Amy Grant. I don’t know how old this is, but it’s one of my fav’s and the videoeffects are really cool. Interesting how her faith-based videos aren’t at youtube. hmmmm. I just might have to do something about that.

If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

Brent Bennett listens to his sentence at the court in Kabul, Afghanistan, in this Sept. 15, 2004 file photo. Bennett left Afghanistan late Saturday Sept. 30, 2006 following his release from an Afghan jail, officials said. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

The Boston Herald

KABUL, Afghanistan - An American convicted of running a private prison in Afghanistan as part of a freelance hunt for terrorists left the country late Saturday following his release from an Afghan jail, officials said.
Court documents filed Friday in Washington, D.C., show that U.S. officials planned to help Brent Bennett secure a passport and a ticket out of the country, and an Associated Press reporter saw a man identified as Bennett board a plane for Dubai late Saturday.

Fayetteville Online

Bennett, former U.S. soldier Jonathan “Jack” Idema, both of Fayetteville, N.C., and Edward Carabello were arrested in July 2004 and convicted of running a private prison in Kabul after Afghan security forces raided a house and discovered eight Afghan men who said they had been abused.

And these eight Afghans were connected with Mulluh Omar, connected with notorious terrorist Gulbideen Hekmatyar, etc. And let’s not forget; these terrorists lied about ‘being hung upside down in the basement’ of a building that had no basement. And after Idema and Bennett were ‘convicted’ of these false charges, the terrorists were set free and there was a bombing at Bagram AFB.

Abdul Qayum, the commander of the Pul-i-charki prison where Bennett had been jailed, said the American was in good spirits when he left the prison on Saturday.

An Afghan airport official showed an AP reporter a copy of the passport of the man boarding the plane in the name of Brent L. Bennett. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Huh.

No U.S. officials in Afghanistan would comment on Bennett’s case, and an American lawyer filing paperwork on his behalf said he didn’t know if Bennett was free or in U.S. custody. When Bennett boarded the plane he was not wearing any restraints.

Well that’s encouraging, he wasn’t wearing any restraints. Something is still odd, though, I can’t put my finger on it.

Fox News: American Imprisoned in Afghanistan for Running Private Jail Freed …

Here’s the one Jo didn’t like from CNN: Convicted U.S. freelance terrorist hunter leaves Afghan jail

These all seem to be reduxes of the same report written by Associated Press writer JASON STRAZIUSO.

Here’s one with a little different flavor from Townhall dot com:

He was held in a private room at the airport and journalists were prevented from talking to him.

Well isn’t that interesting. No reporters.

Idema, who is serving a five-year sentence, also told the AP that Bennett was being flown out of the country on Saturday. He said Bennett had been forcibly removed from his cell earlier in the week during a night of violence at the prison that included a fire being set in a cell block and gunfire from guards.

It’s good to know some of this hit the airwaves.

Bennett’s mother, Debra Bennett, said she hadn’t heard from her son directly and didn’t know his plans, but that Tiffany had told her he had left Afghanistan.

“We’re trying to find out what’s going on,” said Debra Bennett of Fortuna, Calif., about 250 miles north of San Francisco. “We miss him so much.”

She said family members hadn’t spoken with Bennett since December and were excited to hear about his release. “We just want to see him back here in the United States,” she said.

God bless Brent’s family and his grandparents, I’m sure they’re relieved.

Update, this just in from Dan:

1. Bennett was handcuffed, his cuffs were covered by a an afghan scarf. AP is stupid.
2. Bennett was siezed by US State Department who kept him under guard until he boarded the plane. AP saw this and failed to report it.
3. The DOS officers stayed on the apron and had their Afghan NSD Agent escort him on to avoid photos. They threatened to arrest a photographer there. They also threatened a US soldier at the airport with obstruction charges when he went up to say hello to Brent. The NDS tried to arrest Banderes in the parking lot after he tried to bring Brent a shirt. NA soldiers backed down the NDS agents outside the airport.
4. His passport was placed in the hands of the crew chief for turnover to the UAE police.
5. (From a source in the UAE) The UAE Immigration police called the US and Afghanistan criminal countries and said the UAE was a country of freedom, then handed Brent his passport and told the police he really didnt like the US State Dept.
6. Brent was not taken out of a “cell.” He was captured at dinner with the Commandant.
7. They tried to get Jack, but were unsuccessful, but you can get that story from another source.
8. Reports that Bennett were beat up were wrong, ruffed up, and put in solitary but not at the prison, somewhere in Kabul by the State Department. The people that grabbed him at the dinner were not prison officers.

