Take the Highway

As the budget house burns down the president leaves for a fundraiser at Al Sharpton's National Action Network while scolding Congress on his way out of town:

"At a time when you are struggling to pay your bills and meet your responsibilities, the least we can do to meet our responsibilities is produce a budget. That is not too much to ask for. That is what the American people expect of us, that's what they deserve. You want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games and realize it is not my way or the highway," President Obama said in Pennsylvania before he is set to hold a fundraiser tonight.

Does anyone really think he's talking about the actual 2011 budget? Because that would be a condemnation of Nancy Pelosi for never bringing it to a vote before the November election (despite having the supermajority). Funny time for pointing out the foot-dragging if one is sincerely condemning the politics.

But we've come to expect it from the only "adult" in the room, who is once again floating above the political fray while feverishly playing his part in the Democratic floor dance to either 1) shame the GOP into capitulation, which Wasserman-Schultz will immediately spin as victory while pointing out how upset it will make the Tea Party, or 2) goading them into actually closing the government, which will immediately be called 'extremism' by every liberal mouth within media range.

Is there a win for the GOP in shutting things down? Doesn't seem an easy one, if so. But it certainly appears easy to explain why Obama filed his reelection papers this week--fond memories of Clinton/Gingrich dancing through his head. The only wild card this time is whether the public is childish enough to fall for it or gets madder than hell over a bunch of children who can't manage their credit card debt. We shall see.

Journo-Treason?

Interesting story today about an ABC journalist who in the mid 90s became a confidential informant for the FBI after the Oklahoma City bombing:

The journalist “advised that a source within the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service advised that the Oklahoma City bombing was sponsored by the Iraqi Special Services who contracted seven (7) former Afghani Freedom Fighters out of Pakistan,” an April 17, 1996 FBI memo states, recounting the then-ABC journalist’s interview with FBI agents a year earlier on the evening of the April 19, 1995 bombing. (The Iraqi connection, of course, never materialized.)

I'm still a little fuzzy on the whole 'never materialized' thing, perhaps because the public investigation of the Murrah attack was so darned private. The FBI once talked of "others unknown" but once they fried McVeigh and sent Nichols to the Supermax it was case closed.

Anyway, having just read Jayna Davis' book "The Third Terrorist" this was an interesting development. She discusses the Saudi connection and Cannistraro beginning on page 37 by mentioning an ABC News report on April 19 by John McWethy saying the FBI had been watching several Islamic groups in Oklahoma before the attack. While not mentioning the Saudi source, she relates an interesting encounter between Cannistraro and McVeigh defense attorney Stephen Jones (who was convinced there was a middle eastern component to the attack) two pages later:

"The government is not interested in a foreign plot. It has its perpetrators and they don't want anyone or anything complicating it".

Cannistraro's name would come up a few years later in an interview by ABC News reporter Sheila MacVicar regarding the possibility of bin Laden and Saddam joining forces. That aired in 1999 but oddly, after Bush actually invaded Iraq, Cannistraro became more of a dove. MacVicar is now the London correspondent for CBS and sadly, McWethy was killed in a skiing accident in 2008, not to say either of them were in any way involved.

The question is why the FBI would sign up a journalist at ABC while Cannistraro was also there as an expert, able to provide them with the same info since he was giving it to the reporter. The answer might be 'to check up on him'. The 'how' of such a thing is unknown--he was ex-CIA counter-terror and we've read umpteen stories about how the two don't get along. But there was also supposedly a "wall" between FBI and CIA at the time, so maybe people were trying to pass notes around it using former players. The story says:

FBI officials declined to identify the reporter, but confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that the bureau did in fact treat the reporter as a potential confidential source for a limited period of time as it tried to ascertain the validity of the information suggesting Iraqi involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Which seems to suggest they didn't trust Cannistraro. Iraq was getting blamed for a lot back then, even by the president, but an act of war was something that couldn't be spun politically. They also had to worry about being played by the Saudis. Obviously they didn't trust Davis' investigation, rebuffing her many times then finally taking her dossier only to lose it.

Then again, Davis' data is heavy on the circumstantial and light on the evidence. She failed to convince me that Hussein al-Hussaini, a Shia Muslim Iraqi immigrant whose artist father was targeted by Saddam, was in any way involved in the event. The man was recently busted for drunk and disorderly in Massachusetts--why would be still be in America? The Iraqi connection to Oklahoma City seems to be missing quite a few dots.

