The Boston Bruins, America’s first-professional-ice hockey team, won its’ first Stanley Cup eighty-years-ago this week, when they beat the New York Rangers 2-1, in New York, in a best of three series. The Bruins had won the first game 2-0, in Boston the day before. The series between Boston and New York was also the first ever all-American final, in the quest for Lord Stanley’s vaunted trophy. Led by rookie net minder Tiny Thompson, the Bruins tight-checking play stifled the Rangers. Thompson’s shutout in the first game was the third time a rookie goalie had posted a shutout in the finals.

It was a season to remember for the Bruins and their fans. Boston had won 38 of their 44 games played, accounting for a whopping league-lead of 77 points. They lost only 5 games and tied one. The black and gold also led the league in goals for, by a wide margin, and also gave up the fewest goals against.

In the finals, Hall of Fame defenseman Eddie Shore continued his superb play which complimented the play of rookie forward Cooney Weiland and Hall of Fame forward Dit Clapper. Both Weiland and Clapper scored over 40 goals for the Bruins during the memorable season. Shore continues to this day to be the only defenseman to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player Award four times. Only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have won the Hart Trophy more times than Shore. A bruiser known for NHL violence, Shore set a then-NHL record for 165 penalty minutes in just his second season.

Boston became one of the few Cup winners in history to not lose a single game in the playoffs, and the last team until 1952 to win every playoff game they had.

Another casualty of George Soros?

Fox News – March 31, 2009

NEW YORK — The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday, making it the fifth newspaper publisher to seek protection from creditors in recent months.

The step, brought on by a precipitous decline in advertising revenue, means both of Chicago’s major daily newspapers are operating under bankruptcy protection. Tribune Co., the parent company of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 in December.

The Sun-Times Media Group, which filed in a Delaware court, said it will continue to operate its print and online properties. The company listed $479 million in assets and $801 million in debt. The largest unsecured creditors are newsprint vendors. Three are owed more than $1 million each.

The company has retained Rothschild Inc. to help with a possible sale of assets.

“We firmly believe that filing for Chapter 11 protection and exploring the potential sale of assets or new investment in the company offers us the best opportunity to protect our respected media properties for the long-term,” Jeremy Halbreich, the company’s interim chief executive, said in a statement.

The Sun-Times, the company’s flagship newspaper, had a paid weekday circulation of about 313,000 as of September, ranking it 17th in the U.S.

The dire financial condition of Chicago’s newspapers mirrors the situation in Philadelphia, where the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

Other cities with two daily newspapers have seen the industry’s crisis whittle away competition this year. The Rocky Mountain News closed, leaving The Denver Post, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went online only, leaving The Seattle Times without a mainstream daily print rival.

There is a great video of the wreck located at the link below.

Why is it that this ship is considered to be the fist sunk in WWII, and the US Cole is just considered to be a terrorist target? Why can’t we see things as they are?

April 1, 2009
The Age

RESEARCHERS have discovered the rusty wreck of the City of Rayville — the first US vessel lost during World War II — almost 69 years after it sank off the coast of Cape Otway.

Destroyed by a German mine on November 8, 1940, the exact resting place of the ship — which was heading via Melbourne to New York with its cargo of lead, wool and copper — had remained a mystery.

However, Deakin University researchers led by Daniel Ierodiaconou used multi-beam sonar imagery and remotely operated video equipment to locate the wreck about 14 kilometres south of Cape Otway Lighthouse and recorded the first detailed images of the ship in its watery grave, 70 metres below the surface.

Dr Ierodiaconou said that although two sets of approximate co-ordinates for the wreck were established in 2002, sitting about 600 metres apart, the exact location had not been confirmed.

“We weren’t sure at first if it was a reef structure or a wreck at first … but when we towed a camera over it, it was clear,” he said.

While the stars and stripes painted on both sides of its hull have long faded, the 6000-tonne vessel’s outline is clear in the colour video footage.

Using information gathered by sonar equipment, scientists created a 3D profile of the wreck and surrounding sea floor, which revealed the City of Rayville was sitting upright on its keel, although listing slightly. Damage to the vessel from the mine’s explosion is evident by the missing hatch cover near the stern.

Heritage Victoria maritime archaeologist Cassandra Philippou said the wreck, which is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and the National Historic Shipwrecks Database, was historically important and confirming the wreck’s location would allow authorities to monitor and manage the site.

She said of the 700-odd shipwrecks off Victoria’s coast, only about a third had been located.

The Germans laid 100 mines in Bass Strait using the tanker Passat. The City of Rayville became the second ship destroyed in 24 hours, after the British steamer SS Cambridge hit a mine off Wilsons Promontory.

“Most people now don’t realise that we had mines off our coast, off Cape Otway near Lorne,” Dr Ierodiaconou said.

