The Bad Deal

This story keeps getting stranger by the hour.

(FOX News) A senior official confirms to Fox News that the conduct of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban — has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of “a major classified file.”

In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy.

The Pentagon official added pointedly that no relevant congressional committee has sought access to the classified file, but that if such a request were made, key committee chairs would, under previous precedent, likely be granted access to it. Separately, the Pentagon confirmed Monday that it is looking into claims Americans died during the search for Bergdahl.

The administration announced over the weekend that Bergdahl’s release had been secured, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. President Obama was joined by the soldier’s parents in making a public statement on the release Saturday evening from the Rose Garden.

“… no relevant congressional committee has sought access to the classified file.”

These guys KNOW that there is something very wrong here, and they are all but begging for anyone in Congress to ask them what that is.

Where is Congress?

These are the five Guantanamo detainees released in exchange for Bergdahl.

This is the price paid for Bergdahl.

Six soldiers died in the frantic search for Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal immediately after his mysterious disappearance five years ago, fueling the increasing backlash over the POW’s recovery.

Former platoon mates of the now-recovered serviceman accused Bergdhal of deserting his post and blamed him for the unnecessary deaths of comrades.

“I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on,” former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl’s platoon, told CNN. “Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him.”

Accounts of Bergdahl’s disappearance on June 30, 2009, have varied wildly.

And now CNN is reporting that at least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl in rugged Paktika Province in the ensuing days and weeks.

The six men reportedly killed while searching for Bergdahl were identified as Staff Sgt. Clayton Bowen and Pfc. Morris Walker on Aug. 18, 2009; Staff Sgt. Kurt Curtiss on Aug. 26; 2nd Lt. Darryn Andrews and Pfc. Matthew Michael Martinek on Sept. 4; and Staff Sgt. Michael Murphrey on Sept. 5.

“He walked off,” said another comrade of Bergdahl’s, former Pfc. Jose Baggett.

Now, the story changes yet again with the intelligence report alluding to the possibility of Bergdahl being a Taliban collaborator.

Another administration official, whose duties are focused on counterterrorism, told Fox News when asked about the status of any investigations into Bergdahl’s initial disappearance and his conduct over the last five years: “Everybody’s looking at this. He’s not going to get a free pass” in the interrogations that Bergdahl will face during his repatriation process. “He’s going to have a lot of questions to answer — a lot. Is he a hero? No.”

Although this source had not seen the classified file described by the Pentagon source, the counterterrorism official agreed that given the high priority attached to the Bergdahl case over the last five years, the need for clarity about Bergdahl’s actions before and during his time with the Taliban “would have been a high priority for intelligence tasking.”

Asked if the process of repatriation would include questioning of Bergdahl geared towards determining whether he engaged in any forms of collaboration with the enemy, the counterterrorism official replied: “Of course. … It’s there. This is extremely untidy.”

This may not be so much a prisoner swap, this is a deserter wanting to come home and be with his family. “This is a very happy day for the Bergdahl family” said Chuck Hagel. I’m not sure what kind of a day the families of the men who died looking for this deserter feel today, but I don’t think “happy” applies.

Here’s what is disturbing, or rather one of the many disturbing things about this whole story. Bob Bergdahls speaking at one of the many press conference he’s attended these past two days. Please pay close attenuation starting at the 2:08 mark.

Here is Bob Bergdahls’s full final closing statement, no longer available in its entirety on YouTube:

“But most of all, I’m proud of how much you wanted to help the Afghan people, and what you were willing to do to go to that length. I’ll say it again: I’m so proud of how far you were willing to go to help the Afghan people. And I think you have succeeded.”

I don’t believe I am off the mark by suggesting that Bob Bergdahl’s words amount to an open admission that Bowe Bergdahl willingly deserted his post. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is what Bergdahl is saying here.

His son is a deserter, and quite possibly a traitor, and Obama’s deal wasn’t a swap, it was effectively a release of six terrorists who hate America.

Who in their right mind would believe that the Obama administration would do anything at all that would assist our soldiers?

