The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results 12.20.13

The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is for everyone to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction.  And tolerance goes both ways…

It is easy to stand-up and support freedom of speech when you agree with what is being said.  It is tough, but necessary when you disagree!!  Remember, every regulation on the freedom of speech makes each of us just a little less free!! 

h/t to the NoisyRoom

The Silencing of the Ducks 

Free Speech… Only for Progressives These Days?

Dedicated to the Robertson Family and Duck Dynasty

“Free speech is an endangered species;

those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ & taking on Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing personal opinion, take us all on,” …Sarah Palin Tweeted

The Council Has Spoken!, the votes have been cast, and another Watcher’s Council match up is engraved in the vast halls of cyberspace!

The winner this week, The Right Planet’s excellent I Don’t Believe In Defeat is aptly named, because it concerns the mindset and the tactics used in times of conflict. Here’s a slice:

A little while back I was on Twitter and started to express my frustration with something I’ve seen too much over my lifetime; and it’s only gotten worse, in my opinion. I’m referring to what I would call a “spirit of defeatism.”

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve listened to people say they believe the whole game is rigged, so to speak. The “man” is in total control and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. In the end, according to the defeatists, we’re just cogs in a giant machine being controlled by mysterious dark forces that we have no control over; but they have total control over us, as the story goes; we are simply helpless victims who are powerless to do anything about it: “It’s just how it is.”

This sort of defeatism has never sat well with me, because at the end of the day–even if it were all true, and it may be, for all I know–it’s an excuse to do absolutely nothing about anything. Why should one waste any energy trying to change something for the better that cannot be changed?

But I can’t help, at times, to feel the frustration, anger, and even downright demoralization, of living in a world where so much evil does exist. I always agreed with Ephesians 6:10 in the Bible: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I don’t believe in defeat, even though defeat may be a part of life, even our own–which brings me to the ancient military philosopher Sun Tzu and his view of defeat. Years ago I read the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The book left a big impression on me. It is not a lengthy work. One might argue it’s not really a book per se.

Although Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, it really is a collection of maxims from many sources throughout history that Sun Tzu collected and organized, along with his own maxims on war. I quickly discovered it’s not a book you read just once and put down; it’s really a reference you return to over and over again. People refer to the Bible regularly as a reference, and often see something new in it each time they read it. Sun Tzu’s treatise is much the same way; it could be thought of as the bible on warfare.

One day, not too long ago, following a day of frustration with certain individuals who I would say are seriously afflicted with the cancer of defeatism, I got on Twitter and sent out the following Tweet:

Brent Parrish ® ‏ @therightplanet1

Sun Tzu did not believe in DEFEAT. He just changed tactics when confronted w/ a superior or inferior force. ONE WORD: VICTORY! #USA

Thomas Huynh @SunTzuShine Follow

@therightplanet1 You got that right

What’s interesting is who replied. It wasn’t just anybody; it was Thomas Huyne. At first, I wasn’t sure who he was, but for some reason his name and face just rang a bell. And then I thought about it a little more and wondered if I had seen him interviewed somewhere, or if it was his name that I recognized. The only thing I could think of was a rare documentary on Sun Tzu and The Art of War I saw on the History Channel a while back. So I Tweeted Mr. Huyne and asked him if he had anything to do with the documentary. Huyne responded by saying, yes, indeed, he was one of the primary consultants for the History Channel’s documentary on The Art of War.

Much more at the link

In our Non-Council category,the winner was Council alumni David Gerstmanfrom Le.gal In.sur.rec.tion with Al Qaeda is on the Run …to Everywhere submitted by Liberty’s Spirit.

David took on President Obama’s famous statement about al-Qaeda being ‘on the run’ and gave it a pretty vicious going over..a great read.

OK, here are this weeks’ full results. Both The Razor and The Mellow Jihadi were unable to vote this week, but neither was subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! The Right Planet – I Don’t Believe In Defeat
• Second place with 3 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit - “American Betrayal”.. A Review
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –The Noisy Room – Inside the Empire of Horror
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Bookworm Room – To sell their ideas, conservatives must first re-train Americans to recognize their humanity
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – “Horrible person”
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Nice Deb – ObamaCare Whistleblower: I was Told IRS Harassment ‘Came From The Top’ (Audio)
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – A Dozen Candidates In Congressional District 36 GOP Primary
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! - Snowden Revisited: Hero or Zero Now?
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro: the alternatives
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Fargham, Iranian space monkey (& friends)
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Political Commentator – The Ghost of Obamacare Yet to Come: UK healthcare in shambles!

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – David Gerstman/Le.gal In.sur.rec.tion – Al Qaeda is on the Run …to Everywhere submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – Martin In The Margins – Understanding the new Christian anti-Zionism: Part 1 submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Bob Tisdale/Watts Up With That? – Open Letter to the Executive Producers of YEARS of LIVING DANGEROUSLY submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Phyllis Chessler –Beneath the burqa — a bruised and badly beaten teenager submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - David P. Goldman/ PJ Media – It’s About the Settlements, Stupid submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - David J. Shestokas – Natural Law and the Legitimate Authority of the United States submitted by The Right Planet
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -War Is Boring – ‘Ender’s Game’ and Maneuver Warfare submitted by Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - House Of Marathon – Courting a Nemesis Out of Necessity: An Israeli-Saudi Alliance submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -  David Bernstein/Volokh COnspiracy – Is Refusing to Provide Commercial Services for a Circumcision Discrimination against Jews? submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - National Journal - Politics trumped policy, truth for Obama’s reelect submitted by Bookworm Room
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Allen West – Maybe we need Michelle “Death Stare” Obama to negotiate with Iran submitted by The Noisy Room
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Mises Institute - Starvation and Military Keynesianism: Lessons from Nazi Germany submitted by The Political Commentator
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Althouse – “National Security Agency officials are considering a controversial amnesty that would return Edward Snowden to the United States…” submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Cato @ Liberty – The Constitution Still Applies on College Campuses submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote - Truth Revolt - Unions Paid MSNBC’s Schultz $177,000 in 2012, $75,000 in 2013 submitted by Nice Deb