But it was big news at the time. A story on the front page of The Age on November 11, 1940 — just below news of the death of former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain — reported that Bass Strait had been closed to shipping while the navy swept the “mine field in Bass Strait”. Several mines were located as a result, the report said.

Of the Rayville’s 38 crew, only one sailor died — the first death of a US merchant seaman in World War II. The rest of the crew were rescued after the Cape Otway lightkeeper witnessed the night-time explosion and alerted the Apollo Bay rescue service, which dispatched three rescue boats. All 38 crew were found in lifeboats, but one man returned to the boat in search of personal items and drowned.

The wreck was located while Dr Ierodiaconou and a team of 30 researchers were mapping Victoria’s underwater landscape. Working up to three nautical miles from the coast, the researchers have so far mapped about 12 per cent of the state’s coastline.

“We have found the most incredible sponge gardens which rival the Great Barrier Reef in terms of colour and complexity,” he said. “We’ve got these incredible habitats at our doorstep.” Also mapped are underwater features including volcanoes, river systems and laval flows that began near Mt Eccles in the state’s west.

It’s been almost two weeks since I have seen the movie Brothers At War and I still think back on the story that it told. It may sound like just another war movie, or a pro-war propaganda film, but you couldn’t get further from the truth. Brothers At War is the moving story of the whole Rademacher clan.

Yes, it tells the story of two of the Rademacher brothers that are currently serving in the United States Army, Joe and Issac. Yes, it tells the story of Jake Rademacher trying to understand what his brothers are going through and why they do what they do. But it tells the story from all sides. This movie tells the story of not only what our military members and their families go through during deployment but the positive affect their service has on the people in the countries they are fighting in.

All sides meaning that the whole family is involved. Jake’s sisters, his Mom, his Dad, his brothers that are serving, his brother Tom who is not, Issac’s wife, Joe’s fiancée, and the kids involved. It also has other supporting characters, the men and women that serve America everyday by putting on that uniform day in and day out.

As a Former Marine I am familiar with the service members side of the story, but it has always been hard to put myself in the place of the loved ones that are left behind. Also I never deployed to combat zone during my enlistment in the mid 90’s so I can only relate to the men and women that are featured in the film to a point.

You don’t have to agree with any Presidential Administrations policies on Iraq to benefit from this film. In fact it is totally apolitical. Jake did not go to Iraq with any agenda outside of trying to understand what his brothers, and everyone else that puts on those uniforms and goes out to keep us safe, were experiencing. You will see all of the varying sides of the men and women that are in Iraq, and it would apply to Afghanistan as well; as I’ve said it is not a movie about the war in Iraq or anywhere else. It is the heartfelt work of one brother trying to get a grasp on what his brothers were going through. In fact Jakes brother Tom talks about not agreeing with what is going on in Iraq or he would be over there too.

It also tells the stories of the Iraqi Army and the Marines that are embedded with them teaching them how to go about the day to day operations. Shia Soldiers learning that Sunni people are not automatically the bad guy and vice versa. Watching our Marines teaching their Iraqi counterparts how to interact with the local people and breaking away from the ideas and methods of the past thirty years under the leadership of Saddam Hussein is inspiring.

There is so much more that I could go into, but I think that I will leave it at this: Brothers At War will be the best movie that you see all year!!

It has been doing well to this point, but if we really want to send a message to Hollywood that just moving your lips and saying that you support the Troops while making movies that demonize them tells us everything we need to hear!!

Brothers At War is still opening in cities around this Great Nation and you can find all of the locations at http://brothersatwarmovie.com. It will be opening in the following cities this week:
- COLORADO -

4/3/2009Colorado SpringsCinemark Carefree Circle – [Cinemark]

- GEORGIA -

4/3/2009Augusta (near Fort Gordon, US Army)Regal Augusta Exchange – [Regal Cinemas]

- LOUISIANA -

4/3/2009Shreveport (near Barksdale AFB, US Air Force)Cinemark Tinseltown 17 – [Cinemark]

- TENNESSEE -

4/3/2009Clarksville (near Fort Campbell, US Army)Carmike Governor’s Square 10 – [Carmike]

- TEXAS -

4/3/2009El PasoCarmike 16

- VIRGINIA -

4/3/2009Hampton (near Langley AFB, US Air Force)AMC Hampton Towne Center 24 – [AMC]

4/3/2009Norfolk (near Norfolk Naval Station, US Navy)Regal Mac Arthur Center 18

To find all of the show times and locations please go to http://brothersatwarmovie.com.

Grayson-Himes Pay For Performance Act of 2009

To amend the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards….

By Angelia Phillips

House Financial Services committee, chaired by Barney Frank, has passed the “ Pay for Performance act of 2009”. which imposes government control of pay compensation to ALL employees of those companies that received capital from the government. These compensation limits would be retroactive and cancel out all previous contracts and agreements for compensation. These limits would not be imposed on the executives alone, all employees would be subject to the pay caps which will be decided by Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner. This is unprecedented power given to a Treasury Secretary.

