Calling Eric Holder, Ferguson Part 2

Posted on September 28, 2014September 28, 2014 by Denise Simon

Several weeks ago we witnessed days and days of protests, riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri as a result of a police officer shooting and killing a black teenager, an event that is still under investigation.

Worldwide media was dispatched to report conditions in the town for more than a week. The New Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam and the Reverend Al Sharpton were all part of the mess and Mr. Obama later dispatched the Department of Justice, AG Eric Holder to be a part of the dialogue to restore peace to the town of Ferguson. Holder meet with many people including the parents of the deceased Michael Brown.

The FBI in a unit of 40 was also deployed to Ferguson to investigate all the variables in the town. Upon leaving Eric Holder opened his own investigation into the shooting and added a full investigation into the local police department.

Calm was restored, or was it?

On the evening of September 27, there was a ‘Light the Night’ vigil in Ferguson but it did not end well. One police officer was shot in the arm on normal patrol and another was shot at and was injured due to flying glass. Several arrests were made and the condition in Ferguson remains tense.

While the ‘Light the Night’ vigil was occurring, Barack Obama attended a Congressional Black Caucus Awards Event and spoke about the matter in Ferguson even after he included yet more faults of America as noted by Ferguson at this United Nations speech earlier in the week.

However, what is most shocking are the words Mr. Obama spoke last night at the awards event even as Michael Brown’s parents were invited and did attend.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/219109-read-obamas-speech-to-black-caucus#

“But we still have to close these opportunity gaps. And we have to close the justice gap — how justice is applied, but also how it is perceived, how it is experienced. (Applause.) Eric Holder understands this. (Applause.) That’s what we saw in Ferguson this summer, when Michael Brown was killed and a community was divided. We know that the unrest continues. And Eric spent some time with the residents and police of Ferguson, and the Department of Justice has indicated that its civil rights investigation is ongoing.

Now, I won’t comment on the investigation. I know that Michael’s family is here tonight. (Applause.) I know that nothing any of us can say can ease the grief of losing a child so soon. But the anger and the emotion that followed his death awakened our nation once again to the reality that people in this room have long understood, which is, in too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement.

Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement, guilty of walking while black, or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness. We know that, statistically, in everything from enforcing drug policy to applying the death penalty to pulling people over, there are significant racial disparities. That’s just the statistics. One recent poll showed that the majority of Americans think the criminal justice system doesn’t treat people of all races equally. Think about that. That’s not just blacks, not just Latinos or Asians or Native Americans saying things may not be unfair. That’s most Americans.

And that has a corrosive effect — not just on the black community; it has a corrosive effect on America. It harms the communities that need law enforcement the most. It makes folks who are victimized by crime and need strong policing reluctant to go to the police because they may not trust them. And the worst part of it is it scars the hearts of our children. It scars the hearts of the white kids who grow unnecessarily fearful of somebody who doesn’t look like them. It stains the heart of black children who feel as if no matter what he does, he will always be under suspicion. That is not the society we want. It’s not the society that our children deserve. (Applause.) Whether you’re black or white, you don’t want that for America.

It was interesting — Ferguson was used by some of America’s enemies and critics to deflect attention from their shortcomings overseas; to undermine our efforts to promote justice around the world. They said, well, look at what’s happened to you back home.

But as I said this week at the United Nations, America is special not because we’re perfect; America is special because we work to address our problems, to make our union more perfect. We fight for more justice. (Applause.) We fight to cure what ails us. We fight for our ideals, and we’re willing to criticize ourselves when we fall short. And we address our differences in the open space of democracy — with respect for the rule of law; with a place for people of every race and religion; and with an unyielding belief that people who love their country can change it. That’s what makes us special — not because we don’t have problems, but because we work to fix them. And we will continue to work to fix this.