So now we have another example of complete BS spread around like fertilizer by the AP about a story that we can verify with our friends on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq who have contacts, and are themselves coming forward to set the record straight.

I really liked Justin’s article entitled “Al-Zawahiri Sounds Like a Democrat”. As the leftist rhetoric ramps up to a fever pitch ala Michael Moore (Bush is Hitler), Cindy Sheehan (Bush is Hitler) and even George Soros (Bush is Hitler), you have to hand it to them; they’ve really perfected their ‘unholy alliance’ over the last few years, using the war in Iraq and the war on terror as their proving ground for stupid rhetoric.

Because you KNOW that Al Franken, Nancy Pelosi, Hugo Chavez, and bin Laden’s right hand man, Al Zawahiri, all say that “Bush is a liar”, I think even Azzam the American said it in his recent plea ‘an invitation to Islam” -or else.

AL-QAEDA BRANDS BUSH ‘A FAILURE’

Al-Qaeda’s number two has called US President George W Bush a “liar” who has failed in his war against the network, according to a new video.

“Bush, you are a lying failure,” Ayman al-Zawahiri is purported to have said in the video posted on the internet.

At Fort Wayne dot come, they have this article, called
Dem demagogues: Comparing Bush to Satan, Chavez was following their lead by Michael Goodwin, apparently also available at the New York Daily News. At the end, Michael Goodwin talks about the attacks that the democrats have been waging against president Bush.

“I believe the United States Democratic senators who have been criticizing the president, calling him a liar, etc., have emboldened the rhetoric we are hearing from the leaders of Iran and Venezuela,” wrote the 66-year-old Republican from Long Island. “To disagree with the president on any issue is fine, to ridicule and foster hate, etc., is not. Their rhetoric has also fostered false allegations regarding 9/11, etc. We live in the best country in the world, and I for one am proud to be an American.”

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch has made a similar point, and he includes some of the mainstream media in his criticism. He thinks the personal attacks against Bush are helping Islamic terrorists.

“You can differ and you can disagree,” Koch said. “But when you demean the president, you are aiding the enemy.”

Koch was quick to say the attacks “are not a crime,” but added: “We are at war. And everything we do that derides our president before the world of nations hurts our ability to fight and win.”

It is, after all, the same exact verbiage the terrorists are using in their propaganda videos.

Burt Prelutsky put it best:

It does continue to astonish and disturb me that, in spite of having the shrill and idiotic likes of Kennedy, Dean, Gore, Kerry, Clinton, Pelosi, Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, James Carville, George Soros, etc., etc., beating the drums for the Left that the Democratic party hasn’t yet gone the way of the Whigs and the dodo bird.

You can take the words of any of those people, saying Bush is Hitler, Bush lied, men died, Bushitlerroviansconspiracy, no blood for oil, and plug them into an Al Qaeda videotape and it would fit. Terrorists have even used Naom Chomsky’s books, and Michael Moore’s movies as props.

thursday an islamic website posted an audio allegedly recorded by zarqawii’s replacement; the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, shown here in a photo released by the U.S. military in June. Put the face with the name; this is Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man who claimed to have committed the horrible murders of Menchaca and Tucker, and desecrated their bodies, tying them together rigging the corpses with a bomb.

Naturally, the recently released Intelligence Study was supposed to, according to leftists, prove that the war in Iraq made more terrorists, or made the war “worse”. That isn’t the way Al Qaeda sees it, apparently.

Because WOops, it appears as though al-Masri made a big boo-boo in the propaganda campaign against the west with his complaints of how 4,000 foreign terrorists have been killed in Iraq since 2003.

“The blood has been spilled in Iraq of more than 4,000 foreigners who came to fight,” said the man, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri — the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

So if Iraq is as the leftists say–a ‘distraction from the real war on terror’ (whatever that means), al-Muhajir didn’t get the memo. He’s just the guy who had to step over the corpse of his predecessor, al-Zarqawi in order to assume the title of the new head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, what’s he know, anyway? The Arabic word he used indicated he was speaking about foreigners who joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, not coalition troops.

So I guess 4,000 dead foreign terrorists has nothing to do with the war on terrorism, heh? And 4,000 dead Al Qaeda terrorist fighters certainly wouldn’t indicate that we brought the fight to them, now, would it?

