Anyway, the trial of the 9/11 mastermind and his minions is about to begin, and they're proudly pleading guilty:
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants have said they want to plead guilty at a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo Bay.
But Mr Mohammed said he would postpone entering his plea until an investigation into the mental state of two of his co-defendants was complete.
Military Judge Col Stephen Henley had ordered the probe into whether the two were mentally competent to stand trial.
The five men face death sentences if convicted of roles in the 2001 attacks.
But Mr Mohammed said he would postpone entering his plea until an investigation into the mental state of two of his co-defendants was complete.
Military Judge Col Stephen Henley had ordered the probe into whether the two were mentally competent to stand trial.
The five men face death sentences if convicted of roles in the 2001 attacks.
KSM, of course, is the man who personally beheaded reporter Daniel Pearl on the Internet. Naturally, the ACLU objects:
The ACLU released this statement on today's news:
The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union who is at Guantánamo observing today's proceedings:Proud defenders of murderers, thugs, and terrorists everywhere, that's the ACLU.
"This afternoon's hearing was just another chapter in the Guantánamo military commissions debacle. Neither the military judge nor the accused are clear about how these proceedings will move forward. What is abundantly clear is that no matter how hard the government tries to advance the military commissions, this process doesn't work. Questions of the death penalty and the competence of several of the defendants are still unresolved – and not likely to be resolved. The only solution is to shut the military commissions down and start from scratch."
One of the other terrorists interrupted the court proceedings to make this statement:
"I want to send my greetings to Osama bin Laden, and I want to reaffirm my allegiance," Binalshibh said from his seat in the high-security courtroom.
"I hope the jihad continues and strikes the heart of America with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction."
What does this tell you? These terrorists are proud of what they've done, believing it is the highest calling and success they can achieve, even if it means they get executed. Execution isn't exactly a downside to them - remember the honored martyr status and the 72 virgins? [Side note: do female suicide bombers believe they get 72 male virgins in the afterlife?] And, to top it off, they announce their desire to see their comrades continue slaughtering Americans (and Jews, don't forget the Jews!) through WMDs if possible.How do you think negotiations are going to go with people like this?
Well, you may be thinking, maybe it's just these particular nutcases. Hm, let's see:
It was a spiritual experience.
(Fars)
The official Iranian news service was excited to report on the Muslim chanting in the Desert of Arafat.
Fars News reported:
(Fars)
The official Iranian news service was excited to report on the Muslim chanting in the Desert of Arafat.
Fars News reported:
Disavowal of Pagans ritual started in the sacred desert of Arafat on Sunday attended by a huge group of Iranian pilgrims as well as pilgrims from other countries.That's more than a couple crazy guys in that picture, wouldn't you say? It's the mindset, the philosophy, the religion of these people to kill and destroy for no other reason than that others are not Muslim. That's it. Period. That's all there is to it. When is America going to wake up to that? I fear it won't happen until New York, Washington DC, or Los Angeles gets nuked. Even then, it may not happen. Thomas Sowell at NRO once again proves his mastery of the times:
The pilgrims chanted anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans during the ceremony also attended by the Supreme Leader's representative for Hajj affairs, Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri.
"God is Great", "There is no Deity but Allah", "Death to Israel", and "Death to America" were among the slogans chanted by the masses in unison as they gathered in the Desert of Arafat, 20 km (12 miles) from Mecca, for a day of prayer and meditation, the Islamic republic news agency reported.
The faithful - men clad in two-piece seamless white shrouds and women all covered except for their hands and faces to symbolize equality - converged on Arafat by bus and on foot.
Will the horrors unleashed by Islamic terrorists in Mumbai cause any second thoughts by those who are so anxious to start weakening the American security systems currently in place, including government interceptions of international phone calls and the holding of terrorists at Guantánamo?
Maybe. But never underestimate partisan blindness in Washington or in the mainstream media where, if the Bush administration did it, then it must be wrong.
Contrary to some of the more mawkish notions of what a government is supposed to be, its top job is the protection of the people. Nobody on 9/11 would have thought that we would see nothing comparable again in this country for seven long years.
Many people seem to have forgotten how, in the wake of 9/11, every great national event — the World Series, Christmas, New Year's, the Super Bowl — was under the shadow of a fear that this was when the terrorists would strike again.
They didn't strike again here, even though they have struck in Spain, Indonesia, England, and India, among other places. Does anyone imagine that this was because they didn't want to hit America again?
Could this have had anything to do with all the security precautions that liberals have been complaining about so bitterly, from the interception of international phone calls to forcing information out of captured terrorists?
Too many people refuse to acknowledge that benefits have costs, even if that cost means only having no more secrecy when making international phone calls than you have when sending e-mails, in a world where computer hackers abound. There are people who refuse to give up anything, even to save their own lives.
A very shrewd observer of the deterioration of Western societies, British writer Theodore Dalrymple, said: "This mental flabbiness is decadence, and at the same time a manifestation of the arrogant assumption that nothing can destroy us."
There are growing numbers of things that can destroy us. The Roman Empire lasted a lot longer than the United States has lasted, and yet it too was destroyed.
Millions of lives were blighted for centuries thereafter, because the barbarians who destroyed Rome were incapable of replacing it with anything at all comparable. Neither are those who threaten to destroy the United States today.
The destruction of the United States will not require enough nuclear bombs to annihilate cities and towns across America. After all, the nuclear destruction of just two cities was enough to force Japan to surrender — and the Japanese had far more willingness to fight and die than most Americans have today.