And to that end, we need to help communities and law enforcement build trust, build understanding, so that our neighborhoods stay safe and our young people stay on track. And under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department has launched a national effort to do just that. He’s also been working to make the criminal justice system smarter and more effective by addressing unfair sentencing disparities, changing department policies on charging mandatory minimums, promoting stronger reentry programs for those who have paid their debt to society. (Applause.)”

Now, will Mr. Obama attend the UN Assembly again this week as it comes to a close and provide the world an update on Ferguson that Eric Holder failed to restore calm and two police officers were victims of the protestors? Will Mr. Obama make any statement about those officers at all? Nah, not likely as it is Eric Holder who opened an investigation into the whole police force in Ferguson….just another day in middle America perhaps.

Chicago to Baghdad, Everyone in Between

Posted on September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 by Denise Simon

Given the terror in Iraq and the Barack Obama urgency to get out of the war in 2011, perhaps it is a good time to do a little review. Why did Obama dismiss Iraq from the outset of this administration? Could it be that Obama and his friends from Chicago had some major influence on his policy regarding Iraq?

Well yes.

Barack Obama has been appropriately strident in his condemnation of the mortgage-based financial corruption which nearly led to the collapse of the investment banking system in the United States. But there are some strong smelling financial skeletons in his own closet. Obama has his own personal housing crisis that is tied not into Fanny Mae, but into a corrupt international financial combine headed by Nadhmi Auchi, the convicted Iraqi billionaire at the center of the Elf Aquitaine corruption trial in France. Auchi has been shown to be the fountainhead of a source of corruption flowing from Iraq, to France, Italy, and the United States. His financial network, under a Luxembourg company called General Mediterranean Holdings, spread from Baghdad and the Middle East to Paris, (where Auchi successfully posited Saddam’s UN Oil for Food scheme), London, Washington, and Chicago, making very few ripples and raising no concerns.

Auchi is suave, cosmopolitan, brilliant, and ruthless, and he has bottomless pockets. His business is international banking, which is complexly organized and appropriately camouflaged to conceal any criminal activity. He is the Godfather, but speaks in an Iraqi, not a Sicilian, dialect. A British survey credits him with being toward the bottom of a list of the two hundred richest men in the world. But in such a rendering Auchi would both feign modesty and ensure that any such accounting show only the tip of his financial iceberg. Other sources credit him with being the fifth richest man in the world. His methodology, however, is straightforward: Under cover of seeking legitimate business, buy whoever is necessary in the political decision chain to control the process and the outcome. As his longtime telecommunications partner Ala al-Hawaja, candidly put it to a potential competitor in Cairo, “there is nothing that cannot be accomplished with a suitcase full of money”. So far he has been proven correct.

Auchi has claimed to have been “a visitor to two White Houses”, and his London web site flashes a picture of him at the Clinton White House between Bill Clinton and Al Gore (a long way from his early days with Saddam Hussein as part of a Baathist assassination squad.) Auchi is, however, also the shadowy puppet master to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Syrian American with whom he partnered for more than a decade in schemes from Baghdad all the way to Chicago. Their relationship began in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War, when the US was cultivating Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Rezko is now in federal prison awaiting sentencing for 16 counts of corruption involving Illinois officials. Buying influence is his métier, guided and financed by his master, Auchi. Rezko has also been a White House visitor, with his picture taken with Bill and Hillary Clinton for his contributions out of Chicago to the Clinton political war chest. Was Rezko then and now merely the main Chicago conduit for Auchi money? Or was he part of a larger Iraqi scheme dating back to Saddam to buy access to US government contracts and influence? What specifically was Auchi buying and where else did his money go? Was Obama, like the governor of Illinois, a recipient of Auchi’s favors as part of Rezko’s scheme to purchase government contracts through kickbacks from campaign contributions? There is no question that Obama, as a fledgling state senator, was a target of the Iraqi corruption combine, but did he become one of its pigeons? Was Rezko simply the front man for Auchi and Iraqi funding (whether it came from Saddam, Oil for Food, or General Mediterranean Holdings) over his entire Chicago career?