It’s a bad deal, we lost six heroes, and released six terrorists.

It’s an Obama kind of a deal.

And that is the last wire for Monday, June 2, 2014.

Everything that was news before this moment, is now history.

American Führer

Many Americans are lauding the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held prisoner for the past five years by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, probably somewhere in Pakistan.

His freedom came about via a prisoner exchange, with the United States trading five Taliban detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay.

The Guantanamo Bay detainees released are:

• Khairullah Khairkhwa, an early member of the Taliban whose most prominent post was as governor of the Herat province from 1999 to 2001.
• Noorullah Noori, who served as governor of the Balkh province and played a role in coordinating fighting against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance.
• Fazl Muhammad, the commander of the main force that fought against the Northern Alliance in 2001 and served as chief of army staff under the Taliban. He was also accused of war crimes during the Afghan civil war in the 1990s.
• Abdul Haq Wasiq, deputy chief of the Taliban’s intelligence service.
• Muhammad Nabi Omari, a minor Taliban official from the Khost province.

The exact details surrounding Bergdahl’s capture are sketchy, with many sources reporting that Sgt. Bergdahl was not captured by insurgents, but that he deserted his post, and willingly joined the terrorist organization that just released him. But let’s for a moment set aside Sgt. Bergdahls’s disquieting story, and pay attention to the larger story surrounding his “release.”

The Washington Post brings up some rather significant and troubling aspects of the story.

Amid jubilation Saturday over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity by the Taliban, senior Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were troubled by the means by which it was accomplished, which was a deal to release five Afghan detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to accuse President Obama of having broken the law, which requires the administration to notify Congress before any transfers from Guantanamo are carried out.

“Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans. Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans. That incentive will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. McKeon (R-Calif.) and the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, James M. Inhofe (Okla.), said in a joint statement.

Lawmakers were not notified of the Guantanamo detainees’ transfer until after it occurred.

The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests.

Before the current law was enacted at the end of last year, the conditions were even more stringent. However, the administration and some Democrats had pressed for them to be loosened, in part to give them more flexibility to negotiate for Bergdahl’s release.

A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.

President Obama, on the occasion of signing H.R. 4310, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013”,  announced that he would refuse to abide by provisions of the law that he interpreted as being unconstitutional, because in his opinion, the duly enacted law placed unnecessary restrictions on his authority as head of the Executive Branch, and Commander in Chief of the nation’s military.

Statement by the President on H.R. 4310

Section 1028 fundamentally maintains the unwarranted restrictions on the executive branch’s authority to transfer detainees to a foreign country. This provision hinders the Executive’s ability to carry out its military, national security, and foreign relations activities and would, under certain circumstances, violate constitutional separation of powers principles. The executive branch must have the flexibility to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers. The Congress designed these sections, and has here renewed them once more, in order to foreclose my ability to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. I continue to believe that operating the facility weakens our national security by wasting resources, damaging our relationships with key allies, and strengthening our enemies. My Administration will interpret these provisions as consistent with existing and future determinations by the agencies of the Executive responsible for detainee transfers. And, in the event that these statutory restrictions operate in a manner that violates constitutional separation of powers principles, my Administration will implement them in a manner that avoids the constitutional conflict.

As my Administration previously informed the Congress, certain provisions in this bill, including sections 1225, 913, 1531, and 3122, could interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States. In these instances, my Administration will interpret and implement these provisions in a manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy. Section 1035, which adds a new section 495(c) to title 10, is deeply problematic, as it would impede the fulfillment of future U.S. obligations agreed to in the New START Treaty, which the Senate provided its advice and consent to in 2010, and hinder the Executive’s ability to determine an appropriate nuclear force structure. I am therefore pleased that the Congress has included a provision to adequately amend this provision in H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which I will be signing into law today.