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Still Think There Is No War on Christmas – WoC 2013
• Maggie’s Notebook – IRS Targeting Now ‘Reverse-Engineered’ to Isolate, Shut Down TEA Party: Clintons See Limitless Future
• The Optimistic Conservative – Biofuels for defense: Cronyism and the banality of evil
• The Pirate’s Cove – The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug – My Take

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

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Obama/Biden Montage: "We Decimated Al Qaeda"

Video: Obama/Biden Montage: "We Decimated Al Qaeda" - h/t to The Five for putting this together!!

Really??? So what happened?  If Al Qaeda was decimated, why are we now under alert with American Embassies closed (primarily) in Africa and in the Middle East due to threats by Al Qaeda?  Seems a little too convenient as Washington tries to sell us on the need for the NSA monitoring all our communications and building new mega data centers to store it.  And with all that spying going on, how come we keep missing all the important data?

Technorati Tags: you be the judge,decimation,lies,Al Qaeda,Obamaland,Obama,Biden,Islam,manipulation of the public,video,The Five,Fox,smoke and mirrors,Fox News

Bilderberg Conference 201l Update and More – InfoWars

 

Video:  Bilderberg Conference of Global Power Brokers set to Meet 1/2 – Alex Jones

How the Empire Will Prevail:  Will Washington Foment War Between China and India

Video:   Hillary Clinton Admits the U.S. Government (CIA) Created al-Qaeda… guess from Alex’s video, so did Nancy Pelosi

Video:   Hillary Clinton Says CFR Gives Her Orders  and Barnacle 100 turns out to be a coward)  Guess that makes ole Hillary a crazy conspiracy theorist  too telling of how the Council on Foreign Relations controls governments.

 

Video:  Prominent Swiss Politician Calls For Arrest of Kissinger at Bilderberg

Bilderberg 2011 To Discuss Potential Collapse of Europe

Biilderberg 2011: All aboard the Bilderbus

Related:

Video:  Illuminati New World Order Fema Coffins & Concentration Camps

Startling revelations from a Swiss banking insider

(interview with a Swiss banker done in Mosсow 30.05.2011)

Q: Can you tell us something about your involvement in the Swiss banking business?

A: I have worked for Swiss banks for many years. I was designated as one of the top directors of one of the biggest Swiss banks. During my work I was involved in the payment, in the direct payment in cash to a person who killed the president of a foreign country. I was in the meeting where it was decided to give this cash money to the killer. This gave me dramatic headaches and troubled my conscience. It was not the only case that was really bad but it was the worst.

It was a payment instruction on order of a foreign secret service written by hand giving the order to pay a certain amount to a person who killed the top leader of a foreign country. And it was not the only case. We received several such hand written letters coming from foreign secret services giving the order to payout cash from secret accounts to fund revolutions or for the killing of people. I can confirm what John Perkins has written in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. There really exists just a system and Swiss banks are involved in such cases.

Q: Perkins book is also translated and available in Russian. Can you tell us which bank it is and who was responsible?

A: It was one of the top three Swiss banks at that time and it was the president of a country in the third world. But I don’t want to give out to many details because they will find me very easily if I say the name of the president and the name of the bank. I will risk my life.

Q: You can’t name any person in the bank either?

A: No I can’t, but I can assure you this happened. We were several persons in the meeting room. The person in charge of the physical payment of the cash came to us and asked us if he is allowed to payout such a big amount in cash to that person and one of the directors explained the case and all others said ok you can do it.

Q: Did this happened often? Was this kind of a slush fund?

A: Yes. This was a special fund managed in a special place in the bank were all the coded letters came in from abroad. The most important letters were hand written. We had to decipher them and in them was the order to pay a certain amount of cash from accounts for the assassination of people, funding revolutions, funding strikes, funding all sorts of parties. I know that certain people who are Bilderbergers were involved in such orders. I mean they gave the orders to kill.

Q: Can you tell us in what year or decade this happened?

A: I prefer not to give you the precise year but it was in the 80’s.

Q: Did you have a problem with this work?

A: Yes, a very big problem. I could not sleep for many days and after a while I left the bank. If I give you too many details they will trace me. Several secret services from abroad, mostly English speaking, gave orders to fund illegal acts, even the killing of people thru Swiss banks. We had to pay on the instructions of foreign powers for the killing of persons who did not follow the orders of Bilderberg or the IMF or the World Bank for example.

Q: This is a very startling revelation that you are making. Why do you feel the urge to say this now?

A: Because Bilderberg is meeting in Switzerland. Because the world situation is getting worse and worse. And because the biggest banks in Switzerland are involved in unethical activities. Most of these operations are outside the balance sheet. It is a multiple of what is officially declared. Its not audited and happening without any taxes. The figures involved have a lot of zeros. Its huge amounts.

Q: So its billions?

A: Its much more, its trillions, completely unaudited, illegal and besides the tax system. Basically it’s a robbery of everybody. I mean most normal people are paying taxes and abiding by the laws. What is happening here is complete against our Swiss values, like neutrality, honesty and good faith. In the meetings I was involved in, the discussions where completely against our democratic principles. You see, most of the directors of Swiss banks are not locals anymore, they are foreigners, mostly Anglo-Saxon, either American or British, they don’t respect our neutrality, they don’t respect our values, they are against our direct democracy, they just use the Swiss banks for their illegal means.

