at each airport, and banned scissors and box cutters from airplanes.

No problem, right?

Then came the “Shoe Bomber”, another radical Muslim extremist who was anxious to visit Allah and the 72 virgins who would be waiting for him in his next life. After his failed attempt and capture, the airlines recognized that terrorists could hide bomb-making materials in their shoes. Regulations in the airports once again changed for everyone, now requiring folks, including the elderly who can barely reach their toes, to take off their shoes and put liquids into small plastic baggies for inspection.

This caused even more hassles and longer lines.

On Christmas Day, we had the ‘Panty Bomber’, the radical Islamic terrorist who tried to blow up an airplane by putting explosives in his underwear. Our government seemed stunned that this man would get by their stiff security without putting his liquids in a small baggie.

You see, the rules are clear- take off your shoes, take off your belt, take your computer out of its case, put small amounts of liquid in plastic bags, take all metal off of your body, and go through a metal detector. It’s unheard of that someone who was trying to blow up an airplane wouldn’t comply with these simple rules.

Everyone else does……right?

Why would a terrorist skirt the rules?

What’s a government to do? Well, as usual, the brilliant minds of airport security have gotten together and decided that there is a “simple” solution- full body scanners.

Yup, that’s right. Everyone who is traveling on an airplane will be subjected to a full body scanner, an image machine which virtually “undresses” you, allowing security personnel to see if you have bomb-making material hidden in your bra or underwear. They claim that this is NOT an invasion of privacy. If you choose not to have a body scan, a security personnel member will simply give you a full-body “pat down”.

This is all so much easier than profiling, isn’t it?

Now in a strange, expected, twist of events, CNSNews reports that Muslim clerics are warning their followers that these scanners defy the teachings of their faith. “The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) emphasizes that a general and public use of such scanners is against the teachings of Islam, natural law and all religions and cultures that stand for decency and modesty,” the group said in a Feb. 10 statement posted at Islam Online.

“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” FCNA explained. The group noted that Islam emphasizes modesty, considering it part of the faith. “The Qur’an has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts” and to be modest in their dress.”

The group says Muslim travelers “should choose pat-down searches over scanner images – in cases where searches are necessary.”

In cases where searches are necessary.…..?

You can see where this is going.

Many of these Muslim groups will tell their followers to refuse the full body scanners because of religious reasons. They will opt for a “pat down”, which cannot reveal the level of detail that the scanners can. Even these “pat downs” will be legally questioned by the Muslims, especially in women who are supposed to keep themselves covered and modest. Aggressive “pat downs” will be considered “excessive.”

Patting down a modest woman in a burka can’t be an easy task.

In essence, the radical Muslims, the group of people who we are so careful not to profile, the only group who has tried to blow up planes- forcing us to install airport scanners for security- are going to be the same folks who don’t use them.

The rest of us will be exposed to radiation and humiliation as we walk through the scanners, but the terrorists will get a simple “pat down”, which, of course, can’t reveal liquids stored in an anal cavity or the vagina. It also can’t reveal bombs implanted in breast implants.

Yes, that’s right. It has been reported that a few women in the Mideast have had bombs implanted into their breasts. I imagine the same could be done for men, with bombs implanted into their private parts or even under their skin.

If, God forbid, that happens, will all women be forced to get full gynecological exams before boarding a flight? Will men have to turn their heads and cough?

Through all of this, law-abiding Americans will line up, take off our shoes, take off our belts, take out our computers, take off our jewelry, take the leg braces off of our disabled children, and walk through body scanners- letting security personnel get a good look at our naked bodies- and somehow feel safer.

We profess that we want freedom, yet we allow the government to steal that freedom with every new law that’s enacted. Full body scanners will not stop Muslim extremists more effectively than taking off our shoes did, nor will they stop terrorists more effectively than banning knitting needles did.

Radicals are radical. Terrorists find a way to inflict terror. Obstacles don’t stop extremists; they make them more ingenious.

The only way to keep our airplanes safe is to follow Israel’s lead.

Profile, profile, profile.

No naked pictures, no liquids in baggies…heck, keep your shoes on.

Just profile.

lsm.
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

Let’s see, Barack, how are you doing on terror so far?

You certainly haven’t earned yourself a B+.

Did anyone read or hear about the 2 Gitmo Terrorists, or as the White House calls them- “detainees”- who were released to their home country the other day?

No? Shocking. The mainstream media doesn’t want to report controversial news, only news that pleases the Obama administration. They know that in the wake of the “Underpants Bomber” debacle, releasing two more terrorists would be controversial, at best.

But Obama did it anyway; he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give the terrorists a “fair” shake.

The two released detainees are Hasan Zemiri and Adil Hadi al-Jazairi Bin Hamlili. They were given back to their own Algerian government to be freed.

Beautiful.

Hey, I wonder if we’ll be smart enough to put THEM on the terror watch list? How about the “No Fly” list- think they’ll get on that one?

Oh, don’t worry about the safety of America-the Justice Department released this comforting statement: “The United States coordinated with the government of Algeria to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures.”

Whew.

Call me stupid, but I was under the impression that the problem has never been the security of the transfer of detainees, it has always been what happens to these men after they’ve been released. Upwards of 20% of these men- and these are just the ones we know of- rejoin militant organizations and plan more terror, most of which is focused toward Americans.

In fact, two of the terrorists who helped the Underpants Bomber with his foiled plot had both spent time in Gitmo and are now coordinating terror efforts in Yemen. They had also made a pit stop for “rehabilitation” in Saudi Arabia- a ridiculous program that claims to change the spirit of these terrorists by giving them crayons and watercolors with which to express their anger and emotions on paper.

