What happened to Brian Terry? Why are the FEDS covering up?

From: Jeff Schwilk <jeffschwilk@cox.net>
Subject: New Details and the Latest News on Murder of Agent Brian Terry
To: Undisclosed-Recipient@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 12:36 PM

Great collection of the very latest news articles plus a timeline at the bottom of the events in Peck Canyon that night. 

 

Bottom line:  Heavily armed Mexican bandits were operating in an American canyon on Dec. 14, about 13 miles north of the Mexican border.  A firefight occurred and an American agent was shot and killed.  Our border is more dangerous and deadly than ever and the Obama Administration refuses to take the necessary steps to secure our border and protect American citizens.  We look forward to Congressional hearings about this incident in the coming weeks and months.

 

More rumors and few facts regarding the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

by Hugh Holub on Dec. 29, 2010, under border issues, drug smuggling, politics

http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2010/12/29/more-rumors-and-few-facts-regarding-the-death-of-border-patrol-agent-brian-terry/

It is getting stranger and stranger regarding the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry west of Rio Rico on December 14th.

Agent Terry was part of a Border Patrol Tactical unit (BORTAC) pursuing bandits in Peck Canyon west of Rio Rico, Arizona.

As noted by many, the federal stonewalling of information about the incident creates more doubt, suspicion and rumors.

The fact that the 4 suspects caught by the Border Patrol haven’t been named or charged after 2 weeks really raises some serious questions. Why is there no real information coming out from the feds?

First, a suspect (the bandit who was shot in the incident) was initially named in an Arizona Republic article on December 17th. That was also reported in the Examiner:

Captured Illegal alien in BP agent murder has a U.S. rap sheet

“The Border Patrol said that Manuel Arianes, a.k.a. Manuel Arellanes Osorio, was wounded in the gunfight. Arianes, 34, and a Mexican national, was convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court in 2006 for aggravated assault on a police officer, and had been deported to Mexico twice, according to sources familiar with his case,” Arizona’s The Republic reported.

More….

But, suddenly the identification of the suspect vanished from the Republic.

Fox11 even had a photo of the suspect.

Here is the news so far….

KGUN Channel 9 in Tucson reported that there are four non-citizens in custody in the incident according to an attorney defending one of the suspects who was injured in the incident. But the names still haven’t been released.

Attorney: detainees in Border Patrol murder are not US citizens
…According to Williams, immigration law allows federal authorities to hold non-citizens for lengthy periods of time without releasing their names to the public.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed to 9 On Your Side that ICE does not release the names of any suspects simply facing immigration charges.

More….

UPDATE: The Nogales International reported on 12/29 :

Two weeks after agent’s murder, detainees face only immigration charges

Two weeks after the Border Patrol detained four men following the fatal shooting of Agent Brian Terry near Rio Rico, none of the four apparent suspects has been charged in connection with the killing, defense attorneys say.

More…

UPDATE: The Star chased the KGUN story  12/30  No Charges yet in slaying of US agent

…The federal government has given Williams’ office and the three private attorneys representing the other three men very little information about the investigation. However, the attorneys don’t expect anyone currently in custody to be charged with the shooting, Williams said.

More…

The Star also noted it was not releasing the names of the suspects because they hadn’t been charged yet.

UPDATE: The Arizona Republic also had a story up on 12/30 

Arizona border patrol: Still no charges in agent’s killing

More than two weeks after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in a shootout near Nogales, federal authorities have yet to identify the suspects they arrested or to file any charges in connection with the slaying.

Leslie Bowman, a Tucson attorney who represents one of the men picked up after the Dec. 14 gunbattle, said she has never seen such a case in 18 years of work in federal court.

“This is unusual,” said Bowman, whose client has denied involvement in the incident. “What the heck’s going on? That’s what people are asking.”

Border Patrol officials referred media inquiries to the FBI, which is carrying out the criminal investigation. An FBI spokesman and a representative at the U.S. Attorney’s office said they were not divulging anything about the probe or the suspects.

David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona, declined to identify those arrested, but confirmed that five men are in federal custody on felony immigration charges. Four were arrested the night of the homicide, Gonzales said, and a fifth was captured the next day.

“I’m sure that in the next week or two there will be indictments coming down in connection with the shooting,” Gonzales said.

Terry, 40, a member of the Border Patrol’s elite tactical squad known as BORTAC, was searching a canyon area near Rio Rico for gangsters who prey upon smugglers and illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said gunfire erupted when his team of four agents ran into a group of banditos. Terry died at the scene; one suspect was wounded.

Although arrests were announced within hours, authorities withheld the suspects’ names. Neither the FBI nor the Border Patrol has provided details about the tactical mission or what transpired that night.

Bowman said the lack of public information could signal that investigators were having trouble building a case, or struggling to determine what happened with the BORTAC operation.

“My guess is that they’re trying to sort this thing out,” Bowman said.

Bowman said her client was voluntarily deported after an arrest for illegal entry in July, but has no record of criminal convictions. Under a streamlined federal program, she said, defendants in his situation typically plead guilty to an immigration violation and are immediately deported. Instead, her client was charged with a felony and initially was held in isolation.

“He’s not really connected with this thing,” Bowman added. “But somebody thinks he is.”

Attorneys for the other suspects could not be reached.

And here is the other stuff floating around about the incident: 

Bean bags v AK 47s from Tom Tancredo.

