Category Archives: History

Let’s Get Serious about Cells in America

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This report was published by the Counter-Terrorism Center in 2008. Given the toll-free super highway since 2009 by the Obama administration, the prediction is it is much worse. The report below has citations listed at the bottom. The FBI/DHS are not going to address the truth and neither is the DoJ or the White House, it is time we take what we can and learn, then take action with lawmakers.  If you don’t think this is serious then know what happened just today (Jan. 14).     Ohio Man Arrested for Alleged ISIS-Inspired Attack on US Capitol     The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.

Christopher Lee Cornell -– also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah -– was arrested earlier today on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official.

Government documents say the FBI first noticed Cornell after he voiced support for violent “jihad” on a Twitter account.

Further investigation revealed his intent to attack the U.S. Capitol, and he planned to detonate pipe bombs there and open fire on any employees and officials after the bombs went off, according to government documents.

The FBI and Department of Homeland security issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies across the country, notifying them of the case.

“The alleged activities of Cornell highlight the continued interest of US-based violent extremists to support designated foreign terrorist organizations overseas, such as ISIL, by committing terrorist acts in the United States,” the bulletin read. “Terrorist group members and supporters will almost certainly continue to use social media platforms to disseminate English language violent extremist messages.”

 

Evaluating the Terrorist Threat Posed by African-American Muslim Groups

May 15, 2008

Author(s): Christopher Heffelfinger

The FBI introduction to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) file on Clarence Smith—aka Clarence 13X—reads only, “Smith was the leader of the ‘Five Percenters,’ a notorious Harlem street gang. He was shot to death in 1969” [1]. Yet, as a lyrical sample from Lord Jamar (a prominent Five Percenter and hip-hop artist) reads in his Greatest Story Never Told, “Allah [Clarence Smith] was assassinated in 1969, that case was never solved. His movement survived him, today it’s known as the Nation of Gods and Earths” [2]. The Five Percenters are just one facet of indigenous Muslim evolution in the United States; others, like Jama`at al-Fuqara’, retain ties to Pakistan and are ideological affiliates of militant Salafist groups such as al-Qa`ida. This article will examine trends among three predominantly African-American Islamic movements, at least one of which should be considered a domestic terrorism concern for the United States. It also serves to provide counter-terrorism professionals with knowledge enabling them to differentiate terrorist threats from more benign religious groups.

The Five Percent Nation

Clarence 13X was initially a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and attended its Temple Number Seven in Harlem, where Malcolm X preached from 1960 to 1963 [3]. One rumor claims that he left the NOI because he questioned the divinity of Wallace Fard, the founder of the NOI who claimed to bring divine inspiration to Elijah Muhammad. Clarence 13X split with the NOI in 1963 [4]. He adopted the name “Allah” and set to the streets of Harlem to educate fellow black Americans on the Supreme Mathematics, the Supreme Alphabet and the tenets of his movement, which claimed that 85% of men are easily misled, 10% understand some truth but use it for their own benefit, and five percent are enlightened divine beings [5]. Under Clarence 13X, or Allah, the Five Percenters (also called the Five Percent Nation) established a headquarters in Harlem—the Allah School in Mecca—in 1966 [6]. Today, the movement includes Busta Rhymes, members of Wu Tang Clan, Jus Allah and many other high-profile hip-hop artists.

The FOIA FBI file on Clarence Smith reveals some of the details pertaining to their concern over his activities:

“…letterhead memorandums to the Bureau dated 6/2/65, 6/9/65 and 7/9/65, all captioned ‘DISTURBANCE BY GROUP CALLED “FIVE PERCENTERS,” HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY, 5/31/65; RACIAL MATTERS,’ which contained subject under the name CLARENCE 13X SMITH aka ‘Allah,’ and which further reflected that subject was the recognized leader of the ‘Five Percenters.’

“It is noted that records of the Bureau of Special Services, (BSS), New York City Police Department, (NYCPD), reflects subject’s true name as CLARENCE SMITH JOWERS and as CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS, however, for uniformity, subject’s true last name will be carried as JOWARS until such time as investigation determines the true spelling of subject’s last name.

“CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS, aka Clarence 13X, a Negro male, born 2/21/28 in Virginia, city not known, NYCPD # B 612230, resided in Apartment 5E, 21 West 112th St., NYC, from August, 1954, through January, 1964. Subject has Social Security Number 228-28-0034. Subject served in the US Army under the name CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS or CLARENCE SMITH from 10/29/52, through 10/29/54, and had Army Serial Number 51207085. Subject had the rank of Private First Class, served in Korea, and was last assigned to Company ‘F,’ 39th Infantry, Ft. Dix, New Jersey” [7].

The final assignment is peculiar, for coincidence if no other reason. Ft. Dix was the site of the foiled plot by six young Muslim men arrested in 2007 for planning to essentially embark on a shooting spree within the base and kill as many U.S. servicemen as possible [8]. The case is still awaiting trial. Ft. Dix is significant to African-American history, as in 1969 “there were rebellions at the military prisons of Fort Dix, Fort Jackson, three times at Fort Riley, Camp Pendleton, and others. At Fort Dix, one of the prisoner demands was: ‘Free Huey P. Newton, the New York Panther 21, the Presidio 27, and all political prisoners!’” [9]

Toward the end of Clarence Smith’s FBI File, it reads:

“On 11/16/65, [REDACTED] BSS, NYCPD, advised SA that on 11/16/65, subject […] appeared in New York State Supreme Court, NYC, and was found ‘unable to understand the charges against him.’ Subject was remanded to the custody of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene for an indefinite confinement” [10].

He was assassinated in 1969 in a case that remains unsolved. Curiously, the latter pages of Clarence Smith’s FBI file read: “Subject is a Negro male, born 2/21/28 or 2/22/28, at Danville, Virginia” [11]. At one of Jama`at al-Fuqara’s (Community of the Impoverished, JF) compounds, called “Red House” [12], 24 members of the compound were convicted of firearms violations [13]. Red House sits about 66 miles from Danville, VA, Clarence Smith’s birthplace. The locations of JF’s compounds often appear laden with symbolism, but it is not yet known if the proximity of this compound to Danville has any larger significance.

