I hadn’t gotten around to watching this until just now. Maybe you’re in the same boat, so I’m sharing the whole thing. 30 minutes worth. Some nice before bed content.

And by the way, the idea that the conservative blogosphere is floating that Obama didn’t want the Seals to take the shot is decimated in this video. He was involved in a very substantial manner and that’s all there is to it.

Thoughts?

He’s dead.

Discuss.

And he says that he acted alone.

We shall see…

From Reuter:

“He’s admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,” the law enforcement source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He’s claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,” the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.

If links were found between the failed Times Square bombing and Pakistan’s Taliban, which claimed responsibility for it, Pakistan could come under renewed U.S. pressure to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.

Meanwhile, some conservatives are balking at reading an American citizen his Miranda rights?

– “I think obviously that [mirandizing Shahzad] would be a serious mistake until we’ve — at least until we find out as much information as we have, and there are ways — legal ways — of delaying that.” — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

– “I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.” — Rep. Peter King (R-NY)

John McCain? Mr. Habeas Corpus himself? Seriously?

Even Joe Lieberman is getting in on the “no miranda” act…

I think it’s time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship, and therefore be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act.

So how exactly would we be able to determine that an American citizen’s rights be revoked before we know whether or not they did what they’re accused of?

Oh those pesky rights!

Oddly enough, Glenn Beck and I see eye to eye on this one…

Beck added, “He’s a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens.” When Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade interjected, “But he’s a threat to the country. That’s different,” Beck responded, “So are a lot of citizens of the country. … We don’t shred the Constitution when it’s popular.”

“So are a lot of citizens of this country.”

I never thought I’d say this, but thank you Glenn Beck!

More as it develops…

By now you know that he was nabbed last night at JFK International Airport, but do you know how it happened?

From Politico:

The number from a disposable cellphone led FBI agents to the suspect arrested Monday night for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening, according to a senior official.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official said.

A huge law-enforcement force tracked the suspect through the afternoon and evening. He was arrested at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from the bomb-laden 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in Times Square. But investigators were able to lift it from a second location on the vehicle, and used that to track down a Connecticut man who said he had sold the Pathfinder for cash about three weeks ago.

The man had offered the vehicle on Craigslist, and FBI agents were able to recover the number from a disposable cellphone that had been used by the buyer.

The suspect didn’t still have the phone. But using a lot of technology and access to database, agents located the suspect.

Here’s my question…that last part…he didn’t have the cell phone, but they were able to use “a lot of technology and access to database”…what does that mean? Was he part of a database? Did they already know who he was? Was he on some list?

Also, here’s one nugget I think many of us haven’t seen yet…he almost got away!

After media reports late Monday that authorities were looking for a Pakistani-American man, Shahzad fled to Kennedy airport, boarding a flight for Dubai before law enforcement called the plane back to the terminal and the arrest was made.

Regardless, glad to see that the government caught the guy that they think did it…but we should all be cautious given our record in the past.

Here’s more on Shahzad, how he became a citizen and what that means:

Despite becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen on April 17, 2009, Shahzad spent much of the past year outside of the country, mostly in Pakistan where his wife, Huma Mian, is currently living. Details of his activities abroad remain unclear, but a picture of his life in American began to emerge Tuesday.

Shahzad, along with his wife and children, a boy and a girl, lived for about three years in a two-story Colonial-style three-bedroom home in Shelton, Conn., former neighbors said.

Neighbors offered diverging descriptions of Shahzad but agreed that he kept to himself. One, Brenda Thurman, said Shahzad had told her husband he worked on Wall Street, while another neighbor, Audrey Sokol, said she thought he worked in nearby Norwalk.

“He was a little bit strange,” she said. “He didn’t like to come out during the day.”

Sokol, a teacher who lives next door to Shahzad’s old house, said that he would wave and say hello and that he seemed normal to her.

Shahzad was currently living with a roommate in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multi-family homes in Bridgeport, Conn. Authorities removed filled plastic bags from that house overnight and a bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.

He became a citizen in Hartford, Conn., and passed all the criminal and national security background checks required for citizenship, officials said.

The officials familiar with the inquiry say investigators plan to go through his citizenship application line by line to see if he lied about anything.

If Shahzad did try to blow up that SUV in Times Square, he’ll represent what many Americans fear: a foreign born naturalized citizen turned against us within our own shores. Basically, somebody who would be nearly impossible to stop from carrying out something truly horrific since he’s “one of us.”

Still, I would argue that this seems no different than a lone nut getting angry and flying his plane into a building…except this attempt wasn’t successful. The media spent maybe a day or two on that story. How long will they spend digging into Shahzad’s past, motives, etc.?

More as it develops…

Looks like their may be a Pakistani connection after all, but it still doesn’t appear that those who initially claimed responsibility are tied to this.