Rezko had identified Obama as a good political target before he graduated from Harvard Law School. He was both the source of Obama’s employment and of his largest political donations during his short political career. Rezko had no financial source apart from Auchi, his partner of over a decade. Rezko was also the source of the financing for Obama’s $2.3 million mansion despite his having no clear source of funding apart from Auchi. What did he get from Obama in return?

As the Wall Street Journal showed several weeks ago, Obama has been anything but forthcoming about his real relationship with Rezko and Auchi. And the public has no idea how extensive and how corrupt the network that Auchi has developed across the world is. Let me count the ways: Like organized crime, the network shows no public profile beyond legitimate business activities, and has a small army of lawyers threatening any critics with libel actions in Britain, Auchi’s adopted residence where there is no First Amendment protection.

Billionaires can buy anonymity at the same time they buy influence and politicians. In 2000, although Nadhmi Auchi had spent two decades as Saddam Hussein’s broker in the international oil and armament worlds, he was seen from the United States as essentially a European go-between, who worked the highest levels of the Italian and particularly the French and British governments. He had bought an aura of respectability by buying senior politicians and favorable press, and threatening any critics, a pattern he had begun to introduce in the United States with British assistance a decade earlier. I first began to fathom the extent of Nadhmi Auchi’s reach and corrupting influence when I was given responsibility for monitoring illegal transfers of technology and munitions to Iraq as well as overseeing all coalition transportation and communications reconstruction in Iraq.

My office had two key responsibilities, international technology security and international arms and technology trade (essentially keeping good things out of the hands of bad people), with the latter function given the reach of the DoD Inspector General’s office. Our investigations surfaced some salient facts about Nadhmi Auchi and his underreported activities: that Auchi had been Saddam Hussein’s senior arms dealer and had morphed into his principal international financial bagman, and had become the Godfather of the UN Oil for Food scheme. (As a former State Department Inspector General overseeing all US foreign assistance and foreign military sales, I had had thirty years experience dealing with technology and armament sales, most of it in the Middle East.). I was therefore startled to also discover in addition that Auchi had surfaced as the financier and a principal beneficiary of the entire Iraqi cellular telecommunications tender, worth some $3 billion.

Through the customary combination of facilitating payments spread among political figures in Iraq and elsewhere, Auchi was able to fix the three contracts for three companies which in turn benefitted three of the most senior Iraqi politicians. $435 million was found missing from the Coalition Provisional Authority communications account along with all records. Multimillion dollar bribes were paid to various Brits and Americans to facilitate both the fix and its cover up.

The official DoD report of May 11, 2004, which Auchi has spent four and a half years trying to discredit, encountered cover up efforts within the DoD. These in turn prompted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on December 10, 2004 to transfer the case to the Department of Justice to assure the integrity of the continuing investigation. The FBI is still working on the case with the continuing assistance of my office, and Auchi’s US visa to come to the United States was cancelled.

The Rezko trial in Chicago, moreover, has highlighted Auchi’s reach into other ministries to provide bribes for contracts. In the Ministry of Electricity the Rezko-Auchi combine was seen in action offering million dollar bribes for multi-million dollar contracts to Ayham al-Samarra’i, an Iraqi American who had become Electricity Minister. In addition, recent evidence has surfaced that an Auchi subsidiary, the Iraqi German Hospital (IG Hospital), has been awarded a billion dollar contract at the Ministry of Health thru the influence of Dr. Adel Mohsen, the notoriously corrupt arbiter of health ministry contracting. “Dr. Adel” is close to Prime Minister Maliki and is his point man on the appropriately named Iraqi Committee on Public Integrity. While Auchi was a frequent visitor to the Green Zone in Baghdad during the CPA era, and, according to reliable Iraqi sources, met numerous times with CPA viceroy L. Paul Bremer, that was a useful but temporary expedient. Auchi is now said to be an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki as well as being the representative of major oil and commercial interests seeking contracts in Iraq. If Auchi now owns Maliki, he now owns everything.