9OYS Investigates: Border Patrol deadly force policy Channel 9 KGUN in Tucson chased the Tancredo story that Terry was armed with bean bag rounds.

Still no information on suspects  from the Immigration Ckearinghouse which trashes the Trancredo post.

New Details in Murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry from the New American, a John Birch Society website.

Something fishy going on  … from Three Sonoras on the Citizen

Attempt to focus on immigration even though a murder of Border Patrol took place  from the Citizen’s Three Sonorans…in which he has discovered that the 4 suspects apprehended are only being charged with illegal re-rentry.

The real shocker was the following email from a Bob Price. I tried to chase down Mr Price about the email to no avail.

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: ”bprice777@comcast.net” <bprice777@comcast.net>
To: ”Price, Bob” <bprice777@comcast.net>
Sent: Mon, December 27, 2010 10:55:17 PM
Subject: Agent Terry United States Border Patrol
 BORTAC Shooting Incident (11 TCANGL 121570000077)

On December 14, 2010, at approximately 11:13 p.m., a report of shots fired was broadcast over the radio by a member of TCA/BORTAC.  The agent reported that an agent had been “hit” and that a possible bandit had been struck as well during the armed encounter.  The area of the armed encounter is reported to be in an area known as “Peck Well”, near Rio Rico, Arizona.

Nogales Radio (KAK-865) immediately notified Emergency Medical Services (EMS), as well as Life Flight.

Field Operations Supervisor (FOS) Luke Bilow responded and set up a Command Post on Mesquite Seap, in an area known as “Peck Mesa”, where a landing zone was also established for the responding Life Flight.  Supervisory Border Patrol Agents (SBPA) Knab and Johnson responded to the scene.

Air Assets:  National Guard “Falcon One” and an OAM  Blackhawk and Omaha 7AM” en route to assist in locating assailants.

On December 15, 2010, at 12:10 a.m., it was reported that there was one assailant in custody, with multiple gunshot wounds.  A second Life Flight was contacted and is en route at this time.

The injured agent, identified as Brian Terry (Class #699/EOD 7/23/07), is currently in a Service vehicle being transported to the landing zone for the awaiting Life Flight helicopter.

Tucson Sector Investigations Branch SBPA Kevin Jones was notified of the situation.

A search for the outstanding assailants (reportedly 2) is ongoing.

Notifications:

11:19 p.m.:  (A)APAIC Adame
11:19 p.m.:  (A)PAIC Dikman
11:23 p.m.:  ACPA Mark Rios

Updated information and timeline as of 2:38 a.m.

Six BORTAC Agents were conducting laying-in operations in the Peck Well area on December 14, 2010.  At approximately 11:15 p.m., a group of approximately five individuals approached their position, coming from the east.  BORTAC Agents identified that at least two of the individuals were carrying rifles.  After identifying themselves as Border Patrol Agents, Detailer BORTAC Agent Gabriel Fragoza (Class 595/EOD; 7/11/05), from the Blythe Station/Yuma Sector, deployed two rounds from a less than lethal device (bean bags from shotgun).  Agent Fragoza also discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued sidearm.

BORTAC Agent Timothy Keller (Class 653/EOD: 1/16/07), from the Calexico Station/El Centro Sector, discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued M-4 rifle.  After the armed encounter, BORTAC Agent Terry called out that he was hit and couldn’t feel his legs.  Agent Terry lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

Updated information and timeline as of 4:10 a.m.

SBPA Raul Chacon of the International Liaison Unit was contacted and he notified Mexican authorities of the situation.  C-4 was contacted.

ICAD ticket# 2045 was created for the incident.

Arizona Department of Public Safety dispatching air assets to assist in the search for the outstanding assailant(s).

At 3:40 a.m., the wounded suspect arrived to the landing zone to be air lifted by Life Line to University Medical Center (UMC).  Preliminary reports indicate the suspect was shot twice in the abdomen, and once in the upper back.  The suspect is coherent and identified himself as Manuel OSORIO-Arellanes (DOB: 8-4-76, POB: Choix, SIN, Mex.).

At 3:41 a.m., Agent Terry was transported by EMS to the Tubac, Arizona Fire Station.  Carroon’s Mortuary personnel will be transporting Agent Terry to Carroon’s Mortuary in Nogales, Arizona.  Agent Terry is being escorted by Tucson Sector Honor Guard personnel.

The search continues for the outstanding assailant(s).

BORTAC Armed Encounter Timeline:

December 14, 2010

11:15 p.m.:  BORTAC reports shots fired near Peck Well
11:18 p.m.:  EMS/EMS Agents en route.
11:21 p.m.:  Lifeflight and CBP/OAM contacted.
11:28 p.m.:  Life Line en route.
11:33 p.m.:  Air Omaha 7AM contacted.
11:35 p.m.:  FOS Bilow sets up Command Post on Peck Mesa, near Gasline.
11:36 p.m.:  National Guard Air Falcon One en route.
11:36 p.m.:  Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputies arrive at Command Post.
11:38 p.m.:  Landing Zone (LZ) created at Command Post (N31.49879 W-111.07986)
11:39 p.m.:  EMS at Command Post.
11:39 p.m.:  Tucson Investigations Branch (Kevin Jones) contacted.
11:40 p.m.:  Reported that the injured agent is unresponsive/no pulse.
11:41 p.m.:  Air Omaha 7AM en route.
11:44 p.m.:  Tucson Investigations Branch/CIT en route.
11:53 p.m.:  Life Line standing by at Landing Zone.
11:58 p.m.:  BORTAC Agents report one suspect apprehended (with gunshot wounds).
11:59 p.m.:  Omaha 7A9 and Omaha 747 (Blackhawk) in the area.