The bill passed the Financial Services Committee last week with a nearly party-line vote of 38 to 22 . the only Republicans to vote in favor of it were Reps. Ed Royce of California and Walter Jones of North Carolina.

Expected to come before the full House for a vote this week many Republicans are troubled that the legislation will be retroactive. “It’s just a bad reaction to what has been going on with AIG,” Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey, a committee member, stated. Concern over the new powers that this legislation as well as the other powers sought by the Treasury Secretary was also expressed.

Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democrat wrote the bill and seems to think it will show that Republicans are corrupt and on the take with the financial services industry if they vote against it. He feels it also sends a message that the publics money needs to be protected.

Here you go again.  Another story that you will not hear on the MSM from rantburg.com!  The title says it all, but ever accused terrorists, sorry, participants in “Man Made Disasters” to be smart??!!

Somali pirates make big mistake

USS BOXER, At Sea — In a show of international sea power in the Gulf of Aden, seven nations representing three task forces coordinated efforts to pursue a skiff after the pirates on board opened fire on a German oiler, the Federal German Ship (FGS) Spessart, March 29.At approximately 3 p.m. yesterday, FGS Spessart, reported that they were being attacked by pirates who may have mistaken the naval supply ship for a commercial merchant vessel. An embarked security team aboard the ship returned fire on the suspected pirates during the initial attack. Hey, Mahmoud! Can they do that? Subsequently, Spessart pursued the skiff while providing additional details of the attack to a variety of international naval vessels operating in the area. A number of naval ships and aircraft joined the pursuit, including: the Dutch frigate HNLMS Zeven Provincien, an SH-60B helicopter assigned to the Spanish warship SPS Victoria, a Spanish P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, two Marine Corps helicopters from the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 flagship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the European Union’s CTF 465 flagship, the Greek frigate HS Psara.Supported by an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1 Huey assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced), “Evil Eyes,” embarked aboard Boxer, the international naval forces contained the armed suspects until Psara arrived with a German boarding team. That Cobra could’ve really ruined their day… Upon boarding the skiff, the team found seven suspected pirates and their weapons. The suspected pirates were disarmed and transferred to the German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz where they will remain until a final determination is made regarding potential prosecution. While this event showcased the incredible international naval capabilities operating in the Gulf of Aden, it also highlighted the complexity of counter-piracy operations. The crew of Spessart and the embarked security team provided the critical first line of defense, utilizing defensive measures that are essential for all ships operating in the region. Moreover, nearly five hours transpired between the time Spessart’s armed security team thwarted the initial attack and when an armed boarding team was within range of the pirate skiff. In the interim, armed coalition aircraft kept the suspected pirates from getting away. This incident in the Gulf of Aden happened at a time when other pirates have been operating well off the eastern Somali coast. The area off the coast of Somalia and Kenya when combined with the waters of the Gulf of Aden equals more than 1.1 million square miles, roughly four times the size of Texas or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined. In a region this large merchant mariners must often serve as the first line defenders against pirates, because naval forces will likely not be close enough to respond.

Keep in mind while reading this, that our southern border is wide open and we have our head of DHS, Sec. Janet Napalitano, doing everything in her power to ALLOW the sieve of illegals to remain open to drain into our country. Along with Mexicans flowing into the country, comes other unwanted problems such as terrorists. Hezbollah And Narco-Islamism See here: Former Governor of Kidnap Capital Goes Limp on Immigration

March 31, 2009

CBS News

(CBS/AP) The top Taliban commander in Pakistan promised an assault on Washington “soon” – one he says will “amaze” the world.

“Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world,” Baitullah Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone.

Mehsud also claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack on a police academy outside the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, saying it was in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

Mehsud and other Pakistani Taliban militants are believed to be based in the country’s lawless areas near the border with Afghanistan, where they have stepped up their attacks throughout Pakistan.

One year ago, CBS News security correspondent Bob Orr reported that U.S. intelligence officials were increasingly concerned that Mehsud could eclipse even Osama bin Laden as a threat to America.

The U.S. recently announced a $5 million bounty on Mehsud’s head. Asked about it, he told the AP he would be happy to “embrace martyrdom.”

Mehsud has made voluminous threats against the West for years, as he rose to his current stature as the head of the Taliban in Pakistan, and he gave no apparent specifics in his threat on the U.S. capital on Tuesday, notes CBS News’ Sami Yousafzai in Peshawar.

The attack on the police academy outside Lahore left at least seven police officers and two civilians dead on Monday.

Determining who actually carried out Monday’s brazen assault on the police may prove difficult, if not impossible, in a country where numerous militant groups and tribes overlap and cooperate – both in acts of terror and claims of responsibility.