They use huge amounts of money created out of nothing and they destroy our society and destroy the people world wide just for greed. They seek power and destroy whole countries, like Greece, Spain, Portugal or Ireland and Switzerland will be one of the last in line. And they use China as working slaves. And a person like Josef Ackermann, who is a Swiss citizen, is the top man at a German bank and he uses his power for greed and does not respect the common people. He has quite a few legal cases in Germany and also now in the States. He is a Bilderberger and does not care about Switzerland or any other country.

Q: Are you saying, some of these people that you mention will be at the up-coming Bilderberg meeting in June in St. Moritz?

A: Yes.

Q: So they are currently in a position of power?

A: Yes. They have huge amounts of money available and use it to destroy whole countries. They destroy our industry and build it up in China. On the other hand they opened up the gates in Europe for all Chinese products. The working population of Europe is earning less and less. The real aim is to destroy Europe.

Q: Do you think that the Bilderberg meeting in St. Moritz has symbolic value? Because in 2009 they where in Greece, 2010 in Spain and look what happened to them. Does this mean Switzerland can expect something bad?

A: Yes. Switzerland is one of the most important countries for them, because there is so much capital here. They are meeting there because apart from other things they want to destroy all values that Switzerland stands for. You see it’s an obstacle for them, not being in the EU or Euro, not totally controlled by Brussels and so on. Regarding values I am not talking about the big Swiss banks, because they are not Swiss anymore, most of them are lead by Americans. I am talking about the real Swiss spirit that the common people cherish and hold up.

Sure it has symbolic value, as you said, regarding Greece and Spain. Their aim is to be a kind of exclusive elite club that has all the power and everybody else is impoverished and down.

Q: Do you think that the aim of Bilderberg is to create a kind of global dictatorship, controlled by the big global corporations, were there are no sovereign states anymore?

A: Yes and Switzerland is the only place left with direct democracy and its in their way. They use the blackmail of “too big to fail” as in the case of UBS to put our country in big debt, just like they did with many other countries. In the end maybe they want to do with Switzerland what they did with Iceland, with all the banks and the country bankrupt.

Q: And also bring it in to the EU?

A: Of course. The EU is under the iron grip of Bilderberg.

Q: What do you think could stop this plan?

A: Well that’s the reason I speak to you. Its truth. Truth is the only way. Put a light on this situation, expose them. They don’t like to be in the spotlight. We have to create transparency in the banking industry and in all levels of society.

Q: What you are saying is, there is a correct side to the Swiss banking business and there are a few big banks that are misusing the financial system for their illegal activities.

A: Yes. The big banks are training their staff with Anglo-Saxon values. They are training them to be greedy and ruthless. And greed is destroying Switzerland and everybody else. As a country we have a majority of the most correct operating banks in the world, if you look at the small and midsize banks. Its just the big ones who operate globally that are a problem. They are not Swiss anymore and don’t consider themselves as such.

Q: Do you think it is a good thing that people are exposing Bilderberg and showing who they really are?

A: I think the Strauss-Kahn case is a good chance for us, because it shows these people are corrupt, sick in their minds, so sick they are full of vices and those vices are kept under wraps on their orders. Some of them like Strauss-Kahn rape women, others are sado maso, or paedophile and many are into Satanism. When you go in some banks you see these satanistic symbols, like in the Rothschild Bank in Zurich. These people are controlled by black-mail because of the weaknesses they have. They have to follow orders or they will be exposed, they will be destroyed or even killed. The reputation of Strauss-Kahn is not only killed in the mass media, he could be killed also literally.

Q: Since Ackermann is in the steering committee of Bilderberg, do you think he is a big decision maker there?

A: Yes. But there are many others, like Lagarde, wo will probably be the next IMF head, also a member of Bilderberg, then Sarkozy and Obama. They have a new plan to censor the internet, because the internet is still free. They want to control it and use terrorism or what ever as a reason. They could even plan something horrible so that they have an excuse.

Q: So that is your fear?

A: Its not only a fear, I am certain of it. As I said, they gave orders to kill, so they are capable of terrible things. If they have the feeling they are losing control, like the uprising now in Greece and Spain and maybe Italy will be next, then they can do another Gladio. I was close to the Gladio network. As you know they instigated terrorism paid by American money to control the political system in Italy and other European countries. Regarding the murder of Aldo Moro, the payment was done thru the same system as I told you about.

Q: Was Ackermann part of this payment system at a Swiss bank?

A:  (S m i l e) … you are the journalist. Look at his career and how fast he made it to the top.

Q: What do you think can be done to hinder them?

A: Well there are many good books out there that explain the background and connect the dots, like the one I mentioned by Perkins. These people really have hit men that get paid to kill. Some of them get their money thru Swiss banks. But not only, they have a system set up all over the world. And to expose to the public these people that are prepared to do anything to keep control. And I mean anything.

Q: Thru exposure we could stop them?

A: Yes, telling the truth. We are confronted with really ruthless criminals, also big war criminals. Its worse then genocide. They are ready and able to kill millions of people just to stay in power and in control.

Q: Can you explain from your view, why the mass media in the west is more or less completely silent regarding Bilderberg?

A: Because there is an agreement between them and the owners of the media. You don’t talk about it. They buy them. Also some of the top media figures are invited to the meetings but are told not to report anything they see and hear.