December 15, 2010

12:03 a.m.:  Second Life Line contacted for wounded suspect.
12:09 a.m.:  Wounded BORTAC Agent (Brian Terry) loaded into vehicle.
12:10 a.m.:  Second Life Line en route.
12:10 a.m.:  Mobile Surveillance Unit relocated.
12:14 a.m.:  Falcon One in area.
12:19 a.m.:  Agents en route to Ramanote Well to head off outstanding assailant(s).
12:23 a.m.:  FOB Agents mobilizing further east on Ruby Road.
12:38 a.m.:  Second Life Line on site.
12:46 a.m.:  BORTAC Agent Terry arrives to Landing Zone.
12:51 a.m.:  BORSTAR from Blackhawk rendering assistance.
01:06 a.m.:  Dr. Chan pronounces Agent Terry dead.
01:35 a.m.:  Reported that there are four subjects in custody at this time (one being gunshot), with one subject outstanding but spotted.
02:04 a.m.:  Falcon One goes 10-7 for fuel.
02:40 a.m.:  TCA Sector Radio informs Nogales Station that DPS Air Ranger en route.
03:05 a.m.:  DPS Ranger in the area.
03:25 a.m.:  Falcon One 10-8, on scene to assist.
03:40 a.m.:  Wounded suspect arrives to LZ, en route to University Medical Center.
03:41 a.m.:  Agent Terry is transported to Carroon’s Mortuary in Nogales, Arizona, escorted by Tucson Sector Honor Guard personnel. 

Twice deported POS involved in shooting death of Border Patrol Agent.

Bob Price Nunca Deje Que El Fuego Verde Se Apagare

The thing about the Price email is the description of the incident has a lot of gov-speak detail that is either a masterful work of fiction or is based on something real. Could not verify this email. So it is posted here more as an example of the kind of stuff that floats round the web in the absence of solid information.

However…the description of the incident…

Six BORTAC Agents were conducting laying-in operations in the Peck Well area on December 14, 2010.  At approximately 11:15 p.m., a group of approximately five individuals approached their position, coming from the east.  BORTAC Agents identified that at least two of the individuals were carrying rifles.  After identifying themselves as Border Patrol Agents, Detailer BORTAC Agent Gabriel Fragoza (Class 595/EOD; 7/11/05), from the Blythe Station/Yuma Sector, deployed two rounds from a less than lethal device (bean bags from shotgun).  Agent Fragoza also discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued sidearm.

BORTAC Agent Timothy Keller (Class 653/EOD: 1/16/07), from the Calexico Station/El Centro Sector, discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued M-4 rifle.  After the armed encounter, BORTAC Agent Terry called out that he was hit and couldn’t feel his legs.  Agent Terry lost consciousness shortly thereafter

Sounds like there was a lot of gunfire in the dark and possibly Agent Terry could have been hit by friendly fire.

To figure that out, one would have to match bullets with guns…assuming the Border Patrol recovered the bandits’ weapons. It is standard procedure in state and local police shooting incidents to take all weapons used in the incident for forensic work…so by now the feds ought to know whose bullets hit Agent Terry.

If it turns out to be true that Agent Terry was hit with friendly fire, that does not for a second change the basic issue of the incident…we have armed bandits running around and BORTAC was out in the dark trying to protect the undocumented immigrants and the public who are prey for the bandits.

Brian Terry is a hero.

All the swirling rumors and claims just further emphasises the fact that the federal government is being really dumb in refusing to provide any substantive information about the incident.

There are a lot of issues that come up after an incident like this…some of which may not reflect well on the Border Patrol’s management. So be it. Problems don’t get resolved by hiding stuff.

Feds making a big mistake in secrecy over death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry

Govt airlifts ALIEN MURDERER BEFORE Agent Brian Terry!!!

Our Government is complicit in the murder of Border Agent Brian Terry.  His blood is all over Napolitano and Obama.  When will Americans say enough is enough?  

Listen to our interview with Sheriff Paul Babeau on Freedom Talk Netcast:  www.freedomtalknetcast.com
He is standing tall, and giving orders to use LETHAL FORCE on these thugs, finally!!  

Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010, 1:37 PM
 

FORWARD FAR AND WIDE!

 

Agents in Nogales are talking, off the record, about what really happened in Peck Canyon the night of the firefight between armed Mexican cartel members and the BORTAC team.  The brass in Nogales, Tucson, and DC is very worried about the facts getting out to the public and have issued a gag order on all agents.  They are threatening agents that they will be fired if they are caught talking about the facts of Terry's murder.  A lot of tips are coming in from agents now through back-channels.  They want the truth about Terry's murder to be known. 

 

Bottom line:  A series of bad BP/DHS procedures, policies, and protocol, all designed to protect Mexican criminals inside the U.S., most likely resulted in the needless death of Agent Brian Terry on the night of Dec. 14, 2010.

 

 

Tip from Thursday night (12/23) from trusted senior source inside USBP.  We need to get this confirmed ASAP!  Congress and the media, where are you??

 

 

I can't relate details for the safety of some agents and supervisors.  However the word is that when
Terry and the illegal alien bandit were both wounded, the BORSTAR helo came down on the scene and
they opted to airlift the alien first to the hospital.  Terry was loaded onto a vehicle and driven
out to where another helo was parked, thereby the alien was given first priority for medical
service. 

