9/11, reflections, are we safer? No.

On September 11, 2001, the "Pearl Harbor" event of our lives took place. Those who were cognizant of what happened, who saw it, experience it, and those who have sacrificed to preserve our Republic in the years since and those against whom we expressed our national angst all recognize that on that day, the world changed. For awhile, the sleeping giant was again awakened. And, like their WWII German and Japanese counterparts, the militant factions of Islam soon understood the military might of the United States knows no equal.

Unfortunately, we were using our technological superiority and the superior training and equipment of our troops on basically feudal tribal cultures with a low level of technology.

Domestically, as a result of the nature of the infiltration of our commercial aviation by the terrorists, mainly from Saudi Arabia, and all from Arab Islamic countries, a new and unsettling addition was made to our national security. The Patriot Act supported by President George Bush as part of his national security initiative post 9-11 created a concern regarding our constitutional protections from unlawful search and seizure, arrest, and interference with our internal and international travel. President Bush's initiative included the creation of a new Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Agency within the FAA. The DHS and TSA were the direct result of the terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers in NYC on September 11, 2001. Since 9-11, both have grown dramatically, in both scope of their missions and the size of the bureaucracy.

The TSA has been under steady criticism from the flying public for its outrageous violation of traveling Americans' 4th, 9th, and 14th Amendment rights. Property is seized without recompense and due process. The citizen is grotesquely violated in a manner that in any other context would result in the arrest of the TSA agent for sexual molestation at the very least, and rape at worst. Worse, the TSA has implemented technologies for the search of a person using microwave radiation that has been heavily criticized by physicists and physicians associations nationwide. There is a serious question as to the long term effect of the low level radiation upon the skin. Worse for the TSA is a practice of ignoring the only segment of the flying population whose religion is at the root of the 9-11 attacks. Political correctness prevents the TSA from focusing upon the estimated 5% of the flying public that is Muslim. It is not uncommon to see Muslim men and women in full ethnic garb being passed through with a cursory search, while older Americans, including the disabled and very young are subjected to the most invasive and embarrassing affronts to their personal dignity in violation of their constitutional rights. The record of the TSA with respect to stopping terrorists is highly questionable, as they have failed test after test involving smuggled weapons and chemicals simulating explosives.

What is it that the TSA really does other than condition the American public to allow the suspension of their civil rights without proper notification of arrest and the intent to search? The TSA is a direct threat to our liberties that is far more serious and insidious than the Patriot Acts' secret tribunals for issuing warrants to conduct surveillance upon Americans. The TSA has now expanded its jurisdiction into non-aviation venues of travel, including highway and large attendance events held in local jurisdictions. So much for the freedom of unrestricted travel.

As was stated so sagely by Benjamin Franklin during the debates on the drafting of the Constitution: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty."

The Department of Homeland Security became a huge vacuum that swept up all of the federal law enforcement, including Customs and the Border Patrol. The outcome has been a massive bureaucracy that has confused, impeded, and demonstrated that an agency with powers not enumerated in the Constitution may have been excluded for a reason. There is no Constitutional basis for the federal DHS.

On the state level, the 50 states have followed suit and created a state namesake for their state version of DHS. These state agencies became largely conduits for funneling billions of dollars of federal tax dollars to local communities to allegedly improve their public safety agencies' communications, provide for updated equipment, and to provide for community training for emergencies through the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) concept, and for providing increased fire and rescue equipment. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the money went for monuments to . . . politicians in the form of statues, parks and buildings having nothing to do with improving disaster response.

In Alaska, the Division of Emergency Services became the Division of Alaska Homeland Security and Emergency Services. The additional alphabet soup did not increase the effectiveness or efficiency of the idea of making Alaskans safer. It did however, become a conduit for disbursing federal DHS grants to local communities. And, that it has done since it was renamed. The yearly grant amounts supplied by the federal DHS to be distributed by the State have been as high as $18,000,000 to this year's $9,500,000. For 2012-2017, the yearly State grant amount is set at $9,500,000.