Melanie Morgan from Move America Forward reminds us of the recently released intelligence reports that the media are reporting in their usual anti-American way.

This week the Washington Post insisted that new intelligence documents served “… as validation of their [Democrats’] long-standing position that the Iraq war has been a distraction from the broader war against terrorists.”

A Sept. 12 Reuters report echoed that premise. “Democrats counter that the Iraq war is a distraction from the war on terrorism rather than a part of it,” reported Reuters.

Tim Grieve of the liberal e-journal, Salon.com, writes similarly, “After all, Iraq is a distraction from the war on terrorism. …”

Pay no attention to the man behind the terrorist curtain

So I ask you – why would 4,000 Islamic terrorists aligned with al-Qaida rush to Iraq and be killed if these terrorists didn’t think that the war in Iraq was the frontline in the war on terrorism?

Maybe these terrorists know something more about their murderous jihad than all the liberal, anti-war second-guessers here in the United States who consistently have tried to undermine the war effort.

Don’t for a moment think that this latest report from al-Qaida in Iraq will change the rhetoric or the tenor of either the anti-war zealots or their allies in the news media. These are, after all, the same people who keep telling us there is no connection between Iraq and al-Qaida in the same news stories that they quote the leader of “al-Qaida in Iraq.”

Courtesy of NBC’s ‘policies’, check it out at Hot Air.. They’ll defend the right for someone to drop the f bomb, show violence, murder and sex, -but they won’t allow any inclusion of ‘God loves you’ in television programming. I can’t believe how far this is gone.

From the Denver Post:

Los Angeles - Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber always had a moral message in their long-running “Veggie-Tales” video series. But now that the vegetable stars have hit network television, they can’t speak as freely as they once did, and that’s got the Parents Television Council steamed.

The conservative media-watchdog group issued a statement Sept. 20 blasting NBC, which airs “VeggieTales,” for editing out some references to God from the children’s animated show.

“What struck me and continues to strike me is the inanity of ripping the heart and soul out of a successful product and not thinking that there will be consequences to it,” said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council. “The series is successful because of its biblical worldview, not in spite of it. That’s the signature to ‘Veggie-Tales.”‘

Brent Bozell has more.

See the veggie tales website and visit the store.

If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

Brent Bennett is reportedly missing and not at Pulacharke. Hell, according to US Consul Edward P. Birsner, he’s not even in Afghanistan. So what happened? Who has him? And what’s to become of Idema, if he’s even still alive?

• What day was Bennett released and when did he sign an amnesty agreement?
• No one has seen the documents that, according to US Consul Ed Birsner, Brent Bennett signed.
• If these documents exist, why didn’t Birsner include them in his filing in response to their TRO?



• The big dogs (Karzai and Bush) meet, and immediately afterwards the Afghan army goes into Pulacharke, removing Bennett to an undisclosed location. Does this seem the least bid odd?
• Does this have something to do with Jack’s weekly Rogue Radio Live radio show on WAR Radio? He thoroughly blasts Karzai, among others, every single week on that show.
• Who do they really want now that Brent Bennett is now gone from the prison?
• Does the American government and Embassy think they’re not responsible when it was Bashir Mamoon, the translator and ‘assistant’ for Birsner who ordered Afghan officials to do this?
• Although all police and military have now been withdrawn, where is Brent Bennett now?
• These guys are registered as prisoners of war with the Red Cross, yet the Embassy claims Bennett flew home.
• The Afghan Ambassador in Washington DC said they were ‘political prisoners’, so how could this be?
• If they were ‘political prisoners’ and Ed Caraballo and Brent Bennett have now been released, why is Jack still there?
• Why is Bennett’s phone in the hands of someone who speaks English/Dari and doesn’t identify himself?
• What agency is after Jack Idema and what American governmental agency has Brent Bennett now?
• What condition is Brent Bennett in? Reports are that he was beat up pretty badly.
• Why did Bennett leave all his possessions behind if this was just a normal ’surrender’ and why did he leave the prison half-dressed?
• Can Bennett be deported or extradited from Afghanistan to somewhere else (presumably the United States) against his will- without having charges brought against him, or without signing an agreement?

Apparently the US Government does whatever the hell it wants to, regardless as to what the law reads.

“Freedom of Speech”, apparently is something that is only supported by legions of terrorist-appeasing lawyers.