At this point we can't confirm this but it sounds like it is coming from people who know. 

I am hoping Brian Terry did not die in vain.  We need to keep the heat on through the holidays and
until the new Congress is installed and then push with all our might for hearings. 

 

 

Remember, the twice deported Mexican National who was wounded is a confirmed drug cartel member who was also convicted of assaulting a Phoenix police officer several years ago.  He was wounded in the foot.  Agent Terry reportedly waited many minutes before being flown out.  I have heard it was up to a half hour before they could fly him out.  He reportedly died enroute to the hospital.

Jeff Schwilk, Founder
www.SoCalPatriots.com
www.SanDiegoMinutemen.com

The Islam I Left Behind

The Islam I Left Behind

By Amil Imani

Looking back, I see no particular time or event that, in one stroke, severed my link with Islam. There was nothing nearly as dramatic as what reportedly happened to Paul on the road to Damascus transforming him from a rabid Christian persecutor to a devoted follower of Jesus.

My alienation from Islam started as far back as I could discern things. More to the point, I never embraced Islam in the first place, although I was born and raised in a Muslim family.

I believe in a modified version of Occam's Razor, popularly known as the law of parsimony. To me, an explanation with the fewest assumptions is either the correct one or the preferable one. The best answers, more often than not, are the simple answers.

My search for answers has taken me on a journey of discovery in the competing, crowded, and confusing marketplace of ideas. I noticed a universal human need to believe in some power or forces beyond ourselves and beyond the finite and the corporeal. If there were no God, we humans would make one up, it is said. In order to satisfy this seemingly innate need, three major contentions have emerged: rejection-ism, characterized by dismissing any and all gods; deism, positing a god who created the universe, set it in motion, and let it play out without interfering in it; and God-ism, with many gods, that demanded a super-god to sort them out.

Of the three camps, God-ism seemed to me the most attractive and troubling at the same time. And Islam's God-ism -- Allah-ism steeped in superstition, replete with nonsensical explanations and discriminatory Sharia law -- repulsed me. All I needed to guide my life was contained in the ancient Zoroastrian triad of good thoughts, good speech, and good deeds. The Ten Commandments are a sensible extension of the above triad, and the Universal Charter of Human Rights is its further elaboration.

Things Islamic not only did not resonate with me, but they also often clashed head-on with what I valued and loved. What appealed to me and even enchanted me were more often than not taboo in Islam or anathema to the creed. I loved life, beauty in all its forms, poetry, the ancient Iranian culture and traditions. I loved laughter, celebrations of joy such as birthdays, our yearly festivities of Nowruz, my favorite that lasts for thirteen days. Nowruz, this ancient festival, has been celebrated for thousands of years by my people; it ushers in the spring, welcomes renewal of life, and expresses optimism for the year ahead to bless us with good health, abundant food, family, and friends in the land of a civilized, free people.

I owe my parents a great debt of gratitude for not pounding into me a blind belief. They allowed and even encouraged me to think for myself, to chart my path in life. Father was my model. He treated Mother and the girls as unquestioned equals. Mother, by her deeds, taught me that my friends, who happened to be Muslims, Jews, Christians, Baha'is and Zoroastrians, were every bit as worthy and Iranian as we were. She welcomed them all to our home and often at our table.

From very early on, I was troubled by Islam. It labeled people who were all alike differently and built walls separating them instead of bringing them together. Islam, the dominant religion of my native country, stigmatized non-Muslims and even persecuted them. I began questioning the value of religion. I couldn't see much in Islam that attracted me, and I knew just about nothing regarding the religion of my friends and neighbors. I sought answers, but not from the mullah at the mosque because I had a feeling I wouldn't like his answer anyway. I had heard their line more than I cared to. I began reading as widely as I could, and it helped.

I discovered, that historically, as far as it can be determined, all human groups lived by codes of beliefs. The codes were far from universally uniform, either in context or formality. Yet they all served the critical function of prescribing behaviors that enhance the welfare of the group while proscribing those that undermine it. In tandem with the emergence of the code of conduct was the practice of rituals. While the code of conduct secured order within the group, rituals gave it a sense of identity, essential for solidarity of the "in-group" against the ever-present threats of the "out-group."

Over time, the code of conduct and rituals merged, to various degrees, to serve the group. Some examples are religious ceremonies, secular observances, and the mixtures of the two.

Codes of conduct require enforcement. The physically strong, and perhaps the more cunning, emerged as group leaders and enforcers -- chiefs, sheiks, earls, lords, and kings are continuations of this line of authority. Yet all along, there was a realization that an authority or authorities with much greater powers transcended that of the human. The ancient Greeks' various gods, and the pre-Islamic idolaters of the Arabian Peninsula represent this line of thinking.

Among some human groupings, the utilitarian value of prescriptions and proscriptions for the group evolved into the belief in opposing superhuman powers. Good things, such as bountiful rain, great harvest, and plentiful game, for instance, were seen as the offerings of the benevolent superhuman, while famine, earthquakes, plagues, and so forth were attributed to the actions of the malevolent superhuman. The Zoroastrian concept of Ahuramazda -- the god of good -- and Ahriman -- the lord of evil represents this line of belief.