What relevance do the Five Percenters have to terrorism? There is no material link between the Five Percent Nation (nor fringe groups like the Seas of David) and terrorism, but they are on a graduating spectrum in terms of radicalization. To the extreme of the Five Percent Nation is the highly militant Jama`at al-Fuqara’ that strongly rejects the tenets of the Nation of Gods and Earths [14], and instead adheres to a Salafist Islam akin to that of al-Qa`ida. Members may move toward the more militant and austere Islam of JF if they feel the Five Percenters are ineffective at effecting societal change, or if they can be convinced that their doctrine is blasphemous per Salafist norms.

Jama`at al-Fuqara’

The Salafist Jama`at al-Fuqara’ is a much more potentially threatening group. It could have as many as 30 compounds in the United States and Canada, with affiliates in the Caribbean. At these compounds, members engage in tactical training exercises and weapons training, and explosives caches have been uncovered in at least one instance. Islamberg, in Hancock, NY, is considered to be JF’s headquarters. Paul Williams, who did extensive study on the group, states,

“Though primarily based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has operational headquarters in New York and openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in hamaats or compounds, such as Islamberg, where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority” [15].

Although JF is estimated to be 95% African-American, it is not purely an Afro-nationalist movement in the United States. Its ties to overseas militant Salafist trends clearly run much deeper. Sometime in the late 1990s, Jama`at al-Fuqara’ changed its name to the “Muslims of America” and still operates as such.

It is possible there is some resonance in ideas between followers of the Five Percent Nation and followers of Jama`at al-Fuqara’. George Johnson, Jr., a retired serviceman, security analyst and African-American, said,

“I have never personally known an admitted member of Al-Furqara’. However, some of my Black Muslim friends and relatives who belong to various other Afro-centric and mainstream Islamic sects (NOI, Ansar Allah, 5 per centers, Bilalians, etc.) express some of the same doctrines and beliefs and are sympathetic to Al-Fuqara’s ideas” [16].

Yet, JF’s ideology is drastically different than that of NOI, the Five Percenters, or Seas of David. It was founded by a Pakistani cleric, Shaykh Mubarak `Ali Gilani, in Brooklyn in 1980, when he first visited the United States [17]. Shaykh Gilani’s guiding principle is to “purify” the Islamic umma through violence. One retired intelligence official with expertise on militant Islam explained in September 2007,

“At one point they ran private security firms in NYC and in Karachi, Pakistan. Their spiritual leader was Pir Sayed Gilani who lives in Pakistan, and arranged training for U.S. Fuqra members in the Pakistan camps of the Kashmiri insurgents; some American Fuqra members actually fought in Kashmir against Indian forces. Intelligence shows that Gilani is connected to Pakistan’s ISI and al-Qaeda; the WSJ’s Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview Gilani when he was kidnapped” [18].

A number of JF members have fought overseas, including in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, Bosnia and Lebanon. Others in the highly secretive group were affiliated with the Kifah Refugee Center, also known as the Brooklyn Jihad Office [19]. One member, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, an African-American Muslim convert, was convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks in 1993. He provided weapons training to fellow members at the Brooklyn Jihad Office, including El Sayyid Nosair who used that training to assassinate Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990. According to Hampton-El’s testimony, he had a meeting at the Saudi Embassy in December 1992 where Jamaican-born, Muslim scholar Bilal Phillips gave him the names of U.S. servicemen ready to finish their tours of duty. He was to recruit the men as volunteer mujahidin and paramilitary trainers for an Usama bin Ladin-sponsored insurgency in Bosnia [20].

Bilal Phillips provides more material linkages between these African-American Muslims (typically converts) and militant Salafism. Phillips’ biography on his website reads, “Bilal, who had read Malcolm X’s autobiography, visited one of the temples of the Black Muslims. Though impressed by their organization and the fact that their women dressed modestly, he found their ideology useless” [21]. He seems to have turned toward a much more austere form of Islam. There is still much more to be unraveled pertaining to Bilal Phillips and his connections to Salafist clerics in Saudi Arabia and around the Islamic world.

Seas of David/Liberty City Seven

A more recent manifestation of non-Salafist militancy is the case of the Seas of David, or Liberty City Seven. On April 16, a jury was hung in the case against the “Liberty City Seven,” who were charged with planning an attack on Chicago’s Sears Tower following a 2006 FBI raid on their warehouse and temple in Liberty City, a poor suburb of Miami [22]. This was the second trial against the group; the first ended in acquittal for one man while the jury was deadlocked over counts against the other six.

The group had no firearms, no explosives and no links to a terrorist group when they were arrested. Its leader reportedly roamed the neighborhood in a bathrobe, toting a wooden walking stick [23]. The Liberty City Seven subscribed to teachings that blended Christianity and Islam; the Seas of David, the obscure organized group of which the seven were members, developed teachings partially derived from those of the Moorish Science Temple of America, according to Narseal Batiste, the group’s alleged leader [24].

Where They Are Today

Critical for intelligence and law enforcement officials is the ability to distinguish non-violent, pietistic or spiritualist movements from Salafist-inspired ones that advocate or practice militancy. Today, the Five Percent Nation is largely leaderless, with various teachers propagating the beliefs of Clarence 13X and poses no serious terrorist threat, although gang activity and criminality is a concern. The Seas of David will, in all likelihood, dissipate and pose no further threat. Such movements, however, may serve at times as a gateway to more conservative—sometimes militant—Salafist groups, such as Jama`at al-Fuqara’. The Jama`at al-Fuqara’/Muslims of America deserves a more comprehensive treatment, as the group is clearly one of the most glaring domestic terrorism concerns for the United States.

