Oops! Dianne Feinstein Blows OPSEC

Yeah…  Not a bright move, but what do you expect from a Libtard…

Predator drones flown from base in Pakistan, U.S. lawmaker says
Sen. Feinstein’s surprise disclosure likely to complicate joint campaign against Taliban militants

Greg Miller | Washington Bureau
February 12, 2009 – Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to the ongoing campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan’s northwest border.

“As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said of the planes.

The basing of the pilotless aircraft in Pakistan suggests a much deeper relationship with the United States on counterterrorism matters than has been publicly acknowledged. Such an arrangement would be at odds with protests lodged by officials in Islamabad and could inflame anti-American sentiment in the country.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein’s account was accurate.

Phil LaVelle, a spokesman for Feinstein, said her comment was based solely on previous news reports that Predators were operated from bases near Islamabad.

“We strongly object to Sen. Feinstein’s remarks being characterized as anything other than a reference” to a article that appeared last March in the Washington Post, LaVelle said. Feinstein did not refer to newspaper accounts during the hearing.

[Way to cover your assets,  Phil.  But, we all know that Dianne Feinstein doesn’t read the Washington Post – it’s just too conservative for her.  Now, if he had said that she read about it in the New York Times, well I’d believe that…  BTW – I’ve been looking for that supposed article from March 2008 and have yet to find it.  Perhaps Phil could help me out by being a little more specific…]

Drinking with Bob: Mother of the Octuplets

Just a personal note:  I kind of don’t get this whole octuplet scandal.

I mean, the Libtards in the MSM who are complaining about all of this are the same ones who want government run universal healthcare and support  benefits for illegal immigrants.  So, this is just a glimpse into a socialist state.

Of course, these MSM Libtards also support the killing of innocent children.  Perhaps that’s the angle they’re working on, here; parents deemed to have too many children while receiving government healthcare MUST kill their children.  Yup, that’s got to be it, because CNN and others  certainly aren’t freaking out like this over the Stinkulus Package costing us over $3.27 trillion.  Nope…  In fact, the MSM is doing its best to hide the real costs of  Stinkulus by “reassuring” the public that it’s only a mere $789 billion.

So,  if the MSM is making a big deal out of the Octuplets costing the government a mere couple million dollars, while ignoring Obama costing us over three trillion dollars, one can only conclude that they wish the government to implement mandatory abortions in the near future.

Alfonso: Coffee and Stimulus

Pooffie Having a Problem with ‘Transparency’

Yeah, I’m going to be harping on this transparency thingy for years to come!

Politico backs out of Plouffe’s speech; Others protest
Politico.com

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe made an unusual request for his speech today at the National Press Club: he wanted it off the record.

Plouffe is the only speaker at the two-day Transitions 2009 conference—hosted by Georgetown University, with Politico as a sponsor—to make that request. Not to mention, there’s the obvious irony in asking for such an arrangement at the home of the Fourth Estate.

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said that after hearing of Plouffe’s request, and decision not to reverse course, he backed out from moderating the lunch-time event.

Harris said that as a news organization, he doesn’t want Politico “being in the the business of sponsoring, or co-sponsoring, an off the record talk with a newsworthy person.”

“We made it clear, as best we can, we’re not part of this part of the program,” Harris said. “We took down our signage that’s up over there at the press club and declined to participate in any way.”

Donna Leinwand, President of the National Press Club, voiced her “strong opposition” to the Plouffe’s decision in a letter to the Washington Speakers Bureau, which serves as his agent.

“Blacking out news coverage of this speech would not only reduce the free flow of information that is at the core of the National Press Club’s mission,” she wrote. “It also would run contrary to the spirit of President Obama’s recent executive order and statements in support of a more open government. While Mr. Plouffe does not work for the Obama administration, his identity is tied to the president’s, and if his decision to speak off the record stands, it will undermine the president’s message on this important issue.”

As the Huffington Post reports, others in attendance at the press club criticized the decision. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank even walked around outside, wearing a  sandwich board reading “I’m non-Plouffe-d” and “un-Plouff-able.”