At some point, monotheism appeared on the scene. The Abrahamic religions represent this line of development. One Supreme Being was posited as the all-powerful, all-everything author of the universe. It simplified things greatly. No need to supplicate many gods, or please one and antagonize another. This Supreme Being communicated with humans through intermediaries of his choosing, some so claimed. And through these intermediaries, He prescribed laws and ordinances. Obedience to His laws attracted His blessings, and disobedience incurred His wrath, often administered by human agencies in this world with more to come in the purported next world.

The God of the monotheist is a hands-on God. And Islam's Allah is extremely hands-on. He leaves virtually no room for anything or anyone to do anything without his full knowledge and authorization. In the Quran, it is explicitly stated that not even a leaf falls from a tree without the decree and knowledge of Allah -- just one of innumerable assertions that define the all-everything Islamic superhuman.

In more recent times, another form of evolution appeared on the scene. The work of Sigmund Freud represents this line of development. God was marginalized. God was reduced to a hypothetical father figure who would reward or punish the children, depending on their actions. Yet, a form of duality was posited within the individual: the Id representing the impulsive, the ungoverned by the code of conduct; the amoral, devoted exclusively to self-gratification; and the Superego, standing for the law-abiding, the moral, and the caring for others.

My love of reading the inexhaustible treasure of exquisite Iranian poetry helped nurture me. Along the way, I learned about and revered Cyrus the Great and a host of other Iranians who personified all that is good and in line with the great benevolent God, Ahuramazda. The more I learned and witnessed about Islam, the more it repelled me, for it is much more in accord with that of the agent of evil, Ahriman.

Islam glorifies death by calling many of its martyrs the solders of Allah. Islam preaches superiority of the "we" and inferiority of the "other." It is a creed steeped in superstition, demands blind obedience to authority, and sanctions just about every form of freedom -- the very precious gift of the Creator Ahuramazda that makes us humans. Everything in Islam is in black and white. One is either Muslim -- good -- or non-Muslim -- bad. Men are superior; women are subservient. This life is worthless and should be offered for the pleasure of Allah as defined by the clergy.

Islam is a creed of a primitive age. It is fixated in time and place; it harbors the ambition of taking the 21^st-century world back fourteen centuries and ruling it by its dogma of intolerance, injustice, and death. Yet Islam is not only an obsolete vestige of a defunct era, but itself is an infinitely fractured belief that can hardly put its own home in order. The numerous Islamic sects are at each other's throats; sub-sects and schools despise one another as much as they hate the non-Muslims. Hatred, not love, drives Islam.

I came to the realization that the root cause of my people's degradation and suffering is Islam. It is a creed that was imposed on an enlightened, tolerant, and free people at the point of the sword by savages hailing from the Arabian Peninsula during the seventh century with promises of booty and women in this world and glorious eternal sensual rewards in the promised paradise of Allah in the next. With each passing day, I rejoice more and more in my good fortune, in my ability to avoid the yoke of Islamic slavery and its blinders that imprison a billion and half people by walls of superstition, hatred of others, and celebration of death.

It is distressing to witness Islam making headway in the traditionally non-Islamic lands. Masses of brainwashed faithful, semi-literate Muslims, badly underserved in their own native lands, are moving to countries where the "infidels" welcome them with material wealth denied to them in their own homeland, as well as the liberty to subvert the very societies that give them refuge.

Even more distressing are those goodhearted simpleton non-Muslims up in arms defending the rights of Muslims to practice their religion in free societies such as the United States of America. These well-meaning, badly misguided folks don't realize that practicing Islam requires subverting and destroying any and all non-Islamic beliefs and practices. All one needs to see this deadly aspect of Islam is to examine how Islam is practiced in places such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, and even the so-called more moderate Islamic states such as Egypt.

The overflowing treasuries of the oil-enriched Islamic rulers finance legions of pampered clergy with a highly vested interest in maintaining and promoting the creed. Islamist apologists and mercenaries are collaborating shamelessly with the clergy in portraying a greatly deceptive picture of what Islam is in order to win a highly coveted prize -- the West.

Truth can be distorted and even hidden for a time. Yet it invariably emerges. Thus is the case with Islam. Although it is, by its deceptive means, attracting some adherents in foreign lands, it is losing them by the tens of thousands in its own region as more and more people see for themselves the evil belief and deeds of this creed. It is from the ranks of the newly emancipated that voices of alarm are raised to warn mankind about the true nature of Islam. Even a cursory examination of the teachings of Islam, the life of Muhammad himself, and the conduct of Muslims in the world provide irrefutable evidence for the fact that this creed, called religion, is anathema to all that is cherished by civilized and fair-minded human beings.

I am not against Muslims. I condemn Islam and those who support and promote it. In the same sense, I am not against slaves, but I am against slavery and those who advocate and advance it. The very practice of Islam is tantamount to perpetuating and practicing slavery. Slavery enslaves the body, while Islam entraps the mind. Both ideals and practices are abhorrent and detrimental to the realization of our highest hopes as human beings.

I left Islam behind because that's where it belongs -- behind in history. I summon Muslims to cast off this belief. I urge all people to resist Islam's encroachment, not to be deceived by its sanitized version presented in the non-Islamic lands, and to encourage Muslims to free themselves from its shackles.

Amil Imani is the author of Obama meets Ahmadinejad.

TWO CALIFORNIAS

From National Review Online

Victor Davis Hanson

December 15, 2010 12:00 P.M.

Two Californias
Abandoned farms, Third World living conditions, pervasive public assistance -- welcome to the once-thriving Central Valley.