Q: In the structure of Bilderberg, is there an inner circle that knows the plans and then there is the majority who just follow orders?

A: Yes. You have the inner circle who are into Satanism and then there are the naive or less informed people. Some people even think they are doing something good, the outer circle.

Q: According to exposed documents and own statements, Bilderberg decided back in 1955 to create the EU and the Euro, so they made important and far reaching decisions.

A: Yes and you know that Bilderberg was founded by Prince Bernard, a former member of the SS and Nazi party and he also worked for IG Farben, who’s subsidiary produced Cyclone B. The other guy was the head of Occidental Petroleum who had close relations to the communists in the Sowjetunion. They worked both sides but really these people are fascists who want to control everything and everybody and who gets in their way is removed.

Q: Is the payment system you explained outside of normal operations, compartmentalized and in secret?

A: In those Swiss banks the normal employees don’t know this is happening. Its like an own secret department in the bank. As I said these operations are outside of the balance sheet, with no supervision. Some are situated in the same building, others are outside. They have their own security and special area where only authorized people can enter.

Q: How do they keep these transactions out of the international Swift system?

A: Well some of the Clearstream listings where true in the beginning. They just included fake names to make people believe the whole list is fake. You see they also make mistakes. The first list was true and you can trace a lot of things. You see, there are people around that discover irregularities and the truth and they tell it. Afterwards of course there are law suits and these people are forced to shut up.

The best way to stop them is to tell the truth, put the spot light on them. If we don’t stop them we will end up as their slaves.

Q: Thanks you for this interview.

Peter Odintsov  -  Moscow May 30th, 2011

Source:  HoBblin DeHb

Video:  !!A DAY BEFORE 911!! 2.3Trillion Lost by The Pentagon!.mp4

h/t to Jean Stoner

Sleeper Cells in the USA

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8528/pub_detail.asp

snip:

During January 2003 and Feb 2003, Saudi Intelligence officers would boast that the American military was overreacting about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.  Their bravery changed as we approached the invasion of Iraq in Mar 2003.  The high-ranking Saudi officers were scrambling to obtain gas masks and other protective equipment.  They knew their equipment was substandard and they wanted U.S.-made protective equipment.  We gave them some of ours.  The Saudi Intelligence officers were visibly frightened about a potential chemical, biological, or nuclear attack and expressed their fears.

While in Iraq we determined the following:

1. Russian activity in Iraq had been rampant several months prior to the war and up until the day before the invasion.

2. Iranians were infiltrating southern Iraq by the thousands and were preparing to assist insurgents in removing U.S. forces from Iraq.

3. We found numerous pieces of evidence indicating WMD were in Iraq before the war began and some were still in Iraq.

4. I and other agents were informed by Iraqis that a civil war would erupt and violence against U.S. forces would increase due to the Iranian and Russian influence.

All of this information was provided through intelligence channels, but was ignored. Today we are seeing the results of our intelligence being ignored in 2003.
snip

I began conducting research and talking with experts from various fields and determined three significant facts that I corroborated by further research:

1. The terrorists groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda each had different leaders and to some degree operated in different ways, but they each had the same two goals (destroy Israel and destroy America and any country that supported either).

2.  Our nuclear research centers were very vulnerable to an attack and the potential for a suicide bomber using a dirty radiological bomb from these facilities was and is a high probability. Note: Vic Walter and Brian Ross of ABC News did an excellent report on the lack of security at these facilities. I received an enormous amount of information from individuals associated with Russian nuclear programs that there is nuclear material being sold on the black market and nuclear material is in the hands of Islamic Extremists. 

3. Terrorist sleeper cells are located primarily in Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, California, and Canada. The "sleepers" are prepared to conduct terrorist attacks within the U.S., and nuclear material is available to them. "Prepared" in this instance indicates they have the necessary tools to carry out their attacks and are prepared to die.

4. Non profit organizations such as CAIR, ISNA, MANA, MSA, and several other Islamic based groups are in actuality simply fronts for Al Qaeda and Hamas. The leadership within these groups receives funds and training from the Saudi government. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows these groups to operate freely throughout the U.S. and at American’s taxpayer’s expense. Essentially the IRS grants the groups immunity and the authority to train, organize, and prepare for attacks against our country. Why? Because CAIR and other such groups have a confidential informant network much better than even our FBI. CAIR uses contractors such as Corey Saylor (Simple Resolve Company) to place interns into our elected official’s offices, and into organizations such as the IRS.

Terrorist operations are active in the U.S. and are being operated/financed by Al Qaeda throughout the U.S.

U.S. citizens need to understand there are people trained and prepared to carry our suicide missions in the U.S. and nothing are off limits.  Churches, malls, and even the schools our children attend are not off limits to suicide bombers. It is only a relatively short time before the U.S. will begin seeing suicide terrorist missions.  Full Article:

Sleeper Cells in the USA

Dave Gaubatz

There is every reason to suspect that we will endure suicide missions by Islamist sleeper cells. They are already in place. They are waiting for the right time. I know this from experience.

I have worked over 15 years as a U.S. Federal Agent, a U.S. State Department Arabic linguist, and the first civilian Federal Agent deployed into Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.  Since returning from Iraq I have been involved in terrorism analysis, specifically the mindset of terrorists. During my extensive research on sleeper cells I have talked with hundreds of people from the Middle East from all walks of life, and have talked with Iraqi Government officials, Iraqi military and Iraqi police officers.  In addition I have interviewed numerous counter-terrorism specialists in the U.S. and abroad.  In 2006 I trained over 4000 U.S. Law Enforcement officers in Basic Investigative Arabic and counter-terrorism. The conclusions of my research lead to the title of this article.