However, she did help advance the Terry "the farmer" Nichols goes to Cebu City to get bomb-making tips from Ramzi Yousef story, which if ever proven true would leave some bigtime splainin' for the Clinton bunch since they let everyone believe it was only far right radicals (which is why it will never happen in our lifetimes, Wiki Leaks or not).

KSM and Holder, Again

My, my, wasn't our Attorney General a bit flustered while explaining his reversal of the venue for KSM and friends. He blamed just about everyone except himself and his boss for all the delay, even though it was his department that stopped KSM's Bush-era tribunal in its tracks, delaying and politicizing everything.

But here we are again. Two questions remain for me--one, Holder has never explained exactly why it was so important to try KSM in Manhattan federal court instead of Gitmo. Two, he's never suggested that alleged Cole bomber al-Nashiri should be tried in federal court, only a tribunal.

There are some conventional wisdom answers to both. One, he delayed KSM to make an ideological point about federal courts and fighting the war on terror in general, and two, Nashiri attacked a military asset. Never mind that KSM attacked the biggest military target--the Pentagon, it's probably a given that the KSM delay and NY trial were all part of the close Gitmo, blame Bush plank of the Democratic Party.

Keep in mind one of the first actions Obama took was to throw out al-Nashiri's tribunal to review the case. Only now is the beginning in sight again, despite no suggestion he would ever be tried in federal court. So why the 2 year delay? There was no complication from Congress. So please with the "it's time for justice" stuff--they wasted two years.

Anyway, in reading through the unsealed federal indictment the motive of teh Barack Holder team becomes a bit more clear. The supporting information in the intro goes back to 1989 when bin Laden first formed al Qaeda, detailing his move to the Sudan and then Afghanistan and mentioning his two declarations of war against America. But there were no mentions of all the attacks. Mohammed's role seems to begin in 1999.

Ironically most of those unmentioned 90s attacks occurred with Holder was with the Justice Department working under Reno. There was also no mention of the prior indictment against KSM, issued in 1996...guess they didn't want people speculating on what might not have occurred had we got him back then.

And of course, no mention of all the previous terrorist attacks KSM had already copped to in his first Gitmo trial. For those who've forgotten, here's KSM's laundry list of attacks he claims to have engineered. Oh right though, he exaggerated. The left said so. And of course all those were gained via waterboarding. Some even bought the story that he was killed in the raid.

But Holder's super clean 9/11-only trial would have gotten rid of all those loose ends, including recent evidence that indeed it was KSM's cursed hand that slashed the throat of Daniel Pearl. And since that was one of the ones they said he exaggerated perhaps somebody might also ask why he said he was involved with the shoe bomber plot to bring down "two" airplanes. We only know of one.

Burning Korans

Said the top US envoy in Afghanistan:

"I don't think we should be blaming any Afghan. We should be blaming the person who produced the news – the one who burned the Quran," he said.

So blame the nutball American pastor for burning a book but NOT the firebrand Imam who stirred a mob into beheading innocent people? Criminy. What next--Koran burning becomes a hate crime in America?

Yes, yes, it's clear the act was provocative and threatening to our troops. That's the point. And no, it's not clear whether some Taliban members inserted themselves into the mob and did the killing to force outrage in America and Europe leading to calls for withdrawal. If so that's exactly the kind of terror we are still fighting. Yet the people who didn't do any killing were also marching out of rage--and they helped target the UN, who did nothing to deserve any rage other than being a symbol of the west. Tell us again this is not a holy war.

It's tiresome. If we can't get the terrorists, many of whom are hiding in Pakistan and Iran, and we can't affect change in the country, then we are wasting our time over there.

MORE 4/3/11

Time magazine blames Karzai for the massacre but also admits they engage in media conspiracies to spike stories they don't want to publicize (just as their favorite president was about to go to kinetic action in Libya):

For once we had to agree with Jones, at least partially. The media did its part to keep his March idiocy from spreading into tragedy. This time the guilt lies with the guy in the cape and karakul – who aside from being an allegedly corrupt politician, is one we now know uses tactics that are as medieval as the Florida preacher's are.

OK, agreed about Karzai (although have to wonder about Iran as well) but Time didn't fail to get their shots in at the preacher (a Neanderthal). For comparison, wonder how Time covered the "Piss Christ" and "Mary in elephant dung" art exhibits that outraged many Christians across the world back in the day?

Well, here's one article that basically bashes conservative Senators for expressing outrage over PC; here's one talking about artistic expression and Christian icons; and here's one referring to the pushback over the Virgin Mary in elephant crap exhibit as an "attack" on art by mayor Giuliani. So, had Jones only set up his Koran burning display as a art exhibit in the front yard of his church he would have left many journalists seriously conflicted. Theoretically, at least.

