Al Qaeda Apologizes For Killing Muslim Innocents

The savage killings of thousands of innocent people, mostly through cowardly suicide bombings in public places including mosques and markets throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan may finally be having a negative backlash against al Qaeda and the Taliban with the populations turning against them.

The American born Moslem convert Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, appeared in a 17-minute video released on Islamic online forums and offered apologies to the families of innocent people killed in al Qaeda attacks.

Gadahn said, "we express our condolences to the families of the Muslim men, women and children killed in these criminal acts and we ask Allah to have mercy on those killed and accept them as shohadaa (martyrs)."

"We also express the same in regard to the unintended Muslim victims of the mujahedeen's operations against the crusaders and their allies and puppets, and to the countless faceless and nameless Muslim victims of the murderous crusades in Afghanistan, Pakistan's Waziristan regions and Swat Valley, and elsewhere," Gadahn said.

This is a rare example of al Qaeda offering condolences to the families of those slaughtered in the bloodletting brought on by the group's own attacks. But Gadahn also lashed out against the United States and its supporters in the war on terror.

"Those who have made the foolish decision to stand with America and its allies in their losing war against Islam, you have not only betrayed Islam and Muslims and left the fold of faith, but you have also caused the destabilization of nations and the displacement of thousands of weak and oppressed people."

"The blood of countless Muslims is on your hands, and the security and very future of the countries you claim to defend and serve has been placed in jeopardy because your external enemies are taking advantage of your heedlessness as you fight and kill your fellow countrymen for American dollars," Gadahn said.

Gadahn has often been used by al Qaeda in the past in video and audio statements because he is American and obviously has a mastery of the English language.

Gadahn is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists. His whereabouts are unknown. Many analysts believe he remains in touch with Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second-in-command, after Osama bin Laden.

Gadahn was born in Oregon and raised in Southern California. He is the first American charged with treason since Tomoya Kawakita in 1952 who was found guilty of torturing American prisoners of war while living in Japan during World War II.

Sanctions Against Iran A Paper Tiger

The time is drawing near when Israel will have to go it alone and demolish the Iranian nuclear threat. Years of protracted negotiations between Iran and the international atomic energy agency have lead nowhere except to allow the Iranian dictatorship to flaunt the international community's demands that the country live up to its commitments on not developing nuclear capabilities.

Today, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on an official visit to Iraq, predicted the international community will impose stronger economic sanctions on Iran unless its leaders change their policies.

That threat rings hollow. We have heard this rhetoric repeatedly over the last decade coming out of Washington and nothing has changed except that Iran continues to build centrifuges that produce the fissionable material, that will allow Iran to build and ultimately use nuclear weapons.

Also today, Iran, the nation that has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, today signed a defense cooperation pact with Syria pledging to work in coordination to counter the regional threat they see posed by the "Zionist regime."

In the meantime, Israel has been preparing for a new front against the terrorist sponsoring regimes, holding two extensive military drills, simulating various combat scenarios against Syria and Lebanese based Hezbollah, the terrorist puppet of the Iranian regime in Tehran.

Israel will most likely be forced to take action against Iran's nuclear ambitions before atomic weapons are actually built and deployed and the entire geopolitical dynamic changes, not just in the Middle East but globally. A nuclear tipped Iran, controlled by zealot Islamic extremists, is a prescription for world disaster.

Israel has been forced to act on its own in the past taking out the Iraqi al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad. In 1981 the Israeli Air Force (IAF) crippled the Iraqi reactor in a surprise attack code-named Operation Opera.

And just a little over two years ago, in September 2007, the IAF struck Syria's al-Kibar nuclear facility surprising the world when it destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fueled by North Korean plutonium.

The world is feigning fortitude in dealing with diabolical regimes in the Middle East, who rather than focusing on how to resolve the internal problems that they face such as tyranny, corruption, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, lash out at Israel for being a poisoned dagger aimed at the heart of the Muslim world.

If Iran is to be stopped, far more stringent sanctions must be imposed, and the Iranian government must believe it faces the threat of military action if they do not halt their nuclear program. Today, neither
one of those conditions exists.