They say “leave no man behind”. US Consul Birsner has forced them to leave Jack Idema behind. Ed Caraballo was released in April and flew home. Brent Bennett has disappeared, along with Birsner’s very lame explanation for the events that just took place, which seems to raise more questions than it answers, and even more suspicion as to the American government’s motives against Idema.

Who is responsible? There should be a Congressional Investigation, naming all those complicit. The US Consul be fired, members of the State Department questioned and punished, the DOJ should hold to the law and its own standards (like the habeas corpus petition that these guys filed over two years ago and was never answered), and the military should stand for its own instead of threatening court martials to anyone who lent a hand to these men.

The FBI and others should own up to what really happened here; innocent men have paid a terrible personal price for bureacratic stupidity when they thought they were going to war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and hunting Bin Laden. That’s simple enough, isn’t it? The President said in September of 2001, that all Americans were now soldiers in the War On Terror. He called upon each of us to do whatever we could to stop terror and save American lives. Jack Idema and his men have done that. But now it turns out they’re fighting their own government for rights in outdated documents like the US Constitution. Instead, we’ve got “international law” that doesn’t recognize your right to defend yourself, and that might well declare the war in Iraq illegal, and excuses Saddam Hussein for perpetrating genocide against his own citizens because they were his own citizens. The American Constitution, Bill of Rights and Federalist Papers apparently don’t apply to American citizens anymore; they’re just pieces of paper that belong in a museum as a testament to a bygone era when our rules and laws were enforced for the purpose of protecting our citizens. Now we have laws that protect the criminals and indict our citizens, and nobody seems to give a damn.

There doesn’t appear to be an “America” anymore, there certainly doesn’t seem to be an America that fights together to support American values, or protect our nation. Instead, we have people who are working against us, even writing stories that depict terrorists as victims, and encourage those who conspire to destroy us. The 9/11 attack on our soil doesn’t matter anymore. America is now fighting against itself; Idema and Bennett are just collateral damage.

Anyone sick of this yet? Well if you are, then go to one of the blogbursts and start ringing phones and writing letters and contacting the media (although I have little faith in them, consider Qana, Haditha, Abu Ghraib, Valerie Plame, Rathergate, etc.). Because if we don’t shake things up to the very foundation–to the very core of these peoples’ beings–then Jack Idema might well end up dead.

By the way, I don’t buy the crap that Idema is an ass. So if he’s ‘an ass’, does that mean we should turn our backs on a fellow American? I don’t care if you are an ass, you don’t deserve to die for stupidity, and that’s what all of this is.

TGIF!

Thank God I’m FREE! Thanks to guys like Jack Idema.

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If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

As of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Idema’s compound in Pulacharke is burning. Bennett has been taken by forces loyal to Karzai to the Al-Qaeda portion of the prison, where rumor has it and it is reasonable to presume he is being tortured.

Back in February, these men filed for a TRO and nothing happened. Upon orders of the US Consul, who I didn’t realize was a reigning political force in Afghanistan but apparently is, the Afghan national army is ‘to subdue Idema dead or alive’. Might this have something to do with the complaints and demands from a certain editor at Columbia University? It certainly is a possibility.

A few weeks ago, the Afghan Ambassador, Said Jawad, in Washington DC, claimed that Idema’s detention is a ‘political problem’ which can only be resolved by the US Embassy.

So now we know how the American Embassy in Afghanistan resolves ‘political problems’–the US Counsel orders their capture and or deaths after they’ve been declared innocent, Karzai’s army follows. Is this really the United States, or did I take a step back in time to Soviet Russia and the KGB?

In Afghanistan, the most important messages and letters between high powered officials are written in longhand if they are expected to be honored.

So tell me, you idiots who say that Jack is a fraud and all that other crap. Tell me he deserves to die….because that’s what may very well happened in short order after over 2 years of the US Government not responding to their habeas corpus petition, even while three republican senators are arguing about Geneva Convention rights for terrorists. Anyone else see something wrong with this picture, or is it perfectly okay for Americans being held illegally in a foreign land which signed agreements to uphold our laws to be killed on top of it all?

And for what reason? For politics? Because the Americans struck up a secret deal with the Taliban and switched the rules of the game after we’d already won? And now, years later, we’re supposed to just ‘fohgeddaboudid’ and ‘give peace a chance’?

Notice Newsweek’s headlines across the world…except in America where the journalists are making sure they don’t tell that same story.