Christopher Heffelfinger is a researcher and consultant for the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy. He contributed to the Militant Ideology Atlas, the CTC Harmony project, and the continuing CTC-FBI education collaborative at West Point. Prior to that, Mr. Heffelfinger edited two volumes on terrorism (Unmasking Terrorism, with forewords by Michael Scheuer and Gen.William Odom), and also served as editor of the weekly Terrorism Focus. He is a fluent Arabic reader and speaker, having spent time in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Mr. Heffelfinger lived in Sana`a, Yemen in 2000, and attended the same language school as John Walker Lindh. He also lived and studied with the Naqshbandi Tariqat, where he studied with native speakers refuting militant Salafist ideology through Islamic source texts.

Notes

[1] FBI File #100-444636, available at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/smith.htm.

[2] One site that includes the lyrics from the Greatest Story Never Told is www.lyricstime.com/lord-jamar-greatest-story-never-told-lyrics.html.

[3] Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 101-103.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996), p. 225.

[6] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters (Oxford: One World Publications, 2007).

[7] FBI File #100-444636, available at http://foia.fbi.gov/smith/smith1.pdf.

[8] See Troy Graham, “Man who Supplied Guns in Alleged Fort Dix Terror Plot Sentenced to 20 Months,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 2008.

[9]  “Black GIs, Rebellion and the Fall of the Flag,” Revolutionary Worker #994, February 14, 1999.

[10] FBI File #100-444636.

[11]  Ibid.

[12] Ironically, Red House shares the name of the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. The building was stormed by Jamaat al-Muslimin, an Afro-Caribbean Islamist movement, in July 1990. The group took hostages, including the prime minister, and announced that they had overthrown the government. See Ken I. Boodhoo, “Islamic Fundamentalism in the Caribbean,” LACC Publications Occasional Papers Series, Florida International University, Dialogue #135, 1992.

[13] Paul L. Williams, “Springtime in Islamberg: Radical Muslim Paramilitary Compound Flourishes in Upper New York State,” Canada Free Press, May 11, 2007.

[14] The Nation of Gods and Earths is the current name of the Five Percenters movement.

[15] Williams, “Springtime in Islamberg: Radical Muslim Paramilitary Compound Flourishes in Upper New York State.”

[16] Personal interview, George Johnson, September 14, 2007.

[17] For more information, see the South Asia Terrorism Portal file on Jama`at al-Fuqara’, located at www.satp.org.

[18] Personal interview, unnamed retired intelligence official, September 2007.

[19] “United States: The Jamaat al-Fuqra Threat,” Stratfor.com, June 3, 2005.

[20] J.M. Berger, “Al Qaeda Recruited Gulf War Vets in 1992, Effort Linked To Saudi Gov’t,” Intelwire.com, January 6, 2004.

[21] For more information on Bilal Phillips, see his official website at www.bilalphilips.com.

[22]  Justin Rood and Vic Walter, “Second Terror Mistrial Hurts Bush Administration, Critics Say Hung Jury Leads to Second Mistrial in ‘Liberty City Seven’ Case,” ABC News, April 16, 2008.

[23]  Ibid.

[24] “Indictment: Suspects Wanted to ‘Kill All the Devils We Can,’” CNN, June 24, 2006.   ***

Let’s look at more. It is time this information gets headlined for the sake of national security.  Informant: Islamic Compounds in America are Training for Jihad by Martin Mawyer, November 2012

In Hancock, NY an Islamic community that sits on 80 acres of land has decided to form its own government.  They call their community: The Town of Islamberg.  They have their own mayor, deputy mayor and five town council members.  None of them are elected, of course.

They even boast that their “town” provides departments of education, medical, finance and land development services.

This Islamic compound has truly become a city-state.  Though not recognized as a legitimate township by the City of Hancock, this Islamic community nevertheless enforces its own laws on the “citizens” within its borders.  They do so by using the iron fist of Sharia law.

I interviewed a member of this camp, which sits deep in the Catskills Mountains of upstate New York.  The Islamic group that has established this camp is part a network known as Muslims of the Americas (MOA), which has documented links to Al Qaeda.

MOA has established similar villages in nearly three-dozen locations nationwide, with other prominent camps found in Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, California and Tennessee.

The man I interviewed, Ali Aziz, painted a shocking picture of what life is like to live inside these camps and how many of their members engage in terrorist training activities. Aziz, an Egyptian Muslim, worked as an undercover informant for eight years for the New York Police Department (NYPD). During that time, he lived on MOA camps and worked closely with MOA leadership, all the time supplying the NYPD with information about illegal activity on the camps—including guerilla combat training.

Aziz was drawn into the life of an informant after police arrested him years ago on a passport violation. Aziz was fluent in both English and Arabic, and he had been an Olympic Judo athlete.

“I knew the martial arts,” he said, “which (MOA) liked. I could teach them Arabic. I could teach them how to read the Quran.”  He was welcome with open arms by MOA members and its leaders.

I have visited the outside of the Hancock compound a couple times and flown over it once. It’s typical of virtually every other MOA camp. It’s in a heavily wooded area off the beaten path, with mostly battered trailers and homes and a couple of newly constructed buildings thrown into the mix. It has dirt roads lined with old cars, new cars and junk cars. Wooded debris, discarded scrapings and demolished buildings can be seen throughout the area, giving it an unsightly appearance from above.

It has its own graveyard, similar to those found on other camps. And the property has a couple of small lakes which have been used as “open areas” to shoot their weapons across. Not surprisingly, Hancock also has a guard shack to intercept unwanted visitors.

By all accounts, Hancock—which now calls itself “The Town of Islamberg”—is the camp that houses the leaders of MOA and makes decisions for the rest of the camps throughout the United States.

Aziz provided this shocking information: MOA has created a secret jihadist army, similar to a guerilla-trained militia, that is ready to attack American citizens “at one word” from their leader, Sheikh Gilani.

One of the main purposes of the camps is to provide guerilla training for the young men—and in some cases the women—to be prepared for jihad. A videotape that I obtained exclusively shows MOA members being trained on the Hancock camp, shooting guns, pretending to attack with knives, practicing slitting throats, and strangling victims. This chilling video is proof that MOA compounds have been used to train Islamic terrorists for combat.

Aziz confirmed that the camps have stockpiles of illegal weapons.

Aziz also confirmed what my research had already shown: That the MOA’s policy was to encourage members to collect as much public assistance as possible, and the more children they had the more assistance they received, much of which is returned to Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.