Before I departed for the Middle East in 2003 I had been assigned to Kirtland AFB, NM.  Kirtland has some of the best scientists in the world working on U.S. Government projects.  I had been working closely with these scientists who specialized in nuclear energy, directed energy, laser technology, bio-weapons and more.  I fully understand the impact if suicide bombers begin progressing from conventional explosives to unconventional methods.

The Middle East

In Jan 2003, I was assigned to Arar Air Base Saudi Arabia.  Arar is located near the border of Iraq. My mission was to interact with Saudi military officials in order to determine the support we could expect from the Saudi government, to determine if Iraqis were monitoring the activities of the U.S. forces at Arar, and to infiltrate the encampments of the Bedouin community (Saudis and Iraqis living in the desert of Arar). This involved leaving the relatively safe confines of Arar Air Base and driving to the Bedouin camps.

It was most important the Saudis did not know we were leaving the compound because they had forbidden us to do so.  Four U.S. special Agents would use our ATV's and/or four wheel drive vehicles to conduct these missions. The Saudi Government had active spies collecting information pertaining to our troop strength, our weapons, and any other intelligence they could obtain. The Saudis were providing the intelligence to the Saudi Government, and we were very confident it was also being passed to Iraqi intelligence.

During January 2003 and Feb 2003, Saudi Intelligence officers would boast that the American military was overreacting about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.  Their bravery changed as we approached the invasion of Iraq in Mar 2003.  The high-ranking Saudi officers were scrambling to obtain gas masks and other protective equipment.  They knew their equipment was substandard and they wanted U.S.-made protective equipment.  We gave them some of ours.  The Saudi Intelligence officers were visibly frightened about a potential chemical, biological, or nuclear attack and expressed their fears.

While in Iraq we determined the following:

1. Russian activity in Iraq had been rampant several months prior to the war and up until the day before the invasion.

2. Iranians were infiltrating southern Iraq by the thousands and were preparing to assist insurgents in removing U.S. forces from Iraq.

3. We found numerous pieces of evidence indicating WMD were in Iraq before the war began and some were still in Iraq.

4. I and other agents were informed by Iraqis that a civil war would erupt and violence against U.S. forces would increase due to the Iranian and Russian influence.

All of this information was provided through intelligence channels, but was ignored. Today we are seeing the results of our intelligence being ignored in 2003.

Vulnerability at home
Upon returning from Iraq I left Federal Service to pursue a career educating U.S. law enforcement in the U.S.  I wrote a book titled "Arabic for law enforcement and military". During my lectures to local, county, and state law enforcement officers it was revealed the true first line defenders in the U.S. are not trained nor prepared to combat terrorism in the U.S. (through no fault of their own).  The local law enforcement agencies were not receiving adequate funds or assistance from the Federal Government to fight terrorism.  The majority advised they were supposed to be the first line defenders, but in actuality they did not even know what Al-Qaeda meant, and/or could not point out Iraq or Iran on a map. They had no Arabiclanguage training.

I began conducting research and talking with experts from various fields and determined three significant facts that I corroborated by further research:

1. The terrorists groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda each had different leaders and to some degree operated in different ways, but they each had the same two goals (destroy Israel and destroy America and any country that supported either).

2.  Our nuclear research centers were very vulnerable to an attack and the potential for a suicide bomber using a dirty radiological bomb from these facilities was and is a high probability. Note: Vic Walter and Brian Ross of ABC News did an excellent report on the lack of security at these facilities. I received an enormous amount of information from individuals associated with Russian nuclear programs that there is nuclear material being sold on the black market and nuclear material is in the hands of Islamic Extremists.

3. Terrorist sleeper cells are located primarily in Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, California, and Canada. The "sleepers" are prepared to conduct terrorist attacks within the U.S., and nuclear material is available to them. "Prepared" in this instance indicates they have the necessary tools to carry out their attacks and are prepared to die.

4. Non profit organizations such as CAIR, ISNA, MANA, MSA, and several other Islamic based groups are in actuality simply fronts for Al Qaeda and Hamas. The leadership within these groups receives funds and training from the Saudi government. TheInternal Revenue Service (IRS) allows these groups to operate freely throughout the U.S. and at American’s taxpayer’s expense. Essentially the IRS grants the groups immunity and the authority to train, organize, and prepare for attacks against our country. Why? Because CAIR and other such groups have a confidential informant network much better than even our FBI. CAIR uses contractors such as Corey Saylor (Simple Resolve Company) to place interns into our elected official’s offices, and into organizations such as the IRS.

Terrorist operations are active in the U.S. and are being operated/financed by Al Qaeda throughout the U.S.

U.S. citizens need to understand there are people trained and prepared to carry our suicide missions in the U.S. and nothing are off limits.  Churches, malls, and even the schools our children attend are not off limits to suicide bombers. It is only a relatively short time before the U.S. will begin seeing suicide terrorist missions.

I will continue to research terrorism related issues in the U.S. and Canada and will bring forward the results. Nuclear reactors are located on a large number of major university campuses in the U.S. There locations are not classified and are described on the internet.

Children are the ones who suffer in wartime and I want to prevent any child from ever having to experience a terrorist attack.

In Feb, 2007, I wrote the above article for ‘American Thinker’. I have updated the information for readers.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dave Gaubatz spent 20 years as an active duty USAF (Special Agent/OSI), 3.5 years as a civilian 1811 Federal Agent, trained by the U.S. State Department in Arabic, and was the first U.S. Federal Agent to enter Iraq in 2003. He is also a counterterrorism counterintelligence officer. He is co-author of the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America. His websiteis here, and he can be reached at davegaubatz@gmail.com.