Certain provisions in the Act threaten to interfere with my constitutional duty to supervise the executive branch. Specifically, sections 827, 828, and 3164 could be interpreted in a manner that would interfere with my authority to manage and direct executive branch officials. As my Administration previously informed the Congress, I will interpret those sections consistent with my authority to direct the heads of executive departments to supervise, control, and correct employees’ communications with the Congress in cases where such communications would be unlawful or would reveal information that is properly privileged or otherwise confidential. Additionally, section 1034 would require a subordinate to submit materials directly to the Congress without change, and thereby obstructs the traditional chain of command. I will implement this provision in a manner consistent with my authority as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the head of the executive branch.

A number of provisions in the bill — including sections 534(b)(6), 674, 675, 735, 737, 1033(b), 1068, and 1803 — could intrude upon my constitutional authority to recommend such measures to the Congress as I “judge necessary and expedient.” My Administration will interpret and implement these provisions in a manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority.

Here are my concerns…. and I have several.

Are we now, under the Obama administration, redefining “diplomacy” to include conducting secret negotiations by the Executive Branch with terrorist organizations?

Who exactly did the Obama administration negotiate with? It is blatantly obvious that under Obama’s direct order, members of our military met (directly or indirectly) and negotiated terms with known terrorists, under the guise of power of the Executive.

When did any President, or in fact, any member of any branch of any of level of government in the United States, gain the power to declare a duly enacted law as “unconstitutional” by decree, invalidating the Legislative Branch’s constitutional powers by an unstained opinion and the stroke of a pen? Obama talks about the law’s “violation” of the principle of separation of powers, even as he assumes unto himself the power of the Judicial Branch to decide on the constitutionality of duly enacted laws.

His are the actions of a Supreme Leader, who sees himself as standing above any and all other sources of power and authority in the government of the nation… a Führer.

Back in 2008, Ali Sina, an ex-Muslim, warned us who and what Obama was… and we failed to listen.

Something of that nature could never happen in the U.S.

Most people, caught up in the historical significance of the term Führer, never got past the title and into the substance of the article.

Go ahead and read it, and compare it to everything that’s gone on in this country since 2008.

We have a Führer in our White House.

Call it by any other name if that one makes you uncomfortable, but the end result are the same.

We have that type of a leader in charge of our military, and he recognizes no law other than his own.

Understanding Obama. The Making of a Fuehrer.

When you fall for someone to the extent that Obama’s followers have fallen for him, you surrender your reason and individuality to him willingly. When millions of people surrender their hearts and their minds to one person the result can be catastrophic. This is what happened in Germany with Hitler, in China with Mao, in the Soviet Union with Stalin, in Cuba with Castro, in Iran with Khomeini, and so on and so forth. Today, we think these men were monsters, but that was not what millions of their worshipers thought. Those people loved them.  Dictators can’t dictate, unless peole are willing to be dictated.

And that’s the last wire for Sunday, June 1st, 2014.

What was news before this moment, is now history.

 

 

The Humanity Paradox

Sometimes, lessons are learned from the most unexpected places. This is one of those times.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Via FOX News) –  Traditional hunters armed with homemade guns, poisoned spears and amulets have gathered in their hundreds, eager to use their skills and what they believe to be supernatural powers to help find nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists.

Some 500 hunters, some as young as 18 and some in their 80s, say they have been specially selected by their peers for their spiritual hunting skills and have been waiting for two weeks in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital and the birthplace of Boko Haram, to get backing from the military and get moving.

With Nigeria’s military accused by many citizens of not doing enough to rescue the girls, the hunters demonstrated their skills to an Associated Press reporter on Sunday. With cow horn trumpets echoing eerie war cries from the screaming and chanting men who twirled knives and swords with dexterity, occasionally stabbing and cutting themselves with no apparent harm.  The hunters claimed their magic charms prevented any blood being drawn. They also trust amulets of herbs and other substances wrapped in leather pouches as well as cowrie shells, animal teeth and leather bracelets to protect them from bullets.

The appearance of the hunters from three northeastern states underscores how deeply the April 15 mass kidnapping — and the government’s apparent lack of action — has affected Nigerian society. It has spawned demonstrations and a tidal wave of commentary in media including social sites like Twitter and Facebook.

