Andrew C. McCarthy's Blog, page 67

More on the Saudi Jihadist Arrested in Texas

Dan, the Justice Department has put out a press release describing what is in the arrest complaint on which Khalid Ali-M. Aldawsari (a legal immigrant here on a student visa) is being detained. Looks like he'd gone plenty far enough. It also looks like alert private citizens were the key to uncovering the plot. Here are some highlights:

Aldawsari allegedly attempted to have the phenol order shipped to a freight company so it could be held for him there, but the freight company returned the order to the supplier and called the police. Later, Aldawsari falsely told the supplier he was associated with a university and wanted the phenol for “off-campus, personal research.” Frustrated by questions being asked over his phenol order, Aldawsari cancelled his order and later e-mailed himself instructions for producing phenol. The affidavit alleges that in December 2010, he successfully purchased concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. . . .

Aldawsari used various e-mail accounts in researching explosives and targets, and often sent emails to himself as part of this process. On Feb. 11, 2011, for instance, he allegedly e-mailed himself a recipe for picric acid, which the e-mail describes as a “military explosive.” He also allegedly sent himself an e-mail on Oct. 19, 2010 that contained information on the material required for Nitro Urea, how to prepare it, and the advantages of using it. [O]n Feb. 1, 2011, a chemical supplier reported to the FBI a suspicious attempted purchase of concentrated phenol by a man identifying himself as Khalid Aldawsari. According to the affidavit, phenol is a toxic chemical with legitimate uses, but can also be used to make the explosive trinitrophenol, also known as T.N.P., or picric acid. . . .

Aldawsari also e-mailed himself instructions on how to convert a cellular phone into a remote detonator and how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle using items available in every home. One e-mail allegedly contained a message stating that “one operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten operations against occupying forces in the land of the Muslims.” During December 2010 and January 2011, Aldawsari allegedly purchased many other items, including a gas mask, a Hazmat suit, a soldering iron kit, glass beakers and flasks, wiring, a stun gun, clocks and a battery tester. . . .

Two legally authorized searches of Aldawsari’s apartment conducted by the FBI in February 2011 indicated that the concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids; the beakers and flasks; wiring; Hazmat suit; and clocks were present in Aldawsari’s residence. FBI agents also found a notebook at Aldawsari’s residence that appeared to be a diary or journal.... [E]xcerpts from the journal indicate that Aldawsari had been planning to commit a terrorist attack in the United States for years. One entry describes how Aldawsari sought and obtained a particular scholarship because it allowed him to come directly to the United State and helped him financially, which he said “will help tremendously in providing me with the support I need for Jihad.” The entry continues: “And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad.” 

In another entry, Aldawsari allegedly wrote that he was near to reaching his goal and near to getting weapons to use against infidels and their helpers. He also listed a “synopsis of important steps” that included obtaining a forged U.S. birth certificate; renting a car; using different driver’s licenses for each car rented; putting bombs in cars and taking them to different places during rush hour; and leaving the city for a safe place. . . .

Aldawsari conducted research on various targets and e-mailed himself information on these locations and people. One of the documents he sent himself, with the subject line listed as “Targets,” allegedly contained the names and home addresses of three American citizens who had previously served in the U.S. military and had been stationed for a time at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In another e-mail titled “NICE TARGETS 01,” Aldawsari allegedly sent himself the names of 12 reservoir dams in Colorado and California. In another e-mail to himself, titled “NICE TARGETS,” he listed two categories of targets: hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. On Feb. 6, 2011, . . . Aldawsari sent himself an e-mail titled “Tyrant’s House,” in which he listed the Dallas address for former President George W. Bush.

Aldawsari conducted research that could indicate his consideration of the use of infant dolls to conceal explosives and possible targeting of a nightclub with an explosive concealed in a backpack. . . . Aldawsari created a blog in which he posted extremist messages. In one posting, he expressed dissatisfaction with current conditions of Muslims and vowed jihad and martyrdom. “You who created mankind. . . . Grant me martyrdom for Your sake and make jihad easy for me only in Your path,” he wrote. 

Author: 


Andrew C. McCarthy

Gov. Walker's Strategy

I admire Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's refusal to back down on a fight the country needs to have and from which too many have shied away. But as long as he's in it, and the Obama/Alinsky Left has demonstrated to an appalled country just how ugly they intend to make things -- thug leaders calling for blood in the street, the Nazi/Mubarak/Mussolini rhetoric, lawmakers abdicating their duty and shutting down the legislative process when they can't get their way -- why not try to win it, right here right now?

