<b>North Korea Wants A Little Attention Too</b> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/8/26/officialwinner128642717390990684.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/8/26/officialwinner128642717390990684.jpg" width="200" /></a> </div> <b>Iran</b> is all about the nukes. Do they have them? What is their intention with them? Will they stop developing them? Will our "allies" support action against them? Diplomacy, sanctions or force? Will China go along with any of them? Will Israel be forced to take the nuclear installations out unilaterally? You get the idea. United Nations, IAEA and the Geneva Conference, it is all Iran all the time. <b>Afghanistan</b> is all about the troop surge. General McCrystal says that we need one in order to avoid mission failure. President Obama is only now arranging consensus among his non-military, more political advisiors knowing for some time this decision was coming. The liberal left wants none of a surge, while one prominent Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein from of all places California has just signed on <b>for</b> it. She recognizes the impact pulling out could have on Pakistan as well as the fact that President Obama chose McCrystal as his expert on the ground. <b>Will he, won't he and when will he?</b> Troops already in the theater need a decision one way or the other. Now we have <b>North Korea</b>. Remember them? One third of the Axis of Evil. Nuclear armed, run by an unstable dictator with one of its borders one of the most dangerous places on earth. Not that many months ago North Korea and Kim Jung-Il had the headlines. Test firing missiles and setting off an underground nuclear test. The world was focused on the Korean Peninsula just as it is now focused on Iran and Afghanistan. What is a deranged leader to do to make the world pay attention? <b>This rhetorical dance with North Korea is getting very tiresome.</b> On October 1st in a letter to the U.N. North Korea said that dismantling its nuclear arms was "unthinkable even in a dream." On October 5th, while meeting with the Chinese, North Korea said they were willing do resume nuclear dismanteling talks. October 10th there was noise out of Japan, South Korea and China about restarting the six nation talks. These problems, along with the Taliban violence in nuclear Pakistan, provide some huge challeges for the world community with few obvious solutions. Sane people negotiating with insane people is not going to provide any solution that has staying power. The diplomatic overtures are all well and good, but are only fluff to keep up the appearance of making goodfaith attempts to deal with these regimes. The actual outcome I fear will involve force, becuase diplomacy and sanctions are a joke to them. In the meantime, North Korea got itself back into the discussion.

From The Political Commentator A Terror Cell Is Uncovered In Queens Najibullah Zazi is arrested along with his father and another man, charged with plotting a terrorist act against our country. Raids on apartments found the bomb making material, and information found on a computer showed the blueprint for making the bombs. Nazi Khan, whose apartment Zazi stayed at says that he can't find work. Leaders of the Muslim community say that they haven't been this scared since after 9/11. Well, you know what, neither have millions of New Yorkers. Having lived through 9/11/01, the people of the City know what fear is. Having been terror free for eight years, this arrest is a wakeup call. The war on terror is not over and has certainly not been won. It goes on day after day predominatly behind the scenes, with law enforcement doing one hell of a job protecting us. When reality appears on the surface, as in the case of these arrests, it reminds us that we live with the danger every day. It requires that a total cleanup be done (or as much as possible), an action which is the best interest of every New Yorker regardless of race, gender or religion. The Muslim community, rather than making a racial profiling claim should be concerned with the safety of all of its citizens as well. Men With Red Hair Hypothetically, let's say there was a worldwide population of men with red hair of 1 billion. There was a group of a few thousand that were smuggling a deadly form of heroin into the country through our airports. Should the customs agents focus their attention towards the red haired men, or towards everyone else so as to appear not to be profiling? Here is a great article written by an Arab-American man back in 2002, but still relevant today. "Profile Me, Please" by Joseph Farah Airport security in the United States is a joke. Every time I go through security checks I am shocked and dismayed to see elderly women pulled from lines for extra security checks. I see little kids getting scanned for metal on their persons. In short, I see the least likely "terrorists" getting the most scrutiny from security personnel. I don't get it. Meanwhile, I never seem to get checked. Why am I complaining? Because I fit the profile of the very people who are most likely to hijack an airplane or blow it up in a suicide attack. I am an Arab-American. I have an Arabic surname. I look Arabic. I know what you are going to say: "Farah, pulling you out of line would be profiling. It's not American to discriminate against people because of their national origin or racial characteristics." Need I remind my fellow Americans that we are at war? I personally would much prefer to see our country use its precious security resources more wisely. Not everyone is a security risk. Common sense needs to be employed if we are to make this country safer. Isn't it preferable to inconvenience me and people who look like me than to turn our entire country into a virtual police state? Indeed that is what's happening in America today. More and more laws are being passed to give government sweeping powers to snoop on every American. We have the USA Patriot Act. We have Total Information Awareness. We have Big Brother on the rise. Meanwhile, we have Colin Powell suggesting what America needs is more Muslims. We have President Bush and others in government attacking anyone who dares warn about the dangers of Islamism. We have federal officials sucking up to Saudi Arabia, which finances terrorism around the globe and the nation we have to thank for most of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. This is not the way to fight the war on terrorism. This is not the way to make our country safer. This is not the way we will beat our enemies. There is a way to make our airliners safe. We should follow the El Al model. I have flown El Al often. On El Al, I am treated with suspicion. All Arabs are. And that is why El Al had not witnessed a hijacking in 20 years until last week when an Arab secreted a knife on board a flight with a plan to commandeer the plane into an Israeli skyscraper. Sky marshals wrestled him to the ground and averted a disaster. Why would I want to see a security system that would cause me more hassle? Because I want to see my flights land at airports – not in buildings. A few moments of irritation are well worth it. When I fly El Al, it gives me peace of mind to have my bags searched, to go through extra security checks, to be interrogated longer than non-Arabs. Are my rights violated when I fly El Al? Absolutely not. El Al follows sensible security precautions because it is the national airline of a country under siege by terrorists – a nation that understood the threat of Arab airline hijackings 25 years before Sept. 11. In short, El Al procedures make perfect sense – if the objective is making the skies safer and preventing terrorism. But if the objective is non-discrimination, then we are in big trouble. This "diversity" madness will be our undoing as a nation. This "tolerance" obsession will be used as a weapon against us. This "multicultural" preoccupation should not be a higher calling than national or personal security. This "pluralism" desire needs to be kept in perspective and checked at the gate along with the terrorists. Our enemy understands our weaknesses. And, believe me, our infatuation with anti-discrimination policies can be a lethal weakness. That's why I am begging America to get a clue: Profile me, please. It's not because I am a threat, but because I am not. I have nothing to fear from an extra baggage check, a few extra questions or one extra scan of my person. But people who look like me – Middle Eastern men – pose a much higher security risk. Not to acknowledge that fact after the carnage of Sept. 11 would be nothing short of insanity.