Cheney’s Speech – The Top 10 Lines

Former Vice President Dick Cheney spoke Thursday on national security at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank. Here are the top ten lines in the speech, as compiled by the editors of FOX Nation:

No. 10:  The administration has found that it’s easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo. But it’s tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America’s national security.

No. 9:   In the category of euphemism, the prizewinning entry would be a recent editorial in a familiar newspaper that referred to terrorists we’ve captured as, quote, “abducted.” Here we have ruthless enemies of this country, stopped in their tracks by brave operatives in the service of America, and a major editorial page makes them sound like they were kidnap victims, picked up at random on their way to the movies.

No. 8:  If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

No. 7: Yet having reserved for himself the authority to order enhanced interrogation after an emergency, you would think that President Obama would be less disdainful of what his predecessor authorized after 9/11. It’s almost gone unnoticed that the president has retained the power to order the same methods in the same circumstances. When they talk about interrogations, he and his administration speak as if they have resolved some great moral dilemma in how to extract critical information from terrorists. Instead they have put the decision off, while assigning a presumption of moral superiority to any decision they make in the future.

No. 6:  To completely rule out enhanced interrogation methods in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and would make the American people less safe.

No. 5: This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the Left, “We brought it on ourselves.” It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America’s moral standards, one way or the other.

No. 4: Intelligence officers of the United States were not trying to rough up some terrorists simply to avenge the dead of 9/11. We know the difference in this country between justice and vengeance.

No. 3: To the very end of our administration, we kept al-Qaeda terrorists busy with other problems. We focused on getting their secrets, instead of sharing ours with them. And on our watch, they never hit this country again. After the most lethal and devastating terrorist attack ever, seven and a half years without a repeat is not a record to be rebuked and scorned, much less criminalized. It is a record to be continued until the danger has passed.

No. 2: In the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed. You cannot keep just some nuclear-armed terrorists out of the United States, you must keep every nuclear-armed terrorist out of the United States. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy.

No. 1: Critics of our policies are given to lecturing on the theme of being consistent with American values. But no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things. And when an entire population is targeted by a terror network, nothing is more consistent with American values than to stop them.

Muslims: 'We Do That On First Dates'

Without any pretense of an argument, which liberals are neurologically incapable of, the mainstream media are now asserting that our wussy interrogation techniques at Guantanamo constituted "torture" and have irreparably harmed America's image abroad.

Only the second of those alleged facts is true: The president's release of the Department of Justice interrogation memos undoubtedly hurt America's image abroad, as we are snickered at in capitals around the world, where they know what real torture is. The Arabs surely view these memos as a pack of lies. What about the pills Americans have to turn us gay?

The techniques used against the most stalwart al-Qaida members, such as Abu Zubaydah, included one terrifying procedure referred to as "the attention grasp." As described in horrifying detail in the Justice Department memo, the "attention grasp" consisted of:

"(G)rasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator."

The end.

There are rumors that Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney wanted to take away the interrogators' Altoids before they administered "the grasp," but Department of Justice lawyers deemed this too cruel.

And that's not all! As the torments were gradually increased, next up the interrogation ladder came "walling." This involves pushing the terrorist against a flexible wall, during which his "head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a C-collar effect to prevent whiplash."

People pay to have a lot rougher stuff done to them at Six Flags Great Adventure. Indeed, with plastic walls and soft neck collars, "walling" may be the world's first method of "torture" in which all the implements were made by Fisher-Price.

As the memo darkly notes, walling doesn't cause any pain, but is supposed to induce terror by making a "loud noise": "(T)he false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock and surprise." (!!!)
If you need a few minutes to compose yourself after being subjected to that horror, feel free to take a break from reading now. Sometimes a cold compress on the forehead is helpful, but don't let it drip or you might end up waterboarding yourself.
The CIA's interrogation techniques couldn't be more ridiculous if they were out of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch:

Cardinal! Poke her with the soft cushions! ...

Hmm! She is made of harder stuff! Cardinal Fang! Fetch ... THE COMFY CHAIR!
So you think you are strong because you can survive the soft cushions. Well, we shall see. Biggles! Put her in the Comfy Chair! ...

Now -- you will stay in the Comfy Chair until lunchtime, with only a cup of coffee at 11.

Further up the torture ladder -- from Guantanamo, not Monty Python -- comes the "insult slap," which is designed to be virtually painless, but involves the interrogator invading "the individual's personal space."

If that doesn't work, the interrogator shows up the next day wearing the same outfit as the terrorist. (Awkward.)

I will spare you the gruesome details of the CIA's other comical interrogation techniques and leap directly to the penultimate "torture" in their arsenal: the caterpillar.

In this unspeakable brutality, a harmless caterpillar is placed in the terrorist's cell. Justice Department lawyers expressly denied the interrogators' request to trick the terrorist into believing the caterpillar was a "stinging insect."

Human rights groups have variously described being trapped in a cell with a live caterpillar as "brutal," "soul-wrenching" and, of course, "adorable."

If the terrorist manages to survive the non-stinging caterpillar maneuver -- the most fiendish method of torture ever devised by the human mind that didn't involve being forced to watch "The View" -- CIA interrogators had another sadistic trick up their sleeves.

I am not at liberty to divulge the details, except to mention the procedure's terror-inducing name: "the ladybug."

Finally, the most savage interrogation technique at Guantanamo was "waterboarding," which is only slightly rougher than the Comfy Chair.

Tens of thousands of our troops were waterboarded over the past three decades as part of their training, but not until it was done to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- mastermind of the 9/11 attack on America -- were liberal consciences shocked.
I think they were mostly shocked because they couldn't figure out how Joey Buttafuoco ended up in Guantanamo.