From ABC News:

The Washington Post, quoting Obama Administration sources, said the attempted bombing “increasingly appears to have been coordinated by several people in a plot with international links.”

Other law enforcement officials said the investigation was closing in on the driver of the vehicle and an unknown number of others connected to him.

“This is moving very fast because they left behind a treasure trove of evidence in the unexploded car,” one US official told ABC News.

And here’s more on the former owner of the vehicle and who he sold his SUV to…

Officials told ABC News Senior Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas that the Connecticut owner of the vehicle told them he had sold the Nissan SUV last month in an unrecorded sale to an “Arabic or Latino looking man” in his 20′s or 30′s, for a few hundred dollars in cash.

The license plate on the car was apparently stolen from an auto repair shop outside Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to law enforcement officials.

The authorities told ABC News that the previous owner provided a description of the man who bought the car, and told investigators the vehicle was sold for several hundred dollars in cash, with no written records identifying the purchaser.

By the way, the administration has officially deemed this a terrorist act. So that’s why the title was written that way.

More as it develops…

From the looks of the video, this guy could have been caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Still, investigators can’t ignore any leads right now.

More as it develops…

A group associated with the Taliban in Pakistan is claiming responsibility, but that’s already pretty much been debunked since a) the bomb sucked and b) the same group claimed responsibility for other situations that they weren’t involved with.

And then there’s the South Park/Viacom story, which seems very thin at this point.

All we do know at this point is the SUV contained a lot of flammable material…but not necessarily a viable or sophisticated bomb.

Here’s a graphic that explains what was in the car.

So, would it have been enough to do any serious damage? Officials claim the material in the truck could have cut it in half had it been ignited, and they’re still not sure what the fertilizer-looking substance is.

In short, even though this could have done some damage…it looks like whoever put this together was an amateur at best…

Ms Napolitano said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security and the City of New York were examining security video from the area around the vehicle, a Nissan SUV, which was towed early on Sunday to a forensic lab in Queens after a robotic arm was used to break the windows and remove the most dangerous materials.

There was no information to suggest that there are any other terrorism targets linked to the incident and the evidence so far suggested that this was a “one-off attempt”, Ms Napolitano told Fox News.

“There are a lot of cameras in that area,” she said, adding that fingerprints had been recovered from the vehicle.

My gut tells me that somebody will be picked up pretty soon. Here’s more on a possible suspect…

Kelly, during a news conference at One Police Plaza in downtown Manhattan, said that they have identified the registered owner of the Nissan Pathfinder found with deadly explosives. The license plate on the vehicle was linked to the registration of another vehicle, which was found in an auto repair shop in Connecticut, he said.

The license plates were not stolen, but Kelly would not clarify how the license plates of the vehicle in Connecticut were placed on the Pathfinder.

Police have reviewed hours of surveillance footage and found a white male in his 40s who looked ‘furtively’ toward the car with the bombs, Kelly said. Police said they were unsure if the unidentified man was involved in the scare.

The surveillance footage showed that the man changed from a dark-colored shirt on Shubert Alley, about half a block from where the car was parked on West 45th Street and 7th Avenue. As he walked away from the scene, the man then, looked back toward the vehicle, roughly at the time that the bombs were scheduled to explode, authorities said.

A white male in his 40s? Hmmmm…

More as it develops…

Well, not really.

But the administration is backing off the proposal to try certain foreign terrorists in the regular court system. The reversal is for terrorists who declared war on the US, then plotted and directed the worst attack on US soil from abroad .

The Washington Post reports:

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president’s advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

Duh.

The argument that the mastermind of 9/11 should be tried in civilian court never made sense to me, or evidently to a lot of people, including Democrats.

That being said, there is a good argument that can be made for de-emphasizing the lesser terrorist attempts like the Christmas day underwear bomber. Why would the underwear bomber be different? Because highlighting these lesser attempts and treating them like they are Khalid Sheik Mohammed elevates their status among their compatriots, providing the fame and reputation that young strident “true believers” often seek. If we provide non-stop news coverage, a Presidential address, and the US military swooping in every time some punk shoots up a shopping mall, you can expect more “true believers” to be attracted to going out in a blaze of glory. I am not convinced that the existence of military tribunals or even Gitmo are “recruiting tools” for these folks, but the psychological benefits of having the leader of the free world appear on TV and utter your name just might be.

Military tribunals have passed constitutional muster, and are just as valid as civilian courts. What we need now is a bi-partisan, national policy regarding what conditions merit their use.

Cross posted to FrankHagan.com

Recently, discussion on Donklephant.com centered around a perceived bias on the part of the Drudge Report in not featuring the recent domestic terrorism attack on an IRS building in Texas. Concern was also expressed that police in Austin “refused to call it terrorism.”