MORE 4/5/11

Right Truth points to a woman named Ann Barnhardt who has something to say to Lindsay Graham. A lot, actually. While she seems a tad hostile she did admit to having more 'balls' than everyone else, so there ya go. Whatever the case, all her counter-points to his Sunday comments were correct. Not sure if that means the left will tag her as an extremist tea bagger or agree with her with reservations, it's just hard to tell anymore.

Aviation Update

This past week we had the story about a bullet hole in a US Airways jet:

The FBI, who are investigating the incident, said that the hole extended from the jet's skin into the cabin, and praised the pilot for discovering it. They have collected the spent bullet as evidence and sent it for ballistic analysis.

The story went on to say that a tiny bullet hole would not cause rapid depressurization. Today we see this story:

Passenger Brenda Reese said Flight 812 had just left Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for Sacramento, Calif., when a "gunshot-like sound" woke her up. She said oxygen masks dropped for passengers and flight attendants as the plane dove.

Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Los Angeles, said the pilot "made a rapid, controlled descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet altitude."

"Just left" is misleading; obviously the plane was out of rifle range since it was already at cruising altitude when the event occurred, well west of Phoenix. The witness-described sound of a 'gunshot' is merely a coincidence. As mentioned in the article, fuselage ruptures are not unheard of. They went on to explain how holes might occur:

Holes in aircrafts[sic] can be caused by metal fatigue or lightning. The National Weather Service said the weather was clear from the Phoenix area to the California border on Friday afternoon.

Or as seen on the US Airways plane, from gunshots. The question is whether a an unforeseen gunshot hole could cause a peel away event at altitude.

At any rate, this past week has not been a good one for commercial aviation in general. After the saga of the sleeping tower controller we've seen an 'air conditioning system' problem cause the controlled dive of a Qantas jet in Australia, a similar air conditioning problem resulting in the diversion of an American jet in the US, and the weird event featuring 'middle eastern' looking men acting strangely, causing another diversion.

Not a good week for Southwest either considering the Florida event where a 737 crew agreed to emulate a fighter jet in trying to determine why a prop plane was not responding to ATC radio calls. Maybe a sleeping pilot! Anyway, as they say, stuff happens, the question is always whether it's the normal stuff or other stuff. The bottom line is that nobody got hurt.

MORE 4/3/11

Another day, another apparent decompression event. American 883 enroute from Boston to St. Thomas took a dive from cruising altitude to 10,000 feet in a hurry and diverted to JFK. According to flight tracking site FlightAware, the 757 dropped from 35,000 to 10,000 in 3 minutes, then bounced back up to 21,000 feet a minute later, then back down to 10,000 feet after another 3 minutes. Part of that dipsy doodle could be a reporting glitch, but at any rate it was a pretty rapid descent. No word on the cause of the pressurization problem.

Side Tracks

"I want to talk to the pilot,
He's in charge of my dreams.
But he insists on vanishing
Just as soon as he thinks he's been seen."

Carrying Water

Michael Scheuer said it--Dan Gainor wrote it:

Where have all the war protesters gone, long time passing?

They’re mostly backing Obama’s attack on Libya or at least keeping quiet so they don’t aid those evil conservatives intent on criticizing the president. More moderate lefties had once promised a third way. Now we find out that was a typo. It’s not a third way, it’s a third war.

The hypocrisy is stunningly predictable, of course. Our intrepid media long ago lost all hope of objectivity when they imbibed so much Obama kool aid they were unable to vet him. Now, in a weird parallel, lefties are doing it again, exemplified by this comment from our Secretary of State:

“The opposition has demonstrated a ‘commitment to democracy and to a very robust engagement with people from across the spectrum of Libyans,’ but ‘we do not have any specific information about specific individuals from any organization who are part of this,’ she said.”

So once again, like Obama, the rebels are 'too good to check'. Well, guess we can always hope and pray things work out.

SNARK ATTACK 4/1/11

Can't help but point out that when Bush went into Iraq his detractors on the left often said he didn't know the difference between Shia and Sunni, proving he was an imbecile. That was a misnomer of course, because he and all his advisors knew the difference very well, if nothing else from being around Bush 41 and that gang. Now as we go into Libya the administration openly admits it doesn't know the difference between terrorist and freedom fighter--and chances are good they don't--but now it doesn't matter.