The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption.

During this unscientific experiment, three times a week I rode a bike on a 20-mile trip over various rural roads in southwestern Fresno County. I also drove my car over to the coast to work, on various routes through towns like San Joaquin, Mendota, and Firebaugh. And near my home I have been driving, shopping, and touring by intent the rather segregated and impoverished areas of Caruthers, Fowler, Laton, Orange Cove, Parlier, and Selma. My own farmhouse is now in an area of abject poverty and almost no ethnic diversity; the closest elementary school (my alma mater, two miles away) is 94 percent Hispanic and 1 percent white, and well below federal testing norms in math and English.

Here are some general observations about what I saw (other than that the rural roads of California are fast turning into rubble, poorly maintained and reverting to what I remember seeing long ago in the rural South). First, remember that these areas are the ground zero, so to speak, of 20 years of illegal immigration. There has been a general depression in farming — to such an extent that the 20- to-100-acre tree and vine farmer, the erstwhile backbone of the old rural California, for all practical purposes has ceased to exist.

On the western side of the Central Valley, the effects of arbitrary cutoffs in federal irrigation water have idled tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, leaving thousands unemployed. Manufacturing plants in the towns in these areas — which used to make harvesters, hydraulic lifts, trailers, food-processing equipment — have largely shut down; their production has been shipped off overseas or south of the border. Agriculture itself — from almonds to raisins — has increasingly become corporatized and mechanized, cutting by half the number of farm workers needed. So unemployment runs somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. 

Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the Third World. There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming around the yards. The public hears about all sorts of tough California regulations that stymie business — rigid zoning laws, strict building codes, constant inspections — but apparently none of that applies out here.

It is almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare wires?

Many of the rented-out rural shacks and stationary Winnebagos are on former small farms — the vineyards overgrown with weeds, or torn out with the ground lying fallow. I pass on the cultural consequences to communities from  the loss of thousands of small farming families. I don’t think I can remember another time when so many acres in the eastern part of the valley have gone out of production, even though farm prices have recently rebounded. Apparently it is simply not worth the gamble of investing $7,000 to $10,000 an acre in a new orchard or vineyard. What an anomaly — with suddenly soaring farm prices, still we have thousands of acres in the world’s richest agricultural belt, with available water on the east side of the valley and plentiful labor, gone idle or in disuse. Is credit frozen? Are there simply no more farmers? Are the schools so bad as to scare away potential agricultural entrepreneurs? Or are we all terrified by the national debt and uncertain future?

California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available to a three-inch smelt in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, but they seem to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic substances throughout California’s rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I rode my bike by a stopped van just as the occupants tossed seven plastic bags of raw refuse onto the side of the road. I rode up near their bumper and said in my broken Spanish not to throw garbage onto the public road. But there were three of them, and one of me. So I was lucky to be sworn at only. I note in passing that I would not drive into Mexico and, as a guest, dare to pull over and throw seven bags of trash into the environment of my host.

 

In fact, trash piles are commonplace out here — composed of everything from half-empty paint cans and children’s plastic toys to diapers and moldy food. I have never seen a rural sheriff cite a litterer, or witnessed state EPA workers cleaning up these unauthorized wastelands. So I would suggest to Bay Area scientists that the environment is taking a much harder beating down here in central California than it is in the Delta. Perhaps before we cut off more irrigation water to the west side of the valley, we might invest some green dollars into cleaning up the unsightly and sometimes dangerous garbage that now litters the outskirts of our rural communities.

We hear about the tough small-business regulations that have driven residents out of the state, at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a week. But from my unscientific observations these past weeks, it seems rather easy to open a small business in California without any oversight at all, or at least what I might call a “counter business.” I counted eleven mobile hot-kitchen trucks that simply park by the side of the road, spread about some plastic chairs, pull down a tarp canopy, and, presto, become mini-restaurants. There are no “facilities” such as toilets or washrooms. But I do frequently see lard trails on the isolated roads I bike on, where trucks apparently have simply opened their draining tanks and sped on, leaving a slick of cooking fats and oils. Crows and ground squirrels love them; they can be seen from a distance mysteriously occupied in the middle of the road.

At crossroads, peddlers in a counter-California economy sell almost anything. Here is what I noticed at an intersection on the west side last week: shovels, rakes, hoes, gas pumps, lawnmowers, edgers, blowers, jackets, gloves, and caps. The merchandise was all new. I doubt whether in high-tax California sales taxes or income taxes were paid on any of these stop-and-go transactions.

In two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class.

By that I mean that most consumers drove late-model Camrys, Accords, or Tauruses, had iPhones, Bluetooths, or BlackBerries, and bought everything in the store with public-assistance credit. This seemed a world apart from the trailers I had just ridden by the day before. I don’t editorialize here on the logic or morality of any of this, but I note only that there are vast numbers of people who apparently are not working, are on public food assistance, and enjoy the technological veneer of the middle class. California has a consumer market surely, but often no apparent source of income. Does the $40 million a day supplement to unemployment benefits from Washington explain some of this?

Do diversity concerns, as in lack of diversity, work both ways? Over a hundred-mile stretch, when I stopped in San Joaquin for a bottled water, or drove through Orange Cove, or got gas in Parlier, or went to a corner market in southwestern Selma, my home town, I was the only non-Hispanic — there were no Asians, no blacks, no other whites. We may speak of the richness of “diversity,” but those who cherish that ideal simply have no idea that there are now countless inland communities that have become near-apartheid societies, where Spanish is the first language, the schools are not at all diverse, and the federal and state governments are either the main employers or at least the chief sources of income — whether through emergency rooms, rural health clinics, public schools, or social-service offices. An observer from Mars might conclude that our elites and masses have given up on the ideal of integration and assimilation, perhaps in the wake of the arrival of 11 to 15 million illegal aliens.