The administration must be listening. Obviously bowing to the pressure from the “Big Teeth, Huge Ass, Surprisingly Reasonable” community, someone from the Obama Administration has boldly stepped forward and called the November 7, 2009 Fort Hood attack “terrorism” for the first time:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year’s deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act, according to a search of news clips and transcripts.

I fully expect Drudge to make the same kind of admission … in a few months.

Cross posted to FrankHagan.com

Yes, an additional $1.5B in aid to homeowners in Nevada gets priority over a plane being flown into a government facility on purpose.

The terrorism link doesn’t even have a picture or is highlighted in red (I circled it just to point it out), which is usually what Drudge does with an important story that has been replaced.

By the way…

Here’s CNN right now…

Fox News…

and MSNBC…

Just a friendly reminder…

I guess it’s only terrorism if you’re a Muslim?

From Fox News:

A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an Austin, Texas, office building where nearly 200 federal tax employees work on Thursday, igniting a raging fire that sent massive plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the seven-story structure.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the incident was a single act by a sole individual, who appeared to be targeting the federal building. He refused to classify it as terrorism.

“I call it a cowardly, criminal act and there was no excuse for it,” Acevedo said at a news conference.

But wait, it’s not just the police. Newly elected Senator Scott Brown actually used this opportunity to push the Republican agenda…

Congratulations Massachusetts!

On Meet The Press today, John Brennan (Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism) said the following when asked about Cheney’s comments:

“I’m very disappointed in the vice president’s comments,” Mr. Brennan said, describing himself as neither a Democrat nor a Republican. “Either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president’s position both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he’s taken, or he’s ignorant of the facts.

“And in either case it doesn’t speak well of what the vice president is doing. The clear evidence is that this president has been very, very strong. In his inaugural address he said we’re at war with this international network of terrorists. We continue to say that we’re at war with al Qaeda.”

Mr. Brennan added that “partisan politics should be put aside when something as important to national security as the threat of terrorism . . . continues to haunt us. And we have to make sure that we stay focused on al Qaeda. And so that’s what I’m going to do in this job. I don’t care what Republicans or Democrats say out there. We need to continue to prosecute this war because al Qaeda the organization needs to be destroyed.”

Cheney doesn’t care what the facts are, he doesn’t care about the consequences of his words…he simply wants to harm Obama (and Dems) in the eyes of all conservatives and possibly even right leaning independent hawks. It’s shameful stuff, but there it is nonetheless.

My question: what will make Cheney stop?

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial. The term was first recorded in the 1930s. There is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant and that the actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an impressive example and as a warning.

From Wikipedia.

Attorney General Eric Holder decided to try several terrorists in criminal court … in New York City. At the scene of the crime, as it were.

This decision led to a large rally in opposition this past weekend, as chronicled in the FrumForum:

The growing public outrage over Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try the 9/11 plotters in a civilian court was on full display this past weekend in New York City. A rally organized by 9/11 Never Forget drew a large crowd of protesters and a list of high-profile speakers to Foley Square, the heart of the federal government’s court system in Manhattan. Cold temperatures and driving rain did not deter those assembled from letting it be known that no good can come from Holder’s plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in federal court.

Despite the fact that the long-standing tradition of trying war criminals in military tribunals, and the Congress’ work in formulating tribunal procedures that passed constitutional muster, Holder expressed the view that trying the mastermind of the largest attack on a civilian population would somehow show the world how noble we are.

But a recurring theme of the political leaders is that the trials could not possibly result in an acquittal for the defendants, so “don’t worry” about that. Republicans and Democrats have echoed this view, including Senator Lindsay Graham in the first 25 seconds of this video, with Holder’s agreement:

The U.S. legal system purports to offer “blind justice”, complete with robust constitutional rights to protect the accused. These trials violate at least two of the principles underlying that goal.

It is unthinkable that the accused would be forced to stand trial in the emotional center of the crime. An inflamed jury does not reach a fair and impartial decision. An attorney that doesn’t promptly ask for a change of venue from “the scene of the crime” provides grounds for an appeal.

It will be hard finding an impartial jury anywhere in the US, but nearly impossible in New York City. Moving the trial to another large city, with the necessary security apparatus already in place, is a must.

But its unlikely that this very basic legal protection will be afforded these defendants. One of the stated purposes is to hold the trial at the scene of the crime, and defense attorneys, wishing for the most publicity they can garner for their own self-aggrandizement, will short change the rights of the accused.

Even if the trial is held in, say Chicago, the most serious problem still exists: we do not pre-judge the outcome of trials. While prosecutors often state their confidence in their cases, the mayor, governor or, even our dear President, should not:

In one of a series of TV interviews during his trip to Asia, Mr. Obama said those offended by the legal privileges given to Mohammed by virtue of getting a civilian trial rather than a military tribunal won’t find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.”