For the $10s of millions received yearly by Alaska local governments through the DHS grant program, there are still municipal police and fire agencies with radios that cannot communicate with the Alaska State Troopers or neighboring communities. By contrast, the Juneau Fire Department was a focus of one New York Times article in 2006 that investigated the use of the DHS grants. As the fireman in Juneau stated, they had bought so much new equipment, that they had no idea how they were going to use it, as training and manpower to use it were now the issues. Too much of a good thing is still too much.

Interestingly enough, given the emphasis on WMD threats, the potential for nuclear first strikes by Iran, China, North Korea and Russia, the Alaska Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs have yet to decentralize the command and control from Camp Denali on Ft. Richardson (JBER). There are only so many real military targets of significance in Alaska, those being the four major military bases and the Trans Alaska Pipeline and Terminus at Valdez. Therefore, why has the State left its military command and control in the "target zone"?

Another issue that is of concern to Alaskans is the state of our communications data infrastructure, both public and private, in face of a potential Electromagnetic Pulse attack (EMP). There was allegedly a report done in around 2007-2008, but what steps have been taken to harden the telecommunications infrastructure of Alaska's towns and cities?

In the face of the federal DHS grant largess, the Alaska State Defense Force, a proven disaster response asset was literally rendered ineffective and deemed ineligible for receipt of DHS grants by Governor Sarah Palin, then Adjutant General LTG Craig Campbell, and now Governor Sean Parnell and his Adjutant General MG Thomas Katkus. Their vision for disaster response in Alaska is based upon a reliance upon a totally federal disaster response capability and availability. This reliance is flawed based upon Alaska's disaster response experience during the War on Terror.

In 2006, with the federal commitment of the Alaska Army National Guard and the federal troops to the War on Terror, three times the ASDF was called to State Active Duty because there were no available National Guard troops to use for disaster response. Today, MG Katkus believes that Outside National Guard assets will replace any need for the Alaska State Defense Force.

Another troubling aspect of the DHS grant program has been the militarizing of local and
State police agencies. In the 1950s, the FBI began a program to standardize the organization, rank, investigative procedures, including forms and policies of the local police agencies. This program started with the training of officers and management of the local police agencies in these standards and procedures. The purpose in this was to provide a commonality in command and control for the federalization of local assets in the event of a national emergency. Now, DHS and the federal Department of Justice have taken this first step to a new level.

DOJ has provided local law enforcement with federal law enforcement grants over the years. This program was accelerated during the initial phases of the War on Terror, and somewhat overlapped by DHS.

DHS grants have provided funding to localities to use for law enforcement equipment, communications, and personnel training in concert with DOJ grants. Local and State police agencies are became eligible for priority receipt of military equipment directly from DOD.

The reason our police are looking and acting more like the military is that they are being trained in small unit operations and tactics by military instructors, equipped with similar uniforms and equipment, and instilled with an attitude that was not present in local law enforcement. That attitude is the "break it" mentality of the infantry: surrender or die. We now see NYPD officers armed with H&K MP5 submachine guns and M16A4s. Except for the color of the uniform, one would be hard put to discern the civil police tactical operations officer from any heavily armed military infantry soldier.

Unfortunately, the federal grants have failed to create the Tower of Babel that would give the federal, state and local agencies the ability to communicate with each other. The incompatibility of data base structures compounds the problem of getting information disseminated between agencies.

What are the changes for the common citizen during the course of the War on Terror arising from the attacks of 9-11?

We have seen our soldiers go to war, again, and again, and again. We have grieved with their families for their sacrifices. We have stood in awe at the commitment of duty that those sacrifices require.

We have seen our civil rights diminished and our population suborned to search and seizure in violation of their rights under the Constitution.

Is the State of Alaska more secure as a result of the DHS grants? No. Bad policy and poor leadership cannot be remedied by money. That policy and leadership, however, is not the bane of just Alaska, it is the bane of every State and most of all, reflected in our national leadership. A leadership that apologizes to the enemy, that kow tows to foreign despots and apologizes for our country!

A national leadership that excuses a religion that condones the murder of innocents, the mutilation of women, the treatment of women as property, that maintains slavery in this day and age, that kills apostates and homosexuals without due process, destroys any other religion, and seeks to impose Shari'a upon the entire world: ISLAM.