A spokesman for the hunters stopped short of actually criticizing the military.

“We’re not saying we are better than the soldiers, but we know the bush better than the soldiers,” said Sarkin Baka. The hunters said they gathered here at the suggestion of a state legislator.

A military spokesman did not immediately respond to an emailed question from AP on whether it would take advantage of the hunters’ local knowledge.

These men came to help, uninvited and unfunded, out of a sense of humanity and they’ve been sitting idle for two weeks as the help given by the world’s superpowers turns up nothing in their search.

Nigeria’s military insists that it is diligently searching for the girls and says near-daily aerial bombardments of the forest that began in mid-January were stopped to avoid accidentally hitting the girls.

“Our troops are out there combing the forests and all other possible locations searching for our fellow citizens. International support is also there assisting the process,” Mike Omeri, a government spokesman, said Friday.

Some parents of the abducted girls say villagers in the Sambisa Forest tell them they haven’t seen a uniformed soldier in the forest.

The girls of Chibok were kidnapped six weeks ago, on April 14, and because of the denseness of the forest in the region where Boko Harum is known to operate, no trace of them has yet to be found.

So then, why not use trained forest hunters to help locate traces of the girls and their kidnappers?

In fact, why aren’t we pushing for the hunters to be allowed to go find the girls?

The First World arrogance thinly veiled in the news reports on the tribal hunter volunteers gives us a clue, and it’s certain to be shared by the government of Nigeria.

It took primitive tribes in the northeastern part of the country two weeks to organize a party of 500 hunters and travel (on foot) to the staging area for the multinational search for the kidnapped girls, and they sit idle waiting for the courtesy of a response from anyone.

On the flip side it took six weeks for the United Nation to condemn the act and place sanctions on Boko Harum.

And they have phones and computers to assist them in discussing the issue,  jets to get the to their rent-free digs in New York, and limos and city cars to get them to their soft, comfortable chairs in the General Assembly room.

Islam itself reacted faster than the United Nations.

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, the top religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, has condemned Nigeria’s Boko Haram as a group “set up to smear the image of Islam” and condemned its kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls.

Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said the radical movement, which says it wants to establish a “pure” Islamic state in Nigeria, was “misguided” and should be “shown their wrong path and be made to reject it.”

His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world, who often do not comment on militant violence, joined in denouncing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for saying Allah had told him to sell off the kidnapped girls as forced brides.

“This is a group that has been set up to smear the image of Islam and must be offered advice, shown their wrong path and be made to reject it,” he told the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published on Friday.

If the grand mufti had seen fit to condemn Boko Harum on their slaughter of Christians in the town of Benisheik on January this year, or perhaps the United Nations would have been moved to believe that it is just as wrong to massacre Christians in a House of God, as it is to kidnap little girls and threaten to sell them into sexual slavery, Boko Harum may have been targeted by the international community earlier, and the girls may have not been kidnapped.

The grand mufti however, knows that these al-Qaeda-trained fighters are the arm and the sword of Islamic terrorism, and condemning them doesn’t suit his purposes.

Than again, the United Nations however has issued no condemnations over the killings of Christians by Islamic terrorists at any time that I could find. Apparently condemning the killings of Christians for their faith doesn’t suit its purposes either.

Humanity baffles me sometimes.

Mostly because a sense of it doesn’t always serve the purpose of humanity itself, and that makes for an odd paradox.

Maybe the West should walk away from the search for the girls of Chibok and let Islam tend to the monster of their own creation that is Boko Harum.

But the (alleged) leader of the Western world has already declared that “the future most not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam”, so I’m not sure that we’ll get much action coming from him either.

I say that we let the tribal hunters have their shot, and bring our personnel and our drones home, and that the lesson to be learned here is that any time they are busy killing one another is a good thing for the rest of humanity.

And that’s the last wire for Sunday, May 25th 2014.

What was news before this moment, is now history.

Good night.

Eternal Sunshine of the Intolerant Mind

I am an intolerant man.