Seems to me that Governor Walker is asking for adjustments that are way too modest and would leave in place -- perhaps solidify -- a situation that is only marginally less unjust and untenable than what Wisconsin has now. Under his proposal, citizens working in the private sector would still be paying more for public-employee pensions and substantially more for public-employee health insurance than those citizens pay for their own comparable benefits. He would exempt many public employees from even these modest adjustments. (And for what? Did you see the firefighters out there yesterday, joining the taker-class's demonstrations against the public?) Furthermore, Walker is being very cagey when asked whether his goal is to break the public-sector unions -- he won't say yes, but his statements have an undertone of "wouldn't be the worst thing in the world . . ."

There is a simple, compelling case that public-sector unionization should never have been permitted in the first place, that FDR's predictions that such a system would be rife with corruption have been realized in spades, and that the arrangement has the country on the fast-track to bankruptcy. Moreover, despite the rate and pace at which public-sector unions have lined their pockets over the past quarter century, the quality the public gets from its "servants" decreases in direct proportion to the public unions' ever-inflating sense of entitlement.

The case was forcefully made just yesterday by Jonah here and by Peter Ferrara at Pajamas. And they demonstrated that proponents can advance the case while illustrating that they are not anti-union, that we appreciate the contributions to a decent society that private sector unions have undeniably made. This is not a pro-corporate fat-cat argument; it's a pro-us argument.

The public-sector employees work for us -- they are not beaten down by "the man," "the system," or whatever bogeyman the lefties are using today. The only "collective bargaining" they should be permitted is the regular legislative process that everyone else who wants something from the public purse needs to go through. And I can tell you from personal experience, having worked in the public sector for over two decades -- and having felt honored to represent the public in court despite making a lot less money than I could have made as a private attorney -- that the real public servants understand this. The people driving this train, and driving us into bankruptcy, are left-wing activists whose power hinges on maintaining this perverse system in which unions effectively sit on both sides of the negotiations, passing piles of public money over and under the table.

Governor Walker is a very persuasive fellow and he has a soapbox he will probably never have again thanks to the dreadful behavior of the opposition. This is not a time to go for incremental improvements. This is a moment when the game is there for the taking.

Author: 


Andrew C. McCarthy

Rocket Fire into Israel from Gaza

Ynet News is reporting a rocket fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Beersheba for the first time in over two years. No one killed. Earlier in the day, three mortar bombs were set off, also in civilian areas. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims it fired mortars at the responding IDF forces.

It was just a few days ago that, in reluctantly vetoing a U.N. resolution attacking Israeli settlements as illegal, President Obama's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, took pains to say the administration "reject[s] in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity." And that, of course, was after the administration's intelligence chief blew kisses to the "largely secular" Muslim Brotherhood. Probably a coincidence.

Author: 


Andrew C. McCarthy

DOMA: Politics Trumps Outcome

One of the most insidious practices of the insidious Obama Justice Department is the sabotaging of litigation -- i.e., DOJ purports to defend some statute or government policy so that it can appear to be moderate, but uses its resulting control over how the case gets litigated to forfeit some of the best legal arguments supporting the statute/policy. This way, DOJ can steer the case toward the radical outcome the Obama base desires rather than the outcome DOJ is ostensibly pursuing.

On balance, I far prefer that Obama's Justice Department openly advocates for the outcome desired by Obama's base, as it is finally doing with DOMA. This way, the court can appoint lawyers who will truly defend the statute with the best legal arguments available.

That is what happened in 1999, when the Clinton administration decided not to defend the statute by which Congress had tried to reverse the Miranda decision. The Supreme Court appointed special counsel to defend the conviction of a bank robber whose confession, though voluntary, had been obtained in the absence of Miranda warnings. (The conviction was reversed; DOJ's abandonment was a bad legal and policy decision, but at least it was transparent and accountable, and it ensured that the law enforcement position was adequately represented by other lawyers.)

Regardless of where the DOMA litigation goes from here, what's interesting is the administration's political calculation as the president gears up for the 2012 campaign. Obama has clearly decided that it's more important to be publicly aligned with his base -- which he desperately needs to drum up enthusiasm for his reelection -- than to pursue the more subtle (and effective, albeit unethical) strategy of masquerading as DOMA's defender while actually undermining the statute.

Author: 


Andrew C. McCarthy

Annals of Egypt's "Democracy" Revolution

Two million Egyptians jam Tahrir Square to chants of "To Jerusalem we are heading, martyrs in the millions." Robert Spencer has video at Jihad Watch.

