Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East

From: Chicago Sun-Times

This was no ordinary rubber chicken affair. That was my reaction to the extraordinary keynoter at Tuesday’s Better Government Association annual luncheon.

Lara Logan, a correspondent for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” delivered a provocative speech to about 1,100 influentials from government, politics, media, and the legal and corporate arenas. Such downtown gatherings are a regular on Chicago’s networking circuit. (I am a member of the BGA’s Civic Leadership Committee, and the Chicago Sun-Times was a sponsor).

Her ominous and frightening message was gleaned from years of covering our wars in the Middle East. She arrived in Chicago on the heels of her Sept. 30 report, “The Longest War.” It examined the Afghanistan conflict and exposed the perils that still confront America, 11 years after 9/11.

Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back.

“I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .” Logan declared in her native South African accent.

The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban.

“There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!”

Logan stepped way out of the “objective,” journalistic role. The audience was riveted as she told of plowing through reams of documents, and interviewing John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a Taliban commander trained by al-Qaida. The Taliban and al-Qaida are teaming up and recruiting new terrorists to do us deadly harm, she reports.

She made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.” 

Our enemies are writing the story, she suggests, and there’s no happy ending for us. 

As a journalist, I was queasy. Reporters should tell the story, not be the story. As an American, I was frightened. 

Logan even called for retribution for the recent terrorist killings of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other officials. The event is a harbinger of our vulnerability, she said. Logan hopes that America will “exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil. That its ambassadors will not be murdered, and that the United States will not stand by and do nothing about it.”

In the “good old days,” reporters did not advocate, crusade or call for revenge. 

In these “new” days in a post-9/11 world, perhaps we need more reporters who are willing to break the rules.

Weekly Standard: Sweden Pressured Suicide Bomber's Release From Gitmo

From: The Weekly Standard

With a black baseball cap pulled tight over a mop of stringy long hair and a patchy, close-cropped beard, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali looked more like a Metallica roadie than a disciple of Ayman al-Zawahiri. He addressed the scrum of reporters in a clipped, heavily accented Swedish and accused the American government of wrongly detaining him for three years and "physically and mentally" torturing him. A book about his experiences was in the works; a documentary crew, cobbling together a film about American human rights abuses, had requested an audience; and his legal team was plotting a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld.

It was 2004, and Ghezali was a free man.

In late 2001, Ghezali, a Swedish national, had been detained during the battle at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, handed over to the American military, and sent to the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. According to his lawyers, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he spoke none of the local languages, Ghezali told his captors, in the midst of the Taliban's retreat into the mountainous hinterlands of Afghanistan, he had crossed that country's border with Pakistan to study Islam.

After an intense lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson--and a vague promise that the country's intelligence services would keep a watchful eye on him--Ghezali was delivered to Sweden (on the government's private Gulfstream jet). The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter noted that Ghezali had achieved "rock star status" upon returning to his homeland, a native victim of America's rapacious imperialism. And after two-plus years in isolation, the emotionally fragile former prisoner would be happy to discover "that a majority of Swedes were glad that he was home."

Four Green Fields-Makem & Clancy

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem - Wild Colonial Boy

WHO WILL APOLOGIZE FOR THE MURDER OF CORPORAL TJ CONRAD???????

Picture of T.J. Conrad, 22 years old killed in Afghanistan because of the burning of a Koran. Flesh and Blood shed in the name of printed type. WE apologized for destroying a book, but where's the apology for TJ CONRAD and his now seven month old baby girl pictured here? Why is his life less valuable than inanimate material?

Krauthammer: U.S. apology for Koran burning ‘embarrassing,’ ‘groveling’

Congresswoman Kathy Hochul (D) Booed At Townhall Over HHS Mandate

My Apology to President Karzai on Behalf of Americans

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan

From: CNSnews.com

There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the Statet Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”

In recent times, freedom of religion has declined in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

“The government’s level of respect for religious freedom in law and in practice declined during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals,” reads the State Department report.

“Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity," said the report. "The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

More than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in the decade-old Afghanistan war, according to CNSNews.com’s database of all U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. A September audit released jointly by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, found that the U.S. government will spend at least $1.7 billion to support the civilian effort from 2009-2011.