As the above shows, Auchi has parlayed his long time presence on the Iraqi scene into a position of even greater wealth and influence than he enjoyed under Saddam. But it is his skill in buying his way to foreign leaders and funneling that advantage into a position of paramount influence into Iraq that is truly impressive. He simultaneously developed access to the nascent Iraqi leadership in London while he was buying access to the British leadership, and through that got access to US leadership and the Coalition Provisional Authority. It was done largely through lavish donations and largesse to the British establishment over several decades, and to the Labour party in particular. Auchi’s purchase of respectability included the grant of a coat of arms from the Queen, and the support of very senior members of the cabinet, some of whom sat on his GMH board. On the 20th anniversary of GMH activities in Britain, Auchi was given a print of the Houses of Parliament signed by virtually everyone with any political pretentions in the House of Commons. His London sponsors then opened the doors to Washington, to the Pentagon and ultimately, to the White House.

But he had bought his way into France as well: As a major arms dealer for Saddam he had cultivated President Mitterand and President Chirac, as well as key members of their cabinets. In September 2003, however, a French court had found him guilty of corruption and of receiving improper commissions of $100 million in the Elf Aquitaine scandal. The trial showed that Auchi had developed direct relationships with the key players in the French political and business establishment, and was the largest single stockholder in the bank BNP Parisbas. He received a slap on the wrist in the form of a multimillion dollar fine and a suspended jail sentence.

By that time, however, he had moved to the US market. Thanks to his British network, he established relationships with Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis I. “Scooter” Libby, and others in the Bush I Department of Defense at the time of the first Gulf War, and deftly carried his insider utility and his reputation of being helpful in Iraq over to the Clinton administration in 1993. He arrived with a laying on of hands from Lord Cavendish, the former head of British intelligence, and soon was a member of the Kennedy School board of Advisors at Harvard. He became, thru charitable donations and investments in the US, largely in the Chicago and Detroit areas, the embodiment of the Good Iraqi and the Good Arab. He established an Auchi chair at the American University of Cairo, and there have been reports that he was a large donor to the Clinton library.

His seemingly innocent investments with Rezko in the Middle West, however, went hand in hand with Rezko’s extensive scheme to trade off campaign donations to Illinois politicians for jobs and multimillion dollar state and city contracts. That strategy appears to have tied in as well to Joseph A. Cari, Jr., a Clinton administration official who served as Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman in 1993-94, and who, like Rezko, was found guilty of extortion of Illinois officials in 2006, and similarly is awaiting sentencing. Cari was Clinton’s national finance chairman when Rezko and Auchi made their White House visits. Cari is now managing director of a Middle East trade and investment fund in New York. How many of Rezko’s donations and US investments originated with and were dependent on Auchi? Is there any evidence that Rezko had any other major source of funding? How long had the Auchi network been in place in Chicago? And what were Auchi’s connections to the Iraqi spy ring about to go to trial in Detroit, who in late 2002 paid two Democratic congressmen to go to Iraq and oppose the war, and which flourished on UN Oil for Food vouchers?

So we have a pattern of buying influence which tied directly into the Illinois Democratic Party, the Daley machine, and the Democratic National Finance Committee. It is no wonder that Barack Obama “has no recollection” of being at a welcoming dinner feting Auchi at Rezko’s house in April 2004. At that moment Auchi was flying high despite his corruption conviction in France: He was then still the darling of the neocon cabal at the defense department, which was so heavily invested in Iraq. He had been a welcomed guest at two White Houses, and appeared to own the entire Illinois government. We still do not have any sense of the full extent of his influence.