Mr. Obama quickly added that he did not mean to suggest he was prejudging the outcome of Mohammed’s trial. “I’m not going to be in that courtroom,” he said. “That’s the job of the prosecutors, the judge and the jury.”

President Obama, as quoted by CBS News.

Despite his legendary quick thinking, evidenced here by the President immediately trying to wipe the doo-doo from his shoe, his administration’s plan is revealed: the fix is in.

Holder has already told us the outcome of the trial regardless of the verdict: if found not guilty, we will detain and try the defendants as enemy combatants.

And that will show the world how fair we are?

Cross posted to FrankHagan.com

Ahh, I “love” the political critters in the House. Why?

Just watch…

Here’s the thing, the reason these folks can get away with nonsense like this is because congressional districts have been so gerrymandered as to be almost completely red or blue. And given that Rep. Foxx is from North Carolina’s 5th district (very safely Republican) she can keep on talking like this till she’s blue (or red) in the face. And it’ll get her famous, quick.

Just look at Michele Bachmann, a virtual nobody before she started talking crazy on shows like Hardball and Glenn Beck’s cavalcade of crazy. Now she’s being favorably profiled by George Will? And let’s not forget Foxx’s South Carolina cousin Rep Joe Wilson. He jumps so far over the line that even his fellow Republicans chide him, and yet he becomes a folk hero and raises $1M in donations online in short order.

And trust me, this isn’t limited to just Republicans. Dems have said their fair share of nonsense too. But why are these folks being applauded, promoted and revered? Why aren’t they seen as the sideshows they really are?

Yes, yes, I know I’m posting this video and so I’m part of the promotion of this meme, but I point this out to raise the broader topic question….How in the hell did we get here? And is there any way back?

As you can see below, the title of this post was an actual caption on Fox News.

So their argument is basically, “Because Universal Health Care brings about more diversity, it’s more likely to attract terrorists because Muslims will fit in and not be noticed. Best to have private practices where white, Christian doctors make up the majority. That way they’ll spot the Muslims who are likely to be reading jihadist web pages at work.”

Fox News: Breeding Ground For Morons?

NY times article…

Nothing has been proven, but it sounds all too intriguing…at least to a cartoonist.

From AP:

Gen. David Petraeus said the number of attacks in Afghanistan over the last week hit the highest level since the December 2001 fall of the Taliban.

“Some of this will go up because we are going to go after their sanctuaries and safe havens as we must,” Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said during a speech at the Washington think-tank Center for a New American Security.

“But there is no question the situation has deteriorated over the course of the past two years in particular and there are difficult times ahead,” he said.

So how much violence?

There were more than 400 insurgent attacks last week, including ambushes, small arms volleys, assaults on Afghan infrastructure and government offices, and roadside bomb and mine explosions. In comparison, attacks in January 2004 were less than 50 per week.

Extremist attacks in the rural nation tend to increase in the summer months, and in part are spurred by military efforts to crack down on insurgents, Petraeus said.

It looks like we’re going to be there for a while. And I think most Americans are fine with that since Afghanistan always has been the central front in the fight against Islamic extremism.

Why we didn’t finish the job when we had the chance will be one of those things historians look back on and shake their heads about. But we’re there now and we can’t allow it, or Pakistan, to descend into chaos. Especially since Pakistan has nukes. That would be bad, bad news.

This is awful…

The man charged with killing abortion provider Dr. George Tiller claimed Sunday that more violence is possible while the medical procedure is allowed to continue, giving his warning in calls that also focused on complaints about his treatment in jail.

Scott Roeder, being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in Tiller’s killing one week ago, called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail. [...]

“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal,” Roeder said.

He would not elaborate.

Won’t elaborate?

Well, we have ways of making terrorists like this talk, right?

Because the guy is obviously a domestic terrorist, makes no apologies for it and claims more killings will happen. Isn’t this exactly the type of ticking bomb scenario situation that many claim enhanced interrogation tactics can address?

So let’s get this thing done before more innocent people die!

Quick! The clock is ticking!!!

And regarding those complaints about his treatment in jail…

In two separate calls to AP on Sunday morning, Roeder was far more talkative about his treatment at the Sedgwick County jail, complaining about “deplorable conditions in solitary” where he was kept during his first three days there.

Roeder said it was freezing in his cell. “I started having a bad cough. I thought I was going to have pneumonia,” he said.

He said he called AP because he wanted to emphasize the conditions in the jail so that in the future suspects would not have to endure the same conditions.

Roeder also said also wanted the public to know he has been denied phone privileges for the past two days, and needed his sleep apnea machine.

This whole situation is ironic for so many reasons.

More as it develops…