Strangely, it didn’t work.

Maybe if they had tried artist’s chalk and some play doh…

In total, 120 Saudi detainees have been released from Gitmo. One group, Batch 10, included 14 detainees who were flown home to Saudi Arabia just over two years ago. Of the 14 radicals in Batch 10, 5 of them completed the rehab and then fled to Yemen, where they formed a new terrorist group (AQAP).

And just a year ago, two other terrorists who had been held in Gitmo for seven years were released to Algeria where they were quickly acquitted by Algerian courts and allowed to go free. Interestingly enough, both claimed that they had been “brutally tortured” while at Gitmo.

I guess they consider hearing a little Willy Nelson music to be torturous. Or maybe “brutal torture” means that they only received three square meals a day, along with doctor and dental care. Maybe they felt it was “torturous” that they didn’t receive trophies when their makeshift, terror-filled soccer team won the Gitmo playoffs.

In May of 2009, a “deal” was struck with the Algerian government which says that any Gitmo detainees we send back to them “cannot be arrested or tortured” by their government. According to Farouq Qusantini, a human rights group: ” Algerian detainees have the right to choose where they want to go, and in case they choose Algeria, the authorities pledges not to arrest or try them “

THEY have the right to choose where they want to go?

Yes, you heard that right. One Algerian terrorist, Lakhdar Boumediene, was released from Gitmo last year and requested that he be sent to France.

I guess he heard that Paris was a great place to visit.

He must like croissants.

Let’s see, besides the attempted attack by the Underpants Bomber, we’ve also watched a Muslim man, Malik Nidal Hassan, kill 14 people on a US military base. It seems that despite the big, red flags which surrounded this terrorist, no one wanted to report him to the authorities because they were afraid of being called “Islamophobic.” Even our president can’t get himself to connect the dots between Islam and terror.

In his mind, little, old white ladies are just as likely to blow up airplanes as Muslims from Yemen who are here without passports.

Political correctness has run amok.

And the most impressive thing that Obama has done in regards to the Gitmo terrorists has been to announce that many of them will receive American rights and civilian trials to be held in New York City.

How civilized of him.

It seems the cost to the city of $200 Million per year to do this doesn’t faze him. It seems that the desires of the victims’ families doesn’t faze him. It seems that the outcry from Americans everywhere doesn’t faze him.

Barack Hussein Obama appears to be a man who isn’t fazed by the ideology of anyone who has common sense.

You see, he’s a radical, and radicals don’t often change their stripes.

Now ABC has come out with a new terror warning. They claim to have intel pointing to evidence that Yemeni women have been recruited to become suicide bombers. More disconcerting is the fact that these women have no known “footprint” of previous terror, thereby making it easier for them to gain access to our country.

Awesome.

Listen folks, it’s a matter of time before the policies of this administration lead us to another major terrorist nightmare. If the government really wants to keep us safe, they have no choice but to throw political correctness out the window. They need to rethink their policy on civilian trials and Miranda rights for terrorists. They need to listen to common sense.

Either that or they’d better start handing out crayons and watercolor paints to everyone in America….

We need to get rid of our anger somehow.

lsm
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

I opened up the Minneapolis Star Tribune, known “affectionately” by many conservatives in Minnesota as “The Red Star” and came across a headline that I found intriguing: “Jetliner plot makes closing Guantanamo more difficult.”

It should have read something more like: “Democrats Who Wanted Gitmo Closed Found Eating Crow.”

Who in their right mind would even think of closing Gitmo in light of the recent facts surrounding this bombing attempt? Is this administration THAT pig-headed, or are they just, plain stupid? Our country’s safety should always come before the pride of this president, yet nothing seems to get in the way of the ego of the Messiah.

So what’s going on here…..let’s look at Yemen, a small country located on the southern border of Saudi Arabia.

Insignificant, right?

Think back to October 12, 2000….The USS Cole was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden when two suicide bombers in a small boat rammed into the side of the Navy destroyer, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39 more. While investigating this attack, it was discovered that a similar attack had been unsuccessfully tried on another American destroyer, the USS Sullivan. It seems that in January of 2000, suicide bombers had attempted to blow up that naval ship, using the same methodology, but were unsuccessful when their small boat sunk from the weight of the bombing materials. Both of these attacks were attributed to Al Qaeda.

So the Feds have known about the connection of Al Qaeda to Yemen for quite some time.

We also know that Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter had numerous email contacts with Anwar Al Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric in Yemen who was born in the United States and lived here until recently. This imam was also associated with 3 of the 9/11 terrorists prior to that fateful day. Awlaki has been watched ‘closely’ by our government who believes that he has become an influential force for Al Qaeda.

Two Yemeni detainees from Gitmo were released in 2007 and sent back to their native country with a pit-stop for rehabilitation in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have come up with a brilliant plan to take these terrorists and turn them into God-loving, law-abiding citizens using crayons and water color paints. It is believed that if they can get the terrorists to “take out their negative energy out on paper”, then they will give up their jihadist ways, according to the founder of this program, Dr. Awad Alyami.

It didn’t work for most of them.

Shocking.

According to ABC News: “After Said Ali- al-Shihri completed the art therapy program after being released from Guantanamo, he turned up in Yemen as a top al Qaeda leader and was responsible for an attack on the U.S. embassy there last year that left 17 people dead, including one American, U.S. officials said.