 

Again, I do not editorialize, but I note these vast transformations over the last 20 years that are the paradoxical wages of unchecked illegal immigration from Mexico, a vast expansion of California’s entitlements and taxes, the flight of the upper middle class out of state, the deliberate effort not to tap natural resources, the downsizing in manufacturing and agriculture, and the departure of whites, blacks, and Asians from many of these small towns to more racially diverse and upscale areas of California.

Fresno’s California State University campus is embroiled in controversy over the student body president’s announcing that he is an illegal alien, with all the requisite protests in favor of the DREAM Act. I won’t comment on the legislation per se, but again only note the anomaly. I taught at CSUF for 21 years. I think it fair to say that the predominant theme of the Chicano and Latin American Studies program’s sizable curriculum was a fuzzy American culpability. By that I mean that students in those classes heard of the sins of America more often than its attractions. In my home town, Mexican flag decals on car windows are far more common than their American counterparts.
I note this because hundreds of students here illegally are now terrified of being deported to Mexico. I can understand that, given the chaos in Mexico and their own long residency in the United States. But here is what still confuses me: If one were to consider the classes that deal with Mexico at the university, or the visible displays of national chauvinism, then one might conclude that Mexico is a far more attractive and moral place than the United States.
So there is a surreal nature to these protests: something like, “Please do not send me back to the culture I nostalgically praise; please let me stay in the culture that I ignore or deprecate.” I think the DREAM Act protestors might have been far more successful in winning public opinion had they stopped blaming the U.S. for suggesting that they might have to leave at some point, and instead explained why, in fact, they want to stay. What it is about America that makes a youth of 21 go on a hunger strike or demonstrate to be allowed to remain in this country rather than return to the place of his birth?
I think I know the answer to this paradox. Missing entirely in the above description is the attitude of the host, which by any historical standard can only be termed “indifferent.” California does not care whether one broke the law to arrive here or continues to break it by staying. It asks nothing of the illegal immigrant — no proficiency in English, no acquaintance with American history and values, no proof of income, no record of education or skills. It does provide all the public assistance that it can afford (and more that it borrows for), and apparently waives enforcement of most of California’s burdensome regulations and civic statutes that increasingly have plagued productive citizens to the point of driving them out. How odd that we overregulate those who are citizens and have capital to the point of banishing them from the state, but do not regulate those who are aliens and without capital to the point of encouraging millions more to follow in their footsteps. How odd — to paraphrase what Critias once said of ancient Sparta — that California is at once both the nation’s most unfree and most free state, the most repressed and the wildest.
Hundreds of thousands sense all that and vote accordingly with their feet, both into and out of California — and the result is a sort of social, cultural, economic, and political time-bomb, whose ticks are getting louder.
— NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.

Watch the Amnesty vote today at 10:00 am EASTERN time!

December 18, 2010

From Roy Beck at NumbersUSA,com: WATCH NUMBERSUSA'S LIVE WEBCAST OF SENATE VOTE ON DREAM ACT AMNESTY 10 a.m. SATURDAY MORNING (Eastern Time) [8am Colorado time] www.NumbersUSA.tv This is a reminder after I sent you notice last night. Be sure to type dot tv and NOT dot com. We plan to go live at 10 just before the Senate is scheduled to take up the DREAM Act and start the voting at 10:30. friends, as a group, you put in one whale of a day on Friday of phoning and faxing. I offer my sincerest thanks to every one of you who gave up spectator status and joined the lions in the arena of our national community's political battles. You have fought for principles dear to you, and dear to the future of our country. Now, there is nothing else you can do but watch to see how our 100 U.S. Senators end up voting. But thanks to your constant efforts for 24 months of this now-waning Congress, our prospects for tomorrow continue to look very good. The biggest amnesty vote since 2007 is scheduled to be the first order of business after the Senate convenes tomorrow morning (Saturday the 18th). EVERY YEAR FOR 10 YEARS, NumbersUSA's ARMY OF CITIZENS HAS FOUGHT AGAINST MAJOR AMNESTY EFFORTS. We've lost occasionally (the Senate in 2006 and the House just last week, for example). BUT NO AMNESTY HAS EVER MADE IT TO THE PRESIDENT'S DESK. If the DREAM Act amnesty gets 60 votes today in the Senate, it goes to the President's desk and our as-yet-unblemished decade will end with a disaster. But if DREAM falls short of 60 tomorrow, you citizens [Sovereign Americans - CAIR] who have worked hand in hand with us for 10 long years will have a decade of perfect defense, with no real chance of any amnesty threats in the next two years and hopefully beyond. 10 a.m. TODAY (Sat. Eastern Time) www.NumbersUSA.tv

TSA and M*SL*MS on planes!! You must read this.

This is from a former flight attendant and our very good friend.  JJ

(If you fly much be sure to read  this)
If this is true....Wow....and the traveling public is worried about being "patted" down.  I looked it up on Snopes.com and they have it and it doesn't say it's false. The email was forwarded from my neighbor - a retired UAL pilot.

WOW - worth the read....

It's a good heads up and worth the read.