Conflicting Mehsud’s claim, Pakistani intelligence officials based in Lahore told CBS News’ Farhan Bokhari on Tuesday that Mehsud and the Taliban may not have been directly involved in the siege, based on ongoing interrogations of militants apprehended after the incident.

Security agents have not ruled out the possibility that militants from the banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba may have carried out the attack with some support from Mehsud, but the extent of any such link remains unclear.

A Taliban source told Yousafzai on Monday, meanwhile, that a group of militants called the Fedayeen al-Islam have been trying for some time to stage high-profile hostage takings to demand the release of Taliban and other militants held by the Pakistani government.

Last month’s brutal attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore was part of that effort, the source claimed. The goal was allegedly to capture some of the famous cricketers riding in the team bus.

Refusing to be named, the Taliban source said Monday’s attack might have been aimed at taking large numbers of police hostage – which they managed to do, but only until police snipers and commandos got the better of them.

The attack on Pakistan’s police – who have become regular targets of the Taliban and other militant groups in recent months – came less than a month after the ambush on Sri Lanka’s visiting cricketers and underscored the threat that militancy poses to the nuclear-armed country.

It prompted the country’s top civilian security official to say that militant groups were “destabilizing the country.”

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, who visited the police academy after the siege, described it as an “attack on Pakistan.”

“There are two choices: to either let the Taliban take over your country or to fight it out. At this time the nation must unite,” he said.

The country’s information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira congratulated Pakistan’s forces who participated in the battle with the militants, saying “they conducted it very successfully.”

This I found over at rantburg.com.  It seems that the new and improved catch and release program is alive and well, and actually doing better than ever.  I guess it is a whole lot easier to shut down GITMO if you release all the terrorists I mean participants of “Man Made Disasters”.

Tonights guest on Lady’s Night With The Troops is the founder of MarineParents.comTracy Della Vecchia. Tracy is a US Marine mom who started the website MarineParents.com to help other Parents of Marines understand and obtain the information they need regarding their Marine son or daughter. MarineParents.com, Inc. is an IRS Approved 501 (c) (3) Public Charity

From Tracy’s wonderful site: Marineparents.com

I started this web site because I couldn’t find ONE place to find all the news I wanted to learn about the Marine Corps, about the recent deployment to Kuwait and Iraq, about the other Marine Moms and Marine Dads that had the same emotions I did. So this site was born on Tuesday, January 21, 2003. The response has been tremendous. There are thousands of other parents out there feeling the same emotions and we’re all trying to define them. Connecting with each other helps. Sharing helps. This is a place to connect & share. Welcome.

You can hear our interview tonight on Blog Talk Radio, at 7:00 PM PST.

Click on the blog talk radio photo below…

 Really would like to hear some feedback on these Classic Bash vids…sound off.

Here ya go!!!  I found this one over at newsmax.com and it goes right in line with a previous post here at CW http://www.chandlerswatch.com/2009/03/29/detroit-pays-its-pound-of-flesh-for-washington-silver/.  Good for Gov. Palin she actually took the time to read through the documents, unlike our Congress when they passed it, and realized that it will cost her constituents more in the long run than it will benefit them in the short run!!

Monday, March 30, 2009 1:15 PM

By: David A. Patten 
Warning that anyone accepting federal stimulus funds from Washington should “read the fine print,” Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is urging her fellow Alaskans not to “sell our birthright for short-term gain.”

Palin’s comments came in an opinion column defending her decision to reject close to a third of the $930 million in stimulus funds allocated for her state in the $787 million bill signed into law by President Obama.

Critics charge she is turning down the money to reinforce her conservative credentials and bolster a presumed 2012 presidential run – an accusation Palin’s representatives staunchly deny. In addition to Palin, GOP governors rejecting at least some federal stimulus funds include: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindahl.

“Shovel ready or digging a hole?” is the title of the Palin opinion piece published this weekend’s Anchorage Daily News.

Palin acknowledges federal stimulus dollars are “tempting,” but also says she “must consider whether they create sustainability, help develop our resources, reduce dependency on Washington, and all without mortgaging our kids’ futures.”

Accepting the federal largesse, Palin says, would hurt Alaska’s long-term future. She adds that as governor she is required to certify that the federal dollars would boost the economy.

“Unfortunately,” she writes, “a disproportionate percentage of the federal package available to Alaska would increase government operations. It’s a stretch to certify that more spending on more bureaucracy actually grows an economy.”

Palin says accepting temporary federal dollars would just make the state’s finances worse in the long run.

“When stimulus money runs out in two years, who will pay for the expanded government programs, when Alaska currently has a budget shortfall of over a billion dollars? My administration will not willingly and knowingly dig a hole for Alaskans to fill under this enormous, debt-ridden, Washington spending plan,” she writes.

With the national debt already over $11 trillion, Palin says it’s a mistake to view the federal funds as “free money.”