Aziz explained that the residents of the MOA believe that their top leader, Sheikh Gilani, is able to travel through space and time, and that he spies on them at all times. This fear helps keep them from disobeying the strict laws of MOA and the “town” leaders.

“They think Gilani will turn them into a monkey,” he said.

MOA members are to follow Gilani’s orders blindly and without questioning. Gilani teaches his followers that “jihad” is their purpose in life. Aziz confirms that four generations of MOA members have been brought up on these camps—taught from birth to distrust Americans and to prepare for jihad. The young men are trained to be criminals. Aziz calls them “modern warrior slaves.”

For some in the MOA camps, they’ve never known any other life, said Aziz. Their schooling, where there is schooling, is laughable, possibly even criminal. In the York, South Carolina, MOA compound children are taught in a storage shed. Local authorities are fearful of even discussing how these children are taught and what they are being taught.

The most vulnerable and emotionally abused on the camps are women. “They are insecure,” Aziz said of the women. “They don’t know anything. They don’t know about the outside world. They depend on everything from a man.”

Many of the women are forced into polygamous marriages at very early ages, marriages that take place inside the camps. Aziz calls them “silent” weddings. Though such “silent” weddings are standard throughout all the villages, not all marriages are illegal.

More than 90 percent of the women are on state benefits, Aziz claims, with a portion of this money going back to Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan. “They have so many kids,” he said of the women. “Eight kids. Nine kids. They have to raise them and they don’t have a lot.”

Not a lot of money. Not a lot of housing. Frequent brutality from their husbands. And a lot of kids. That’s a woman’s fate on the camps.

Because of their seclusion, lack of education, forced marriages, fear of beatings, dependency on men and their religious slavery to Sheikh Gilani and his male lieutenants, women in the camps are stripped of any independent desire to flee. “After four generations,” Aziz said, “they are living in their comfort zone.”

Discipline on the camps is ruthless, and is executed as both punishment and to intimidate followers from ever leaving.

“This is one thing I want you to really believe,” Aziz told me in one of his most distressed moments during the interview. “If somebody breaks a command, you could be tied to a tree and hit with sticks. This is crazy.”

Members are beaten for such violations as cursing, disobedience to the leaders, lying, using birth control or even watching programs on TV they’re not supposed to watch.

“Sometimes they do a crime,” Aziz said, explaining that a “crime” is doing something forbidden by Sheikh Gilani. “Sometimes they do a crime like that and they lash you. I gave the NYPD some tapes of evidence of kids getting beat, women tied to trees, stuff like that. That put me in a bad situation because I exposed these abuses.”

“I saw a 50-year-old woman tied to a tree and getting beaten … This is what I think is the biggest disgrace, the abuse. The only thing is, nobody on the camps says anything. Of course they’re afraid.”

“Some people are there because they’re scared,” Aziz said. “They don’t know what to do. They have their children there. They’re scared of the wrath of Gilani. … They are so controlled, so brainwashed. It’s crazy.”

Welfare fraud is rampant. Aziz said that children on the Hancock compound learn at an early age that it’s OK to commit crimes against non-Muslims and engage in scams. “A lot of them do welfare fraud. They do all kind of scams.”

Drug dealing is also common and is used as a source of income for MOA. “The drug money goes back to Gilani,” Aziz said, referring to their terrorist leader who rules them from Pakistan.

“I gave the NYPD enough information to shut the camps down,” he said.

That evidence included: The sexual abuse of women.  The physical abuse of children. The failure to educate girls. Such criminal activity as drug running, welfare fraud and illegal weapons.   And worse.

Ali said, “I would get into trouble if I told you everything I was providing the NYPD.  It would violate my immunity.  I was providing information to the NYPD about people who committed some very serious crimes. I’m talking about…” And then he stopped and asked, “What is worse crime you can commit?”

Ali never answered that open-ended question, riffed with imaginative answers.  But he left no question about the goal of MOA and their city-states that they are forming across America.

“The ultimate purpose,” Ali said, “is to be ready when the time is right.”

“You walk up to them and ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘I want to fight for Gilani.’  That’s what they want,” Ali said.  “It’s not good.”

Martin Mawyer is the Founder and President of Christian Action Network, a non-profit public advocacy and education group based in Lynchburg, Virginia. He began his career as a freelance journalist and has authored several books, including “Silent Shame,” “The Pro-Family Contract With America,” “Pathways to Success,” and his most recent, “Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.” He has produced a number of documentary films, including Homegrown Jihad, Islam Rising, Sacrificed Survivors and America’s Islamic Threat. Mawyer has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Larry King Live, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, NBC’s Today Show, Entertainment Tonight and Fox and Friends.  His latest book, “Twilight in America,” co-authored by Patti A. Pierucci, details the activities of Islamic terrorist training camps scattered throughout the United States. It can be purchased atTwilightInAmerica.com, or Amazon.com in book or Kindle version.

– See more at: http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2012/11/16/informant-islamic-compounds-in-america-are-training-for-jihad/#sthash.vMBft3Qd.dpuf

 

Hat Tip to Boehner on Obama, Immigration

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‘Enough is enough!’: Boehner fills House chamber with high drama as he lashes out against Obama in high-stakes immigration battle – and throws his own words back in his face

John Boehner created the first live-action high drama on the House floor Wednesday, staking out a no-compromise position on blocking Barack Obama’s sweeping immigration plan and reading aloud 22 examples of the president’s past claims that he lacked the authority to put it into action.

Obama outlined the plan on Nov. 20, promising to mainstream 5 million or more illegal immigrants by guaranteeing – without input from Congress – that they won’t be deported during his time in office.

Angering Democrats, the House speaker spoke during a floor debate to defend an amendment to the Homeland Security Department’s budget bill that would forbid the cabinet agency from spending any money to implement it.

Boehner openly mocked Obama for what he said was an effort to evade the U.S. Constitution, throwing in his face his past claims that he wasn’t a ‘king’ or an ’emperor.’

The Constitution explicitly gives Congress the power to control America’s immigration policies.

