THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† We Fight Them Over There So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over Here?: In this case it happens to be true, as American citizens training to be jihadis wanted to ply their murderous trade in Iraq and not in the U.S. Khaleel Ahmed, 28, of Chicago and Zubair Ahmed, 28, two cousins from the Chicago area, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges for participating in a plot by three Toledo, OH, men to recruit jihadis and to bankroll their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops in Iraq, reports The Associated Press:
The two cousins received training in firearms and counter-surveillance so they could join the insurgency, prosecutors said. …
Prosecutors said Marwan El-Hindi of Toledo recruited the cousins in 2004 to join his cell in Toledo. They all met at a Muslim convention in Cleveland with a former U.S. military man who worked undercover and helped foil the plot, prosecutors said. …
El-Hindi, Mohammad Amawi, and Wassim Mazloum were convicted of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States and now face maximum sentences of life in prison.
Prosecutors also said that the cousins had traveled to Egypt in 2004 with plans to kill U.S. troops, but they were stopped and returned to the U.S.
Khaleel Ahmed was born in India and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2004. Zubair Ahmed was born in Chicago and is a U.S. citizen.
Editorial Note: There is increasing evidence that Islamic extremists are recruiting jihadis in Minneapolis.
† Wind Farms Good For The Environment – But Bad For Property Values: The Department of Interior issued a final environmental impact statement that says the nation’s first offshore wind farm, proposed for the waters off Cape Cod, posed no serious environmental threat, reports The New York Times:
The wind farm would cover 24 square miles - roughly the size of Manhattan - five miles off Cape Cod. From the shore, the 130 turbines, each 440 feet tall, will be visible half an inch above the horizon on clear days, according to Energy Management Inc., the company planning the project. Jim Gordon, the company’s president, said that optimistically, construction could begin late this year, and that the wind farm could be producing electricity by the end of 2011.
The project would cost more than $1 billion, Mr. Gordon said, adding that he has spent $40 million since proposing the wind farm in 2001. …
Cape Wind supporters say the project would ultimately supply 75 percent of the electricity for Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
Though the state’s governor, Deval Patrick (D), supports the Cape Wind project and other types of alternative energy The Times notes that fellow Dem Senator Edward M. Kennedy has been actively trying to sink it:
[Mr.] Kennedy … fought the project for eight years, saying it would hurt wildlife, fishing and tourism and spoil the beauty of Nantucket Sound.
Mr. Kennedy, whose family compound in Hyannis Port looks out on the proposed wind farm site, has consistently opposed the project on the grounds that it would hurt navigation, the local economy and the environment. …
Aides to Mr. Kennedy made a point of saying Friday that an obstructed view was not among the senator’s concerns.
Yeah, right.
Editorial Note: Since Barack Obama and Patrick are close political allies and one of Obama’s goals is to create a “green infrastructure” – albeit not as a means to stimulate economic growth as he had hoped, but as a future investment towards energy independence – The Stiletto can’t see Kennedy ultimately winning this battle, and in waging it he once again demonstrates limousine liberal hypocrisy in exempting themselves from the consequences of their do-goodism. Does this country really need another Kennedy in the Senate? (That’s not a rhetorical question, unless you're of the opinion that, as Wonkette recently put it: “everybody knows the Kennedys are imbued with special powers of public servitude that makes it very cruel of us to prevent them from serving in whatever capacity they think is most appropriate.” Like The New York Times, for instance.)
† All In A Day’s Work For “Super Gordon” And “The One”: The Guardian “reports” that “Barack Obama has has only four years to save the world.” At least, that’s what Jim Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, tells the lefty Brit paper, which did not bother getting an opposing viewpoint from one of the many scientists worldwide who disagree.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Former Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin – already charged with 12 counts of bank fraud, harboring illegal immigrants, document fraud and identity theft - is being hit with an 86-count federal indictment alleging bank fraud, money laundering and violating an order of the U.S. secretary of agriculture, reports The Associated Press:
The indictment alleges that Rubashkin made false statements to a bank for a loan, knowing that Agriprocessors was harboring illegal workers.
Rubashkin also is accused of transferring $9.6 million through a bank account for the Torah Education of Northeast Iowa - a group that funds Jewish education - to conceal a fraudulent scheme to obtain advances on the loan. The indictment alleges that Rubashkin also caused about $10.6 million to be transferred through a local kosher grocery store for the same purpose.
Prosecutors said Rubashkin is also charged with failing to comply with the agriculture secretary's order to pay for livestock on a timely basis as required by federal law.
The kosher meatpacking company and three employees were also named in the indictment, which includes one count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution against co-defendant Hosam Amara, who bolted to Israel in June.
Editorial Note: Although the extradition treaty between Israel and the U.S. was complicated by a 1977 Israeli law that protects its citizens from foreign prosecutions motivated by anti-Semitism, American-born Jews who fled to Israel or became citizens before trial – among them “Crazy Eddie” Antar – have been extradited on a case-by-case basis. As Agriprocessors is a kosher meat processor, it is within the realm of possibility that Amara would claim anti-Semitism to avoid extradition.
† Updates To Previous Posts (10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador is not just about Chesley Sullenberger, the heroic pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 whose consummate skill enabled him to pull off a successful controlled water landing, but also about the 150 passengers on board who rose to the occasion to help each other. The New York Times reports:
Some passengers screamed, others tucked their heads between their knees, and several prayed over and over, “Lord, forgive me for my sins.” But a man named Josh who was sitting in the exit row did exactly what everyone is supposed to but few ever do: He pulled out the safety card and read the instructions on how to open the exit door. …
Martin Sosa, 48, who lives in the West Village and was traveling with his wife and two young children, recalled thinking, “O.K., so you survived the impact, now you are going to drown.” He added, “The plane is slowly sinking and there’s no movement to the outside.” …
Mr. Sosa’s wife, Tess, who was carrying their 9-month-old son, Damian … began trying to crawl over the backs of seats. “She didn’t want to get crushed by the stampede,” her husband said. Another passenger heard someone cry, “Get the baby out!”
[Brad Wentzell, 31, a patio-door salesman from Charlotte] moved to help. “I kind of bear-hugged them and picked them up and said, ‘You’re coming with me,’ and carried them to the front to the exit,” he said. He passed them off to a stranger standing at the door, who helped them onto a wing.
But the life raft attached to the plane was upside down in the river, just out of reach. Mr. Wentzell turned and found another passenger, Carl Bazarian, an investment banker from Florida who, at 62, was twice his age. Mr. Wentzell grabbed the wrist of Mr. Bazarian, who grabbed a third man who held onto the plane. Mr. Wentzell then leaned out to flip the raft.
“Carl was Iron Man that day,” Mr. Wentzell said. “We got the raft stabilized and we got on.” A man went into the water, and the door salesman and the banker hauled him aboard. He curled in a fetal position, freezing.
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