Palin also provided several examples of what she called “federal intrusion” associated with the stimulus plan:
Alaska communities, she says, would have to adopt international energy codes. “These standards should be locally determined, not federally mandated,” she writes.
If Alaska were to accept additional money for unemployment benefits, it would have to extend the eligibility period. “This federal involvement locks us into government dependency for longer periods,” she states.
Matching funds are required for some federal programs, she states. “Alaskans must read the fine print on these federal mandates, because certain allocations also require state-matching funds.”

Palin concludes, “When Alaska was granted statehood, it was with the expectation that our independent, innovative spirit and rich resources would largely sustain us, rather than depending on federal government. Creating more dependence on Washington steers us away from Alaska’s magnificent potential and destiny, and that, to me, is a problem.

“My job is to help Alaskans count the cost for the long term, not sell our birthright for short-term gain. Alaskans must acknowledge that if we dig a fiscal hole, it will be filled by our families and businesses. Reliance on Washington is not our only option. We could exercise fiscal responsibility and prudent planning, develop our resources, energize Alaskans, and revitalize our spirit. We are up to the challenge. This is the best lesson we can teach our children.”

Palin added, however, that she won’t block attempts to obtain federal dollars by circumventing her office.

“I’m approaching federal funds and mandates with caution, but won’t stand in the way of organizations or communities applying to the feds for funding their own expansions,” she wrote.

If you haven’t heard, Hezbollah is entering the US through the Mexican border. This is not new, they have been doing it for years…

From 2006

HEZBOLLAH’S GLOBAL REACH – SEPTEMBER 28, 2006
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST
AND CENTRAL ASIA
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS

Chandler’s Watch has mentioned this for some time, but it seems as if the MSM is just catching on. Last week the Washington Times ran this story

EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S.
Works beside smuggler cartels to fund operations

Also a great read from Threats Watch: Terrorism and Drug Routes

Now to today’s article:
From The Cutting Edge

March 30, 2008
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom announced that it is reopening dialogue with the political wing of Hezbollah. Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom has only banned Hezbollah’s terrorist (External Security Organization) and military wings.

The ban on the terrorist wing came in 2000, while the ban on the military wing only came in June 2008 in response to Hezbollah’s “providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs,” for plots to kidnap British security workers in Iraq, and for its support for terrorist activity in the Palestinian Territories.

Meanwhile, the European Union has not yet designated any part of Hezbollah — military, political or otherwise — although it did label Imad Mughniyeh, the late Hezbollah chief of external operations, and several other Hezbollah members involved in specific acts of terrorism.

But despite the differences between U.S. and European perceptions of and policies toward Hezbollah, there is one critical area where all parties’ mutual interests converge, namely law enforcement. Regardless of divergent political considerations or definitions of terrorism, combating crime and enforcing sovereign laws are straightforward issues. More than any other Islamist group, Hezbollah has a long record of engaging in criminal activity to support its activities. The United States and its European counterparts have a particularly strong shared interest in combating the group’s increasing role in illicit drug trafficking.

In recent days, Admiral James G. Stavridis, the Commander of U.S. Southern Command who has now been nominated to head NATO troops as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, testified before the House Armed Services Committee about the threat to the United States from the nexus between illicit drug trafficking — “including routes, profits, and corruptive influence” — and “Islamic radical terrorism.” While Hezbollah is involved in a wide variety of criminal activity, ranging from cigarette smuggling to selling counterfeit products, the connection between drugs and terror is particularly strong. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 19 of the 43 U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations are definitely linked to the global drug trade, and up to 60 percent of terror organizations are suspected of having some ties with the illegal narcotics trade.

Hezbollah is no exception to this statistic and in recent years has augmented its role in the production and trafficking of narcotics. Hezbollah has utilized the vast Lebanese Shi’a expatriate population, mainly located in South America and Africa, to its advantage. According to Michael Braun, former assistant administrator and chief of operations at the DEA, “Both Hamas and Hezbollah are active in this [Tri-Border] region [see map at right], where it is possible to make a profit of $1 million from the sale of fourteen or fifteen kilos of drugs, an amount that could be transported in a single suitcase.”

For example, Admiral Stavridis’s testified that in August 2008, the U.S. Southern Command and the DEA, in coordination with host nations, targeted a Hezbollah drug trafficking ring in the Tri-Border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. In August 2008, the United States, in cooperation with Colombian investigators, identified and dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring based out of Colombia. This operation, which was made up of a Colombian drug cartel and Lebanese members of Hezbollah, used portions of its profits — allegedly hundreds of millions of dollars per year — to finance Hezbollah.

Such revelations should not surprise. Back in December 2006 the U.S. Treasury listed Sobhi Fayad as a Specially Designated Terrorist. Why? Because, Treasury informed, “Fayad has been a senior TBA [Tri-Border Area] Hezbollah official who served as a liaison between the Iranian embassy and the Hezbollah community in the TBA. He has also been a professional Hezbollah operative who has traveled to Lebanon and Iran to meet with Hezbollah leaders. Fayad received military training in Lebanon and Iran and was involved in illicit activities involving drugs and counterfeit U.S. dollars.”