As non-uniformed combatants, all of the detainees at Guantanamo could have been summarily shot on the battlefield under the Laws of War.

Instead, we gave them comfy chairs, free lawyers, better food than is served in Afghani caves, prayer rugs, recreational activities and top-flight medical care -- including one terrorist who was released, whereupon he rejoined the jihad against America, after being fitted for an expensive artificial leg at Guantanamo, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Only three terrorists -- who could have been shot -- were waterboarded. This is not nearly as bad as "snowboarding," which is known to cause massive buttocks pain and results in approximately 10 deaths per year.

Normal human beings -- especially those who grew up with my older brother, Jimmy -- can't read the interrogation memos without laughing.

At Al-Jazeera, they don't believe these interrogation memos are for real. Muslims look at them and say: THIS IS ALL THEY'RE DOING? We do that for practice. We do that to our friends.

But The New York Times is populated with people who can't believe they live in a country where people would put a caterpillar in a terrorist's cell.

---

by Ann Coulter - Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and Author including:  High Crimes and Misdemeanors

The West Coast Plot: An "Inconvenient Truth"

Critics of the CIA program are desperate to convince Americans that no valuable information came from the interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and other senior terrorists.  They know that if our citizens learn the details of how enhanced interrogations stopped terrorist plots, most would support the CIA program.  A recent Pew poll showed that 71% of Americans believe that there are circumstances under which torture (not just enhanced interrogations, but actual torture) is justifiable to get information from captured terrorists.

This is why Timothy Noah of Slate (with Andrew Sullivan cheerleading him on his blog) is at such pains to debunk the story of the West Coast plot.

This was a KSM plot for a “Second Wave” attack using East Asian operatives to use shoe-bombs to hijack an airplane and fly it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles.  Noah states in a blog post that this plot was never realistic.  Here is his rationale:

The first reason to be skeptical that this planned attack could have been carried out successfully is that, as I've noted before, attacking buildings by flying planes into them didn't remain a viable al-Qaida strategy even through Sept. 11, 2001. Thanks to cell phones, passengers on United Flight 93 were able to learn that al-Qaida was using planes as missiles and crashed the plane before it could hit its target. There was no way future passengers on any flight would let a terrorist who killed the pilot and took the controls fly wherever he pleased.

Really?  Planes were off the table after 9/11?  That would come as a surprise to every passenger in the past three years who had their liquids confiscated in an airport security line.  Those security measures were instituted because in 2006 we foiled an al-Qaeda plot to hijack airplanes leaving London’s Heathrow airport and blow them up over the Atlantic (a plot our intelligence community says was just weeks from execution).  Apparently al-Qaeda didn’t get Noah’s memo explaining that hijacking airplanes for terrorist attacks is “no longer viable al Qaeda strategy.”

In his post, Noah calls the West Coast plot “Thiessen’s claim” and Anderw Sullivan calls it“Thiessen’s LA Tower Canard.”   What these two fail to appreciate is that the story of how enhanced interrogation broke up the West Coast plot is not my story — it is the official position of the intelligence community.

In my Washington Post piece, I was citing the very documents which President Obama released, which quote the CIA saying that interrogation with enhanced techniques “led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the ‘Second Wave,’ to ‘use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”  The memo released by Obama goes on the explain that “information obtained from KSM also led to the capture of Riduan bin Isomuddin, better known as Hambali, and the discovery of the Guraba Cell, a 17-member Jemmah Islamiyah cell tasked with executing the ‘Second Wave.’ ”

Again, those are not my words.  That is the position of our intelligence community.

And not just in the released memos.  In his September 2006 speech revealing the existence of the CIA program, President Bush described specifically how the interrogation of KSM led to the capture of the key operatives in this attack.  This was the most carefully vetted speech in presidential history — reviewed by all the key players from the individuals who ran the program all the way up to the director of national intelligence, who personally attested to the accuracy of the speech in a memo to the president.  And just last week on Fox News, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said he went back and checked with the agency as to the accuracy of that speech and reported:  “We stand by our story.”

In numerous subsequent speeches, President Bush said that the West Coast plot was disrupted because of the CIA program.   Each of those speeches was carefully reviewed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — and each time the DNI provided the White House with a classified memo stating that the contents of the speech was accurate and did not compromise sources and methods.  So the Director of National Intelligence has repeatedly affirmed the accuracy of the statement that the West Coast plot was disrupted because of the CIA program.  And Noah himself acknowledges in his post a CIA spokesman affirmed the accuracy of the story.

So bottom line: The intelligence community says it is so.

In his blog, Noah cites the fact that Fran Townsend, the Bush administration’s homeland-security adviser, told reporters in a February 2006 press briefing that a key cell leader in the West Coast plot was arrested February of 2002.  This, Noah points out, is before KSM came into CIA custody and underwent enhanced interrogation.  He also notes Townsend said that after the cell leader’s capture other cell members “believed” that the plot was not going forward.

I hate to break it to Noah, but this does not refute the fact that KSM’s interrogation disrupted the West Coast plot.  

It is true that a key cell leader in the West Coast plot was detained in February 2002.  According press accounts, his name was Marsan bin Arshad. What is also demonstrably true is that the captured terrorist did not lead us to the members of the cell tasked with carrying out the West Coast plot. Indeed, when KSM was captured 13 months later — in March of 2003 — almost all of the key operatives in the plot were still at large and operating with impunity.

This is what happened next:

·     *   In March of 2003, the CIA captured another key operative in the West Coast plot — a terrorist named Majid Khan.