May we not forget 9-11, may it be a reminder always to future generations that ignoring a threat because of political correctness is irresponsible. People died because our government did not heed the warnings extending all the way back to the 1970s of the threat of radical Islam.

It is time we noted the lesson imparted us by the War on Terror and the experiences of our troops. We need to understand that the threat is now in amongst us. We need to understand that the War on Terror will be ongoing so long as our political leaders fail to understand the threat.

After 11 years of war, our southern borders still stand open, with swaths of our national lands off limits to citizens so that drug runners and jihadis can have free and unfettered access to America from Mexico. A nation with open borders will not remain a sovereign nation for long. That lesson of history is still being ignored so that a few can take advantage of the many seeking work, not citizenship, but just work.

This 9-11, resolve to vote the apologists out of office.

May God bless all who have served, and all who have lost loved ones in the War on Terror and in the defense of our Constitution and our Great Republic.

Up the Republic!
We apologize to NONE!

 

 

 

Osama Bin Ladin's Will

Cut and paste the link below into the URL line of your browser. It will take you to Michael Yon's website where Bin Ladin's Will is posted. NOTE THE ADMONISMENTS TO HIS CHILDREN in later paragraphs. He tells them not to serve Al Qaida or the Jihadist fronts. As you will note, he was frustrated over the treachery and betrayal that put him in Abbotabad. He directs his wives not to remarry, he is chagrined over the commitment that led to his ascetic lifestyle and humble means. Interesting.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/last-will-of-osama-bin-laden.htm


Michael Yon is a combat jounalist, former SF and a great photographer and writer. His blog is outstanding and he tells it like it is.

Islam, the religion of . . . peace, my ass.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98NBR100&show_article=1

The man who killed the young soldier and wounded another outside of a recruiters office in Little Rock, AR tells all.

He tells us why he was obligated to kill the soldiers and why Islam allows him to do so.

This man is not an exception. He believes himself to be a "good" Muslim.

Thank you President Obama for ignoring the importance of this act, and for placing the young men wounded and killed in the service of their country on native soil below that of a killer of babies. All the while ignoring the festering wound that is Islam in our midst.

The murder of one of our soldiers serving this country stands below that of the murder of a killer of babies?????!!!!

An American soldier is wounded and another killed while standing in front of a recruiting station in Alabama. The act is committed by a black Muslim, practicing the peaceful dictates of his religion. What does our President do to find the killer and any associates of this killer?

NOTHING!!!!!!!!!

Yet the murderer of Dr. Tillman, an aborionist specializing in late term abortions, is killed and all the stops are pulled out to find any associates in the pro life movement.

Yet, the jihadi, a home grown, prison graduate, who found radical Islam while in prison and who decided that he hated the U.S. military and that his religion dictated that he kill on U.S. soil, was just a lonely, misguided moron acting alone. What about his Imam? What about those who encouraged him? Who associated with him?! Those who taught him to hate and that it was alright to KILL our soldiers on American soil in the name of ALLAH?!!!

Nah. He was a black Muslim. Just misguided. Just having a bad day. Decided to off a couple of GIs at a local recruiting station in Alabama. Practice a little jihad on home turf. Just a local, misguided, misunderstood, black Muslim. A practioner of the religion of "peace".

You are showing your true colors, Mr. President.

May G0d bless the families of those two soldiers, may he have mercy and compassion upon the young man killed for no reason and his family, and my he grant the same for the wounded man and his family.

Hey, libs, you proud you voted for Pres. Obama?

The murder of one of our soldiers serving this country stands below that of the murder of a killer of babies?????!!!!