Americans’ rights are being ignored to the point where they might well die at the hands of forces ordered by the US Consul of the American Embassy in Afghanistan…an entity which is supposed to protect the Geneva Conventions and the rights of American citizens. This entity has ordered their captures and/or deaths!

Will update when I find out more.

______Idema Quote a few hours ago______

“This is it, Karzai and the US has finally ordered them to use weapons against us, the new General Sadiqi , has said that he was given orders to shoot to kill if we resisted. We may not make it through the night. if not, bye. At least you know what finally went down. They are going to cut all the phones off in this area soon if they do come in. My block is on fire, surrounded, and they already got brent, I will hold out to the end.

goodbye friends,
Jack”

Thursday, Washington, DC 3:38PM
United States Federal Judge Orders government to respond in Court by 12 NOON Friday and answer for siege on Americans in Afghanistan, assaults against Captain Brent Bennett, and an attempt to murder former US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema

Update:

From Rotty Pup: Jack And Brent Are In Serious Trouble

While two-faced, Taliban-appeasing Afghan President Karzai spends a week in the U.S. lecturing everyone on how to deal with terrorism, back in Afghanistan, Jack Idema and Brent Bennett are fighting for their lives:

As of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time [Thursday], Idema’s compound in Pulacharke is burning. Bennett has been taken by forces loyal to Karzai to the Al-Qaeda portion of the prison, where rumor has it and it is reasonable to presume he is being tortured.

Well, yes, we have been here before — Jack and Brent have survived more than a dozen assassination attempts in the past. This time, however, they’re under direct attack from forces loyal to Karzai, who have already captured Brent and handed him over to Al-Qaeda prisoners in their section of the prison.

Before his communications were cut-off, Jack Idema had the following to say late Thursday:

“This is it, Karzai and the US has finally ordered them to use weapons against us, the new General Sadiqi, has said that he was given orders to shoot to kill if we resisted. We may not make it through the night. if not, bye. At least you know what finally went down. They are going to cut all the phones off in this area soon if they do come in. My block is on fire, surrounded, and they already got Brent, I will hold out to the end.
goodbye friends,
Jack”

This does not look good, not good at all.

Although I have been one of the strongest supporters of the WAR project, I have reluctantly stepped down due to a few contractual details we couldn’t agree on and due to my own heavy schedule. I will continue to support the project, just not as a host.

The outrage about the treatment of our guys continues as we watch three republican senators argue about how many rights we give terrorists under the Geneva conventions when the terrorists don’t recognize them and would never sign them. Does that make any sense to you?

This goes far beyond the Jack Idema story right now to OUR OWN soil in the story of the Pendleton 8, 7 marines and a navy corpsman, who’ve been held in the brig at Camp Pendleton awaiting the trial of their charges of alleged kidnapping and murder.

Now here we have guys who are facing charges being held in shackles, and their defense attorneys are being denied any of the evidence that could be used to clear them!

The charges are according to the accounts of 52-year old Hashim Ibrahim Awad’s neighbors in a terrorist neighborhood called Hamdaniya. Supposedly these marines and the corpsman grabbed him from his house, put him in a hole, shot him repeatedly, and rigged the scene afterwards to appear as though he was a terrorist planting a bomb.

What’s the U.S. government afraid of in terms of allowing the defense attorneys to see the evidence? Might it reveal the guy was really a terrorist and the neighbors are terrorist sympathizers? It’s not as though we’ve never heard of a case like that before, is it?

Read this by Rick Amato at Townhall.

And Beth’s Blue Star Chronicles. They are now facing court martials, and what I’d like to know is…are our guys’ defense attorneys ever going to be allowed to see all the evidence?

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU:

In case you haven’t heard, a group of dissenters from the ACLU are rebelling and calling for a change in the current leadership of the main organization. The summary of things this new group is fed up with is hypocrisy and the ACLU is full of it. Purging the ACLU of its hypocrisy is bound to be a goliath task.

Where do we even begin with the ACLU’s hypocrisy? How about its odd stance on the Second Amendment? They have decided that the term “the people” that is contained in the Second Amendment does not apply to “the people” as it does in all of the other rights contained in the Bill of Rights. They defend even the most radical in free speech for individuals, but somehow have adopted the opposite position on the Second Amendment. Surely it couldn’t be that the Second Amendment doesn’t fall within the boundaries of their liberal agenda! Could it?

In August of 2005 the New York ACLU sued against random bag searches on the NY Subway. Ironically the NYCLU HQ has a sign warning visitors that all bags are subject to search.