Author: 


Andrew C. McCarthy

Shutting Down the Government

Let's put aside that congressional Republicans deny that they want to shut down the government. How can Harry Reid continue talking about Republicans wanting to shut down the government as if it were the worst conceivable thing in the world when, as he is making this accusation, Democrats in (now) two states have actually shut down their governments -- and not due to a legitimate legislative impasse, but by the illegitimate tactic of fleeing the state to avoid being compelled to do their jobs? If government shutdowns in Wisconsin and Indiana occur in coordination with President Obama's political operation and to the cheers of Democratic bigwigs across the nation, how bad can shutting down the government be?

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi Issues Fatwa Calling for Gaddafi's Death

MEMRI has it, here. Bottom line:

I hereby issue a fatwa to the officers and soldiers who can kill Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: Whoever among them can fire a bullet at him, thus relieving the country and the people of him, should do so. This man wants to annihilate the people, so I am protecting the people. I rule that whoever can fire a bullet, and relieve us, as well as Libya and its great people, of this man's evil and danger, should do so.

Who Attacked Lara Logan, and Why?

For the world’s billion-plus Sunni Muslims, al-Azhar University in Cairo is the center of the theological universe, its faculty and scholars the most authoritative voice on the meaning of Islam. It is not very far from Tahrir Square, ground zero of Egypt’s revolution. 

It was in Tahrir Square last Friday that the Muslim Brotherhood began shunting aside other opposition leaders, including Google executive Wael Ghonim. The million Muslims jamming the square hadn’t turned out to hear a good corporate citizen of the Left. In this nation, where a strong majority of the population desires the implementation of sharia, Islam’s legal and political system, the throng turned out to hear and hail Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s top adviser -- who, with his al-Azhar doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence, is sharia personified.

#ad#Tahrir Square is also the place where, in the frenzy after Hosni Mubarak’s fall, CBS news correspondent Lara Logan was seized and subjected to a savage sexual assault by an Egyptian gang. Coverage of the attack has been muted. There have been testimonials to Ms. Logan’s courage, and one anti-American leftist lost his comfortable fellowship at NYU Law School for failing to conceal his glee over the atrocity. We have heard much about the attack, but have heard next to nothing about the attackers. You are just supposed to assume it was a “mob” -- the sort of thing that could have happened in any setting where raw emotion erupts, say, Wisconsin’s capitol.

Except it doesn’t happen in Madison. It happens in Egypt. It happened in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, in the riots that led to Suharto’s fall -- as Sharon Lapkin recounts, human-rights groups interviewed more than 100 women who had been captured and gang raped, including many Chinese women, who were told this was their fate as non-Muslims. It happens in Muslim countries and in the Muslim enclaves of Europe and Australia, perpetrated by Islamic supremacists acting on a sense of entitlement derived from their scriptures, fueled by the rage of their jihad, and enabled by the deafening silence of the media.

As Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer has detailed, al-Azhar University endorses a sharia manual called Umdat al-Salik. It is quite clear on the subject of women who become captives of Muslim forces: “When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman’s previous marriage is immediately annulled.” This is so the woman can then be made a concubine of her captor.

This arrangement is encouraged by the Koran. Sura 4:23–24, for example, forbids Muslim men from consorting with the wives of other Muslims but declares sexual open season on any women these men have enslaved. (“Forbidden to you are . . . married women, except those whom you own as slaves.”) Moreover, Mohammed -- whose life Muslims are exhorted by scripture to emulate -- rewarded his fighters by distributing as slaves the women of the Jewish Qurazyzah tribe after Muslim forces had beheaded their husbands, fathers, and sons. The prophet himself also took one of the captured women, Rayhanna, as his concubine. And, as Spencer further notes, Mohammed directed his jihadists that they should not practice coitus interruptus with their slaves -- they were encouraged to ravish them, but only in a manner that might produce Muslim offspring.

As I documented in an earlier column, Sheikh Qaradawi contends that women bring sexual abuse on themselves if they fail to conform to Islamist conventions of modest dress. Shahid Mehdi, a top Islamic cleric in Denmark, has explained that women who fail to don a headscarf are asking to be raped, an admonition echoed by Sheikh Faiz Mohammed, a prominent Lebanese cleric, during a lecture he delivered in Australia.

#page#In light of these exhortations, should it be any surprise that the sexual abuse of women is Islam’s silent scandal? In Europe’s expanding Muslim enclaves, it is a terror tactic to extort women -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- into adopting the hijab and other Islamic sartorial standards. Rape has become so prevalent, and so identifiably a Muslim scourge, that embarrassed and hyper–politically correct Swedish authorities have discouraged police in cities such as heavily Muslim Malmo from collecting data that point to Islam as the common denominator in rape reports.