IN YOUR FACE: Boehner took Obama to the woodshed on Wednesday over immigration, reading aloud nearly two dozen Obama quotations that indicate the White House can't act unilaterally

IN YOUR FACE: Boehner took Obama to the woodshed on Wednesday over immigration, reading aloud nearly two dozen Obama quotations that indicate the White House can’t act unilaterally

NO COMPROMISE: Boehner didn't buy what the president was selling on Tuesday during a high-stakes White House meeting with all of Congress's top leaders

NO COMPROMISE: Boehner didn’t buy what the president was selling on Tuesday during a high-stakes White House meeting with all of Congress’s top leaders

”To think that the president of the United States studied constitutional law!’ he boomed. ‘He didn’t just learn constitutional law. He taught it himself.’

‘Enough is enough!’

The move came less than 24 hours after Boehner and other Capitol Hill leaders met with Obama in the White House to air their differences over legislation that would likely make up the bulk of congressional business for in the coming months.

On Wednesday, Boehner was in no mood to compromise.

Obama’s unilateral move, he said, is an ‘executive overreach … an affront to the rule of law and to the Constitution itself.’

‘What we are dealing with here is a president who has ignored the people, ignored the Constitution, and even his own past statements,’ he said.

‘In fact, on at  least 22 occasions he has said he does not have the authority to do what he did.’

And then Boehner read them.  The video is here and don’t miss it.

Obama, he recalled, told an El Paso, Texas audience in May 2011 that immigrants’-rights activists ‘wish I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself. But that’s not how a democracy works.’

The president also insisted in an October 2010 interview with the Spanish-language Univision TV network that ‘I am president; I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. … I can’t just make the laws up by myself.’

In an online Q-and-A session held in September 2011, Obama told viewers: ‘We live in a democracy. You have to pass bills through the legislature, and then I can sign it.’

He doubled down in a February 2013 Google+ ‘hangout’ video livestream, saying he was limited in his authority because ‘I’m the president of the United States; I’m not the emperor of the United States.’

Democrats demanded a roll-call vote on the amendment following Boehner’s litany, after hammering Republicans for being ‘anti-immigrant’ and ‘heartless.’

The amendment passed by a vote of 237 to 190.

Another amendment aimed at ending the president’s ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ (DACA) program also passed, 218-209.

DACA is a 2012 program that gives sanctuary to illegal immigrants who weer brought to the U.S> as children.

The overall DHS funding bill also passed, by a 236-191 margin.

Matt Wolking, a communications advisor to the speaker, told DailyMail.com that Obama has ‘said over and over that he did not have the authority to do what he eventually did. So his unilateral action sets a very troubling precedent, and not just on immigration. That’s what the Speaker wanted to drive home.’

But New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney insisted that the ‘Take Care clause’ in the Constitution – which demands that the president ‘shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ – gives Obama the power to decide which illegal immigrants are deported and which are allowed to stay.

She accused the GOP of ‘play[ing] politics with the security and safety of America.’

Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee went further, calling the Republican amendment ‘a full-force assault on immigrants’ and described it as ‘Homeland Security being held hostage.’

'A FULL-FORCE ASSAULT ON IMMIGRANTS': Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee slammed the GOP's plan, arguing that they were trying to hold the Homeland Security budget 'hostage

‘A FULL-FORCE ASSAULT ON IMMIGRANTS’: Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee slammed the GOP’s plan, arguing that they were trying to hold the Homeland Security budget ‘hostage

SHOWDOWN: Boehner and House Republicans aim to force Obama into a take-it-or-leave-it veto position on the Homeland Security Department’s budget for the rest of the year

The tension will reach its climax in coming weeks when a Homeland Security budget reaches Obama’s desk.

The White House has a veto of any plan that hamstrings him on immigration, and most Democrats will support him.

That sets up the possibility of a Homeland Security ‘shutdown’ after its funding runs out on February 27.

Democrats claim a shutdown would jeopardize national security in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, an attack for which al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility on Wednesday.

But if the last partial shutdown is any indication, critical agencies and services wouldn’t be affected.

The budget bill, including the amendment, still has to go through the U.S. Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised the new Democratic minority that they will be permitted to propose their own amendments.

Any differences between the resulting House and Senate bills will have to be ironed out in a conference committee – a uniquely American device that puts leaders from both parties and both houses in the same room to resolve them.

 

 

More U.S. Paid Fraud and Collusion in Afghanistan

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If you still think the government does anything right, then read on and learn. What is worse, paying for something or rather in this issue paying for someone(s) that don’t even exist is actually worse. Don’t fret though it is all the way over there, Afghanistan. Just consider, well spent money being provided to wounded U.S. soliders in Afghanistan rather than for a staff that does not exist.  

U.S. Official: America Paying Salaries of Afghan Cops That Don’t Exist 

Scant oversight over payments to Afghan Police causes alarmThe United States continues to pay more than $300 million annually to the Afghan National Police (ANP), and some of that money is going to officers who do not actually exist, according to government officials who warn that fraud and a lack of oversight are causing U.S. taxpayer dollars to be wasted on the force.

The United States continues to pay the salaries of ANP officers despite a lack of supervision over the funds and the fact that fraud is rampant among the force, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).   

A U.S. government official familiar with the issue further confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that American tax dollars are in fact being paid to Afghan police officers who do not actually exist.

The ongoing payments have led SIGAR to warn that “despite 13 years and several billions of dollars in salary assistance to the Afghan government for the ANP, there is still no assurance that personnel and payroll data are accurate,” according to its audit.

U.S. officials have confirmed to SIGAR that despite evidence of fraud and mismanagement “they accepted, without question,” all personnel totals offered by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior (MOI), which is not subject to independent oversight by the United States.

Over the years, officials have discovered inflated police rosters listing more officers for payments than actually work for the force, payments being made to “more police personnel than are authorized,” and some officers receiving inflated salaries, according to SIGAR.

The problems have only grown in recent years and, if not fixed, could become more of an issue for the United States as it fully withdraws from Afghanistan, according to SIGAR’s report, which details widespread problems in the way the Afghan and U.S. governments track the ANP and assign salaries.