Napolitano's priorities and concerns

On 7 April, the new DHS Secretary sent out a document to local law enforcement across the United States titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."
Those included in the focus of an ever expanding concern on the part of our federal internal security establishment are returning troops. Our military!
This fear on the part of our government includes those who are concerned about government intrusion into our lives, those who believe in State’s rights (10th Amendment), citizens who lawfully purchase weapons, Christians, those who oppose abortion, those concerned about illegal immigration, and white supremacist militias.
Right wing, white supremacist militias.
The bug aboo of the Clinton years.
I kind of resent being included in a list that includes white supremacists. I note that only ‘white’ is of concern, not La Raza or other non-white, anti-government and racist supremacist groups.
Where is the concern about Rev. Wright and his flock? They certainly bear watching with his racist, militant, anti-government rhetoric. Gee, and one of his flock made it to the White House. . . .
I guess in Napolitano’s DHS, color is a limiting factor in the ability to pose a threat to the security of the U.S. Does the referenced document imply that those of color lack the ability to pose a threat?
The justification for the troops included as people of concern? Tim McVeigh.
In 2008, less than 1% of 23,000 returning troops joined radical groups after leaving the military.
Has Napolitano been to Walter Reed and seen what our vets have given?
Does she know of the sacrifice of the families of our soldiers?
How about those families who gave all they could? Their son, daughter, daddy, uncle, cousin, on and on. What does she think that Gold Star means?
She dares question their loyalty and patriotism?
Who is encompassed by this document?
Anyone who: is a patriot, a Christian, is outspoken, is concerned about government overreaching, believes in State’s rights, is a serving member of the military returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, a veteran, is concerned about the sanctity of life, is concerned over the scourge of illegal immigration, is concerned about the continued assault on the Constitution, feel that their first loyalty is to their State.
That is definitely me. I am an Alaskan. My order of loyalty is God, family, State, country. I swore an oath defend the Constitution of the Untied States that I still hold as my first duty to my country.
How is it that our government distrusts most of us, but allows a religion and organizations that openly advocate the destruction of the United States?
I guess that the 1st Amendment is selectively applied in this case, because Islam and organizations such as La Raza provide a counter point to our culture, Constitution, and Christianity, values that the libs and radicals on the left openly abhor.
Unfortunately, this is also a case of our liberal element playing with fire.
We have so many divisive elements in the U.S., because the U.S. government no longer encourages assimilation to mitigate the ties to homeland and culture. Assimilation is evil to the lib social agenda, but diversity, read divisiveness, is good for us.
Déjà vu with the latest Homeland Security notification to law enforcement. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, late as the Governor of the State of Arizona, has outdone the Clinton paranoia over militias and evangelicals. She now includes returning troops in an ever growing list of potential subversives.
This is a case of ignoring the obvious and the dems pursuing their agenda of anti-American culture, and socialism at any cost.
I have nothing but contempt for government officials who are afraid of our returning military heroes.
Given DHS’ priorities, I hope Janet Napolitano likes her burkha.
I guess to her, our Founding Fathers are all terrorists who should have been on a British watch list.

What Geneva Convention? They kill our troops and mutilate the bodies, you morons!

(Written May, 2007 after the bodies of four of our troops had been accounted for after having been "captured" by the jihadis in Iraq. May God have mercy and compassion upon their souls and their families.)


Three out of four of the recently captured U.S. troops are now accounted for. May God have mercy upon their souls, and may their comrades have vengeance upon those who committed those atrocities against them.

I saw the photos the jihadis took to pump up their audience and their own courage. I saw the two dead young soldiers, with their heads separated from their mutilated bodies.

Earlier, I saw the photos of the first young man=s body discovered in the river with two bullet holes in the chest and one in the head. It was reported by the Iraqi police who found him that he had also suffered physical torture before he was executed. All done in the name of the religion of peace, because our men were . . . infidels.

These animals who committed these atrocities were the scum that Cindy Sheehan, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Teddy Kennedy, Rep. John Murtha, Bill Mahr and Rosie O=Donnell extoll the virtues of, but call our troops "terrorists". Notice that the jihadis' violation of the Hague and Geneva conventions regarding the treatment of captured troops go unremarked by these morons.

These jihadis are rabid dogs who must be dealt with harshly and with finality.

Why then, do we tie the hands of our troops in dealing with them?

We have troops in prison for acting to defend themselves and their comrades. For doing what all soldiers do in war. We have troops in prison for what would have passed as "hazing" in a college fraternity initiation.