According to that report, the $1.7 billion excludes additional security costs, which the report says the State Department priced at about $491 million.

A March 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service showed that overall the United States has spent more than $440 billion in the Afghanistan war. Christian aid from the international community has also gone to aid the Afghan government.

Nevertheless, according to the State Department, the lack of non-Muslim religious centers in Afghanistan can be blamed in part on a “strapped government budget,” which is primarily fueled by the U.S. aid.

“There were no explicit restrictions for religious minority groups to establish places of worship and training of clergy to serve their communities,” says the report, “however, very few public places of worship exist for minorities due to a strapped government budget.”

The report acknowledged that Afghanistan’s post-Taliban constitution, which was ratified with the help of U.S. mediation in 2004, can be contradictory when it comes to the free exercise of religion.

While the new constitution states that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” it also proclaims that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law.”

However, “the right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice,” according to the State Department.

“Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs,” according to the report. “Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates.”

The report does note that “in recent years neither the national nor local authorities have imposed criminal penalties on coverts from Islam.” The report says that “conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic rule in the country.”

Also, in recent years, the death punishment for blasphemy “has not been carried out,” according to the State Department.

According to the State Department report, the United States continues to promote religious freedom in Afghanistan--even though the country no longer has even one Christian church.

“The U.S. government regularly discusses religious freedom with government officials as part of its overall policy to promote human rights,” according to the report.

According to the State Department report, more than 99 percent of the population, estimated between 24 and 33 million people, is either Sunni (80 percent) or Shia (19 percent) Muslim. Non-Muslim religious groups, including the estimated 500 to 8,000 strong Christian community in the country, make up less than 1 percent of the population. Other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais, and Hindus.

John McCain and Lindsey Graham's Pathetic Definition of "Isolationism"

Well, John McCain and Lindsey Graham are at it again. Every neoconservatives favorite pair of Senators have subjected opponents of action in Libya and the future of Afghanistan as "isolationist". I'll address the ignorance of the neo conservatives regarding over extension of force in a future post, but right now they need to be called out for their pathetic defense of our current interventions.

Let me say that like most or all conservatives I supported invading Afghanistan because as we all know they were harboring Bin Laden. No brainer. I supported the invasion of Iraq on the basis he had weapons of mass destruction even though we now know that's not the case. Ok, bad Intel, but we still got rid of the Saddam headache. I support using drones in Yemen precisely because it's targeting Al Qaeda in a strategic locale and we are not deployed beyond drones. That works for me.

Senator McCain's criticism and false application of "isolationism" to decry the GOP field of Presidential candidates position on Libya and Afghanistan is wrong for the following reasons. First and foremost it implies that any criticism of the use of force as authorized by the President without the consent of Congress is itself "isolationist'. Moreover, Senator McCain has said that our "values" represent our vital national interests. With the exception of Ron Paul every candidate in the GOP field has supported action against Afghanistan and Iraq so to state they are being isolationist in assessing our current state of affairs is patently absurd.

As far as our values representing our vital national interests are concerned one must ask where is the line? Khadafy is a ritual human rights abuser and he did threaten a massacre in Benghazi. Ok, fair enough. Did Senator McCain call for us to bomb China after the massacre in Tienanmen Square? China's human rights record is as bad and frankly worse than Khadafy and we know they massacred their own people who had foisted a makeshift Statue of Liberty in that same square where they were murdered. No defense,no aid,no bombs for freedom loving Chinese wanting to live an American version of a free life? China's record is no better today, but where is the call to defend our "values" from Senators McCain and Graham? Well, seeing as how we must keep borrowing money from Chinese bankers to continue these excursions maybe that's why we have silence in that regard. Oh well, I guess dissenters in China's version of the gulag will have to wait for us to pay back their overlords before our enlightened Senators McCain and Graham look into their plight.
 