Africa is additionally becoming an area of concern regarding terrorist groups engaged in drug trafficking. According to Admiral Stavridis, drug traffickers have expanded their presence in West Africa as a “springboard to Europe.” Hezbollah has long maintained a strong presence in Africa, and has utilized Africa as a strategic point to from which to raise and transfer funds and to engage in criminal enterprises, such as diamond smuggling.

The nexus between drug trafficking and terrorist activities — specifically those of Hezbollah — represent an immediate law enforcement challenge for the United States and its European allies. While the Europeans may not view Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, they are certainly eager to prevent Hezbollah from running criminal enterprises within their borders. Countries are particularly determined to prevent the importation of illegal narcotics across their borders, whether by organized criminal networks, terrorists groups, or the hybrid narco-terrorist networks that DEA officials describe as “meaner and uglier than anything law enforcement or militaries have ever faced.”

So while there is no common understanding between the United States and the United Kingdom on whether or how to engage Hezbollah or even how to classify Hezbollah and its various component parts, there is no “gray area” as to whether drug trafficking is illegal. The United Kingdom and other European nations are no less eager than the United States to combat the flow of drugs into their countries and to prevent Hezbollah from operating criminal enterprises within their territory.

The British decision to openly engage Hezbollah politically is misinformed, to be sure. But do not be surprised if the Brits talk to Hezbollah “political” leaders on the one hand while arresting some of their cohorts involved in illicit narcotics on the other. Officials may openly describe these actions as targeting criminals, not Hezbollah, but the effect will be much the same.

By MEGHAN CLYNE
JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations’ legal “norms.” Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an “axis of disobedience” along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.

Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government’s top lawyers: Harold Koh.

President Obama has nominated Koh — until last week the dean of Yale Law School — to be the State Department’s legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

It’s a job where you want a strong defender of America’s sovereignty. But that’s not Koh. He’s a fan of “transnational legal process,” arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

What would this look like in a practical sense? Well, California voters have overruled their courts, which had imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Koh would like to see such matters go up the chain through federal courts — which, in turn, should look to the rest of the world. If Canada, the European Human Rights Commission and the United Nations all say gay marriage should be legal — well, then, it should be legal in California too, regardless of what the state’s voters and elected representatives might say.

He even believes judges should use this “logic” to strike down the death penalty, which is clearly permitted in the US Constitution.

The primacy of international legal “norms” applies even to treaties we reject. For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — a problematic document that we haven’t ratified — should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that “in an appropriate case, he didn’t see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States.” A spokeswoman for Koh said she couldn’t confirm the incident, responding: “I had heard that some guy . . . had asked a question about sharia law, and that Dean Koh had said something about that while there are obvious differences among the many different legal systems, they also share some common legal concepts.”

Score one for America’s enemies and hostile international bureaucrats, zero for American democracy.

Koh has called America’s focus on the War on Terror “obsessive.” In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law — “most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America,” which he branded “the axis of disobedience.”

He has also accused President George Bush of abusing international law to justify the invasion of Iraq, comparing his “advocacy of unfettered presidential power” to President Richard Nixon’s. And that was the first Bush — Koh was attacking the 1991 operation to liberate Kuwait, four days after fighting began in Operation Desert Storm.

Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas’ use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh’s theories.

Koh, a self-described “activist,” would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He’s not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law — in 1994, he told The New Republic: “I’d rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning.”

Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He’s on many liberals’ short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it’s certainly a useful trial run.

What happens to Koh in the Senate will send an important signal. If he sails through to State, he’s a far better bet to make it onto the Supreme Court. So Senate Republicans have a duty to expose and confront his radical views.

Even though he’s up for a State Department job, Koh is a key test case in the “judicial wars.” If he makes it through (which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote) the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick ‘em as radical as you like.

H/T RSassy

By Colonel Andrew O’Meara US Army (Ret), Lt. Gen.Thomas McInerney USAF (Ret), Maj. Gen.Paul Vallely US Army (Ret)

This is not the time for political correctness, nor is it a time to mince words detailing the failures that resulted in the alleged violations of the rules of engagement. Our Army has a responsibility to support those it sends into battle, which clearly did not happen in the case of your unit in Wardak Province. We need to Stand Up for you and your men. They deserve better and you are their last best hope. Regardless of whether or not the Secretary of the Army permits you to brief all of these talking points — you may be cut you short – leave a copy for all present.

As a follow on to the article regarding the Case of Roger Hill, US Army, and his soldiers, a number of points need to be made that we would hope the Secretary of the Armytakes into consideration as the case is reviewed. Words need not be minced in making the case to support our soldiers in combat.