This case shows that “you never know when somebody is a true believer,” said former CIA officer and ABC News consultant John Kiriakou. “Now they may go through the motions like any other prisoner might, only to pretend to be rehabilitated” and rejoin the fight.”

Give the man a gold medal for intelligence.

The two terrorists who were released in 2007 are now the leaders of an Al Qaeda faction in Yemen and appear to be the masterminds behind the latest plane attack. It seems that our “bomber”, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent some time recently in Yemen and had contact with these two former Gitmo prisoners.

Here’s another interesting fact: Yemen has received $70 Million in military aide from the United States this year, up from zero in 2008.

Why? Well, obviously the United States sees a terrorist threat forming in Yemen. Yet just last month, 6 of the Gitmo detainees were released to Yemen- and these were 6 of the detainees who were held longer because they were considered amongst the “worst of the worst.”

Now President Obama wants to release 90 more detainees back to Yemen.

What’s puzzling is that his plans have not changed, even with mounting evidence that Yemen is a breeding ground for Al Qaeda.

From his previous speeches and interviews, we have learned that the Messiah feels its necessary to tell the world that we are a “just” and “fair” country. I guess he believes that if we give Muslim countries their radical criminals back, allowing them to regroup, get angrier, and reorganize, this will somehow prove just how far America has come on the spectrum of “fairness.”

Earth to Barack: “Fairness” doesn’t equate to “Safety.”

“Fairness” will not give comfort to the relatives of the Americans who will someday be killed by these guys.

So we’re giving the Yemen government money to help them in their effort to combat Al Qaeda in their country and at the same time, we’re releasing more terrorists into their country, allowing them to fortify their radical troops?

Sounds sane to me.

Our President refuses to release statistics which show the recidivism rate of these Gitmo detainees once released because the numbers don’t bode well for his plans to shut down the facility. Even more troubling is that the 400-500 detainees who have already been released were NOT considered the worst, so you have to wonder how many of the newly released, more dangerous detainees will fall back into a life of terrorism.

My guess? Nearly all.

Yet our government is busy with other things. They can’t concentrate on safety when there’s stimulus packages to pass,or “green” jobs to create, or health care to provide.

Our president, after days of soul-searching, has finally admitted that there’s an Al Qaeda connection with the bomb attempt on the airplane over Detroit. I haven’t heard him comment on those 90 Yemenis that he wants to send home from Gitmo, though.

You don’t think he’s rethinking his promise to close that facility, do you?

Nah, that would be like admitting that his stimulus bill didn’t create or save jobs. Or that his health care bill won’t cause a decrease in the quality of care.

That would be like “eating crow.”

From what I can see, Obama doesn’t much care for “Crow.”

lsm
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

Christmas Day, 2009. Barack and Michelle’s first Christmas as the nation’s “First Couple.”

How special.

During the campaign, we heard all about their faith, their religious mentors, their children’s baptisms, their years in church.

Their years of sleeping in the pew during the sermons spewed with hate.

This was a big year for the First Couple- lots of excitement and joy, lots of controversy, lots of stress. Lots to give thanks to God for. Yet the First Family didn’t bother to attend church this Christmas holiday.

Interesting, huh?

Maybe, just like during the National Day of Prayer, Barack wanted to “pray privately”.

Or maybe he just wanted to golf. Or play tennis with his wife. Or swim with the kids in the ocean instead of celebrating the birth of Christ- you know, the Messiah.

Maybe Barack, now thinking he IS the Messiah, just stays home and prays to himself.

Who IS Barack Obama? We know nothing about this man. What he told us during the election and what we’ve found out since, simply don’t gel. He claimed to be a devout Christian, having studied the scripture during his days at Columbia and finding Jesus.

Newsweek did an expose on him during the election, explaining the metamorphisis of his spirituality.

According to Barack in that article: “I did a lot of spiritual exploration. I withdrew from the world in a fairly deliberate way.” He fasted. Often, he’d go days without speaking to another person.

For company, he had books. There was Saint Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop who wrote the West’s first spiritual memoir and built the theological foundations of the Christian Church. There was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher and father of existentialism. There was Graham Greene, the Roman Catholic Englishman whose short novels are full of compromise, ambivalence and pain. Obama meditated on these men and argued with them in his mind.

When he felt restless on a Sunday morning, he would wander into an African-American congregation such as Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. “I’d just sit in the back and I’d listen to the choir and I’d listen to the sermon,” he says, smiling a little as he remembers those early days in the wilderness. “There were times that I would just start tearing up listening to the choir and share that sense of release.”

There was no “tearing up” on Christmas.

Nor are there any tears on any other Sundays. You see, Barack and Michelle have not yet found a church in Washington DC that fits their needs. They’ve had many excuses- things like they “don’t want to bother the other parishioners”, but those are lame. We’ve had many presidents before them who have attended church without recourse.

Let’s remember back to the campaign….The Chicago Sun Times quoted Barack as stating, “I am a Christian, so, I have a deep faith. I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. He even quoted the Bible when he talked about Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”

We really haven’t heard this type of language since the campaign ended, have we?

Maybe there’s another reason that we don’t see outward signs of Christianity from this family….

You see, if Barack was raised a Muslim and then converted to Christianity, there would be a “bounty” of sorts placed on his head. According to the Koran, if some one converts from Islam to ANY other religion, he is automatically branded an “apostate” and is to be killed as soon as possible. If he were to walk into a room, he would be shunned by all other Muslims for fear of them also being branded a hypocrite. They would either attack him to kill him or leave the room in protest of his presence. In fact, the reason Mohammed required that those who convert from Islam to any other religion be murdered was that Mohammed was afraid such converts would warn the rest of the world to Muslim intentions and the rest of the world would unite and destroy Islam.