The ACLU have fought tooth and nail against the Bush administration’s NSA program, a program designed to track international phone calls being made to or from suspected terrorist organizations. They have hailed themselves defenders of the right to privacy and labelled the program an illegal “secret” program of “domestic spying”. All the while the ACLU has its own “secret ” program of domestic spying of its own members and their personal financial information. This program has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with the real bottom line of fundraising. Former ACLU board member Michael Myers was shocked at this discovery.

The American Civil Liberties Union is using sophisticated technology to collect a wide variety of information about its members and donors in a fund-raising effort that has ignited a bitter debate over its leaders’ commitment to privacy rights.

Some board members say the extensive data collection makes a mockery of the organization’s frequent criticism of banks, corporations and government agencies for their practice of accumulating data on people for marketing and other purposes.

The group’s new data collection practices were implemented without the board’s approval or knowledge and were in violation of the ACLU’s privacy policy at the time, according to Michael Meyers, vice president of the organization and a frequent internal critic. He said he had learned about the new research by accident Nov. 7 during a meeting of the committee that is organizing the group’s Biennial Conference in July.

He objected to the practices, and the next day, the privacy policy on the group’s Web site was changed. “They took out all the language that would show that they were violating their own policy,” Meyers said. “In doing so, they sanctified their procedure while still keeping it secret.”

After spending 23 years on the ACLU board, the “defenders of free speech” issued gag orders to him, not to speak about the issue. Now thats free speech for you.

When it comes to free speech the ACLU claim to be its most steadfast defender. Now, I am not an absolutist on unlimited free speech. However, most people would think that an organization arguing for hate cults to protest with “God Hates Fags” signs at military funerals, neo nazis to march through Jewish neighborhoods, and that child porn distribution is protected by the First Amendment are about as absolutist as it gets. Not so!

When it comes to pro-life protesters the ACLU could care less about their free speech rights. As a matter of fact they actively fight against pro-life protesters’ free speech and have even tried RICO lawsuits on them. It is scary to see just how far the ACLU will go for its unrestricted abortion agenda. Free speech definitely takes a backseat to their pro-abortion agenda. They have even listed it as their number one priority pushing the defense of the First Amendment, the alleged heart and soul of the ACLU’s mission, down to third on the list, after civil rights.

But don’t just take my word for it, listen to the words of a former Execuitve Director:

The right to express unpopular opinions, advocate despised ideas and display graphic images is something the ACLU has steadfastly defended for all of its nearly 80-year history.

But the ACLU, a group for which I proudly worked as executive director of the Florida and Utah affiliates for more than 10 years, has developed a blind spot when it comes to defending anti-abortion protesters. The organization that once defended the right of a neo-Nazi group to demonstrate in heavily Jewish Skokie, Ill., now cheers a Portland, Ore., jury that charged a group of anti-abortion activists with $107 million in damages for expressing their views. Gushed the ACLU’s press release: “We view the jury’s verdict as a clarion call to remove violence and the threat of violence from the political debate over abortion.”

Were the anti-abortion activists on trial accused of violence? No. Did they threaten violence? Not as the ACLU or Supreme Court usually defines it, when in the context of a call for social change.

The activists posted a Web site dripping with animated blood and titled “The Nuremberg Files,” after the German city where the Nazis were tried for their crimes. Comparing abortion to Nazi atrocities, the site collected dossiers on abortion doctors, whom they called “baby butchers.” …

This is ugly, scary stuff. But it is no worse than neo-Nazi calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people, or a college student posting his rape fantasies about a fellow coed on the Web, both of which the ACLU has defended in the past.

Defending NAMBLA to print material advocating for sex between grown men and boys is the definition of defending “robust freedom of speech” in the ACLU’s book, but defending people’s right to protest against killing the unborn somehow fails to make the list.

But the hypocrisy does not end there. When it comes to protecting religious expression the ACLU has proven itself to be number one in America’s religious censors. They have consistently shown themselves to be hostile towards Christianity in particular. When the Tangipahoa Parish School Board in Louisiana opened its board meetings with a prayer like they had for 30 years the ACLU sued. After the ACLU won that case and the School Board ignored the court ruling, Louisiana ACLU chief Joe Cook called for them to be jailed and compared them to terrorists. Mr. Cook is currently leading an attack on plan for a Katrina memorial paid for with private funds to be errected on private land simply because it is in the shape of a cross and might offend some sensitive passerby. When valedictorian of Foothill High, Brittany McComb, decided to share her faith voluntarily at her graduation cermony the ACLU said it was the right call to pull the plug. Currently when the ACLU wins a case from attacking religious expression it is awarded attorneys fees, often in the millions, at the expense of the American taxpayer. The U.S. House of Representatives recognized this abuse and passed the Public Expression Of Religion Act to put a stop to it. However, the threats and abuse will continue however if we can’t convince the Senate to pass this as well.