Abu Gharib. Why, we embarrassed those poor Muslim folks. Then, we turned them loose to kill our soldiers, and put our guards in jail. What a sick joke.

If there is a shooting of a jihadi, Iraqi or foreign, by our troops no matter the circumstances, time is wasted upon an investigation to determine whether or not the shooting was justified. That is a convention to be undertaken for a shooting in a civilian police action, not in a war. After WWII, our troops shot and killed hostiles in the occupied countries without trial or such inane oversight.

I know one young Iraq vet who was confined to quarters for three days after a justified shooting. His weapon was taken from him and he was placed under house arrest until the outcome of the investigation into the shooting. He saved the lives of his comrades by his action, and he was treated like a criminal. He did not reenlist for that reason. He said "never again" to being treated like a criminal by his own for doing his job as a soldier.

What cowards we are to worry about what the world thinks!

Remember, the greatest generation burned cities from the air and destroyed them on the ground. Burned from the air: Dresden. Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima to name a few. We incinerated civilians by the hundreds of thousands. Not soldiers. Civilians.

In WWII, total war was fought. No mercy. No ROE that gave the enemy the advantage. No tying the hands of the troops. We destroyed the enemy. We conquered the enemy. We humiliated the enemy.

Now, we worry not about winning, not about protecting our troops, but whether or not the alleged rights of those who try to kill our troops were violated?!

Iraq is not Cincinnati!

My father, our fathers and grandfathers, men who went to fight WWII, did the hard job of soldiering, and then came home.

Today, our troops, their grandsons, are being killed and maimed without being able to exercise the right to defend themselves and their comrades first, and worrying about collateral damage second. The actions and conduct of our troops are subjected to oversight by JAG officers, attorneys who determine after the fact whether or not a shooting was justified. Most of whom are not combat command qualified. Attorneys.

We would have lost WWII had these restrictions been imposed upon our troops.

Again, as in Korea and Vietnam, our troops hands are tied by politics.

Our troops are sacrificed to show the world that we are really good people and that we really do not want to hurt anyone. Golly.

It is unquestionable that the IEDs that are the most effective come from Iran. Why is there still an Iran?

It is also unquestionable that most of the jihadis foreign to Iraq are infiltrated from Syria. Why is there still a Syria?

Those who were behind those who came to kill us on 9-11 are still out there.

Who knows how many latent jihadis are in this country awaiting their chance, because of the stupidity of maintaining an open border that allows up to 15,000 illegal aliens to cross daily.

More Americans were killed in the 9-11 attack on NYC than at Pearl Harbor. Yet, we act like we brought this outrage upon ourselves. That this act of war was our fault.

Male bovine offal!

The only thing that the Arab tribal mind, regardless of religious sect, understands is power. In the 1930s, the British stopped a rebellion in Iraq by turning Bagdad into rubble from the air. The rebellion ended when the jihadis who were out to remove the British infidel from their so called "holy" soil realized that they could be bombed from the air into extinction with impunity.

Mr. President, rewrite the Rules of Engagement to give our troops the ability to defend themselves. When they are attacked, overwhelming firepower needs to be the only response. Bring on the B52s, B2s and B1s 24 hours a day 7 days a week!

Destroy Sadr City as we destroyed Nagasaki.

Publically hang Muqtada al Sadr for the cowardly scum that he is. Or, have you forgotten the charnel houses that were found at Najaf where his underlings held court?

Destroy every city and town in the Anbar Province the way we and the Brits destroyed the German and Japanese cities and towns. Then move south. Do not stop until the last rifle is laid down, and the last jihadi is hanging from a telephone pole.

Give the tribes a choice. Life or death. No other choice. Support the effort to rout and kill the insurgents, or to side with them and die with them.

Kill the jihadis, destroy their will to fight, destroy their capacity to make war, humiliate them, conquer them. Treat in the same manner those who harbor them, sympathize, and support them.

Religion of peace. Religion of death. Religion of the dead. That is what Islam has to be.

WAR!

To do otherwise, is to ensure an American Hiroshima.

Post: January, 2009, our Pres. Obama has just given the order to eliminate the detention center in Gitmo. Bad news in the long run.