Other Muslims who have left the religion are fearful for their lives. Why isn’t Barack? Maybe he’s never truly changed religions; maybe he’s still technically a Muslim, therefore, Muslims have no issues with him.

And maybe that’s why he’s so afraid of saying the words “terrorist” or “Islamic jihadist.” Maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama doesn’t want to ridicule one of his own.

It took Barack 76 hours before he commented on the bomber who tried to blow up the Northwest flight over Detroit. He still can’t get himself to admit that Nidal Malik Hasan, the Muslim radical who killed 14 at Fort Hood, is an Islamic terrorist.

It doesn’t make common sense.

Yet nothing in this administration makes sense, does it?

Christmas without God just doesn’t seem right, not for a man who claims to be a devoted Christian, a man who can quote the Bible on que, a man who has every aspect of his life perfectly scripted for him. If Barack were a Christian, he would not miss Christmas service, not with the cameras on him and the media scrutiny.

This was purposeful. Just like the speech in Cairo, it was a message to his Muslim brethren.

He hasn’t deserted them.

lsm.
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

I wasn’t going to write until the New Year, but this story got me so mad……lsm
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“The system worked.”

That’s the statement made by Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, after the bombing attempt on Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.

She personifies, perfectly, the idiocy of this administration. It’s all an act, all pretend, all a work of fiction. If they say it ‘worked’, then it did. If they say the Health Care bill is deficit neutral, then it is. If they say Obama never heard Reverend Wright spew his hate, then he didn’t. If they say that they were shocked that Van Jones was a communist sympathizer, although they’d been carefully “watching” him and his promising future for years, then they were.

It’s all a facade.

The most frustrating thing is turning on the news and seeing the exact words flow from members of our media, those providing cover for this administration. These folks are nothing more than accomplices to a crime.

The crime? The theft of our nation.

BigGovernment.com is reporting that the terrorist on this flight from Amsterdam, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, may have boarded the plane without a passport. A couple from Detroit, both lawyers, overheard Mutallab and another man speaking with an employee of the airline about allowing Mutallab to board without a passport because they claimed he was from Sudan. This, of course, was a lie, since Mutallab originates from Nigeria.

What’s the difference?

Well, it seems that Sudanese don’t always have things like passports or birth certificates, so they are allowed to fly without them.

No kidding.

So while 90 year old “grandma” is taking off her shoes in the airport and struggling with her walker to get through security, Sudanese are breezing through without so much as a passport.

The airport official at the counter helping Mutallab get on board without identification was overheard saying, “We do this all the time.”

Do they do it for people who are on a terrorist watch list? Do they do it for people whose fathers have called the US embassy to report their child as a “person to watch”? Do they wave the passport rule for folks who have been rejected from entrance into England because of terrorist ties?

Heck, Americans need a passport to go fishing in Canada.

Yet, according to Napolitano, “The system worked” just fine.

She also reminded us that the current policies have been in place “for years.”

In other words, it’s Bush’s fault…..

When Richard Reid, the ‘shoe bomber’ made his unsuccessful attempt to blow up a plane, the rest of us paid dearly. Every airport implemented the “Reid Rule”, the rule that says every person flying must take off their shoes and put their liquids into small baggies to be inspected by our highly qualified airline security officials, many of whom are illegal immigrants.

I guess Mutallab didn’t get the memo that he had to disclose his liquids. Instead of putting them in a baggie, he simply strapped them to his upper leg in his underwear.

Oops.

Does this mean we’ll have to take off our underwear at the security gate?

There’s a simple rule of thumb that might be appropriate here: Criminals don’t follow the rules.

You see, criminals create their own set of rules.

In our new world of ‘political correctness’, we are punishing every member of society because of a few, bad apples, terrorists who will find a way to carry out their evil no matter what.

Oh, there’s another new rule on the airplanes now- No one will be allowed to get out of their seat to go to the bathroom or check the overhead baggage for the last hour of the flight.

This will finally make us safe, right?

No, actually, this is being done because most terrorists, hoping to make a big impact, are more likely to blow up a plane when it’s over populated areas of land, something more easily accomplished when they are within an hour of a major airport.

This doesn’t keep the terrorist from blowing up your plane, it doesn’t keep you safe, it simply keeps the casualties on the ground to a minimum when the pieces of your plane fall out of the sky.

And for this great luxury, you must not use the bathroom or check the overhead bin.

Call me stupid, but I would think that a bomber would be happy that no one was ‘up and about’ in the cabin when he tried to detonate the bomb. It’s much easier to carry out your act when the whole plane is seated and unsuspecting.

Isn’t it?

I guess I’m just not as smart as Janet Napolitano, the woman who also wants to tear down the border fence we were building. She obviously thinks that allowing the Mexican drug cartel to infiltrate the United States makes us safer.

It couldn’t be that she’s hoping to keep her party in power by allowing Mexicans into this country in droves and then giving them amnesty so they can vote for Obama again…..

No, she’s all about safety.

It’s going to happen. There is going to be a day very soon where an average citizen is not going to thwart the bombing attempt of a terrorist. We already saw the destruction these radical Islamists can carry out during the Fort Hood shootings. The only difference is that there weren’t enough casualties to cause much of an uproar.

14 people? Heck, that’s nothing.

Obama still refuses to call the shooter a “terrorist.”

That would be “profiling.”