·     *   When KSM was captured later that same month, he knew that Khan was in CIA custody — and assumed that Khan had given us the details of the West Coast plot.

·     *   KSM refused to provide any information about active plots, telling his interrogators: “Soon you will find out.”

·     *   After undergoing enhanced-interrogation techniques, KSM revealed that Khan had been told to deliver $50,000 to individuals working for a terrorist named Hambali — the leader of al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate Jemmah Islamiyah and KSM’s partner in developing the West Coast plot.

·     *   CIA officers then confronted Khan with this information from KSM.  Khan confirmed that the money had been delivered to an operative named Zubair.  He provided both a physical description and contact number for this operative — which led to the capture of Zubair in June 2003.

·     *   Zubair then provided information that led to the capture of Hambali in August 2003, along with another key operative, a JI terrorist named Bashir bin Lep (aka “Lillie”).

·     *   Told of Hambali's capture, KSM then identified Hambali's younger brother Rusman Gunawan (aka "Gun Gun") as Hambali's conduit for communications with al-Qaeda, and the leader of the JI cell that was to carry out the West Coast plot.  This information led to the capture of “Gun Gun” in September 2003 in Pakistan.

·     *   Hambali's brother then gave us information that led to a cell of 17 JI operatives — the Guraba Cell — that was going to carry out the West Coast plot.

All of these operatives were captured because of information gained from the interrogation of KSM using enhanced interrogation techniques.

To buy Noah’s argument that the plot was over before KSM’s capture, you would have to accept that premise that if Zubair … and Hambali … and Lillie … and Gun Gun … and the 17-member Guraba cell were all left at large and unmolested, they would not have eventually carried out the West Coast plot.

This flies in the face of logic — and the official position of the intelligence community.  And it is contrary to everything we know about the way al-Qaeda operates.  If we have learned anything from recent history, it is that once al-Qaeda develops a plot for a major attack, it never gives up until that attack has been carried out.  Al-Qaeda’s modus operandi is to continue going after the same target time and time again until they succeed.

In 1993, al-Qaeda tried to blow up the World Trade Center, and failed.  In 2001, al-Qaeda finished the job.

In 1995, KSM hatched the “Bojinka Plot” to hijack multiple passenger planes and blow them up over the Pacific.  The plot failed — and so al-Qaeda tried it again over the Atlantic in 2006.

From this experience, Noah takes the lesson that because one al-Qaeda cell leader in the West Coast plot was captured, al-Qaeda just gave up.  Indeed, he claims, they not only gave up on the Library Tower, after 9/11 they decided they would never try to fly a plane into a building again.  But in the same briefing Noah cites, Fran Townsend says that “the intelligence tells us that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed began to initiate [the attack on the Library Tower] in October 2001” — a month after 9/11.  She also states that “KSM, himself, trained the leader of the cell in late 2001 or early 2002 in the shoe bomb technique” — again after the 9/11 attacks.

The fact is Noah and Sullivan’s claims are absurd.  But put aside the West Coast plot off for a moment.  What about all the other plots that were stopped as a result of enhanced interrogations?

Here are some facts: On Fox News last weekend, General Hayden declared that after enhanced interrogation techniques were used on Abu Zubaydah “he gave up … information that led to the arrest of Ramzi Bin al-Shibh.”  Bin al-Shibh was KSM’s right-hand-man, and a key 9/11 plotter.  At the time of his arrest, Bin al-Shibh was in the midst of planning a 9/11-style attack on Britain, in which al-Qaeda operatives would hijack planes in Europe and fly them into Heathrow airport.  According his CIA biography, “as of his capture, Bin al-Shibh had identified four operatives for the operation.”

Enhanced interrogations also helped us capture an al-Qaeda terrorist named Ammar al-Baluchi.  Ammar had prepared Jose Padilla for his plot to blow up apartment buildings in America (which was foiled thanks to information from Abu Zubaydah), and was the one who had sent Majid Khan to deliver the $50,000 to Zubair for the West Coast plot.  According to Ammar’s CIA biography, “From late 2002, Ammar began plotting to carry out simultaneous attacks in Karachi against the U.S. Consulate, Western residences, and Westerners at the local airport…. He was within days of completing preparations for the Karachi plot when he was captured.”

These are just a few of the plots that were broken up because of information gained from CIA interrogations.  According to the intelligence community, terrorists held in CIA custody also provided information that helped stop a planned strike on U.S. Marines at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti using an explosive laden water tanker.  They provided information the helped us uncover al-Qaeda cell from developing anthrax for attacks against the United States.  And according to the memos released by the Obama administration “intelligence derived from CIA detainees has resulted in more than 6,000 intelligence reports and, in 2004, accounted for approximately half of the [Counterterrorism Center's] reporting on al Qaeda.”

General Hayden calls these facts an “inconvenient truth.”  He put it this way in his Fox News interview: “Most people who oppose these techniques want to be able to say: I don’t want my country doing this – which is a purely honorable position – and they didn’t work anyway.  That back half of the sentence isn’t true.  The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer.  It really did work.”

Former CIA Director George Tenet has said, “I know that this program has saved lives. I know we've disrupted plots. I know this program alone is worth more than [what] the FBI, the [CIA], and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us.”

Former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has said, “We have people walking around in this country that are alive today because this process happened.”

And even Obama’s director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, said in a letter to the intelligence community on April 16, 2009: “High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al-Qaeda organization that was attacking this country.”

So you can believe Hayden, Tenet, McConnell, and Blair … or Tim Noah and Andrew Sullivan. 

By Marc Thiessen

Posted:  Knowledge Creates Power

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