THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Multiculturalism: Jihad By Other Means: British Home Secretary Alan Johnson has banned Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun (AKA Islam4UK) - led by controversial British Muslim imam Anjem Choudary - which makes attending a meeting or being a member of the group a crime, reports CNN.com:
"Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism and is not a course we take lightly," Johnson said in a statement.
Al-Muhajiroun is already banned under two other names in the Terrorism Act 2000 - Al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect. Johnson said the ban would now also apply to "a number" of the other names the group goes by.
The proscription does not need approval by Parliament, because it is considered an amendment to the act, said the Home Office spokeswoman, who did not give her name in line with policy.
"We are clear that an organization should not be able to circumvent proscription by simply changing its name," Johnson said. …
Choudary said Sunday, after news of Johnson's plans, that the Home Office could not shut him down. …
A ban "will just make the use of those names ... illegal. But Muslims everywhere are obliged to work collectively to establish the Islamic state and sharia law in the UK or wherever they are - those things can't change," he added [emphasis, The Stiletto].
† An Age-Old Question (second item): Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, a Somali man charged with piracy in the hijacking of the American-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama 280 miles off the Somali coast, pleaded not guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to an expanded indictment that includes the accusations of being involved in two previous hijackings, reports The New York Times:
A prosecutor, Brendan R. McGuire, told a judge that Mr. Muse threatened crew members in one of those hijackings with an improvised explosive device. And he said that crew members on one ship were “still being held hostage at this time.” …
Ever since he was taken into custody, Mr. Muse’s age has been in sharp dispute. His lawyers say he is under 18 and should be treated as a juvenile; prosecutors have said he is over 18.
On Tuesday, Mr. McGuire told the judge that Mr. Muse had said to a hostage in one of the previous hijackings that he was 24.
The issue is significant because it could influence the kind of site in which he could be held and, if he were convicted, the length of his sentence.
† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: Washington Post op-ed columnist and former Bush 43 speechwriter Michael Gerson takes a look back at President Barack Hussein Obama’s greatest hits during the first year of his only term in office and finds that over the course of time “what was once universally recognized as Obama's greatest political strength - his oratory - now seems a serious weakness”:
His acceptance speech was flat and typical. His inauguration was an extraordinarily historic moment -- which went uncelebrated by a comparably historic utterance. Obama's speeches to Congress and the American people have generally been explanatory rather than inspirational. His demeanor at West Point - in a speech arguing for new sacrifices in the Afghanistan war - was so stone-cold sober that one was left longing for happy hour. …
Obama's largest rhetorical failure has come at times of crisis - when a president's words matter most, and the time to craft them is most limited. His reactions to the Fort Hood murders and the Christmas Day attack were oddly disconnected from the emotions of the country he represents. … People once thought Obama could sound eloquent reading the phone book. Now, whatever the topic, it often sounds as though he is.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, Obama’s One-Two Cha-Cha-Cha): It turns out that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had purchased a round-trip ticket, and that one in five international air travelers pay for their tickets in cash. So it’s not so much that dots weren’t connected, it’s that terrorists aren’t stupid enough to keep using the same MO as the September 11 hijackers, some of whom purchased one-way tickets. A congressional aide who attended a briefing by Department of Homeland Security officials tells the Los Angeles Times: "It's pretty obvious that if you want to find someone suspicious you must anticipate the tactics they could use next." [Contextual link added by The Stiletto.]
Editorial Note: It’s not just bomb-smuggling terrorists that our federal government can’t seem to keep off planes, but also passengers with tuberculosis who have been put on a "do-not-board" list provided to the TSA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Is Armenian Genocide Denial Good For The Jews?): Turkey has been waging a propaganda war against Israel via television programming that has portrayed Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian children and Israeli diplomats running a child abduction ring. Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon retaliated by staging his own televised drama starring Turkey’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, Oguz Celikkol, reports Reuters:
Ayalon invited media crews to the beginning of the meeting in Jerusalem and pointed out there was no Turkish flag on the table. He also said he was deliberately avoiding a handshake with the ambassador.
