THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Why We Need Gitmo (second item): Attorney Debra Burlingame, who lost her brother, Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001, argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that imprisoning terrorists on U.S. soil will empower them to use every protection offered by our Constitution to mitigate or even evade the punishment they so richly deserve:
[T]he U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver filed notice in federal court that the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) which applied to Richard C. Reid [the “Shoe Bomber”] were being allowed to expire. SAMs are security directives, renewable yearly, issued by the attorney general when “there is a substantial risk that a prisoner’s communications, correspondence or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury” to others. …
Reid claimed that SAMs violated his First Amendment right of free speech and free exercise of religion. In a hand-written complaint, he asserted that he was being illegally prevented from performing daily “group prayers in a manner prescribed by my religion.” Yet the list of Reid’s potential fellow congregants at [Administrative Maximum] ADX Florence reads like a Who’s Who of al Qaeda’s most dangerous members: Ramzi Yousef and his three co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui; “Millennium bomber” Ahmed Ressam; “Dirty bomber” Jose Padilla; Wadih el-Hage, Osama Bin Laden’s personal secretary, convicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing that killed 247 people. …
On July 6, Justice Department lawyers informed the court that Reid will be given a “new placement” in a “post-SAMs setting.” Whether that entails stepped down security in a different unit or transfer to a less secure facility, the Bureau of Prisons won’t say, and Justice refuses to comment.
Burlingame notes that Obama has oft observed that “no one has escaped from supermax,” but Reid may well become “the first convicted terrorist to use the First Amendment to sue his way out.”
† The Geneva Conventions For Jihadis: In a twisted version of “Miss Manners For Mujahedeen,” the Taliban has rewritten it’s field manual to show a kinder, gentler face of jihad so as to win the hearts and minds of Afghans, reports The Washington Times:
The little book with a blue cover, Rules for Mujahedeen, directs Taliban militants on how to behave while on deployment and how to deal with enemy combatants, treat prisoners of war and interact with civilians. …
The manual also aims to transform the group into a more disciplined and organized political force by centralizing decision-making and discouraging formation of unauthorized factions. …
The booklet also says that enemy soldiers should not be killed if they surrender and that prisoners should not be harmed. Only the Taliban leader or his deputy can decide to trade or execute a prisoner.
The manual directs that executions are not to be filmed, and enemy corpses should not be desecrated. Only those young men old enough to grow a beard are eligible to join the Taliban.
The State Department says it’s never seen anything like the Taliban’s etiquette guide for jihadis.
† (Islamo)Fascist Fashionistas (fourth item): Former journalist Lubna Hussein went to court “wearing the same green trousers that got her arrested for immodest dress” and sentenced to receive 40 lashes, reports Reuters. The courtroom was packed with women - some showing their solidarity by also wearing trousers or jeans – as well as by representatives of the embassies of France, Canada, Sweden and Spain. Sudanese authorities tried to save face by sidestepping the case, on the grounds that Hussein’s employment with the United Nations gave her legal immunity from being lashed, but she is determined to have her day in court and has quit her job in the media department of the U.N. Mission in Sudan so the trial can commence. Her defense attorney, Nabil Adib Abdalla said: "First of all she wants to show she is totally innocent, and using her immunity will not prove that. Second she wants to fight the law. ... This is turning into a test case. Human rights groups will be watching this closely."
† Mama, Don’t Take My Incandescent Bulbs Away: On September 1st, an EU ban against incandescent light bulbs that was adopted in March will go into effect in Germany and, despite their reputation for following orders, the German people are in open revolt, reports Der Spiegel:
The unpopularity of the energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs that will replace them is leading consumers and retailers to start hoarding the traditional bulbs. …
The first to go, on Sept. 1, will be 100-watt bulbs. Bulbs of other wattages will then gradually fall under the ban, which is expected to cover all such bulbs by Sept. 1, 2012. …
"It's unbelievable what is happening," says Werner Wiesner, the head of Megaman, a manufacturer of energy-saving bulbs. Wiesner recounts a story of how one of his field representatives recently saw a man in a hardware store with a shopping cart full of light bulbs of all types worth more than €200 ($285). "That's enough for the next 20 years." …
And what's ironic - in the short term, at least - is that the companies that manufacture the climate-killing bulbs are seeing a big boost in sales. According to the GfK market research company, sales in Germany of incandescent light bulbs between January and April 20, 2009, saw a 20 percent jump over the same period a year earlier, while CFL sales shrank by 2 percent.
Critics complain that the light bulb ban is another example of an EU bureaucracy gone wild, with one German Member of the European Parliament going as far as to call it “light bulb socialism."
† Obama – Not McCain - Will Be Bush III: Hispanic and immigrant rights activists are complaining that President Barack Hussein Obama “has betrayed them by embracing George W. Bush administration efforts to stem illegal immigration,” reports The Washington Times:
Activists marched in Los Angeles and picketed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's appearance in New York, angered over the administration's recent embrace of an electronic verification system for employers and a program that allows local police to enforce immigration laws. …
The protests erupted as a report by the Center for Immigration Studies says stepped-up enforcement since 2007 has helped cut the illegal immigrant population in the United States. …
Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius, the report's authors, said the fact that legal immigration has not declined shows that enforcement, not the economy, is responsible for the decline in illegal immigrants.
The authors said the electronic employment verification known as E-verify and the police enforcement program were among the key enforcement tools that expanded after 2007 and contributed to the drop.
Speaking in New York to the Council on Foreign Relations, Ms. Napolitano defended the White House's decision to move forward with a crackdown on illegal immigration.
"We are expanding enforcement, but I think in the right way," she said.
† What It’s Like To Be Ruth Madoff These Days: The Wall Street Journal reports that Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who is endeavoring to recover money for Bernard Madoff's investors filed a lawsuit in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan against Ruth Madoff, 68, for at least $44.8 million, claiming she lived a "life of splendor" on the gains from the fraud perpetrated by her husband and that she "knew or should have known" that vast sums of money she received from her husband's investment firm rightly belonged to the firm and to her husband's customers. Ruth Madoff’s attorney claims that his client had already forfeited “almost all” of the assets Picard is going after, but the trustee counters that she "remains a person of substantial means."
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