And profiling, of course, is the only sensible thing that we could do to keep us safe, but it’s simply too logical.

Oh, and it hurts peoples’ feelings.

Besides, the “system worked” just the way it is. No worries. Move along.

Everything is just fine. Even Katie Couric says so.

Besides, if something DOES happen…..?

There’s always Bush…

lsm
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

Something to think about…..
written by John Leonard at American Thinker

Like Climategate, there is another story the national mainstream media has either missed or largely ignored, and that is the story of what really happened on November 17th on AirTran’s Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston.

Much confusion remains about exactly what transpired that afternoon on a plane preparing for takeoff at Hartsfield International Airport. By every account, the undisputed facts are that a large group of men disturbed procedures and upset the flight crew to the point of causing a delay. At least one passenger allegedly refused to comply with repeated requests from flight attendants to discontinue his use of a cell phone (in compliance with FAA regulations) while the plane was taxiing on the runway, causing the pilot to turn the plane around. The entire group was asked to deplane, and TSA officials questioned them before allowing them back on the flight. The original flight crew was replaced. Twelve passengers not involved with the group of belligerent Middle Eastern men deplaned and requested another flight.

According to AirTran’s whitewashed version of the story reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution,

A flight attendant had apparently asked a male passenger twice to put away a cellphone or camera, but the man had not done so. The flight attendant then took the device from the man. At the gate, the passenger — who didn’t speak English — and a companion were asked to leave the plane, which they did without incident. When it was determined the problem was caused by a language barrier, AirTran and Transportation Security Administration officials allowed the man, and 12 others traveling with him, to reboard, and the flight left for Houston a little more than two hours later. Later, officials said the entire incident was the result of a miscommunication.

That sounds harmless enough, doesn’t it? To borrow from the late Strother Martin as he famously said in the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is [simply] a failure to communicate” — right? Well…not so fast, my friend.

The confusion begins with a widely circulated (and now partially discredited) e-mail written by a man named Tedd Petruna, who has since admitted that his e-mail was not intended for public consumption and that some details were embellished — particularly those of his alleged heroic actions reminiscent to some degree of those on Flight 93 to San Francisco on September 11, 2001. According to Mr. Petruna’s account, eleven Muslim men acted in concert to disrupt the flight. They did far more than refuse two requests to stop using a cell phone; in fact, they were using cell phones to call each other on the plane, distracting two stewardesses, and exhibiting other bizarre, threatening, and defiant behavior that terrified the passengers and flight crew.

Mr. Petruna’s full account of the incident rightfully warranted more than a little skepticism. The website snopes.com, most useful for fact-checking urban legends, was somewhat inconclusive about the veracity of the disputed information in the case, warranting further investigation. Articles at World Net Daily and a few other online sources are beginning to piece together more information about what really happened.

AirTran took the odd step of refuting Mr. Petruna’s account point-by-point, even going so far as to contest his presence on the plane when the incident happened. According to AirTran, Mr. Petruna had not arrived in Atlanta at the time of the incident and was never on the passenger manifest for the flight in question. AirTran followed that claim with a list of other alleged errors in Mr. Petruna’s account, which would seem unnecessary if he were not really on the plane. Some issues were rather silly (his account mentioned eleven “terrorists” versus AirTran’s report of thirteen men) or explained as innocuous (the swap of the flight crew was a routine procedure).

Interestingly, and apparently in conflict with AirTran’s version, Laura Armstrong of the Marietta Daily Journal reported that she spoke with Mr. Petruna, and he claims to still have his boarding pass, which should not be easy to fake. Because he claims he deplaned before the flight actually took off and took a later flight, Mr. Petruna would not be on the final passenger manifest regardless, would he?

But several much bigger problems exist with AirTran’s attempt to whitewash the story. For one, there were actually other passengers on the plane, and their versions of the story come much closer to Mr. Petruna’s than to AirTran’s. These accounts confirm that the truth lies in between AirTran’s airbrushed version and Petruna’s urban legend. A reporter with WSB TV interviewed a highly credible passenger named Brent Brown who said,

[I]t was extremely tense. I’ve never experienced anything like that after flying for company reasons for more than twenty years now. You can imagine just about everything you can think of has happened on a flight, and some pretty hair-raising experiences. This was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. After being in law enforcement and twenty years in the security industry, this was tension at its highest.

Another eyewitness interviewed by Houston television station KHOU was Chaplain Keith Robinson, who missed the incident on the tarmac but took the rescheduled flight. He boarded in spite of warnings from deplaning passengers, one of whom refused to continue the trip because “these Middle Eastern men were taking pictures, wouldn’t sit down, and besides that a couple of them were making gestures with their hands as though they were shooting people.” Robinson witnessed “flight attendants … weeping openly” and provided secondhand corroboration of many of the details in Brown’s account — hardly the simple “miscommunication” AirTran claims.

In another article written by Michael Carl for World Net Daily, private investigator and terrorism writer for Family Security Matters Mark Taylor was quoted as alleging that his investigation suggests Muslim terrorists were indeed carrying out a dry run.

There are three independent versions of the story that corroborate the possibility that 11 or 12 Middle Eastern men appeared to be testing AirTran’s security. The evidence tends to show that someone was doing what is referred to as a dry run, or what one television commentator calls a ‘shark bump,’ just to see if we’re paying attention.

It is understandable to a degree that AirTran would wish to minimize the public relations damage to their business by downplaying the seriousness of what really happened on Flight 297. But the lesson of United flight 93 is that an alert and aroused citizenry functions as a defense against airborne terror attacks. We deserve a full and honest account of what happened on AirTran 297.