But the hypocrisy goes even further. The ACLU’s disdain for free speech outside of its agenda extends beyond Christians and pro-lifers to its own dissenting members. Very recently the ACLU attempted to put forth a policy restricting the free speech of its own members.

Natt Hentoff, another former ACLU board member, was incredulous.

“For the national board to consider promulgating a gag order on its members — I can’t think of anything more contrary to the reason the A.C.L.U. exists.”

After a huge controversy, media coverage, and public concern of the NY Attorney General’s office the ACLU dropped the proposal. Instead they switched to more effective measures of replacing or voting out the members that were not in line with their agenda.

When it comes to principles the ACLU has none other than lining their pocketbooks and furthering their own liberal agenda. As I said at the beggining of the article, cleansing the ACLU of hypocrisy will be a mammoth task. I don’t think its possible. I’m more hopeful that their own greed and corruption will eat them from the inside. I think we are beggining to see the cracks and hopefully enough light will shine through them to wake people up to the truth.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already on-board.

257,197. My accurate meter reading is at 359,838. So let’s see what the count looks like at this time tomorrow. It is now 5:23 pm central standard time, Wednesday, September 27, 2006.

257, 553, other meter 360,496. It is now 7:04 pm central standard time, Thursday, September 28, 2006.

258,014, other meter 361,013. It is now 6:21 pm central standard time, Friday, September 29, 2006.

by TD of The Right Track

A quick and dirty search through Google News for articles, news, and editorials revealed no less than 14 pieces written in the last month regarding the FairTax. Fully 1/3 of those were editorials agreeing with the need for the FairTax.

A sampling:

From the Denver Daily News, an editorial titled “FairTax, not flat tax, needed to fix nation’s taxation woes“:

Dear editor,

The IRS needs to be eliminated and replaced with the FairTax, not the flat tax, as suggested by columnist Aaron Harber in Monday’s Denver Daily News.

The flat tax changes absolutely nothing — the IRS, tax code, regulations, 16th Amendment, corporate taxation and payroll taxes (the way Social Security is funded) stay exactly the same under the flat tax.

At best, the flat tax is temporary, the wrong direction to move towards simplification.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “The Fairer Tax“:

The Fair Tax (FairTax.org) will make our true tax burden — most of which is concealed in the price of goods and services — visible to all and is a necessary first step toward smaller and less-intrusive government.

We cannot allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

So first, let’s replace the current complex and dishonest system of taxation with a fair and transparent system that will allow the people to choose how much government they can afford in full knowledge of how much it really costs.

The Raleigh/Durham News & Observer has an editorial headlined “Total Replacement“:

Our tax code has grown steadily more complex, unwieldy, expensive and out of control ever since its overhaul in 1986. The IRS is increasingly unable to cope with the tax code, and puts much of its resources to uses unrelated to raising revenue and contrary to the wishes of the Founders.

Like Icarus flying ever closer to the sun, the tax system appears to be headed for self-destruction. It is far beyond any fix and is losing respect and credibility. The only reasonable solution is to finally and completely scrap it and replace it. I support the revenue-neutral FairTax plan. (http://www.fairtax.org/ 1-800-FairTax).

This is just a sampling of what people are saying all across the country. Truly a grassroots effort, it takes people willing to step up and show public support for the FairTax to convince politicians that it’s in their best interest to support the bills.

One way to show public support is to write an editorial to your local paper, no matter how large or small. Use the FairTax category that may appear on this participant blog, visit http://www.fairtax.org/, or read the FairTax book by Boortz and Linder to learn more. Get your facts straight, then write your editorial and submit it. Many papers now have a way to submit online or via e-mail.

However you decide to do it, your public support for the FairTax is vital.

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.

Here are the blogs that are participating:

This week Wictory Wednesday presents Max Burns for the US Congress for the 12th District of Georgia. He is running a tight race against Democratic incumbent John Barrow.