* The infantry company is the tip of the spear on combat operations.
* The infantry company is lean and structured to engage in close combat.
* The area of operations of his infantry company was responsible for an area of operations about the size of Connecticut with a population of a half million Afghans.
* Infantry companies are not highly trained in interrogation techniques by mission, nor are they expected to have to conduct detailed interrogations of detainees. That is the job of their higher headquarters supported with Military Interrogation teams.
* The intelligence information received by Captain Hill’s company from a reliable source pinpointed the existence of enemy double agents operating in the company area, which led to two friendly KIAs and thirty WIAs due to leaks from the enemy agents.
* Captain Hill requested the evacuation of the suspects for interrogation by trained interrogation teams for the purpose of gaining evidence needed to press charges against the enemy agents.
* His request was denied, as had several previous requests for support by trained interrogation teams.
* Based on the failure of his higher headquarters to support him, Captain Hill had two options due to time limits for detention of detaineesunder the existing rules of engagement: He could release the detainees, where they would be free to share their detailed information regarding the configuration of their base camp facilitating indirect fire attacks by the Taliban on his men, a potentially serious threat to the security of the company; He could interrogate the detainees himself, despite the lack of limited interrogation trainingof his men.
* To protect his men from the high risks associated with the release of the detainees, he elected to take responsibility for the interrogation of the suspects in hopes of gaining information that would allow him to press charges against the enemy agents and detain them to stand trial.
* His courageous actions resulted in the interrogation of the suspects.
* In the course of the interrogations Captain Hill and his people inadvertently violated rules of engagement pertaining to the interrogation of enemy suspects in performing tasks for which the company was not trained to perform.
* His unit was in a highly vulnerable posture performing a mission that exceeded the capabilities of the unit.
* A brigade size unit has now taken over his sector demonstrating the fact that his higher command has formally recognized that the unit was precariously over extended — a failure that precipitated the crisis that Captain Hill and his company found themselves as the only American combat force in the Province.
* His actions resulted in no harm to the enemy detainees.
* His unit suffered thirty percent casualties during the time he operated as the sole American combat unit in the Province. Some ofthe losses of his soldiers were inflictedin the form of brutal atrocities by the barbaric forces and actions of the Taliban. His intentions at all times were to perform his duties in the execution of his assigned mission and the protection of his men, which regrettably did not receive adequate support to carry out the mission.
* At no time was it his intention to harm the suspects, nor was it his intention to violate the rules of engagement.
* If culpability exists for the manner in which his unit conducted its responsibilities the fault rests with those who assigned the unit a mission that far exceeded its capabilities and then failed to adequately support the unit when support was requested.
* Additions facts and circumstances relevant to the incident should be incorporated into formal issue points, copies of which should be furnished to the Secretary of the Army as well as all those in a position to influence the decision regarding the case.
* The JAG officers who acted as prosecutors in the case may have exceeded their authority by threatening Captain Hill with a life sentence in jail unless he pleaded guilty to all of the charges. Such scare tactics are more reprehensible than the actions he is alleged to have committed in the interrogation of the enemy agents.
* JAG bureaucrats operating in secure rear areas should not be allowed to abuse their responsibilities to further their careers, while destroying honorable servicemen and women operating under the most difficult and dangerous conditions on the battlefield. Adult supervision of these JAG personnel, who have clearly gone into business for themselves, is badly needed to restore justice to the military justice system.

The above issue points are based upon collective experience by the authors of this article with experience as combat leaders serving at every level of command from platoon leader to senior Armed Forces position.

American Daily Review

The “We The People Stimulus Package”

With all that has come out over the past few months with the ongoing war between Mexican Drug Cartels and the Mexican Government that has spilled over to our side of the border repeatedly.

DHHS boss Sec. Janet Napolitano has seen fit to go lenient on the enforcement of our immigration laws.  Is it really a surprise coming from the Administration that has told us that our Constitution needs to be rewritten!!!

DHS Signals Policy Changes Ahead for Immigration Raids

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 29, 2009; 1:19 PM

Photo Courtesy of http://sonoranalliance.com

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute — increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers.

“ICE is now scrutinizing these cases more thoroughly to ensure that [targets] are being taken down when they should be taken down, and that the employer is being targeted and the surveillance and the investigation is being done how it should be done,” said the official, discussing Napolitano’s views about sensitive law enforcement matters on the condition of anonymity.

“There will be a change in policy, but in the interim, you’ve got to scrutinize the cases coming up,” the senior DHS official said, noting Napolitano’s expectations as a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general.

Another DHS official said Napolitano plans to release protocols this week to ensure more consistent work-site investigations and less “haphazard” decision-making.

Napolitano’s moves have led some to question President Obama’s commitment to work-site raids, which were a signature of Bush administration efforts to combat illegal immigration. Napolitano has highlighted other priorities, such as combating Mexican drug cartels and catching dangerous criminals who are illegal immigrants.