A month later, however, his five year visa to the United States was revoked because of the findings of the DoD report on his central role in fixing the contracts for the entire Iraqi telecommunications system. In the ensuring four and a half years the outlines of his role as an ongoing arms dealer responsible for importing and exporting munitions into and out of Iraq, and as the financial ringmaster of reconstruction corruption in Iraq, have become increasingly evident, despite extensive efforts to cover up his role by Iraq reconstruction authorities and a submissive and buyable media. Auchi simply bought everyone he needed to buy in Iraq and the United States to carry out his Iraq agenda. Before his sentencing at the end of this month, however, Rezko may broaden our understanding of Auchi’s larger agenda.

But his underwriting of the purchase of Obama’s multimillion dollar Chicago mansion may have been the step too far which finally brought down Auchi’s grand scheme of empire and intrigue. It was, however, cheap at the price to buy a putative United States Senator. Nothing boneheaded about that decision at all. What is a candidate worth? This was Chicago, after all. On the other hand, however, if Barack Obama becomes President of the United States, the sky may be the limit for Nadhmi Auchi.
John A. Shaw is a former senior official of the Defense, State, and Commerce departments, and served on several White House staffs. He is a specialist in international technology transfer and arms sales, and in the economic development of the Middle East.

Social Media Key to Islamic State

Posted on September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 by Denise Simon

Nothing is better and more in vogue than social media, with particular emphasis on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The killers of IS are making huge use of Twitter and with great success such that even Twitter or the NSA can keep up. Attempting to track 28,000 accounts in less than 30 days is a Herculean task.

Analysis Summary

ISIS supporters will create a new account, usually under a very similar name, almost immediately after their profile is suspended by Twitter. The new user handle is then promoted by other ISIS-related Twitter accounts.

Despite Twitter’s efforts to shut down accounts, the number of users that talk favorably about ISIS since August 20, 2014 (post-release of the James Foley video) is still quite large at over 27,000 accounts.

Recorded Future’s sentiment and network link analysis can identify Twitter accounts that belong to the same user.

Over the past few months, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has quickly become the most feared terrorist organization in the world. One of their most effective strategies for spreading terror globally is their savvy application of social media.

Almost every organization around the world employs social media to build brand awareness. It’s convenient, free, and offers easy access to a large number of people. So it’s no surprise ISIS has become a sophisticated user of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to recruit and spread propaganda. Their use of Twitter-integrated apps such as Fajer Al Bashaer (Dawn of Good Omens/Tidings) is a prime example.

Dabiq: What Islamic State’s New Magazine Tells Us about Their Strategic Direction, Recruitment Patterns and Guerrilla Doctrine

Publication: Volume: 0 Issue: 0

August 1, 2014 03:38 PM Age: 35 days

Category: Global Terrorism Analysis, Hot Issue, Home Page, Featured, Iraq, Syria

By: Michael W. S. Ryan

Dabiq Magazine (Source: Twitter user @umOmar246)

Executive Summary

On the first day of Ramadan (June 28), the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) declared itself the new Islamic State and the new Caliphate (Khilafah). For the occasion, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling himself Caliph Ibrahim, broke with his customary secrecy to give a surprise khutbah (sermon) in Mosul before being rushed back into hiding. Al-Baghdadi’s khutbah addressed what to expect from the Islamic State. The publication of the first issue of the Islamic State’s official magazine, Dabiq, went into further detail about the Islamic State’s strategic direction, recruitment methods, political-military strategy, tribal alliances and why Saudi Arabia’s concerns that the Kingdom may be the Islamic State’s next target are well-founded.

Published in several European languages, including English, the magazine has a number of purposes. The first is to call on Muslims to come help the new caliph. Next, the magazine, comprising 50 vivid pages of color pictures, illustrations and artfully crafted text, tells the story of the Islamic State’s success in gaining the support of Syrian tribes, reports on the success of its recent military operations and graphically portrays the atrocities committed by its enemies, as well as vivid pictures of its own violence against Shi’ites. The premier issue also used classic Islamic texts to explain and justify the nature of the caliphate, its intentions, legitimacy and political and religious authority over all Muslims. Throughout its carefully constructed allusions, the magazine subtly appeals to the followers of other jihadist groups including the followers of the Islamic State’s foremost jihadist critics and potential followers in the Arabian Peninsula.