“There is a significant risk that a large portion of the more than $300 million in annual U.S. government funding for ANP salaries will be wasted or abused,” SIGAR warned.

“As U.S. and coalition forces continue to draw down and transfer security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, the U.S. government will have increasingly limited visibility over ANP data collection processes,” SIGAR wrote. “As a result, the U.S. government will become even more reliant on the [Afghan Interior Ministry’s] ability to verify the accuracy of the personnel and payroll data it collects.”

ANP identification cards, which were created to avoid this exact type of fraud, are being abused, according to SIGAR, which reported that there are “almost twice as many” of these cards in circulation as there are active police officers.

Other mechanisms meant to track the number of ANP personnel also have failed. These include integrated computer systems that are supposed to accurately identify police officers.

“Although all entities involved—the U.S. and Afghan governments as well as the international community—have been working to develop effective ANP personnel and payroll processes, those processes continue to exhibit extensive internal control deficiencies,” the audit states.

“The ANP’s process for collecting attendance data, which forms the basis of all ANP personnel and payroll data, has weak controls and limited oversight,” SIGAR concluded. “Both systems contain thousands of personnel records with incorrect or missing identification numbers.”

JC Chairman Dempsey Not Happy with WH

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Can you list those in those in the Obama administration graveyard? The White House has rarely met with any cabinet secretaries to date during the Obama administration. Then top people have moved on to private business. Like who? Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Hagel, John Podesta, Kathleen Sebilius, Janet Napolitano, Jay Carney, Robert Gibbs, James Jones, Anita Dunn, Van Jones, Peter Orzag, Larry Summers,  General McChrystal, General Carter Ham, General David Petraeus, Rahm Emanual, Christina Roemler and there are more.

Now the question is why….perhaps at least one very important reason is micro-managing. In case you need proof, read on.

Joint Chiefs chairman distances himself from Obama promise on Afghanistan

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t entirely share his boss’s unbridled optimism about the future of Afghanistan.

President Obama last month vowed that Afghanistan never again will be a breeding ground for terrorist attacks against the U.S., reassuring troops that they accomplished their mission as official combat operations came to an end.               

 

But Gen. Martin E. Dempsey on Sunday distanced himself from that statement.

“You’d have to ask the president how he could say that,” Gen. Dempsey said on “Fox News Sunday” when asked how the president could be sure Afghanistan won’t again become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.

Mr. Obama made the remarks during a Christmas Day address to troops stationed in Hawaii. The president long has cast the Afghanistan War as a worthy fight and one critical to U.S. foreign policy moving forward, as opposed to the Iraq War, which he has characterized as a mistake.

“Because of the extraordinary service of the men and women in the armed forces, Afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country. We are safer. It’s not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again,” Mr. Obama told the troops.

Gen. Dempsey made clear that he believes the new government in Afghanistan will be a cooperative partner with the U.S. He also said he believes Afghan security forces have shown encouraging signs that they are willing to defend their country.     

 

But he stopped short of endorsing Mr. Obama’s blanket vow.

“I personally think there will be pockets inside of Afghanistan that change hands from time to time because that’s the history of the country,” he said. “But I think that we’re in a very good place in Afghanistan in terms of giving them a chance to do exactly what the president said. But we’re going to have to keep an eye on it.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Gen. Dempsey also addressed accusations — some from numerous former Pentagon officials — that the White House micromanages the Defense Department.

The charges have come from, among others, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who unexpectedly resigned in November.

Gen. Dempsey said he believes the Pentagon’s relationship with the White House should be measured by whether he has access to the president and whether top administration officials listen to what he has to say.

“The metric we should be focused on is access and whether my advice influences decisions,” Gen. Dempsey said. “Whether someone wants to characterize the desire, the almost insatiable appetite for information about complex issues as micromanaging, they can have at it. But for me, the metric is access and advice.”

Still, he acknowledged the criticism in a tongue-in-cheek way when first asked the question.

“If you’re asking me if I’m being micromanaged, I don’t know. I’d better go check with the White House before I answer that question,” he said.  *** But what is the issue with Afghanistan you ask?

KABUL—Adherents of Islamic State this weekend declared their intention to step up operations in Afghan territory where the Taliban have long held sway, raising the prospect of battling jihadist groups and rising terrorism in the region.

In a 16-minute video released over the weekend and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Afghan and Pakistani militants pledged their allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and unveiled the movement’s leadership structure in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“It’s very significant,” said a Western official who has seen the video. “I think they want to say: ‘This is serious—we are here.’ ”

The activity of new extremist groups could complicate efforts by the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to start peace talks with the Taliban insurgency in a bid to end the violence. The groups’ arrival also comes as U.S.-led troops formally ended combat operations in December.

In the video, the Pakistani and Afghan militants publicly reveal the name of their regional leader for the first time: Hafez Sayed Khan Orakzai. Footage shows Mr. Orakzai standing in front of a black-and-white Islamic State banner, flanked by men in black wearing balaclavas and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The video begins with a procession of men on foot and horseback waving Islamic State flags and ends gruesomely, with the beheading of a man the group says is a Pakistani soldier.

Mr. Orakzai was one of the six commanders of the Pakistani Taliban—formally known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan—who switched allegiance to Islamic State in October.  Shahidullah Shahid, the Pakistani Taliban’s former spokesman, also appears in the video, delivering introductory remarks to a crowd of militants. Mr. Shahid introduces local commanders who will be responsible for territory located on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

“We are gathered here with commanders from 10 units,” Mr. Shahid says. “They all want to pledge their allegiance to the caliph of all believers, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

In the video, both Messrs. Shahid and Orakzai speak Arabic, the language of the Quran, instead of their native Pashto.

While the military reach of Islamic State has thus far been limited to parts of Iraq and Syria, the defection of Afghan and Pakistani militants to the group raises fears that a new front line could emerge in South and Central Asia.

The rise of Islamic State could pose a challenge to the Afghan Taliban, a movement loyal to its elusive spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who hasn’t been seen in public since December 2001.

