The First Half of 2015 Was Most Intense Period of Terrorist Plotting Since 9/11

I hate to roust you from your well-deserved summer snooze, but I continue to get a sinking feeling about the threat of the Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) here in the homeland.

Understandably reluctant to lift your head from the hammock in the heat, you ask, “Why?”

Well, pass me your beach shovel and I’ll scribble some statistics here in the sand while you wipe the “sleepies” from your eyes induced by too many lobster rolls and fried clams.

First, we’ve now had nine—count ’em, nine—terrorist plots this year here in the United States, making the first nearly-six months of 2015 the most intense period of terrorist plotting since 9/11.

That’s not comforting.

To put it into context, by our count at The Heritage Foundation, we’ve had 71 Islamist plots or attacks here in the United States in the nearly 14 years since Sept. 11, 2001, including the Fort Hood shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Beyond the unprecedented number of plots so far this year, there’s another troubling trend.

It turns out that all of the plots in 2015 so far have had ties to the Islamic State of seemingly distant Iraq and Syria, whether the plotters’ ties be direct (recruited by ISIS) or indirect (inspired by ISIS).

Moreover, FBI Director James Comey said in February that his agency is investigating Islamic State-related cases in all 50 states, noting the power and pull of ISIS propaganda. This number of cases is still being referred to months later.

So it’s not surprising that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday: “We face the highest threat level we have ever faced in this country today … including after 9/11.”

That’s chilling coming from someone clearly in the know.

Fortunately, the national and local law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence communities have done a terrific job in preventing these cold, killing conspiracies from becoming reality.

The down side is that if they don’t continue to “bat a thousand” as they’ve done so far this year—which in any endeavor is tough—we’ve got a problem, especially with an iconic American holiday like the Fourth of July coming up.

Maintaining that record of success against ISIS is not going to be easy.

Besides the rampant use of social media, the bad guys are upping their cyber game, using publicly-available encryption found on the Internet to chit-chat in complete privacy, according to news accounts.

The terrorists are also reportedly hiding their computer IP addresses to mask their identities and moving over to the so-called “dark web”—a “cyber commons” that lots of bad actors call home.

And so on.

Via: Daily Signal

Continue Reading....

Declassified CIA memo shows Bill Clinton crippled anti-terrorism efforts in lead-up to 9/11

In a classic Friday-afternoon document dump, a CIA memo written by then-agency head George Tenet in 2005 has been released, incriminating the Bill Clinton administration in crippling anti-terror efforts.  Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times writes:

The Clinton administration had bankrupted the intelligence community and refused to let the CIA prioritize anti-terrorism over other major priorities in the late 1990s, leaving the agency stretched too thin in the days ahead of the 2001 terrorist attacks, former Director George J. Tenet said in a 2005 document declassified Friday. 

Mr. Tenet, who was head of the agency at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks and has taken severe criticism for not anticipating and heading them off, said in the document that he took the threat of Osama bin Laden very seriously, and put major effort into trying to penetrate al-Qaeda, beginning as far back as 1998.

Clearly, Tenet is covering his posterior.  But:

“Even though senior policy makers were intimately familiar with the threat posed by terrorism, particularly those in the previous administration who had responded to major attacks, they never provided us the luxury of either downgrading other high priority requirements we were expected to perform against, or the resource base to build counterterrorism programs with the consistency that we needed before September 11,” Mr. Tenet wrote.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading....

Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001 -- when America changed forever?

At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, America was changed forever.

A passenger plane which had left Boston bound for Los Angeles crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. As news crews showed the American Airlines plane sticking out of the iconic building, a stunned national audience initially thought it might be some sort of horrible accident. But when another plane struck the south tower just 17 minutes later, the awful truth could no longer be avoided. This had been an act of terrorism, conducted by terrorist hijackers on unthinkable suicide missions.

Click here to post your 9/11 comments.

One of the darkest days in American history would get worse in the ensuing hours. Yet another plane would crash into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. and a fourth — believed bound for Washington — went down in a field in Shanksville, Pa., at 10:03 a.m., after brave passengers fought with hijackers and forced the plane to crash.

Meanwhile, at the World Trade Center, office workers poured down the smoky stairs of the burning buildings, passing New York firefighters and NYPD and Port Authority police on their way down. As burning jet fuel melted the buildings' steel skeletons, the awful realization sank in that the towers, which terrorists had tried to bring down in 1993, were not going to withstand the attack. Office workers trapped above the point of impact and unable to flee down the stairs jumped out of windows, some holding hands.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

Bikers denied no-stop permit for 9/11 rally, apologize to residents

The countdown to Sept. 11 commemoration demonstrations by patriotic bikers versus a fringe Muslim “truther” group is taking shape, and despite some confusion about the technicalities, the court of popular opinion isn’t even close:

Let the good guys roll.

Denied a permit by the nation’s capital for a special “non-stop” ride through town with a waiver for red lights, stop signs and other traffic controls, organizers of the “2 Million Bikers to DC” ride to remember 9/11 are undeterred.

Just riding on a public street doesn’t take any special permission after all, even if you have a million people doing it. They just sought the permit to make life easier on the city’s residents and businesses.