Another important purpose of Dabiq in the service of recruitment is to establish the Islamic State’s cosmic destiny by combining an eschatological account of coming battles gleaned from popular apocalyptic literature, the classical traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, prophecies and modern tactics taken from Salafi-Jihadist strategic literature. The strategic portion of this message is attributed to the original leader of the jihadist insurrection during the American occupation of Iraq, Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi. Taken together this mix is intended to capture the imagination of young warriors and inspire them to come and fight for Islamic State. This presentation will not solve the array of challenges facing the Islamic State, but it probably will help attract more young adherents as well as prove that al-Baghdadi and his advisors have developed a serious plan. It is important for Western countries to appreciate the dangerous instability this new movement, despite its obvious flaws, is capable of generating if left to its own devices.

This IS a Never-Ending Religious War

Posted on September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 by Denise Simon

It is now time to admit that the globe is in a religious war where fighters are being recruited worldwide in the name of Islam to destroy all other faiths. This is no longer debatable.

The Middle East is the birth of religion as we know it today where places like Damascus, Bethlehem, Qaraqosh, Saidnaya and Maaloula.

Today IS (ISIS/ISIL) and al Nusra and other factions in full solidarity are destroying religious history and killing, raping and terrorizing religious leaders and faithful pilgrims.

Once the leadership of nations in the Middle East and those of the West admit these conditions, this war will continue well into the decades ahead. The innocents of the world are paying for the feeble and cowards that refuse to defeat these evils.

The Muslim Rape of Christian Nuns

By Raymond Ibrahim on August 28, 2014 in Muslim Persecution of Christians

Despite how unsavory and barbaric Islamic groups and persons around the world have been behaving—whether Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Mesopotamia’s Islamic State, Somalia’s Shabaab—perhaps few things are as disgusting and cowardly as the Muslim rape of nuns: defenseless Christian women who sacrifice much of their lives to help sick and needy Muslims.

The latest such attack comes from Bangladesh, which is over 90% Muslim in population. In early July, dozens of men armed with machetes, knives and iron rods attacked the convent of PIME (Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions nuns in Boldipuku), a village mission in north Bangladesh.

“The nuns were beaten and molested, ending when police arrived,” reported Bishop Sebastian Tudu.

Catholic Online has the complete story:

[S]ome 60 men attempted to loot the building and rape the nuns… The attackers first tied the hands and legs of the mission’s two night watchmen and gagged them in the early morning hours. They then broke down the door of the room where the assistant pastor Father Anselmo Marandy was sleeping. They then raided the convent located in the mission campus…. Three PIME nuns suffered attempted rape and were sent to their provincial house in Dhaka, the national capital where they are trying to overcome the shock and mental suffering. “It’s very sad that the sisters cannot continue to work for the people, but our sisters are no longer safe,” Rosaline Costa, a Catholic human rights activist lamented. Local Christians are currently living in fear since the attack. Christians form only 0.8 percent of Dinajpur district’s three million people.

Although some of those quoted in the Catholic Online report portray this attack as “unprecedented,” the fact is, nuns raped by Muslims is a phenomenon that goes back centuries. According to Muslim historian Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364-1442), during his raids on then Christian-majority Egypt, Caliph Marwan II (r.744–50) “made captive a number of women from among the nuns of several convents. And he tried to seduce one of them.”

The account describes how the enslaved nun tricked him into killing her, by claiming she had a magic oil that make skin impenetrable: “She then took some oil and anointed herself with it; then stretched out her neck, which he smote with the sword, and made her head fly. He then understood that she preferred death to defilement.”