The Taliban movement is fragmented and, in the absence of visible leadership, some of its members have begun to look to Syria and Iraq for guidance and inspiration. A United Nations report released in December noted “a distinct increase in the activities and the visibility” of extremist groups such as Islamic State in 2014, and said that Afghan militants were beginning to defect to the group.

Members of the Afghan Taliban who joined Islamic State include Mawlawi Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and Mawlavi Abdul Qahir, according to Mr. Shahid and the U.N. Mr. Muslim Dost, who was once imprisoned in the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the most prominent former member of the Afghan Taliban known to have joined the movement. Mr. Qahir, a former Taliban commander, was named a unit commander in the video.

Tensions between the Taliban and groups affiliated with Islamic State in Afghanistan have already turned violent. In the southwestern province of Helmand, local officials and residents say the Taliban are battling militants dressed in Islamic State’s signature black uniforms. The new group of fighters, they say, is led by a former Taliban commander, Mullah Raouf Khadim.

Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, the deputy governor of Helmand, said the fighting started several days ago in the district of Kajaki, where the government has no control. About 30 fighters, including some women, have moved from Kajaki to the neighboring district of Sangin, according to Abdul Raziq Sarwani, a local police commander in Sangin.

The fighting in Helmand suggests that the Islamic State label could increasingly become attractive to local Taliban commanders disillusioned with their leadership. Two journalists based in Helmand who have spoken to locals in Kajaki said Mr. Khadim set up the new armed group after he was fired by the Taliban leadership.

“He established his own armed group in Kajaki and asked Taliban fighters to join him. He says Mullah Omar isn’t alive anymore, and that if he is alive he should join his own group,” one of the reporters said.

Afghan officials have previously raised the alarm on attempts by Islamic State to seek a foothold in Afghanistan, pointing to propaganda material that had been distributed in parts of Afghanistan.

While new information is adding weight to claims that Islamic State is beginning to have an active presence in the region, an Afghan security official played down the extent of its presence.

“We have some reports that show their interest in Afghanistan, but they have no base here,” the official said.

In this deeply conservative country, extremist ideology still thrives. On Friday, hundreds of men took to the streets in a district in the southern province of Uruzgan in support of the men who carried out the deadly attack on the office of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, local officials said.

The demonstrators also condemned Mr. Ghani for extending his condolences to the people of France, officials added.

 

 

 

 

Due to Haiti, No White House Run for Hillary

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There are countless reasons to keep the Clintons out of the White House in 2017. Many of them are obvious including sex scandals, Benghazi, Travelgate and Hillary’s most recent declaration that we must come to understand the reasons that militant Islamists have for killing, in short be sensitive to their condition. Yeah sure. But let’s take a look at a matter ignored for many years and that is Haiti.

Hillary’s Half-Baked Haiti Project

Caracol Industrial Park is failing to deliver on the promises made to foreign investors and Haitians.

On the fifth anniversary of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti remains a poster child for waste, fraud and corruption in the handling of aid. Nowhere is the bureaucratic ineptitude and greed harder to accept than at the 607-acre Caracol Industrial Park, a project launched by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with U.S. taxpayer money, under the supervision of her husband Bill and his Clinton Foundation.

Between the State Department and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which hands out grants to very poor countries thanks to U.S. generosity, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on this park in an attempt to attract apparel manufacturers. But the park is falling far short of the promises made to provide investors with necessary infrastructure. If things continue this way, frustrated investors will look for greener pastures.

Successful industrial parks are built by people who know the business and who demand accountability. This park was put in the hands of State, the IDB and Bill Clinton. The results have been predictable.

I had been warned about Caracol going to the dogs by sources on the ground in Haiti. So last month I traveled east by truck from Cap Haitien, across the poor rural north of the country to see if the alarm was justified. I found a project in trouble. It can be saved, but only if it is handed over to professionals with skin in the game.

On paper Caracol makes sense. Thanks to special trade legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in Dec. 2006, Haitian-sewn apparel enters the U.S. duty free and the manufacturers can use fabric purchased from anywhere in the world. This gives Haiti a big advantage over apparel exporters to the U.S. who have to source the fabric in the U.S. even if they sew overseas. With lower wages than in many Asian markets and proximity to North America, Haitian-based producers have comparative advantages that might offset the country’s low productivity.

The State Department initially promised that the park would be able to support 65,000 direct jobs by 2020. The Clinton Foundation has made similar statements. That means constructing 40 10,000 square-meter buildings for garment assembly. It won’t happen at the current pace.

The total job-creating capacity since the foundation stone was laid in November 2011 is three assembly buildings and a 10-megawatt power plant. A fourth workshop is under construction but is unlikely to be completed before late spring.

This must be tough to take for the anchor tenant, the Korean manufacturer Sae-A Trading Ltd. It has committed to a $78 million investment at Caracol and currently employs some 4,500 Haitians. It says it wants to hire 20,000. To do so it needs another dozen buildings.

A Dec. 12 IDB press release says the Haitian government is approved for a new $70 million grant to construct, among other things, three new production buildings by 2018 with a goal of providing space for 6,800 workers. Bank officials have to know that putting Haitian government officials in charge of such a project is likely to doom it. But let’s suppose I’m wrong and the buildings go up. The Caracol workforce will then be 11,300—a far cry from the State Department’s estimate of 65,000 direct jobs or even the IBD’s forecast of 40,000.

It’s understandable for the IDB to want to lower expectations. But the target should be higher and it shouldn’t take three years to boost capacity. Craig Miller, president of the Boston-based Waterfield Design Group and a consultant for the Haitian apparel sector, told me that “once the materials are on site, a 10,000 square-meter production workshop can be built in six to eight months.”

Apparel manufacturers in Haiti are hungry for production space but my sources say investors were not given an option to build their own workshops in Caracol. The Clinton planners—Hillary at State and Bill at the Clinton Foundation—wanted to retain that responsibility for reasons that can only be guessed. So now the producers have to wait.