I, Gene Hackemack, received this email from my good friend Tedd Petruna,
a diver at the NBL facility [Neutral Buoyancy Lab], at NASA Houston,
whom I used to work with. Tedd happened to be on this same Flt. 297,
Atlanta to Houston.

In my opinion, the Muslims are all getting very brave now..read Tedd's
story below. Semper Fi

PS: Can you imagine, our own news media now are so politically correct
that they are afraid to report that these were all Muslims... unbelievable.
Thank God for people like Tedd Petruna.

One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father.. On
Tuesday, November the 17th, I returned home If you read the papers the
18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was cancelled from
Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone
before takeoff. It was on Fox.

This was NOT what happened.

I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full
attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout
the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the
stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that
time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in
the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and
very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for
she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the
time. He ignored her as if she was not there.

The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the
2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger
Muslims, one in the back aisle, and one in front of him, window, began
to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were
very loud about it. Now - they are only permitted to do this prior to
Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman
via mirror with his back to her..(don't ask me.. I don't make the rules,
but I've studied) The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to
have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said
"shut up infidel dog!"

She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in
Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk
the cabin.

This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I
heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say "I got your
back." I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said
"you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!" As I "led"
him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back
of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the
2nd man and said, "You WILL do the same!" He protested but adrenaline
was flowing now and he was going to go..

As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4
police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease
and desist for they had this under control.. I was happy to oblige
actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all
11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.

We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happen,
when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!! Stone faced,
eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess
from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having
NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal.
She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane
with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going
to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were
allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and
told the agent "we and our crew will not fly this plane!" After a word
or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. 5 minutes
later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.

Again...this is where I had had enough!!! I got up and asked "What the
hell is going on!?!?" I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for
the delay and I would be home shortly.
I said "I'm getting off this plane". The stewardess sternly told me that
she could not allow me to get off. (now I'm mad!) I said "I am a grown
man who bought this ticket, who's time is mine with a family at home and
I am going through that door, or I'm going through that door with you
under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!" And I heard a voice
behind me say "so am I". Then everyone behind us started to get up and
say the same.

Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more
agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this
point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that
flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got
here at 12:30am.

Look up the date. Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.

If this wasn't a dry run, I don't know what one is. The terrorists
wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and
how the passengers would handle it.

I'm telling this to you because I want you to know.
The threat is real. I saw it with my own eyes.
-Tedd Petruna

COUNTDOWN to Court-Martial - Terry Needs Your Help!!

States pursuing constitutional eligibility: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Texas. Let's work for 50 of 50! Click here to read the story.

COUNTDOWN to Court-Martial (Fort Meade, MD, Dec 14-15)

Terry Needs Your Help

This week, the American Patriot Foundation heard from a retired Navy SEAL, shocked by the stunning decision by a civilian court in which a terrorist suspect/detainee was convicted on only ONE count of 249 criminal charges: "Let me see if I understand this, Col. Lakin can get a more severe punishment that Ahmed Ghailani?"
Unlike Ghailani, LTC Lakin is being tried in a military court-- for defying military orders in order to seek the truth about whether Obama is legally, Constitutionally eligible to serve as Commander-in-Chief. LTC Lakin's sworn oath as a military officer requires him to uphold the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
No one in his chains of command or in his Congressional delegation could tell him-- after more than a year of seeking assurance that his orders were lawful-- if Obama met the requirements of Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution of a "natural born citizen" and was entitled to command the U.S. Armed Forces. LTC Lakin's military orders to deploy to Afghanistan under Obama's announced surge, included a requirement that he present copies of his birth certificate (to which he dutifully complied).
We continue to be amazed at an administration that balks at producing such a simple, elementary document-- one that every US citizen possesses and is asked to show many times during his or her lifetime.
Thanks again to everyone who generously volunteered their time for Terry Lakin Action Week-- we are making headway- and want to encourage everyone to keep up the phone calls, letters and emails to elected officials on behalf of LTC Lakin. Your outreach is making a difference. Please keep spreading the word to others!
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee (majority/minority contacts listed below) is the major investigatory body in the House of Representatives. We recommend lodging a protest at the denial of traditional due process rights to LTC Lakin, a criminal defendant. Since LTC Lakin is being denied access to evidence-- to documents-- which could prove his innocence- we urge Terry's supporters to make contact with the Committee Members and staff and urge the Committee to use its subpoena powers to force open the sealed records necessary to determine whether Barack Obama is a "natural born" citizen and therefore constitutionally eligible to hold the office of President.
At the very least, the administration has wasted a huge amount of the nation’s time. At worst, Obama is in fact not eligible to be President. Would that be uncomfortable? Would it be inconvenient? Would it be problematic? Of course. But this nation has survived many traumatic events in its past and would survive this. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land- and it must be upheld.
http://oversight.house.gov
(202) 225-5051
http://republicans.oversight.house.gov
(202) 225-5074
Similarly, in the Senate- the chief oversight committee is Homeland Security and Government Affairs:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public
(202) 224-2627

	CLICK HERE FOR FULL INFORMATION ABOUT FORT MEADE AND ATTENDING THE COURT MARTIAL
	Action Week Summary & Challenge: Read Now
	SUPPORT TERRY'S COMMUNICATIONS EFFORTS.
	Download APF's New Blunders Report (click here): A Sampling of Common Blunders and Uncorroborated Statements by Members of Congress about Obama’s Birth and Constitutional Eligibility