Ask anyone who has ever exchanged anything beyond social pleasantries with me, and they’ll confirm it.

I am an intolerant man, and this is my manifesto.

Once, caught up in the “liberal at 20” portion of the well-known (wrongly attributed) quote about the impact of aging on one’s political ideology, I would have agreed with the generally-accepted opinion which painted intolerance as a bad thing. All you have to do is to Google “quotes about intolerance” and you can see what I mean.

“Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.” – Mahatma Ghandi

“When you discriminate against anyone, you discriminate against everyone. It’s a display of terrible intolerance.” – Alan Dershowitz

“Intolerance is evidence of impotence.” – Alistair Crowley

Intolerance is violence.

Intolerance is discrimination.

Intolerance is impotence.

One would have to assume then that if intolerance means all of those things, then the opposite of intolerance must mean… well, the exact opposite, and that a world totally devoid of intolerance would be a world where peace, inclusiveness and potency abounded.

Think again

I am here to tell you right now that intolerance is the only hope for our survival as a nation, and most importantly, as a civilization.

The late Austrian-British philosopher Karl Raimund Popper addressed the idea and possible effects of a world governed by boundless tolerance in his 1954 masterpiece “The Open Society and it’s Enemies”.

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. 

Today, we’re so Hell-bent on being politically correct that we force ourselves to suppress the mind’s natural inclination toward intolerance.

You see, people are naturally intolerant so tolerance is an unnatural state to live in, and it causes conflict in a person’s mind. Yet we embrace tolerance in the name of social coexistence at every level of social unit that we are a part of, from family, to neighborhood, to community, to work, to nation and beyond.

We constantly see things that we would not naturally tolerate, but we suppress that intolerance by reminding ourselves (sometime consciously, other times unconsciously) that everyone has a right to their own opinion, and that not everything is our business.

All that hold ups until something like this comes along.

From the Farsi Christian News Network.

A Syrian nun revealed to the Vatican radio that extremist Islamists in Syria crucified Christians for refusing to convert to Islam or pay a ransom.

Nun Raghed was managing the Catholic Patriarchate School in Damascus and is currently living in France. According to her, the armed groups, jihadists and radical Islamic organizations, which occupied the cities or villages, asked the Christians to convert to Islam or die, and sometimes they asked them to pay a ransom.

“As it is impossible to abandon their faith, they became Martyrs in a atrocious and violent way,” the nun stressed.She also noted that two men were crucified in Maloula because they refused to convert to Islam, and the jihadists shouted: “Convert to Islam, or you will be crucified like your master (Jesus).”

One more Karl Popper quote to mull over as that story sinks in.

Not only do I hate violence, but I firmly believe that the fight against it is not hopeless. I realize that the task is difficult. I realize that, only too often in the course of history, it has happened that what appeared at first to be a great success in the fight against violence was followed by a defeat. I do not overlook the fact that the new age of violence which was opened by the two World wars is by no means at an end. Nazism and Fascism are thoroughly beaten, but I must admit that their defeat does not mean that barbarism and brutality have been defeated.

Barbarism and brutality are on the march in our world, and tolerance is their ally.

That is certainly the fact in Europe, and even as Europe tries to turn back the tide of Islam, the U.S. encourages more tolerance from the European government:

From McClatchy DC

WASHINGTON — From pork rinds sprinkled on Muslim graves in France to a Christian pastor’s death sentence for apostasy in Iran, religious minorities were targeted across the globe in 2011, according to a U.S. government report Monday on the state of religious freedom.

The State Department’s annual compilation highlighted a few narrow openings in unlikely places – transitional Libya and closed-off Myanmar, for example – but it also criticized some traditional U.S. allies for backsliding when it came to protecting the freedom to worship.

Europe in particular was chided for failing to keep pace with its growing ethnic and religious diversity, with the report saying that the demographic change is sometimes accompanied by “growing xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and intolerance toward people considered ‘the other.’”

Belgium and France passed laws restricting dress that “adversely affected Muslims,” while Hungary introduced changes making it so difficult to register religious organizations that the number of recognized religious groups plummeted from more than 300 to fewer than 32.