Writing in the tenth century, the Coptic chronicler Severus ibn Muqaffa records that “the Arabs [i.e., Muslims] in the land of Egypt had ruined the country…. They burnt the fortresses and pillaged the provinces, and killed a multitude of the saintly monks who were in them [monasteries] and they violated a multitude of the virgin nuns and killed some of them with the sword.”

After the Islamic conquest of Constantinople in 1453, according to eyewitness accounts, “Monasteries and Convents were broken in. Their tenants were killed, nuns were raped, many, to avoid dishonor, killed themselves. Killing, raping, looting, burning, enslaving, went on and on according to tradition.”

Such is history—expunged as it is in the modern West—even as it repeats itself today. Thus, in August 2013, after torching a Franciscan school in Egypt, “Islamists,” in the words of the AP, “paraded three nuns on the streets like ‘prisoners of war’” and “Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.”

Indeed, the rise in attacks on Christian nuns throughout the Islamic world further demonstrates that they are no more inviolable than other “infidel” women:

Somalia: In response to Pope Benedict’s historical quotes which, like so many other things so enraged the Islamic world, Muslims in Somalia shot Leonella Sgarbati—a 66-year-old nun who had devoted 30 years of her life working in Africa—in her back. Her last words before dying in hospital were: “I forgive; I forgive.”
Pakistan: In September 2012, gunmen on motorbikes dressed in green (Islam’s color) opened fire on the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral in Hyderabad, murdering at least 28 people. Their immediate target was a nun, Mother Christina.
Libya: In February 2013, after the fall of Col. Gaddafi, Islamic rebels threatened nuns into fleeing the nation. They had been there since 1921, focused primarily on helping the sick and needy.
Palestinian Authority: Last year, nuns of the Greek-Orthodox monastery in Bethany sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to respond to the escalation of attacks on the Christian house, including the throwing of stones, broken glass, theft and looting of the monastery property.
Philippines: In an article discussing a Christmas Day church bombing in a Muslim-majority region, we learn that the jihadi group responsible “has been blamed for several bomb attacks on the Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo since the early 2000s and for kidnapping priests and nuns.”
Guinea: In June 2013, during a mob-led frenzy, Christians and their churches were savagely attacked in the Muslim-majority nation—with some 95 Christians slain and 130 wounded—including “the quarters of the nuns, [which] was looted before being torched.”
Syria: Islamic rebels forcibly abducted 13 Christian nuns and three maids, holding them captive for three months. They were finally released after the Bashar government agreed to release some 150 female criminals in exchange.

The above examples come from several countries that have little in common with one another—neither race, language, culture, nor economics—only Islam.

That alone should say something.

But no matter. Far from discussing Islamic history and doctrine, and how they tie to current events—especially the subhuman treatment of non-Muslim “infidels”—the predominant Western mentality simply dismisses Muslim violence as the West’s fault, or, in the words of ex-nun Karen Armstrong and Islamic apologist extraordinaire, “We did this.” Armstrong—who quit the nunnery only to engage in pro-Islamic mummery—insists that what’s needed is for us to focus more on “Muslim pain, Muslim suffering.”

Such, according to the leftist mentality, are the “real” reasons why, wherever Muslim-majorities live near non-Muslim minorities, from the dawn of Islam till today, the latter are being attacked into extinction.

Defcon or Dogleg Left?

Posted on August 23, 2014August 23, 2014 by Denise Simon

It is ISIL, it is Hamas, it is al Nusra, it is the Southern border, it is Ebola, it is the cyber hit, it is the Iranian nuclear negotiations, it is the Taliban, it is the kidnapped Americans, it is the green on blue attacks, it is MH17 shot out of the sky, it is the 17,000 Russia forces invading Ukraine, it is the attack on the Pakistan airbase, it is the Chinese aggression of fighter jets on U.S. aircraft, it is the island disputes in the S. China Sea, it is the attack on the NATO base in Turkey, it is Hamas, it is AQAP, it is, it is, it is.