These days, Plouffe has been on the circuit, speaking about his experiences in the Obama campaign. But he hasn’t always let the press inside. On Monday, Plouffe spoke in the authoritarian nation of Azerbaijan, and the media was denied access.

Our Dark Overlord and Supreme Ruler Stacked the Deck with Preselected Reporters

So much for all that “transparency in government” BS, eh?

Obama’s Press List
Membership shall have its privileges.
Wall Street Journal

About half-way through President Obama’s press conference Monday night, he had an unscripted question of his own. “All, Chuck Todd,” the President said, referring to NBC’s White House correspondent. “Where’s Chuck?” He had the same strange question about Fox News’s Major Garrett: “Where’s Major?”

The problem wasn’t the lighting in the East Room. The President was running down a list of reporters preselected to ask questions. The White House had decided in advance who would be allowed to question the President and who was left out.

Presidents are free to conduct press conferences however they like, but the decision to preselect questioners is an odd one, especially for a White House famously pledged to openness. We doubt that President Bush, who was notorious for being parsimonious with follow-ups, would have gotten away with prescreening his interlocutors. Mr. Obama can more than handle his own, so our guess is that this is an attempt to discipline reporters who aren’t White House favorites.

Few accounts of Monday night’s event even mentioned the curious fact that the White House had picked its speakers in advance. We hope that omission wasn’t out of fear of being left off the list the next time.

[More than likely, it was due to fatuous suck-upping by a pool of sycophants posing as reporters…]

Pakistan Succumbs to Pressure – Arrests an Architect of Mumbai Massacres

And, in doing so, admit that the attacks were launched from Pakistan – something they had adamantly denied with a stentorian voice…

Pakistan arrests ‘main operator’ in Mumbai attacks

By STEPHEN GRAHAM – via Google News

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan acknowledged for the first time that the Mumbai terrorist attacks were launched from its shores and at least partly plotted on its soil, saying Thursday that it had arrested most of the chief suspects including one described as “the main operator.”

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said Pakistan has started criminal proceedings against eight suspects — some of them also named by India as the masterminds of the attacks — but he reiterated that authorities needed more evidence from New Delhi to secure convictions.

The revelations suggest Pakistan is serious about punishing those behind the November attacks, which killed 164 people and stirred fear that the nuclear-armed neighbors could slide toward war and that Pakistan might be distracted from its struggle against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

India and the U.S. have pressed Pakistan hard to dismantle Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistan-based group fighting Indian rule in the divided Kashmir region that is widely blamed for the Mumbai carnage. Islamabad and New Delhi have fought two out of their three wars since 1947 over the region.

India’s Foreign Ministry called Pakistan’s announcement “a positive development” and said it would consider Islamabad’s request for further information.

Malik said investigators had traced a boat engine used by the attackers to sail from Pakistan to India and busted two hideouts of the suspects near the southern city of Karachi.

Other leads pointed to Europe and the United States, and Malik said Pakistan would ask the FBI for help.

[Yup, point the finger of blame elsewhere…   I’m surprised they didn’t mention Israel…]

Geert Wilders Detained at Heathrow

Yup…  We knew this was going to happen:

Banned From Britain, Dutch Lawmaker Denied Entry at Heathrow
An anti-Islam Dutch politician banned from entering Great Britain says he has been detained upon arrival at Heathrow Airport and will be returned home.
Fox News

Upon Geert Wilders’ arrival at Heathrow Airport, he was presented with a letter from Britain’s Home Office saying that his opinions “threatenen community security.” The right-wing lawmaker had been invited by a member of Parliament to show his anti-Islam movie “Fitna,” which calls the Koran a “fascist” book and accuses Islam of being a violent religion.

The news comes one day after he dared the “weak and cowardly” British government to arrest him when he gets there.

He criticized the travel ban as an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and traveled to Britain on a point of principle.

“I’ll see what happens at the border,” Wilders told Radio Netherlands on Wednesday. “Let them put me in handcuffs.”

Wilders was told by the British Embassy in a letter Tuesday that he could not set foot in the country.

Britain’s Home Office would not comment specifically on the ban, but it said it “opposes extremism in all its forms” and would work to “stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country.”