Senators McCain and Graham do not recognize the fundamentals of our place in the world. I will also post on this point in future, but in a nutshell our foreign policy has been adrift since the end of the cold war. Rather than a set of governing principles driving a consistent policy through administrations of both parties we have become largely reactionary in the administration of foreign affairs. In conducting ourselves in the international arena it is essential to have a consistent and coherent policy in determining the proper course of action as events dictate. It is policy that defines value(s). John McCain and Lindsey Graham are far more damaging to this nation in expressing their view of our place in the world because they have never placed a clear definition of what they consider our "values" and the limits in their defense.

Let me take this moment to state that like many I have definite reservations about the constitutionality of the "War Powers Act". In this respect I agree with McCain and Graham. Its constitutionality is not the point. I cannot see outside of Ron Paul supporters any mainstream elements of the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement who advocate retreating from the global stage. We all know the world wouldn't let us anyway. McCain and Graham are wrong because of the reflexive application of "isolationist" whenever anyone questions their as yet undefined policy based on our "values". Lindsey Graham actually said we need to "shut up" about Libya. Of course Lindsey Graham has a rather authoritarian view of dissent when its contrary to his sense of civility. You can see his views on free speech during wartime HERE.
 
Senator McCain as is often the case cites the isolationism of the 1930's as a perennial defense for refusing oversight into the application of force overseas. A history lesson for the Senator. It was not American isolationism that invited the Second World War, but European appeasement. If every American had a moral fervor to take on Imperial Japan over China or Nazi Germany over the Rhineland and Sudetenland just how far would we have gotten with Britain and France bending over backwards for Hitler? The notion that our unwillingness to fight a war in Europe aided and abetted the rise of the Nazis is also absurd. I seem to recall it was Neville Chamberlain, not Franklin Roosevelt who flew off to Munich in a frenzy to keep "peace in our time". Or did things play out differently in the history of McCain and Graham's Bizarro World?

McCain's citation of the 1930's as a parallel is all the more puzzling because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were wildly popular with the American people and for good reason. People were skeptical of Libya, but generally if mildly supportive. Does anyone even mention Yemen? The pre war, Depression era Americans were overwhelmingly opposed to a war overseas because they were often too busy trying to put food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. This attitude prevailed up to Pearl Harbor. Prior to that, why would any American willingly place their son on foreign shores to defend nations that were indifferent or ignorant of the immediate peril of imperial and fascist designs?

Americans today understand our place in the world better than John McCain and Lindsey Graham give us credit, but to label anyone who would question the degree of sacrifice as "isolationist" or by inference an "appeaser" does an injustice to those who demand accountability from those who compel the ultimate sacrifice of their sons and daughters. Why should Americans continue to have our tax dollars after ten years do no more than prop up a crook named Hamid Karzai who just yesterday referred to our troops as "occupiers"?

There actually is a valid reason for sustaining troop levels but is it so much to ask of our leaders that they spell it out? So far all we've imported from Afghanistan is heroin produced from the poppy fields of Karzai's brother. Our tax dollars at work. American lives fighting Al Qaeda and defending drug lords.

John McCain's assertion that Ronald Reagan would not approve of comments opposing force in Libya is at first foolish because it presumes an opinion upon the deceased. It is despicable because it defies Reagan's record. Reagan initiated what amounted to the final phase in winning the Cold War and toppling the Soviet Union. Without firing a shot. Ronald Reagan engaged American troops on three occasions. The first was Lebanon which resulted in a massacre of marines in their barracks. Reagan stated it was his worst decision. He invaded Grenada after its government was toppled with the aid of Castro within a few days of the car bomb in Beirut. He was criticized unfairly for using Grenada to distract from the debacle in Lebanon. Finally, he bombed Libya and nearly took out Khadafy himself. That was in response to the disco bombings in Germany. His actions against Libya went no further than that. No prolonged air war.No ground war. He sent his message. Citing Reagan is ridiculous.
       