As a result, Israel cannot wait much longer to attack and one would hope that the United States will provide an umbrella of security if Israel has to go it alone again against a country that is massively larger in terms of population and land mass, a country with a powerful military with long range missiles capable if hitting Israeli cities.

The nation of Israel was born and is alive today because of the Holocaust in Europe. The people in that tiny nation know what extermination means. They know that as Hitler threatened there would be a Europe free of Jews and executed on that threat, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs who pull his strings are proposing a Middle East free of Jews and they too will act on the threat.

That can and will not happen because the Israeli Defense Forces will act when the time is right to preempt a future nuclear attack that would strike at its very existence.
One only hopes that world community backs her actions as she faces this existential threat alone.

China Launches World's Fastest Train

In yet another sign that America is losing its edge to China, the middle kingdom has just launched the world's fastest train. It runs from the central city of Wuhan down to the south coast city of Guangzhou at speeds of more than 235 miles per hour. The 620 mile route took only four years to complete.

China has ambitions of building high-speed railways over 80 percent of the current network of domestic airline routes by 2020 and will offer passengers a cheaper, more reliable ride. Beijing wants to connect 70 percent of the country's key cities.

By 2012, 42 high-speed railway links amounting to 10000 miles will be finished, of which 3000 miles will be operated at 155 mph, while 7000 miles will run at 235 miles per hour.

Now compare that to America. It is a joke! We have one route in this country where trains can travel at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and that is on the Acela from New York to Boston. But the track is so decrepit that the Acela can reach that speed for only a few miles and typically runs at about 75 miles per hour.

I have ridden on the TGV in France, the Shinkansen in Japan and the KTX in Korea. They get you from central city to central city faster than airplanes because you don't have to waste valuable time fighting traffic going to airports. Beyond that they run on time like a Swiss watch and thunder storms, fog and air traffic congestion won't make you late.

These trains are a joy to ride and are extremely relaxing. They glide along silently compared to American trains that are rickety and noisy. You get to see the countryside go by dreamily, the seats are spacious and travel is actually enjoyable.

If you look at maps of Europe and Asia you will see they are being crisscrossed by high speed rail. We here in the U.S. have been talking about this for ages and do nothing about it because the airlines send their lobbyists out at the federal and state levels to impede any progress.

And when it comes to funding, most nations in the world subsidize their railroads in a major way because they realize these transportation links are vital to their economies. We here in the U.S. sit on our hands and the Republicans shriek about government intervention in the free market economy. Aren't they the same politicians that brought us the Great Recession by the way?

I remember growing up as a kid and reading in the history books about how the U.S. built the greatest train system in the world. Remember the transcontinental railroad? In 1869 the last spike was driven into the tie connecting Union Pacific tracks with the Central Pacific Railroad, an incredible feat. We had a fantastic train network in yesteryear. There wasn't a major city you couldn't get to aboard trains that were world class for their time.
If we want to get our country back on track economically, think of the jobs that would be created by building high speed trains between every major city in this country. Think about the steel plants cranking out the rails, the building of the cars and the train stations, the construction of the track itself. Tens of thousands of high paying, long sustained jobs could be created and we would free up our overcrowded air space, drive down the price of travel and save energy in the process. Makes sense to me!

Every major country in Europe is well on their way to completing total rail operating systems in all of their major cities and Asia is not far behind. Why is it that we don't have the vision, the political will and the desire to be competitive. Why can't we think big like our ancestors once did? Why can't we build things like we used to that helped make this country great? It is a sad state of affairs that America is becoming an also ran. And one wonders, if we don't regain our desire for greatness, we surely will become a second rate power.

Tax The Big Bank Bonuses

America should take a page from the Brits and tax the enormous, unseemly bonuses that many bankers are and will soon be receiving. Since the U.S. taxpayer bailed out nearly every major bank in the country last year, at a time when they faced collapse, it only seems right that they should help rebuild an economy that is still very much in peril.

According to the New York Times this is what the British government plans to do.

The chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced a one-time tax on bank bonuses Wednesday, part of the government’s effort to shore up the still-weak British economy.
Banks will be charged a 50 percent tax on 2009 bonuses of more than £25,000, or $40,800. It will be imposed on the pool of bonuses paid by a bank, rather than individual payments, and it will be paid by the bank — not by the recipient of the bonus. It will take effect immediately and will affect banks’ 2009 profits.
The levy represents the most direct attack on bank bonuses anywhere in the world. All banks in Britain – including the London-based subsidiaries of foreign banks — will be affected, whether they took government funds or not.

If the U.S. Treasury and President Obama had the courage to enact similar legislation, the U.S. could make greater monetary contributions to our crumbling infrastructure creating shovel ready jobs that could get Americans back to work. It could also reduce the monstrous debt levels that we are accumulating that are making the country beholden to the Chinese who own a major chunk of our debt which also costs us billions in debt service.

My bet, the big money guys on "The Street" have too much clout and they will send the lobbyists on "K Street" on a mad dash to the White House and Capitol Hill to kill off even the thought of taxing bonuses. Beyond that, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House Economic Advisor Larry Summers are too closely allied to "The Street" to put up much of a fight.

And by the way, this is not just some far left idea coming from the Labor Party in Britain. In 1981, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher imposed a tax on bankers, who were raking in huge profits as a result of sky high interest rates.

But we Americans have ceded the Republic to the bankers and their Wall Street cronies and the people in the lower castes are just supposed to suffer when the system goes awry.

Islamic Indifference

Where is the worldwide outrage from Muslim leaders? Why are not the clerics and the people screaming bloody murder when they learn of yet more carnage of innocents slaughtered by deranged suicide bombers.
Today, 127 people were killed and at least five-hundred more were wounded in Baghdad, when five bombs detonated including three suicide attacks, two at colleges, one at a court complex, one at a mosque and another at a market.

Yesterday in Pakistan, 48 innocent people were blown to pieces when two bomb blasts ripped through a crowded market in the city of Lahore and earlier in the day 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber struck in the city of Peshawar.

Why aren't Muslim people taking to the streets in protest. Why aren't they avenging these cowardly, mass murderers?

But God forbid that a Danish newspaper publish a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, then you see the rage of the street directed at the Christian infidels with thousands taking to the streets throughout the Islamic world and in Europe. Some 100 people died as a result of those protests.

Let Salman Rushdie publish a book called Satanic Verses and have a fatwa issued against him calling for his death and having to live in fear his entire life. The fatwa is permanent since they only be rescinded by the person who first issued it and the Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution, who was so offended by the book and called for the fatwa, died in 1989.

And cheers in the Islamic world when Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh was shot dead by a Muslim for producing the film "Submission" about the plight of Muslim women under sharia’h law which basically makes them chattel.

Yet it seems reasonable when thousands upon thousands of people are shredded by suicide bombers who love death more than life and believe they will be redeemed as martyrs and given rewards in heaven by Allah. Let us yell "God is Great" and be proud!

This horrid violence is a sick, twisted perversion of the Islamic faith and of the holy Qur'an. Cruel and diabolical Muslim clerics are using their religion as a political instrument to create an Islamic Caliphate stretching from Indonesia to Europe where Islamic law will bring the people into a cowering state of servitude.

We have heard the term Islamo-Fascists. These clerics will bring the same kind of ruin upon their peoples as Hitler and the Nazi's did in Germany, that Mussolini brought to Italy, that Mao brought to China and Stalin brought to Russia.

The good Muslim people, and that is the majority, must stand up to this demagoguery and violence. It cannot continue to go on if the peoples and the nation's in the Islamic world or going to survive and thrive.

God help us all if we don't stop this suicidal rampage because if we don't get a handle on this it is only a matter of time before these so called martyrs blow up a nuclear device or release a bio-weapon upon a city somewhere in the world. If you think the Great Recession of 2008-2009 was huge a economic event, watch what happens after that kind of terror strike. There will be a global depression!

And when extremist Muslims say "we love death more than you love life" there is no doubt that they will not hesitate to use a weapon of mass destruction in the Muslim world or against the West wherever they feel it will bolster their cause.