Mr, President Chairman Dempsey is here to see you NOW. Oh, hi there Martin, what’s up? Before you begin, we need a fourth for Saturday, you interested? Ah, thanks just the same Mr. President, but I am here to finally deliver the PBD personally and get immediate strike authorization near Irbil. Can you sign here? Ah yeah sure, but I don’t need Congressional approval, this is gonna be a short gig right? Oh hey there Valerie, what’s up with you? Well sir we have a situation that needs exploitation in Ferguson so Al Sharpton is here to see you. He is our new race Ambassador.

Ah, Mr. President, this is urgent, I need your signature now, we must be defensive to protect Americans in Irbil. Oh, yeah sure Martin. Now while I have you sir what about Ukraine? Oh, Martin, what is your answer about Saturday’s golf. No thank you sir. Too bad, great weather and I am testing a new Ping driver. Sir we have 18,000 Russian forces in Ukraine now and there is fire exchanging and they murdered the Lithuania general counsel. No worries Martin, Merkel has that handled.

Ah what a great day for golf huh fellas? Standby, you go first, I have a text message from someone. Oh it is Holder, he is on his way to Ferguson, glad that is handled. Say Ahmad Rashad, where are you and Val going to dinner tonight? Ray Allen, I don’t really want to talk terror on the front nine is that okay with you? I am not interested in Hamas, Gaza or Israel right now or the others that are operating in Gaza. So, Mr. President are you interested in talking about ISIL in Austria then? Nah, but hey this scorecard says it is 477 yards, does that call for a 3 or 4 wood?

Damn, another text, seems Canada is upping their concept of the threat level of ISIL. Anyone need a beer? Oh, what is this chatter about 1500 Brits fighting for ISIL? With great golf courses in the U.K. I would think they would rather take on two rounds a week, anyone else think so?

You guys in the Secret Service never enjoy yourselves do you? This par 3 is a beauty. We don’t need anything from you guys today, it can hold, I don’t need to be bothered with what other countries are joining the Russians in air exercises much less what ISIS is doing with the incursion in Lebanon. Okay then sir, here is a bit of intel about the attack on the NATO site in Turkey, considered it delivered. Cool thanks, I need to get out of this sand trap in 2 whacks, any bets fellas?

Hey Ahmad, didn’t some of your football buddies graduate from UNC? Seems that campus and a few others are calling for boycotts of Israel, give them a high 5 for me eh?

Oh who is this guy driving that cart so fast? Crap, another Secret Service type over-dressed. Ah, hello Mr. President we have an American journalist, you know the one that has been communicating with the White House for the last several weeks. Well, they did what they said they were going to do, they beheaded the man, there is a video that has gone viral and the video was filmed with the personal message to you. So Cameron has been told it was a Brit in the video that beheaded Foley and he came off of vacation to deal with the matter. Really? No way. So a Brit killed an American? Yes sir it appears to have taken place in and around the south hills of Raqqa, but not too sure just yet. Wow, too bad that op failed in July. Ah yes sir, that brings another matter up for discussion. The media now knows about the op so the White House needs to get ahead of this. Damn, I lost that bet, took 3 to get out of the trap. Cant concentrate with all these interruptions. Look dude, this is screwing up my game and causing me to lose bets, go back to the Secret Service office and get Ben on the phone, have him handle the video. Then get Marie Harf on the phone and tell her to get out a statement that ISIS is not at war with America.

Okay, now for this nasty dogleg left, that rough looks tough…could need a wedge to get out for the approach to the green. Another text…what the heck? We have Secretary Hagel upping the game on the ISIS threat and now even Dempsey is saying that Syria must be on the table and the southern border is a risk?

No, not going to Defcon, this dogleg left has a real handicap. Beer? Watch me do a new birdie dance, I call it Back 9 Biride….