John McCain and Lindsey Graham ought to be ashamed of their sophomoric interpretation of the GOP field of candidates. They should be embarrassed to tell anyone to "shut up" when lives are at stake. They should take a moment to educate themselves and reconsider false historic narratives in defense of their positions. The actions in doubt are worthy of debate and consideration regardless of where we come down, but McCain and Graham's comments are born of resentment of those in dissent. Obviously they never learned that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Karzai's Guilt: His Cynical and Deadly Exploitation of a Koran Burning

From: Time

This time, don't blame so much the knuckle-dragging preacher in Gainesville, Fla. Or a 24-hour media culture that's ready to hype any loser playing with matches. This time the real culpability lies with Afghan President Hamid Karzai – to whose reputation for cynical opportunism can now be added the 12 people who were tragically killed on Friday in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, during protests against last month's purported burning of a Koran in Florida.

The preacher in question, of course, is the “Reverend” Terry Jones, the attention-starved, anti-Muslim hate-monger who last summer threatened to burn Korans at his small evangelical church in Gainesville on the anniversary of 9/11. We in the media gave him all the ink and airtime he didn't deserve and then some, fanning the flames before he'd even lit them. Overseas, meanwhile, Muslim activists boiled themselves up for violent demonstrations if he did go through with it. Fortunately, Jones was eventually talked out of it.

But Neanderthals like Jones rarely just go away. Apparently upset that his ugly 15 minutes of fame had expired, Jones out of the blue announced late last month that he and an embarrassingly small “crowd” of about 30 congregation members had put a kerosene-soaked Koran “on trial” on Sunday, March 20, and then torched it. This time, however, the media did the right and responsible thing: We ignored it. Word of the infantile stunt didn't travel much beyond the Florida peninsula let alone to West Asia. And maybe – it's a long shot, but just maybe – it was getting through Jones' thick skull at that point that no one was paying attention to him anymore, and that perhaps it was time for him to read the messages of tolerance in his Bible rather than burn Korans.

Yes It Does, Staffan de Mistura

You can read the article HERE. Staffan de Mistura is the top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan and a witness to the murder of some of his companions. It was this quote at the end of the article I found revealing.

"Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of offending culture, religion or traditions," de Mistura said. "Those who entered our building were actually furiously angry about the issue about the Quran. There was nothing political there."

Clearly, he does not understand the principles of a free society. Culture,Religion and their traditions have ritually been subject to ridicule and outright persecution. It has as a matter of history often been justified. Every culture has established rigid class structures in one form or another. It is with free speech confronting the injustice of many traditions that have moved humanity forward.

Free speech does not extend to offending culture or religion and its traditions? Well, sir if a culture finds it desirable to kill defending printed type as sacred, then we need to offend more often because it seems they neglected to move forward with the rest of us. This is the 21st century, just because we no longer have gates doesn't mean the world lacks for barbarians, so stop making excuses.

The Religion of Perpetual Outrage strikes again

From: American Thinker

A mob of fanatics attacked and killed 7 UN workers in Afghanistan yesterday. The reason? The Florida preacher Terry Jones - desperate for media attention after being ignored for a few months - burned a Koran on March 20 - almost two weeks ago.

For the 14th century peasants who have now rioted for two days, it seems news travels slowly to that part of the world.

But the question isn't about benighted religious extremists who go off at the slightest hint of disrespect to their holy book and prophet. The shocking question is why is the press, and much of the West, excusing the violence by pointing to the Koran burning as a justification for it?

Murder In the Name of God/Defending American Values

So, Terry Jones burns a Koran in Florida. A willful,deliberate act designed to be provocative and inflame passions. But, Mr. Jones, like his buddies at Westboro Baptist lives not only in a free country, but in a nation that holds firm that his freedom is natural to his humanity as endowed by our creator. A free man may reject and ridicule those with whom he disagrees or finds disagreeable. Our Republic has effectively codified the oft cited but often ignored precept by Voltaire: "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

We have for quite a while now been libeled "Islamophobic" if we dare to point out the professed faith of those who have murdered and maimed in praise or defense of "Allah". The Fort Hood shooter yells "Allah Akbar", the gunman in Germany does the same. It is virtually ignored and of course it's never labeled terrorism. It's never pointed out in mainstream outlets that they took lives in the name of God. Denial is a bitch if you're afraid to be labeled "intolerant", or a "bigot" or an "Islamophobe". So we treat it as random violence, rather than an altogether demonic act of terror.