#ad#We can keep ignoring it, we can hope against hope for a reformation (while continuing to pretend that the reformation has already happened). The fact, however, is that, as long as al-Azhar and figures like Qaradawi continue to be the voice of Islam -- al-Azhar, the site President Obama chose for his June 2009 address to the Muslim world; Qaradawi, whom the State Department has hailed as an “intelligent and thoughtful voice from the region . . . an important figure that deserves our attention” -- Islam will not change, and women will be little more than chattel.

It is a challenge we do not want to acknowledge, because the Islamic scholars have doctrine on their side. The Koran pronounces that “Allah has made men superior to women” (Sura 4:34). As documented in “Sharia Law for Non-Muslims,” a study published by the Center for the Study of Political Islam, Mohammed declared that women are inferior to men in both intelligence and religious devotion (Bukhari hadith 1.6.301), and that women will make up most of those condemned to Hell. (Bukahri 7.62.132). Sexual abuse is encouraged not only by hadith but -- as I related in discussing the recent case of a teenager flogged to death in Bangladesh -- by sharia standards that make rape practically impossible to prove and subject women to a death sentence for adultery or fornication if they come forward with an accusation but cannot prove it.

Islamic scriptures endorse wife-beating (Koran 4:34 again). Female genital mutilation is rampant in the Muslim world and scripturally based. As Caroline Glick notes, the World Health Organization reports that 97 percent of Egyptian women and girls have been subjected to this form of barbarism.

This despicable treatment is fortified by standards that treat women’s testimony as inferior to men’s, permit men to marry up to four women, and deny women the right to hold many public offices -- particularly those that involve the construction of Islamic law and issuance of fatwas.

The unmistakable message at the core of sharia is that women, like non-Muslims, are less than fully human. It is a message we continue ignoring at the peril of tomorrow’s Lara Logans, and our own.

—  Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, is the author, most recently, of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.

What on earth are we doing in Afghanistan?

In my weekend column, I argued that the democracy project has failed in Afghanistan, and that -- far from taking the battle to the Taliban and America's other enemies -- our military's main job there has become building a sharia state while the Obama State Department pleads with the Taliban to negotiate and join the sharia state regime.

I also noted Steve Coll's reporting, and State Department confirmation, that negotiations with the Taliban are, in fact, underway. 

Now, at the Weekly Standard, Tom Joscelyn is reporting that, with apparent State Department cooperation, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's "peace council," in furtherance of its outreach to the Taliban, is sending a delegation to Gitmo to request the release of some 20 Taliban commanders and leaders who are still being held there because it is a ripe dead certainty that, if released, they would go straight back to the anti-American jihad, as we well know 40 percent or more of the released detainees do -- some, as Tom points out, going right back to the Taliban.

You can't make this up.

Qaradawi's message to "our brothers in Palestine"

... that would be, of course, to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian branch.

As I mentioned Friday evening, the Brotherhood's sharia guide, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, returned to Egypt on Friday to the cheers and genuflections of hundreds of thousands. As I've suggested before, as between Iran 1979 and today's Islamist Turkey, I expect Egypt to regress more along the lines of Turkey, albeit on a faster track. But Qaradawi's appearance certainly does throw a wrench into the theory that Egypt won't reprise Iran because there is no obvious, Khomeini-like charismatic figure to take over the revolution. Comparatively speaking, with his media ventures (the weekly al-Jazeera sharia show and Islam Online in particular), his academic credentials and output, his following among Sunni Muslims (far more numerous than Shiites), his many prominent offices, his Brotherhood PR engine, and his admirers in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S., Sheikh Qaradawi is a far more formidable figure than Ayatollah Khomeini appeared to be in 1979.

At Big Peace, the blogger al-Mutarjim is still working on a translation of the sheikh's full speech from Friday, but he has posted an excerpt -- Qaradawi's exhortation to Hamas and call for the conquest of Jerusalem:

A message to our brothers in Palestine:  I have hope that Almighty Allah, as I have been pleased with the victory in Egypt, that He will also please me with the conquest of the al-Aqsa Mosque, to prepare the way for me to preach in the al-Aqsa Mosque. May Allah prepare the way for us to (preach) in the al-Aqsa Mosque in safety–not in fear, not in haste. May Allah achieve this clear conquest for us. O sons of Palestine, I am confident that you will be victorious.

In another worrying sign, there are indications coming out of Egypt and Israel that the Egyptian military provided security for Qaradawi's appearance before the throng. This, you might say, is to be expected in a potentially unstable situation with the government in flux and a throng of hundreds of thousands (at least) gathered in Tahrir Square. But the reports further suggest that the military let the Muslim Brotherhood take the lead in orchestrating Friday's events and that opposition leaders who are not Islamists were not permitted to speak. I am not in a position to verify or disprove these reports, but if they are true that would be very ominous indeed.