In television images widely broadcast in Turkey, Celikkol was seen seated on a low couch, accentuating the sense of a dressing-down.
Turkey is oifgekocht over the diss and is threatening to recall Celikkol unless it gets a formal apology, but Ayalon stood his ground, telling Israel's Army Radio: "In terms of the diplomatic tactics available, this was the minimum that was warranted given the repeated provocations by political and other players in Turkey."
Turkey blames the rift between the two nations on Israel's war in the Gaza Strip last year, but Israeli officials have noted that Turkey has been steadily building alliances with Iran and other counties hostile to the Jewish state.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Your Bonus: $0. Continued Employment: Priceless.): Citing “new issues of public accountability” created by “recent government actions” NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to eight of the nation's largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, requesting “data in 11 areas, ranging from the number of employees to a description of all bonus pools, and how those pools would have been affected had the bank not received federal bailout money, reports Corporate Counsel.
Meanwhile, Corporate Counsel also reports that in its ongoing investigation into the federal government's use of bailout funds the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for additional documents to determine “why AIG paid $62 billion, or 100 percent, on the credit default debt” to Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and others at a time when “other financial institutions were able to negotiate better deals and lower percentages on their debt because of the financial crisis” in 2008. Some are calling the payments “a backdoor bailout.”
† Updates To Previous Posts (The Uniter: Part II): In an interview with People magazine President Barack Hussein Obama admits that “he has not succeeded in bringing the country together” and that “his second-year agenda will be refocused on uniting the country around common values,” reports The New York Times:
The president's comments came as Republican leaders rallied against the core items of his agenda, from his economic stimulus plan to health care. The mood of the country has remained in a sustained slump, too, as double-digit unemployment followed a campaign built upon ''hope'' and ''change.'' …
The president opted not to lower the grade he had given himself for his own performance in 2009 - a B-plus - in light of the intelligence and security failures that allowed a suspected terrorist to board a Detroit-bound plane with explosives in an effort to blow it up.
Though Obama is inclined to grade himself on a curve, voters are evenly divided on whether his presidency has been a success (47 percent) or a failure (48 percent) thus far, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll of 1,021 adult Americans. And the president seems unaware that his values are not shared by many voters. In the survey, which was conducted between January 8th and 10th, 46 percent said the president is “too liberal,” an increase of 10 points since March.
† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Dan-o Lawsuit Bizzaro): It’s the end of the line for Dan Rather's $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp. The New York Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of his suit by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court last September on the grounds that his case was shakier than cafeteria Jell-O.
† Updates To Previous Posts (Paula Abdul: The New Lily Ledbetter?): Commenting on the 9th season opener of "American Idol" (“That splashing noise you heard Tuesday night was the sound of sharks being jumped “), The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes writes that now that Paula Abdul quit the venerable talent show over being paid considerably less than her male counterparts, “with her departed all sense of danger from the increasingly been-there-done-that auditions with which the show kicks off.”
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 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 focuses on NYC cabbie , Mukul Asaduzzaman, 28, who drove to Patchogue - twice - on Christmas Eve to return a purse with more than $20,000 in cash to Felicia Lettieri, 72, who had come from Italy to visit her family. Newsday (Long Island, NY) reports:
In the front seat of [the] cab, Felicia Lettieri carried in her purse 15,000 euros (about $21,750), jewelry worth thousands more and the passports of many of the people in her group. …
As the taxi sped away, Lettieri quickly realized she had left her purse inside. She and the others chased after it, to no avail. …
"Everybody said, 'This is New York. Forget about it. You lost everything,' " Francesca Lettieri said. …
Later, when she went to her sister's home, a note was waiting at the front door. …
"Don't worry, Felicia. I know this is important to you. I'll keep it safe."
Asaduzzaman was already heading back to the city when Lettieri's relatives called his cell phone number, which he had included in the note, so he doubled back. He refused the grateful family’s offer of a reward.
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