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January 20, 2010
Exclusive: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! (1/20/10)
Whenever you think general incompetence by those who purport to serve by the consent of the governed can’t get any worse, think again:
“MK Danon gives Obama failing grade for mideast policy” (Jerusalem Post, 1/18/10)
On the eve of a four-day visit to the United States, hawkish Likud MK Danny Danon on Monday launched a blistering assault on President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, declaring that he would give Obama "a failing grade" for his first year in office.
"I would give Obama an 'F' for serious lack of knowledge or understanding on topics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Danon, speaking to The Jerusalem Post ahead of his US trip.
A longtime fierce critic of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's more conciliatory policies toward the Palestinian Authority, the Likud freshman turned his rhetoric on Obama, and promised to use his US visit to urge Obama to ease the pressure on Israel.
"His serious error during his Fox News interview in China, in which he called to freeze construction in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, unified the Israeli public around Netanyahu's leadership while weakening Obama's position in Israeli public opinion," Danon asserted. "Even [Kadima opposition Leader] Tzipi Livni was forced to defend our rights to Gilo."
Israeli public opinion, said Danon, should matter to Obama.
"Anyone who wants to be a fair moderator must enjoy the trust of both sides. In the past, the Arab side argued that the Americans are prejudiced in favor of Israel, but now we see that Israelis do not believe that Obama is a fair negotiator, and yet he still has not garnered the faith of the Arabs either. As a result, we see the difficulties in even initiating negotiations between the sides."
The president had also proved wanting on Iran, Danon continued.
"He promised that by the end of the year, he would publish his opinion on Iran. The year is over and the only threats that have been heard are regarding Israel."
Without action, including "significant sanctions," Danon warned, Obama's statements would be rendered "insignificant."
(read entire article here)
Israel is the oldest – and almost only – democracy in the Middle East and one of our staunchest allies. Is it really a good idea for the U.S. to be treating her thusly?
“Iran says may hit Western warships if attacked” (Reuters, 1/19/10)
Iran's defence minister warned on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic could strike back at Western warships in the Gulf if it were attacked, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"The Westerners know well that the existence of these warships in the Persian Gulf serve as the best operational targets for Iran if they should want to undertake any military action against Iran," Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said.
(original article here)
And who knows? Perhaps they won’t wait until they are attacked. Funny how the U.S. is constantly being accused of saber rattling, but when Iran does it, everyone looks the other way…
“FBI broke law for years in phone record searches” (Washington Post, 1/19/10)
The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.
E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.
A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.
The records seen by The Post do not reveal the identities of the people whose phone call records were gathered, but FBI officials said they thought that nearly all of the requests involved terrorism investigations.
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said in an interview Monday that the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when agents invoked nonexistent emergencies to collect records.
"We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said. The after-the-fact approvals were a "good-hearted but not well-thought-out" solution to put phone carriers at ease, she said. In true emergencies, Caproni said, agents always had the legal right to get phone records, and lawyers have now concluded there was no need for the after-the-fact approval process. "What this turned out to be was a self-inflicted wound," she said.
(read entire article here)
Self-inflicted wound is right. And we wonder why there are people who don’t trust law enforcement to respect civil liberties? This doesn’t do security efforts any favors.
Brought to you by the editors and research staff of FamilySecurityMatters.org.
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