Napolitano’s moves foreshadow the difficult political decisions the Obama administration faces as it decides whether to continue mass arrests of illegal immigrant workers in sweeps of meatpackers, construction firms, defense contractors and other employers.

Critics say workplace and neighborhood sweeps are harsh and indiscriminate, and they accuse the government of racial profiling, violating due process rights and committing other humanitarian abuses.

The raids have enraged Latino community and religious leaders, immigrant advocates and civil liberties groups important to the Democratic base, who have stepped up pressure on Obama to stop them.

At a rally last week in Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, head of the archdiocese of Obama’s home city, called on the government “to end immigration raids and the separation of families” and support an overhaul of immigration law. “Reform would be a clear sign this administration is truly about change,” George said.

Also last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus made similar calls as the caucus met formally with Obama for the first time.

“Raids that break up families in that way, just kick in the door in the middle of the night, taking [a] father, a parent away, that’s just not the American way. It must stop,” Pelosi added at a Capitol Hill conference on border issues sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But Obama also faces pressure from conservative lawmakers and many centrist Democrats, who say that workplace enforcement is needed to reduce the supply of jobs that attract illegal immigrants, and that any retreat in defending American jobs in a recession could ignite a populist backlash.

When the White House announced plans last week to move more than 450 federal agents and equipment to the border to counter Mexico’s drug cartels, lawmakers warned Napolitano against diverting money from workplace operations.

Rep. Lamar Smith (Tex.), ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the administration “appears to be using border violence as an excuse” to undercut immigration enforcement in the nation’s interior.

“It makes no sense to take funds from one priority (worksite enforcement) to address a new priority (the growth in border violence). This is just robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for homeland security, said in an e-mail.

Led by Byrd, Congress this year ordered ICE to spend $127 million on workplace operations, $34 million more than President George W. Bush had requested. Reducing those amounts, even in ICE’s overall $5 billion budget, would provoke a fight, senior aides in both parties said.

DHS officials categorically deny any reduction. Instead Napolitano has sought to chart a middle course by ordering a review of which immigrants are targeted for arrest. While a policy is still under development, Napolitano has said she intends to focus more on prosecuting criminal cases of wrongdoing by companies. Analysts say they also think ICE may conduct fewer raids, focusing routine enforcement on civil infractions of worker eligibility verification rules.

Former Bush administration officials said their raids were also targeted against supervisors, but that it took time to build complicated white-collar cases. In the meantime, they said, depriving companies of their workforces and in some cases filing criminal charges against illegal immigrant workers sent a clear message of deterrence to both management and labor.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks to reduce immigration, said Obama aides are trying to manage the issue until an economic turnaround permits an attempt to overhaul immigration laws.

“I think their calculus is, how do they keep Hispanic groups happy enough without angering the broader public so much that they sabotage health care and their other priorities?” Krikorian said.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group, said that to the contrary, groups such as his support Obama’s focus on going after bad employers and criminal illegal immigrants first — or as he put it, prioritizing “drug smugglers, not window washers.”

Within ICE, the front-office vetting of cases has led to some doubts. Last week, for example, ICE postponed plans to raid employers at a military-related facility in Chicago for which they had arranged to temporarily detain as many as 100 illegal immigrants, according to one official. A second official said Napolitano thought the investigative work was inadequate.

The raid would have been the second under the Obama administration. After the first, a Feb. 24 sweep of an engine-parts maker in Bellingham, Wash., that led to 28 arrests, Napolitano publicly expressed disappointment that ICE did not inform her beforehand and announced an investigation into agency communication practices.

In response, Leigh H. Winchell, the ICE special agent in charge in Seattle, wrote an e-mail to his staff — subsequently leaked to conservative bloggers — saying they had acted correctly. He also copied a statement from House Republicans calling Napolitano’s review “beyond backwards.”

“You did nothing wrong and you did everything right,” Winchell wrote. “I cannot control the politics that take place with these types of situations, but I can remind you that you are great servants of this country and this agency.”

Glenn Beck Interviews Ramos and Compean

Daniel Hannan goes after Gordon Brown

We all know just how careful and thorough the Obama Administration is with vetting it’s staff. Maybe “We The People” need to do some vetting of our own and get the real back grounds of these people.  Why was this done under the “under the radar”? Where’s the transparency? - Ang

CHICAGO — In a bid to get more Muslim Americans working in the Obama administration, a book with resumes of 45 of the nation’s most qualified — Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and public servants, all carefully vetted — has been submitted to the White House.

The effort, driven by community leaders and others, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was bumped up two weeks because White House officials heard about the venture, said J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, who sifted through more than 300 names.

“It was mostly under the radar,” Williams said. “We thought it would put (the president) in a precarious position. We didn’t know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community.”

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