At this moment the numbers are all over the place, but at least twelve people have died and two beheaded in Afghanistan in a demonstration protesting Mr. Jones's Koran burning. It has been roundly condemned. What about bringing the perpetrators to justice? This is the same country we liberated where missionaries were killed just for possessing a "Holy Bible". It sure is comforting to know that one will be killed for either defacing a Koran and possessing a Bible. It need not be uttered, but to shed blood in the name of God is an act of barbarism.

The matter at hand as regarding the burning of the Koran does not rise to the attention of the President and does not for diplomatic purposes warrant an official response. Mr. Jones actions are reprehensible as an act of provocation, but is an action grounded in the deepest roots of American life and values. His actions did not necessitate a murderous rampage. But it did, or at least it was the pretext to justify murder.

I'm tired of placating thugs by ignoring their actions as a defense of faith. I'm tired of moral relativism as an excuse to coddle and appease savage theocratic ideologues. I'm tired of our most shameful chapters in history as a justification for moral relativity. As a nation we have struggled with our demons, but those spirits were confronted by a good people compelled to fight injustice in furtherance of American ideals. What made this nation great is not that we are free of sin or shame, but that we had the courage of greater convictions. Those who murder in the name of God do not identify their actions as sin or shame for they in their mind's eye are the servant of God, avenging his honor. That is the fundamental distinction between those who burn books and those who would kill innocent people in mourning the fate of printed type.

It's time that we proudly asserted our values, for those principles in our Constitution are not merely the province of Americans, but the natural human order. It is the clearest expression of human dignity and our inherent,natural rights. Free speech can be abrasive and hateful, but we don't kill for being offended. We protect it. As we should. If God gave us free will, then we are free to reject him and the faithful certainly have no fear for the future because one chooses to bite the apple.

As Americans we must reject calls to sanction or incarcerate Mr. Jones for his behavior. We must defend his right as disruptive as it is. To abandon a noble defense of our inalienable rights as an individual free man or woman sends a clear message that we may be intimidated into abandoning our most cherished principles. The United Nations has at the behest of Muslim member nations sought to pass a resolution or reach an agreement called "blasphemy laws". This is an attempt to define criticism of faith or religion as a human rights violation. It is an effort to deny our most precious right of free speech. It is an attitude that tries to kill Danish cartoonists, an effort that justifies killing Dutch film makers and driving a young American woman into hiding for suggesting "Everyone Draw Muhammad Day".

Are we failing our republican principles out of fear for losing Saudi oil that finances wahabist madrases? Are we so fearful of attack that we would rather live obediently than stand at the watchtower of democracy? Are we too timid to do as Voltaire and die defending the right to speak freely? Are we so offended by others that we fail to recognize an effort at the erosion of our natural rights?

There are many things that are antithetical to a free society and people. In a free country we reject the very notion, the concept of heresy,apostasy,blasphemy and sacrilege. In a free society nothing and no one is sacred,not even God. If he had meant anyone to avenge his name he would've given them wings. In the  meantime, we must publicly reinforce our dedication to defend our core principles. The founders in the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives,their fortunes and their most sacred honor. We are obligated to perpetuate their sacrifice. It may leave a bad taste in our mouths but we must defend Terry Jones. It's the right thing to do. It's the American Way. We'll leave his final judgement on the matter to a higher authority, but we must stand guard against those who imagine they have wings and do the will of God.

My New Favorite Quote

Ace of Spades has a great piece on the murder of UN workers in Afghanistan. I encourage you to read it, but more specifically I want to excerpt a quote that I found quite profound and cuts right to the bone.

"The principle of politeness goes out the window when those who seek "respect" and "tolerance" are murdering people to get it. They're not seeking respect; they're seeking obedience through terror."

UN staff killed by Afghan mob enraged over Florida Koran burning

From: Christian Science Monitor

UN staff killed by Afghan mob enraged over Florida Quran burning

At least 20 UN staff members were killed in northern Afghanistan when a protest over a Quran burning overseen by pastor Terry Jones turned into a violent mob.

• 

Kabul, Afghanistan

An Afghan mob apparently angry over a Quran burning in Florida set upon a United Nations compound Friday, killing as many as 20 employees and setting fire to several compound buildings.