The Israeli war in Lebanon has shown what will happen if we pull out of Iraq… the terrorists will claim victory and emerge even stronger and more emboldened. Max Burns understands this and supports the troops to complete their mission. We should live in a society that respects and supports those who risk their lives for our benefit. Sadly, we don’t live in that society.

Max Burns understands that immigration doesn’t require reform; it requires actually enforcing the laws on the books. Not enforcing the law has led to lawlessness and before any question of guest workers can be introduced, law and order needs to return to that segment of society.

The infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” has shown us that even a GOP lead Congress can still waste money. That is why earmark reform and a line item veto is all the more necessary. When pork can be put into budgets without debate (earmarks), the line item veto allows voters to put the heat on the President to bring sense back to Congressional spending. The GOP has gotten half of the equation right in lowering taxes… now they need to cut spending. Max Burns supports this in the form of a balanced budget.

Families waste days and weeks each year trying to figure out their “fair share” of taxes. Not even the IRS can figure out the tax code… a book that is over 12 times larger than the Bible! Max Burns supports cleaning up the tax code so that families can clearly understand what the owe… and the IRS can even figure it out too.

Please consider donating or volunteering to the Max Burns campaign. Help turn this blue seat red!
This has been a production of the Wictory Wednesday blogburst. If you would like to join Wictory Wednesday, please see this post or contact John Bambenek at jcb (dot) blog [at] gmail {dot} com. The following sites are members of the Wictory Wednesday team:

If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

One of the things worth stressing about the case of Jack Idema and Brent Bennett, the two US Special Forces soldiers held illegally in Afghanistan, is that the injustices they’ve suffered weren’t aberrations. All across Afghanistan, right now, the freedoms men like Idema, Bennett and the Northern Alliance won for the Afghan people are being rolled back in an effort to appease Islamists and ‘former’ Taliban members.

A case in point is the reintroduction of the infamous Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, a move which prompted the following objection from the Afghan Bar Association [pdf]:

The Afghan Bar Association seriously and completely opposes the establishment of a new Afghan Government Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This Office, which was established by the Taliban terrorist government was known as Amrer Bil Maroof Wa Nahee Anil Monka, Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This office, under our Taliban oppressors, became infamous for corruption, abuse of power, terrorism, torture, and murder. Under the Taliban, this office was responsible for countless deaths of innocentAfghans for crimes ranging from wearing nail polish, to failing to pray or shaving beards. The Afghan people, after 25 years of war and struggle, know this office as the face of terror and oppression, a terrorist operation, which struck fear in the hearts of all Afghans and imposed their vicious and brutal will upon our people with the whip, the braided cable, and the machinegun.

Those of us who’ve followed the Idema case for some time now shouldn’t find this, latest move of President Karzai’s surprising — It was with his blessing that Jack, Brent and the rest of Task Force Sabre were subjected to a trial under Taliban ‘law’, presided over by a Taliban judge, and this only a few months into Karzai’s Presidency. Two years down the line, it seems as though the re-Islamisation of Afghanistan is gathering pace.

These two issues — the campaign to free Jack and Brent and the campaign to keep Afghanistan free of Taliban-style religious police — came together in Washington recently, when a group of American and Afghan women, dressed in burkas, handcuffed themselves to railings outside the Afghan embassy:

The Taliban executed women for wearing nail polish. A FREE THEM NOW spokeswoman said, “Mr. Hamid Karzai simply tortures them and imprisons them, not for nail polish, but for speaking out, divorce, adultery, sex outside of marriage, and many other things. Americans must never fear exercising the Constitutional rights paid for with American blood for more than 200 years.” The women remained anonymous under the Burkas throughout the protest.
[…]
“We demand justice, and if it takes a dozen Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on September 11th 2006, then 300 Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on October 12th, the anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on the Taliban in the war of liberation, and then 1000 more Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on November 12, 2006, the anniversary of the American liberation of Kabul, then we will do it. But the terror and oppression must be stopped.”

The protesters handed the Afghan Ambassador, Sayed Jawad Tayeb, a videotape of Afghan Supreme Court Judges discussing the Idema case and stating that Jack is completely innocent. Further protests are planned in Washington, New York and London for October 16th. For more information, readers should visit the Free Them Now homepage.

So what else can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I’d urge everyone to do this, as we’re still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao’s Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There’s also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack’s story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown - 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack’s Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack’s Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack’s Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett’s Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack’s Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

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The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
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Irate Nate
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NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
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Causes of Interest
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Hyscience
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