How many Americans are willing to see New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles all disappear in nuclear mushroom clouds, rather than surrender to whatever outrageous demands the terrorists make?
Neither Barack Obama nor those with whom he will be surrounded in Washington show any signs of being serious about forestalling such a terrible choice by taking any action with any realistic chance of preventing a nuclear Iran.
Once suicidal fanatics have nuclear bombs, that is the point of no return. We, our children, and our grandchildren will live at the mercy of the merciless, who have a track record of sadism.
There are no concessions we can make that will buy off hate-filled terrorists. What they want — what they must have for their own self-respect, in a world where they suffer the humiliation of being visibly centuries behind the West in so many ways — is our being brought down in humiliation, including self-humiliation.
Even killing us will not be enough, just as killing Jews was not enough for the Nazis, who first had to subject them to soul-scarring humiliations and dehumanization in their death camps.
This kind of hatred may not be familiar to most Americans but what happened on 9/11 should give us a clue — and a warning.
The people who flew those planes into the World Trade Center buildings could not have been bought off by any concessions, not even the hundreds of billions of dollars we are spending in bailout money today.
They want our soul — and if they are willing to die and we are not, they will get it.
Maybe. But never underestimate partisan blindness in Washington or in the mainstream media where, if the Bush administration did it, then it must be wrong.
Contrary to some of the more mawkish notions of what a government is supposed to be, its top job is the protection of the people. Nobody on 9/11 would have thought that we would see nothing comparable again in this country for seven long years.
Many people seem to have forgotten how, in the wake of 9/11, every great national event — the World Series, Christmas, New Year's, the Super Bowl — was under the shadow of a fear that this was when the terrorists would strike again.
They didn't strike again here, even though they have struck in Spain, Indonesia, England, and India, among other places. Does anyone imagine that this was because they didn't want to hit America again?
Could this have had anything to do with all the security precautions that liberals have been complaining about so bitterly, from the interception of international phone calls to forcing information out of captured terrorists?
Too many people refuse to acknowledge that benefits have costs, even if that cost means only having no more secrecy when making international phone calls than you have when sending e-mails, in a world where computer hackers abound. There are people who refuse to give up anything, even to save their own lives.
A very shrewd observer of the deterioration of Western societies, British writer Theodore Dalrymple, said: "This mental flabbiness is decadence, and at the same time a manifestation of the arrogant assumption that nothing can destroy us."
There are growing numbers of things that can destroy us. The Roman Empire lasted a lot longer than the United States has lasted, and yet it too was destroyed.
Millions of lives were blighted for centuries thereafter, because the barbarians who destroyed Rome were incapable of replacing it with anything at all comparable. Neither are those who threaten to destroy the United States today.
The destruction of the United States will not require enough nuclear bombs to annihilate cities and towns across America. After all, the nuclear destruction of just two cities was enough to force Japan to surrender — and the Japanese had far more willingness to fight and die than most Americans have today.
How many Americans are willing to see New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles all disappear in nuclear mushroom clouds, rather than surrender to whatever outrageous demands the terrorists make?
Neither Barack Obama nor those with whom he will be surrounded in Washington show any signs of being serious about forestalling such a terrible choice by taking any action with any realistic chance of preventing a nuclear Iran.
Once suicidal fanatics have nuclear bombs, that is the point of no return. We, our children, and our grandchildren will live at the mercy of the merciless, who have a track record of sadism.
There are no concessions we can make that will buy off hate-filled terrorists. What they want — what they must have for their own self-respect, in a world where they suffer the humiliation of being visibly centuries behind the West in so many ways — is our being brought down in humiliation, including self-humiliation.
Even killing us will not be enough, just as killing Jews was not enough for the Nazis, who first had to subject them to soul-scarring humiliations and dehumanization in their death camps.
This kind of hatred may not be familiar to most Americans but what happened on 9/11 should give us a clue — and a warning.
The people who flew those planes into the World Trade Center buildings could not have been bought off by any concessions, not even the hundreds of billions of dollars we are spending in bailout money today.
They want our soul — and if they are willing to die and we are not, they will get it.
Sadly, our brethren in Britain have essentially given up without a fight. They are sliding down the slope of destruction by peaceful means -- outright capitulation -- and are probably too far gone to come back now. Muslims are a large minority in that country, and the small majority doesn't seem inclined to stem the tide of that growth, nor the religious requirements that come along with that Muslim population, including Sharia law. In just one generation, the majority of the nation will be Muslim, and it will be a done deal. Without Britain, America is truly the last pillar of freedom left standing in this world.
This is the ideological battle of the 21st century. Will we wake up and fight it (to win it), or will we roll over and follow the Roman Empire's decay or Britain's capitulation? By the way, the barbarians didn't just blow away the Roman Empire at its peak - they just happened to come along at a time when the Roman Empire was a rotten, stinking, and corrupt shell of its former powerful self. Faced with a determined enemy that was more willing to die for victory, the Roman shell cracked, and the Empire officially died because the core underneath was a bloated mass of unsubstantial-ness. If the Roman Empire had remained uncorrupted, free, and politically incorrect, there is no reason to think the greatest military machine the planet had seen to that point would have had trouble with a bunch of barbarians.
Sound familiar? Only this time, the barbarians might have nuclear weapons. Speaking of which, Iran has tripled its arsenal of long-range rockets. How many dots to we need to connect before we see the big picture?
There's my two cents.
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