From The Political and Financial Markets Commentator (http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee With Your Bagel And Schmeer

New York City Forced To Welcome The U.N. General Assembly While A Terror Alert Is Issued

As New York welcomes back diplomats and world leaders to the U.N. General Assembly, this yearly photo opportunity bonanza with typically little tangible results, the Department of Homeland Security issued an elevated terror alert for mass transit systems around the country. The weapon is feared to be backpack bombs similar to those used in subway bombings overseas. 

Take a look at the map and you will get an idea of the scope of the problem trying to safeguard something of this size.

These diplomats and world leaders, led by President Obama today, who are converging on New York don't have to worry about using mass transit (although some such as Gadhafi may have trouble finding a place to stay). In this yearly pilgrimage which causes an enormous amount of upheaval to the daily lives of New Yorkers, "dignitaries" are safely and comfortably ensconced in limousines, driving down empty streets closed by the police for their own security. 

This while the citizens of the City, operating under a new terror alert aimed at mass transit systems, are forced to take this very form of transportation as getting around the streets by bus or cab becomes a nightmare. As tens of thousands of people are forced underground, Ahmadinejad and Gadhafi will be driving overhead. 

How ironic that New York, considered by some to be the signature city of the Country, is put into the position to welcome some of the very leaders and nations who would like to destroy it. As they say it is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, housed in the U.N.

The very U.N. that New York would gladly see move elsewhere, funded in a majority way by the U.S., and which does extremely little to further any of our major issues.

(AP)"... Publicly, law enforcement officials have repeatedly said they are unaware of a specific time or target for any attacks. Privately, officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case said investigators have worried most about the possible use of backpack bombs on New York City trains, similar to attacks carried out in London in 2005 and Madrid in 2004.

Backpack bombs ripped apart four commuter trains and killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004. On July 7 the next year, bombing attacks in London killed 52 subway and bus commuters.
In a bulletin issued Friday, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned that improvised explosive devices are the most common tactic to blow up railroads and other mass transit systems overseas. And they noted incidents in which bombs were made with peroxide.

In the bulletin, obtained by The Associated Press, officials recommended that transit systems conduct random sweeps at terminals and stations and that law enforcement make random patrols and board some trains and buses.
The effects of the warning were not immediately clear Monday. New York's transit agency said it was in touch with an FBI-NYPD task force but wouldn't comment further.

The task force feared Zazi may have been involved in a potential plot involving hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation..."Sphere: Related Content

From The Political and Financial Markets Commentator, Mike Haltman