“Members of faith communities that have long been under pressure report that the pressure is rising,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington. “Even some countries that are making progress on expanding political freedom are frozen in place when it comes to religious freedom. So when it comes to this human right, this key feature of stable, secure, peaceful societies, the world is sliding backwards.”

There is no room in the United States for Islam, and while many people will point to the tolerant attitude toward religious freedom embedded in our Constitution, I will argue that permitting Islam to thrive on our soil will mean the end of all religious freedom, as Islam is as much a declaration of war on all religions outside of itself as much as it is a religion. The freedom of religion enshrined in our Bill of Rights will be the weapon used by Islamists to establish Islam in the United States, and with it the end of all religious freedom.

Muslims in the United States will abide by Islam no matter what just as they do now in Islamic nations where Islamofascism rains horrors down. Muslims in those nations whether out of fear or lack of interest, rarely (if ever) challenge or condemn the actions of fanatics, lunatics and jihadists, and they will do the same here.

Muslims will advance every aspect of their religion in as many places as possible on our soil. Specially in our universities, where the “liberal at 20” group is so busy trying to show the world the wonders of coexistence and tolerance by engaging in intolerance.

From The Blaze:

The administration at the University of California, Los Angeles is taking no sides regarding recent moves by its campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine to try to exclude students who have taken trips to Israel sponsored by certain Jewish-affiliated groups from voting in the undergraduate student government.

Jewish organizations this week decried the effort to thwart travel to Israel on trips organized by pro-Israel groups – while giving a pass to pro-Palestinian, mosque- or church-sponsored travel – as “McCarthyism” and “repugnant.”

UCLA is taking a “neutral” stance on the issue?

This cannot be tolerated, not here.

There is no “neutral” stance on this issue. Neutrality is submisison.

Muslims in America support terrorism via their passive-aggressive stance on what Islam is doing in our world. They try and argue that the people doing the bombings and the beheading and the crucifixions are not true representatives of Islam, but the problem is then that the “true” representatives are NOT stopping them. For whatever reason, they tolerate them.

They will tolerate them here as well.

Peace and clarity of mind come when one stops suppressing the mind’s natural instincts to be intolerant in the face of dangerous intolerance.

We need to all be intolerant men and women and stand ready to defend our tolerant society from the onslaught of Islamic intolerance, and their tolerance-pushing enablers.

We must clear our minds from the artificially-imposed clouds of politically correct tolerance obstructing our thinking.

When we do, there will be nothing but eternal sunshine and a clear path on how to sustain our tolerant society.

I am an intolerant man, and this is my manifesto.

And that’s the last wire for Sunday, May 18th 2014.

What was news before this moment, is now history.

Good night.

 

Where Are the Selfies?

Sometimes, posts just write themselves.

Sadly, this is one on of those times.

The Jerusalem Post – New York Edition:

Sudan on Thursday sentenced a 27-year-old mother to hang for apostasy when she refused to renounce her family and the Christian faith in which she was raised. She is also to receive 100 lashes for adultery beforehand.

Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was raised as a Christian by her Ethiopian mother. Her father, a Sudanese Muslim, was reportedly absent from her upbringing, but because she was born in Sudan, she is considered Muslim by the state. Ibrahim married a South Sudanese-American Christian man, Daniel Wani, but because the state religion in Sudan is Islam, the marriage is considered void and Ibrahim is considered to have committed adultery, and to have converted away from Islam, by marrying Wani.

Ibrahim has a 20-month-old son, Martin, who is being held in jail with her, and she is eight months pregnant. It is unclear whether she will be executed immediately after giving birth or if the court will wait two years, as local media has reported.

She has been in jail since February.

According to Amnesty International, she was arrested in August 2013 after a family member reported that she was committing adultery because of her marriage. The charge of apostasy was added the following February, when she said she was Christian.

“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death,” the judge said during her sentencing on Thursday, addressing Ibrahim by her Muslim name, Adraf al-Hadi Muhammad Abdullah, AFP reported.