Eric Holder, who exactly is he?…

I know, I know….first African-American Attorney General. But what else? In this post-Martin Luther King world where “the content of your character” not the “color of your skin” matters, I think we need to hear a little more about his character and a little less about his race.

In order to look into the history of Mr. Holder, we must look into a group called Armed Forces of National Liberation, FALN , a terrorist group devoted to bringing about independence for Puerto Rico through violent means. According to the WSJ, “Its members waged war on America with bombings, arson, kidnappings, prison escapes, threats and intimidation. The most gruesome attack was the 1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing in Lower Manhattan. Timed to go off during the lunch-hour rush, the explosion decapitated one of the four people killed and injured another 60.“

By 1996, the FBI had linked FALN to a string of terror, including 146 bombings, a number of armed robberies, and other crimes, including 9 deaths and hundreds of injured Americans. These acts were intended to kill or mame folks, not simply scare them; this was not a simple protest group.

In 1999, President Clinton quietly announced that he was granting clemency to 16 of the convicted FALN members, stating that their punishments did not fit the crimes they had committed. Although these 16 terrorists hadn’t actually been involved directly in the killing of anyone, they were all accomplices. Clinton stated that he didn’t feel as though a continued incarceration “would serve any meaningful purpose.”

How about the purpose of punishment for all of those who were murdered and mamed, Bill? How about the fact that these men helped plot to kill innocent Americans, the same Americans who counted on you, their president, to protect them?

How about keeping them locked up so they can’t get back on our streets and hurt more people. I believe that’s called “national security.”

So what does all this have to do with Eric Holder?

Well, it seems that our AG Eric was a deputy AG when Clinton was in office and he was the man behind the pardons of the 16 FALN members. What’s interesting is that these terrorists had not even applied for clemency or expressed any form of remorse over their actions which is a prerequisite to a pardon under the Justice Department standards.

Even worse is the fact that he ignored vocal opposition to the pardons from the FBI, two United States Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Fraternal Order of Police, AND victims of the FALN bombings. He chose, instead, to listen to Puerto Rican activists and Puerto Rican members of Congress.

Interesting choice, isn’t it?

Oh, but there’s more. You see, Eric also orchestrated the pardon of Marc Rich, an international fugitive, who had been making illegal oil deals with Iran and had committed tax evasion- Hey, that’s just like our treasury secretary, Tim Geithner!!

Do you think it helped that Marc Rich’s wife was a huge donor to the Clinton campaign? Maybe she sent some of that money Eric’s way….

Oh, I forgot to mention that in 2001, Eric lied when he testified before Congress about the Rich pardon, withholding important information.

Shocking, just shocking.

There’s even more pardons of “bad guys” or in this case, “bad girls.” Eric also helped to get a pardon from Clinton for a couple of Weather Underground terrorists named Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg who were transporting 740 pounds of explosives for use in bombings when they were captured.

Obama’s friend, Bill Ayers, must have been so grateful to have a guy like Eric around so his friends could walk.

Eric has been pretty vocal about his feelings on Guantanamo Bay and the prison there. The Washington Times reports that “Mr. Holder denounced President Bush’s anti-terrorist initiatives as “needlessly abusive and unlawful,” complained that the President “denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants” and concluded that Bush’s initiatives “made us less, rather than more, safe.”"

Mr. Holder, also called Guantanamo Bay “an international embarrassment,”

I wonder how he really feels.

So we shouldn’t be shocked that the Attorney General wants to bring the terrorists from Gitmo to NYC for a trial in U.S. courts.

You might say that he has a history of being “terrorist friendly.”

When asked whether he had consulted with Barack Obama about this decision, Eric said that he hadn’t spoken with the President about this matter.

That seems strange, doesn’t it? You mean he’s going to risk the national security, give terrorists a stage, challenge the constitution, and spend millions of dollars without the President’s approval?

I’m not buying it.

Oh, instead of consulting Obama, Eric claims to have consulted his wife and his brother.

I’m not kidding. He actually said that.

Sadly, Eric is the same man who may prosecute the FBI agents who legally waterboarded these terrorists. So let’s see….we are going to prosecute the men who were able to get valuable information from the terrorists at Gitmo, and in doing so, save thousands of American lives, and then we’re going to turn around and take these same terrorists who admitted guilt in their part of 9/11, and give them American rights and a chance to go free.

Which side is Eric working for, anyway?

Look at his record and it’s obvious.

Red flags and more red flags. Flags that our Congress chose not to see during his confirmation process.

Funny how everyone in this administration seems to be waving one.

Hey, didn’t Chairman Mao have a red flag…?

Hmmm.

lsm
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Inside of America, unbeknownst to most of us, radical Islamists are assembling and organizing.

While the ultimate end-game is still a mystery, the evil intentions of these groups cannot be overstated. It’s entirely possible that what you don’t know can kill you.

You see, there are 35 radical Muslim training camps operating throughout the United States, a fact that is no surprise to the FBI, Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. They’ve known about them for years.

We hear nothing about them, do we? Nothing.

Most Americans are frustrated with this new-age “political correctness”, this world where we protect “everything Muslim”.

Even after they kill someone. Or many someones.

The name of the group associated with these camps is Muslims of America. Their ultimate goal is to kill us. No kidding. We’re not sure of the number of members they’ve enlisted- it’s been reported that there’s somewhere between 3000 and 15,000- but we do know that the number is growing every year. Many members are recruited from prisons when radical imams visit and pray with the prisoners, offering them a safe, accepting “family” when they are released.