Death To The Dictator

Students in Tehran have once again taken to the streets demanding the overthrow of their government with shouts that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, knows his days are over and they set fire to pictures of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Islamic leaders have sent their goons into the streets and to universities around the country to beat down the protesters. This on the heels of protests earlier this year that resulted in the scores of deaths.

But as we have seen time and time again when Democratic movements begin they seldom are put down permanently and ultimately succeed.

How the United States deals with this current crisis could shape the Persian Gulf region for generations to come. For thirty years the Islamic Revolution has held a tight grip around the necks of the people of Iran but the grip may not hold much longer.

We have an opportunity to move into a new era if the government fails there, one where peaceful coexistence is possible between our two countries. But there is extreme distrust of America in Iran and for good reason.

The United States has had a rather ignominious and stormy relationship with Iran. After World War II the U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in a cold war struggle across the globe and Iran with its long border with the Soviets and its oil riches made it a target of American foreign policy influence.

After Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq began nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1952-1953, the CIA financed and organized a coup in what has become a pivotal moment in American-Iranian relations.

After Mossadeq was imprisoned, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed by the U.S. and began a brutal and bloody reign from 1953 to 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power and a thirty year period of anti-American fervor has been part and parcelof Iranian nationalism ever since.

The Iranians also remember well the U.S. support of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the war between those two countries that resulted in the loss of over one million lives.

But today there is a chink in the armor of the Mullahs who run Iran. They are despised by many who want separation of religion and politics. They are also distrusted and have come under attack for last June's tainted election that many feel fraudulently reinstalled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President.

The United States has a rare opportunity to help break the back of the Islamic front in Iran that is hurriedly working to develop nuclear arms capabilities and supports terrorists organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas in the Middle East.

The U.S. must cautiously work to support the opposition to the oppressive Islamist regime but any overt intrusion into the affairs of that state will surely backfire.

Opening lines of communications so the protest movement can see how the demonstrations are playing in the West is critically important. Lending support to Iranian nationals who have fled the regime and live abroad but who have influence inside Iran can also be utilized to lend support. Bringing to light the killing, imprisonment and torture of demonstrators before the United Nations and other world bodes will also help to erode the power of the Mullahs.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, "there is no God higher than truth" and in Iran right now the truth is pitted against the vision of God perpetrated by sinister men who have twisted their religion to seize power and stamp out freedom. Like the Shah, they too shall be swept away!

The Copenhagen Imperative

Even if you are not a believer in the facts, that the climate is warming, it is imperative that we act now on containing and reducing air pollution.

First let's take a quick look at the evidence. The 12 years from 1997 to 2008 were among the 15 warmest on record. The '00's were  hotter than any prior 10-year period. And temperatures have risen by close to six degrees since industrialization began to pour carbon into our atmosphere in earnest back in the 1880's.

                                       

                   Source:  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

But even if the climate were not warming the planet do we want to continue to pour billions of tons of pollution into the air we breathe? Let's face it, diesel particles in our lungs are not a healthful thing. Acid rain, a result of burning coal falling in our waterways and killing fish is really not a positive. Ozone pollution from carbon dioxide killing off the giant Sequoia's in California is a tragedy.

According to the Health Effects Institute of Cambridge, MA  recent studies observed 30 to 50% increases in lung cancer rates associated with exposure to particles penetrating the lungs. I really am not enamored with that prospect.

However, while the Obama administration is trying to bring the U.S. into a leadership role on climate change at the Copenhagen Climate Summit after a lost decade under George Bush, the shrill Republican right, whose raison d'etre is to destroy Obama ahead of the 2010 Congressional race, is putting every obstacle they can conjure in his path so he will fail.

Is it not time for this country to come together on anything? We are talking about the health and well being of every man, woman and child who is alive today. No matter what the specifics are of scientific evidence, whether temperatures have risen one degree or three degrees, whether sea levels have crept up one inch or one foot is not the point. The point is we need to live in harmony with this planet in order to flourish and prosper. Degrading the atmosphere is the antithesis of creating that harmony.

We cannot lose by reducing pollution levels. In fact, it could be an economic plus if the government gave significant tax credits to business owners, factories and auto manufacturers to retrofit their facilities and products. Let's stop petty bickering and clean up the planet!