The U.K.’s Lord Malcolm Pearson, who invited Wilders to Britain, told the Daily Mail newspaper that the screening of the film would go ahead today “with or without Mr. Wilders.”

Wilders remains held at the airport. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxine Verhagen told the Mail that the Netherlands government would press to lift the travel ban.

Texas: ‘Hispanic’ Burglar in Hospital After Business Owner Shoots at Him

Not sure if the business owner actually hit the burglar, but I’ll update when and if more information becomes available.

Burglary suspect shot by business owner

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A suspected burglar is in critical condition after a business owner opened fire.

Irvin Horton, 64, was notified by his burglar alarm company of an active alarm at his business at 1012 Avenue Oaks shortly before 3am. When he arrived, he observed a suspicious vehicle occupied by the suspect, parked in the driveway adjacent to his business. Horton also noticed the gate to his business had been forced open and articles had been removed from a locked storage trailer inside the property.

Police say Horton confronted the suspect while the man was inside the vehicle and told him to get out. The suspect refused and made a sudden movement inside the vehicle and reached for an unknown article.

The suspect then started the vehicle and attempted to strike Horton as he attempted to drive away. Horton fired at the vehicle’s front tire. The suspect continued to drive away while Horton continued to fire additional shots at the fleeing vehicle. The suspect lost control of the vehicle and struck a concrete drainage culvert at Robertson and Woodard.

The suspect, described only as a Hispanic male, was transported to Ben Taub General Hospital in critical condition from injuries sustained during the incident. Horton was not injured.

Austria: Muzzie Teacher Sacked Over Anti-Semitic Literature

Good news – Austrians are starting to grow a spine:

Muslim teacher banned over anti-Semitic propoganda
Austrian Times

Social Democrat (SPÖ) Education Minister Claudia Schmied has banned a Muslim man from teaching his religion at a Vienna secondary school after he distributed anti-Semitic leaflets to pupils.

Schmied ordered the city school council today (Thurs) to take such action against the man, who had been teaching at the Cooperative Secondary School (KMS) on Brüßlgasse in Wien-Ottakring district. She said “delay would be dangerous.”

The reason for the ban is the man’s behaviour. He reportedly distributed anti-Semitic leaflets to his students a few days ago. The leaflets contained a list of allegedly “Jewish” firms from which, the man told the students, they should not buy anything.

Teachers of religion are usually appointed and removed by their respective religious associations, but Schmied said the law on religion provided for the minister of education’s intervention in cases in which such teachers violated their legal obligations.

Allowing the man to continue to teach, the minister said, would have caused “serious damage to the interests of the school and the students.”

Schmied’s intervention comes in the wake of a study concluding Islamic instruction in Austria has to change to comply with modern standards.

Mouhanad Khorchide is a professor of the sociology of religion at the Islamic Religion and Pedagogical Institute at Vienna University and the author of the new study, “Islamic religious instruction between integration and a parallel society.”

Khorchide’s study concludes Muslim teachers in Austria have largely anti-democratic beliefs and one in five is “fanatical”.

Khorchide, himself a Muslim, said 22.6 per cent of the 210 Muslim teachers he had surveyed had “fanatical attitudes” and 21.9 per cent rejected democracy as incompatible with Islam.

The older the teacher, Khorchide said, the more likely he was to reject the principle of the rule of law.

According to Vienna weekly “Falter”, the study claimed 8.5 per cent of the Muslim teachers said it was understandable for violence to be used to spread Islam, 28.4 per cent said there was a contradiction in being both a Muslim and a European, and 44 per cent said they had to make their students understand they were better than non-Muslims.

In addition, 29 per cent said it was impossible for Muslims to integrate in Austria without losing their Muslim identity, and 55 per cent called Austrians xenophobic.

On the other hand, 85.7 per cent said they did not believe Muslims had to keep to themselves to avoid losing their Muslim identity.

The education Ministry and the Austrian Islamic Denomination recently agreed on a package of changes providing for new contracts for Islamic instructors and new lesson plans for the teaching of Islam in Austrian public schools.