These Muslim camps are paramilitary training facilities, equipped with firing ranges and schooling in guerilla warfare.

The ex-cons fit right in.

The Muslims of America are suspected of committing 17 fire-bombings and 10 assassinations in the U.S. These camps are located in unsuspecting areas of rural America, maybe somewhere near you.

They even have a motto: “Act like you are a friend, then kill him.”

You see, they believe that true Islam will take over the world and that they are carrying out the will of Allah.

Their leader is a Pakistani man by the name of Sheikh Mubarak Gilani. He admits to setting up these camps and doesn’t shy away from his intent to murder Americans. He’s been quoted as saying, “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.”

Nice.

So where is Homeland Security? Surely Janet Napolitano must be working day and night to stop this. Where is the FBI? Who’s protecting us from the potential terror that these camp members could impose?

Back in 1991, Colorado discovered one of these terrorist camps in their back yard and went to the FBI for help. The FBI told the governor of Colorado that they had “gotten word from Washington that we’re not going to get involved” in dismantling the compound, and refused to help. Colorado was forced to uproot the terrorist camp alone. In October, 1992, a 64 man law-enforcement team raided the camp. In it, they found 5000 rounds of ammunition, rifles, all kinds of weapons, AK-47′s, books and magazines on commando training, and applications for “Soldiers of Allah” from individuals all over the U.S.

That particular camp has been shut down, but many more remain and the members have had 17 more years to hone their skills.

The FBI isn’t totally uncooperative when it comes to terrorists- in March, 2007, they released a notice to state officials warning them to be on the lookout for extremists who are trying to become school bus drivers.

Beautiful. Now we have to worry about those flying our planes AND driving our kids to school?

Here’s another fun tidbit: An alert was issued by Policeone.com called “Mass Slaughter in our Schools” which stated that “Preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are will underway in Islamic terrorist camps.”

It makes you sick.

It gets worse…“Floor plans for half a dozen schools in Virginia, Texas, and New jersey have been recovered from terrorist hands in Iraq.”

The scary thing about these homegrown terrorists is that they are organized, they are armed, and they have a dangerous mindset. The damage they could do is massive. If you remember the terror that was struck into the hearts of the nation when 2 lone snipers in the DC area attacked, think of the horror if we have thousands of these guerilla-schooled terrorists released into our streets.

Here’s another comforting thought: Gilani’s followers have each taken an oath: ” I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.”

It’s no longer only the terror from overseas that our country has to acknowledge, we need to start to pay attention to those in the United States who are plotting, as we speak, to kill Americans. The FBI was “watching” Nidal Hasan, the gunman at Fort Hood, yet 13 people died because nothing was done.

Watching isn’t enough. We need to act.

How many Americans will have to die at the hands of these radical Islamists who reside in our country before our government decides to stop them?

It’s a matter of time before we start seeing many mini-9/11′s. As these radicals take a stronghold in our country, we will see more sniper attacks, more mall shootings, more attacks on our military, more…..

And somehow, Bush will be blamed.

Oh, and after Bush is blamed, Obama will blame the U.S. for being such a “downright mean country.”

So what do we do…?

Can we trust this administration to keep us safe?

Your guess is as good as mine. But I’d keep my eyes wide open….

And I’d keep a gun by my side… just in case.

lsm
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

Eric Holder and Barack Obama have decided to bring the Guantanamo Bay “detainees” to the United States to stand trial in our civilian courts.

Beautiful.

We are going to take 5 known terrorists, men who confessed to acts of jihad against the United States, bring them into this country, give them the best lawyers available, arm them with constitutional rights, and then try them in our federal courts.

Oh, and don’t forget, the assumption that they are “innocent until proven guilty” comes along with their new American rights.

Nice.

We’re going to pay for their lawyers and their defense, as well as for the lawyers who prosecute them. The taxpayers, some of whom lost loved ones when the Twin Towers fell, will get to help finance the trials of the men who plotted, and bragged about, the murder of their family members. Oh, and the families also get a double whammie because it’s been announced that the terrorists will be tried in the federal courts in New York.

Just blocks from the non-existent Twin Towers.

The same towers which became the coffins of many of the victims that day.

You gotta love these liberals. There’s no sense of logic involved in these decisions. There’s no compassion for the victims’ families in these decisions. There’s no safety concerns for the American public involved in these decisions. There’s no respect for the rights of American citizens involved in these decisions.

It’s more important to “show the world” that we are fair to terrorists, even those who committed unspeakable acts against our people.

In Michelle’s words, we’ve been such a “downright, mean country” and it’s time that we pay for it.

And I’m not sure, but my best guess is that this little “visit” by the Gitmos detainees will cost us even more than Obama’s “date night” in New York.

I wonder if they’ll take the guys to see a play.

You need to remember that the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has already pleaded guilty to his crimes. There’s no need to put him on trial. He could easily be tried in a military tribunal at Gitmo and executed without ever coming to the U.S. He’d die a hero in his own mind and go on to see Allah and his 72 virgins.

But, no, that’s not what Obama wants. He wants to give these 5 men, the 5 evilist of men, a “fair” trial, one that ensures them maximum exposure and the right to spew more hatred towards America during their testimonies. This is one of those times when you have to just shake your head and wonder what’s happening, who’s pulling the strings.

Is Obama really this dumb? Is his mind really this warped? Do his Muslim roots really run this deep?

How else do you explain this decision….