She was arrested after a family member reported that she was committing adultery because of the marriage…

What kind of a sick POS would do that?

“In Islam, apostasy is commonly defined as the rejection in words or action of one’s religion by a person who was previously a Muslim.” – Source

Apostasy is one of only three permissible reasons to kill a Muslim, according to the Prophet Muhammad.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Sudan has carried out the proscribed punishment for apostasy against a Sudanese citizen.  Sudanese Muslim reformer and mystic Mahmoud Muhammad Taha was hanged at Khartoum prison for committing apostasy in 1985.

Punishment for the crime of apostasy is not always death. Saudi Arabia seems to be a little lax in their extremism having shown leniency to Raif Badawi, whose punishment for starting “Free Saudi Liberals”, a website dedicated to an open discussion of the role of religion in Saudi life was seven years in prison and 600 lashes. Badawi was accused and convicted of the crime of starting the website as well as disobeying his father.

Badawi’s wife maintains that her husband never professed regret before the judge for his apostasy, yet the charge of apostasy was reduced.

The Badawi trial took place last year.

The religion of peace.

According to an anonymous Sudanese Human Rights activist, if Ibrahim were Muslim, then Islamic law would call for her execution to be carried out immediately after the birth of her child. It’s a sad state of affairs when the life of the unborn is respected more in a country where a mother can be executed for the crime of not being a Muslim while married, than it is here.

I want to know where all the “right to marry” activists are when it comes to Ibrahim’s right to marry the person of her choice in Sudan. However, I fear that those guys jumping in would not be so much be a denunciation of the evils of Islam, but rather a denunciation of the evils of religion as a whole. To some people, there is no such thing a a bad time to use a tragedy to advance one’s own cause.

“In Islam, one of the requirements of a mixed marriage is that the mother is allowed to follow her own religious practice but the children are to be raised as Muslims.” – onislam.net

I want to know where all the atheists are on this issue. Why are they not protesting and calling for the separation of Mosque and State in Sudan?

I want to know why Barack Obama is not denounced as an apostate by Muslim Clerics throughout the world.

Most of all, I want to know why there are no selfies from the First Lady demanding Ibrahim’s immediate release from jail, and supporting her right to marriage equality.

Maybe, if we can get a hashtag to trend, she’ll jump in.

 

And that’s the last wire for Friday, May 16th 2014.

What was news before this moment, is now history.

Good night.

The Girls of Chibok

(Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Friday expressed outrage at the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian school girls in two attacks by Islamist militants, demanding their immediate release and threatening to take action.

Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern Nigeria on April 14 and has threatened to sell them into slavery, while eight girls were taken from another village earlier this week.

“The members of the Security Council expressed their intention to actively follow the situation of the abducted girls and to consider appropriate measures against Boko Haram,” the 15-member council, which includes Nigeria, said in a statement.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the U.N. Security Council should act quickly to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group.

This reeks of impotence.

Three weeks into this story, and the UN threatens to take action announcing their intent to actively follow the situation.

Here’s the situation:

Hundreds of little girls have been, are being, and will be raped. It happened because the armed forces of Nigeria fear the terrorist group responsible, and because the rest of the world doesn’t give a damn.

Back home, this administration’s self-indulgent streaks remains unbroken.

The First Lady posts a smirking duckface selfie as she hashtags her support for the girls of Chibok. With her bejeweled necklace, and her coiffured locks, and her diamond solitaire, standng in one of the many rooms of her mansion.

Nothing will be done beyond the selfies and the public displays of righteous indignation. Hell… we don’t even try to rescue our own people.

The little girls of Chibok will be raped until they are little girls no longer, and then they will be disposed of, because men who need little girls have no need for them once they’re little girls no longer.

Sunday is Mother’s Day, but not for the little girls of Chibok, or their mothers.

For them, there will never be another Mother’s Day.

That’s the last wire for Friday, May 9th 2014.

Everything that was news before this moment, is now history.

Good night.