So the ride will go on. It’s just going to take a little longer.

“We find this regretful for the residents and businesses of that great city, and humbly offer our apologies,” organizers wrote on Facebook  Saturday. “What could have been a one or two hour ride through will now likely be an all-day event. We will be obeying all laws. We will be stopping at all stoplights, stop signs, and yielding to all pedestrians.”

The ride’s route won’t be posted in advance for security reasons, but the lineup is set to begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday at the Harley Davidson of Washington(9402 Livingston Road, Fort Washington, Md.) with a blessing, Pledge of Allegiance and guest speakers.

Via:Biz Pac

Continue Reading....

The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style

It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn’t synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang.

n most households, a ringing phoneat that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was “Rosebud,” the code name given my insider source.

About Rosebud

Just a little bit here about my source and his “super-secret code name.” I’ve known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the “TEC” building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls “The Estrogen Challenged,” which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll leave it at that.

Via: Canada Free Press

Continue Reading...

Cheney Takes Flamethrower To Obama

AP

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored tonight at the Hudson Institute’s 2012 Herman Khan Award Dinner at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.  Cheney was introduced by Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who spoke in detail about Cheney’s life and accomplishments, joking about how Cheney twice flunked out of Yale, and joking about Cheney’s hunting incident.  In his remarks Cheney was harshly critical of President Obama and the administration’s policy in the Mideast.  He said he’s very, very concerned about what he sees developing day by day.  He detailed the history of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and what has been done to fight terror and said the Middle East is a very, very dangerous part of the world. 

He said that when he hears our president announce that we got Bin Laden and we can “pivot” to Asia he is on the one hand “appalled” and on the other hand fears for future developments.  Cheney said that that entire part of the world appears to be moving in a direction fundamentally hostile to U.S. interests, and that the U.S. is increasingly unable to influence events in that part of the world, seemingly because we’re “headed for the exit.”  He was critical of reductions in Afghanistan, and mentioned President Obama’s trip to Cairo where he “apologized” for the U.S. reaction after 9/11.  Cheney referenced the serious economic problems in the U.S but said he is concerned about the Middle East. 

He said our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us.  He was highly critical of President Obama on Syria and basically said he has grave doubts the president will take any actions besides hope.  He continued to say the national security threat is as serious as the economic one, and said that enormous damage is being done to the U.S. military with cuts.  Toward the end of his remarks he said we can be absolutely certain that there are people out there planning to attack us, only with deadlier weapons than 19 hijackers and boxcutters.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading...

Obama Administration Caught Deleting State Dept. Memo After Benghazi Attack

AP

Bombshell: Obama Administration Deleted State Dept. Memo From Internet After Discovering Al-Qaeda Was Behind Benghazi Attack
Yesterday there were reports that the Obama Administration found out that Al-Qaeda was behind the Benghazi consulate attacks within 24 hours of the assault that killed four Americans.
Here’s what they did – They scrubbed a damning State Department memo from the internet–
On Wednesday September 12, 2012 blogger Speak With Authority discovered that five days before 9-11, the US State Department sent out a memo announcing no credible security threats against the United States on the anniversary of 9-11.

But now it’s gone.The State Department scrubbed the letter from its OSAC website.

Via: The gateway Pundit

Continue Reading...

Obama's Quasi-Tax Increases

When most people think about taxes, the first thing that comes to mind are federal and state taxes.  Some will remember sales taxes, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes. 

What unites all of these taxes are that they are burdens placed by government on the citizens of America.  When we talk about the full tax burden Americans endure, it behooves us to count all of the ways in which the government forces us to spend our money.

To understand the full tax burden of Americans, we need to look at all the government does that directly financially impacts each American.  For example, since 9/11, every time you fly, you have to allocate an extra hour or more to deal with security.  That hour you lose is a burden imposed by the government that does not show up on your regular tax bill, but since time is money, that hour does impact your life.

Any sort of government imposed non-tax financial burden can be called a quasi-tax in that it takes money out of the pockets of Americans, but it is not levied in the manner normal taxes are, and the money does not necessarily go directly to the government.

These quasi-taxes can have a huge impact on both the economy and the financial well-being of every American.  Additionally they can be extremely regressive and disproportionately target those Americans with the least money.

Obama has imposed a number of highly regressive quasi-taxes on Americans since he assumed office in 2009.

The price of gas has doubled under Obama.  While that entire price change is not Obama's fault, his support for dramatic reductions in new drilling permits on federal lands and his inept foreign policy in the Middle East have contributed to reducing the oil supply and hence increasing the price of gasoline.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading...

Father's Note Changes Family's 9/11 Account

The note is just five words and two numbers.

Randy Scott scrawled these five words and two numbers on a piece of paper on Sept. 11, 2001, while at work at Euro Brokers Inc. in the World Trade Center.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words, these five words and two numbers have changed the picture completely for Scott's family. Family members refer to it simply as "the note." The note that floated from the 84th floor of Two World Trade Center to chaotic streets below, and was tenderly preserved as it traveled from hand to hand and through time to reach them.

Via: Hartford Courant

Continue Reading...