This is tragic for the thousands of Haitians eager to get the sewing jobs. Factory workers earn three times the average income in Haiti’s north. Sae-A produces for a wide number of American labels, such as Target and Wal-Mart, WMT +0.48% Wal-Mart Stores Inc. U.S.: NYSE $89.78 +0.43+0.48% Jan 12, 2015 11:44 am Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.72M P/E Ratio 18.32 Market Cap $287.99 Billion Dividend Yield 2.14% Rev. per Employee $219,905 01/09/15 Toys “R” Us Holiday Period Sam… 01/08/15 Tesco to Cut Prices, Close Unp… 01/08/15 Stocks to Watch: Family Dollar… More quote details and news » WMT in Your Value Your Change Short position and the American companies regularly dispatch auditors to inspect work conditions. Even without the U.S. Labor Department breathing down its back, Sae-A has incentives to care for workers to retain them and boost productivity. Getting a spot on the assembly line opens the door to economic mobility, and that’s unusual in Haiti.

Haiti has a rare opportunity. Investors want to invest, workers want to work, and consumers want to buy. This seems like a good time for government to get out of the way.

But how did all this begin? 

Bill Clinton’s Shameful Haiti Legacy

He may be playing the hero now, but the ex-president’s trip to Haiti is a reminder of the mess his administration left behind. Bob Shacochis on how Clinton wasted a good invasion.
Like many Haitians and not a few Americans who know the island and its history, I had mixed feelings watching the video of former President Clinton step off a plane on to the tarmac at Toussaint Loverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince on Monday afternoon. Bill Clinton, the Second Coming of Hope. The First Coming, the U.S.-led invasion in 1994 adorned with 20,000 American troops, did not turn out so well. By 1996, when the American military decamped, you’d be hard pressed to find a Haitian on the streets of Port-au-Prince who wasn’t suffering miserably from hope. By 1996, Haitians were scratching their heads in bewilderment, asking themselves Why has America come to save us? Who will save us now? Ten years later, by almost every measure, Haiti was worse off than it was before Clinton had “rescued” it from the illegitimate regime of General Raoul Cedras and his gang of terrorist enforcers, known by the acronym FRAPH.

I had heard the Haitians saying of the U.S. after the American troops went home: “Lave men ou, siye li a te. It looks like you wash your hands and dry them in dirt.”

It’s the proper time, of course, to ask what is the legacy of American foreign policy in Haiti, a beleaguered neighbor that we have invaded and occupied twice in the 20th century, the first time to preempt German influence there during and after World War I, the second time during the early years of the Clinton administration, an 18-month long intervention which I reported on for Harper’s magazine.  

Looking at the images pouring out of Haiti these days, what comes immediately into focus is the near-sighted, irrational nature of what is out of focus in American foreign policy since the Marshall Plan worked its miracles on a shattered planet. I think that we can all agree that Haiti has finally found its bottom, but the descent, lubricated by man-made folly, was not inevitable.

To be sure, Haiti brings out the cynic in me. Perhaps I should express that sentiment with more precision: The United States’ two-faced relationship with Haiti stirs a cynicism within me that I’d rather not claim.

The U.S. Army came ashore in September 1994 locked and loaded to do battle with a military dictatorship composed of a tiny dysfunctional army and roving bands of FRAPH’s homicidal thugs, who threatened to send America’s sons and daughters back home in coffins. Essentially an absurd boast but from a genuine enemy. Colin Powell’s brinkmanship defused the potential for bloodshed on the eve of the invasion, yet the fact remained—our soldiers would be liberating villages, towns, and cities controlled by a terrorist organization that had brutalized the population.

Early on, there were shootouts between U.S. soldiers and FRAPH. Special Forces hunted down FRAPH leadership in the countryside, captured them and shipped the detainees to headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where, to general dismay, they were invariably released. One night, hunkered down with a detachment of Green Berets in the mountains south of Cap Haitien, I listened in alarm to a radio transmission from Col. Mark Boyatt, the overall commander of Special Forces in Haiti, telling his commandos to begin regarding FRAPH as Haiti’s “loyal opposition,” as if the terrorists, overnight, had become Haiti’s equivalent to the Republican Party, rehabilitated patriots eager to remake Haiti into a modern democratic nation.

Months later, when I challenged Colonel Boyatt on this highly counterproductive order to his troops, he clammed up on me. For the next two years, I tried to track down who in the chain of command had told Boyatt to whitewash the terrorist organization FRAPH. The trail finally led to the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince, and then it jumped to the mainland, Sandy Berger, and the White House.

Legacy No. 1: We left the poison in the system. The result: A Haiti rendered ungovernable by our heedless self-interest. The only Devil in Haiti is to be found in the deals we cut with the worst elements in that society. Sound familiar?

On March 31, 1996, the United States handed over Operation Restore Democracy to the United Nations and a peacekeeping force that has been there ever since. Early in the Clinton administration’s intervention in Haiti, the word came down to the boots on the ground from the White House: You have not been deployed to conduct nation-building. The mission turned out to be foolishly attenuated: Restore Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, to the National Palace. Hold elections that will remove the troublesome Aristide from the National Palace. Go home.

Ultimately, the mission ended up profoundly disillusioning not only the Haitians but the American troops as well. Back at Fort Bragg, I asked a Special Forces Master Sergeant if he was glad he went to Haiti. “Tough question,” he said. “No carpenter likes to build a house and see it crooked and leaning and ready to fall down the day he leaves. But if he builds a nice house, he’s happy about it, it’s something he’ll be proud of the rest of his life.”

“You don’t think you have anything to be proud of?” I asked.

“No.”

“That’s sad,” I said.

“It is,” said the Master Sergeant. “It is.”

I told him what I had heard the Haitians saying about the United States after the American troops went home. Lave men ou, siye li a te. It looks like you wash your hands and dry them in dirt.

Legacy No. 2: In Haiti, America wasted a perfectly good occupation. Call our post-earthquake presence there anything you want, but let’s hope it works out better this time around. Good luck, Bill. And remember, merry are the builders.

Bob Shacochis, a professor at Florida State University, is the author of The Immaculate Invasion, a chronicle of the 1994 U.S. intervention in Haiti.