Military tribunals have been around for years. It’s impossible to prosecute war criminals in our federal courts because when enemy combatants are captured during a war, they are not read their Miranda rights, nor are they arrested using “proper procedure.” It’s war, after all. We all watched the OJ trial. We saw an incredible display of defense lawyering, men who were able to prove that blood had been transferred from one person to another because of sloppy police work. We saw them acquit a guilty man because “a glove didn’t fit.”

Watch what happens when some of the finest defense lawyers in the country represent these terrorists and are able to throw out credible evidence because it lacks the standards for a federal trial.

We already know that any information that was obtained from the terrorists by coercion, like water-boarding, will automatically be thrown out.

Had we stayed in a military tribunal, there would be no risk of these men getting off on a technicality, nor would any of our interrogation secrets be in jeopardy. All that al Qaeda has to do is to taint ONE jury member, threaten to kill one of their family members for instance, and we could end up with a “hung” jury.

Who in their right mind would want to serve on that jury?

And why, for the love of God, would Obama put 12 Americans in that position…

Eric Holder stated that he’s a former prosecutor and he can assure us that he’s “fairly confident” that these men will be found guilty.

That’s just so comforting.

Earth to Eric: Innocent until proven guilty. You gave them that right when you invited them into our country.

Why waste the money, why take the risk? Why hurt the families any more than they’ve been hurt?

No, folks, there’s more to this than meets the eye. Either Obama is getting his puppet strings pulled from a higher master, or he has evil in his veins.

It has been said by some that what he really wants is to put the Bush administration on trial, expose all their dirty little secrets.

If that is true, words cannot describe how low this president of ours can stoop.

Hurting Americans, including the families of the innocent victims of 9/11, putting our national security at risk, all in an effort to attack Bush- that is incomprehensible.

Yet, in this administration, nothing surprises me anymore.

Nothing.

lsm
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Go to Home Page: www.awakentheelephants.com

Sometimes it’s hard to understand this President of ours.

OK, most of the time.

On Thursday afternoon, word came across the news media that there had been a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas. The TV stations rushed to the scene and were giving play by play coverage of the events as they unfolded. “Breaking News” flashed across the screen as news anchors talked about the horror while we awaited a Presidential statement about the situation.

In times like these, it’s always interesting to see what our President has to say.

As Barack approached the microphone to comment on the Fort Hood shooting, all TV stations were doing a “live feed”. He began the “speech” in a jovial mood, thanking his administration for a job well done on an “extraordinary conference” which had occurred earlier in the day. He talked about how “extremely productive” the event had been and assured those in attendance that he wasn’t just giving “lip service” to the “First Americans” who gathered that day.

I assume the conference dealt with issues of Native Americans.

He went on: “I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It’s good to see you.”

Too bad that Dr. Crow doesn’t have a Medal of Honor , he has a Medal of Freedom which, by the way, was awarded to him by Obama.

Honor, Freedom…..they’re all the same, right?

Unless, of course, George Bush had confused them.

It was a full two minutes into his speech before his mood became somber and he mentioned the Fort Hood shootings.

Strange.

Now I understand that a conference might be important, but as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, wouldn’t you think that the President would be more concerned with the status of his military than with a little gathering at the White House? Wouldn’t he want to give a “shout out” to the military men at Fort Hood who had witnessed the shooting or to the families of those who were dead or injured?

Wouldn’t ya think?

As the night went on, more details were released about the shooter and the happenings of the day. It seems that this wasn’t just a crazy, psychotic, disgruntled American who recently lost a job and took it out on society. The man who killed 13 and wounded 30 was one of their own, in fact, he was a Major in the Army, a psychiatrist who helped others deal with the stress of war and military life.

Oh, and he’s Muslim.

Yup, the guy’s name is Nidal Malik Hasan. That, in itself, isn’t important, but when you couple it with the fact that he yelled “Allahu Akbar” while firing his gun and killing people, it suddenly becomes relevant.

There’s more.

Nidal Hasan was in the preparation stages of deployment to Iraq and wasn’t very happy about it. His cousin claimed that Nidal wanted “out of the Army” because he had turned against the wars; he also claims Nidal had been harassed since the 9/11 terror attacks, however, there’s no record that he filed a military complaint.

The day after the shooting occurred, President Obama was once again front and center at his teleprompter, addressing the nation, cautioning them about profiling the mass murderer: “We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.”

While I agree that we shouldn’t fabricate things about Nidal, I believe we have the right to connect the dots. This man was seen firing 2 handguns directly at people and praising Allah as he opened fire. He had told many of his comrades that he sympathized with terrorists overseas who blew themselves up.

Hmmm….

I’m sure some defense lawyer could come in and plead that Nidal’s a misunderstood victim, especially now that we’ve passed the Hate Crimes bill. An American born Muslim man who’s been harassed must be protected under some aspect of that bill….even if he shot 43 people.

I remember back a few, short months when Barack Obama heard that Professor Henry Louis Gates, the black Harvard professor, had been arrested by a white police officer. Barack quickly passed judgment on Sergeant James Crowley , claiming the police officer had “acted stupidly” when he arrested Mr. Gates.

Hey…..you mean he passed judgment without looking at the facts?

When asked about the “acted stupidly” comment, Barack defended his statement, saying, “What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”

So we can pass judgment on white people who commit acts against minorities, but we must refrain from passing judgment on Muslims who commit acts of terror?

It sounds like Obama’s Muslim roots are rearing their ugly head again.

Which reminds me…wasn’t he going to find himself a nice, Christian Church once he got to Washington?

How’s that going?

lsm
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