By Debbie Schlussel
The jury’s been picked and seated in the trial of Youssef Megahed, an Egyptian here on a student visa, who was caught transporting pipe bombs and speeding in a car in South Carolina, toward New York City. His partner in Islamic terrorist crime, Ahmed Mohamed, pleaded guilty and is serving a fifteen year prison sentence. I’ve given the “Debbie’s Notes” version of the case here.
One of the jurors is

a 20-year Air Force veteran who said his son-in-law is Muslim.

Hmmm . . . which do you think will trump his vision in this case–his service to America or his likely desire not to see that, like this guy, his own son-in-law might just be out to destroy America and blow people and buildings up?

I vote the latter. We don’t know this guy’s relationship with his son-in-law, but even if he doesn’t like him, people tend to want to overcome cognitive dissonance. I doubt he wants to see the father or future father of his grandkids–the guy that’s sleeping with his daughter–as a terrorist. And that’s likely gonna be his frame of reference here.
Let’s hope the other jurors aren’t of the O.J. variety and can overcome this guy’s familial loyalties. Among the others:

a mortgage underwriter, a corporate and securities law attorney, an unemployed mechanic, two accountants, a Web designer.

I’m not bettin’ on ’em.

Islamic Terrorist Youssef Megahed’s Jury Has Dad-In-Law of Muslim

By Debbie Schlussel
Tom Gross posts this video he took of Nidal Rafa, who was CNN’s producer based in Jerusalem. Watch this tantrum she has with Israeli former US Ambassador Danny Ayalon, and remember that all CNN coverage of the Mid-East–especially Israel–is filtered through the overtly propagandized lens of pan-terrorists like her. You can’t trust a lick of it. Can you imagine being married to this kalbeh [Arabic for dog/bi-otch]? It’s like your worst nightmare. Must Read: Tom’s background on the video and Nidal Rafa.

By Debbie Schlussel
Well, I’m so glad we have a Commander-in-Chief who has his priorities straight.
As the economy continues to sink ever lower, President Barack Hussein Obama is acting like a distracted kid in a candy store, instead of a President of a country in major distress.
While Americans continue to lose their jobs en mass, stock and housing values continue to plummet, the mortgage crisis continues, and there are signs that gas will rise to $4 a gallon by year’s end, Obama is on ESPN picking his final four NCAA basketball tournament semi-finalists and appearing on Jay Leno. Look at me, I’m the Prez. This is, like, waaaaay totally cool. Really fun.
You can watch Barack Obama do his best Dick Vitale, today, on ESPN. His best fixing of the economy . . . you won’t be seeing that for a long time, if ever. The sports cable channel, whose reporter Andy Katz spent a great deal of time with Obama, is calling this “Barack-etology.” Sorry, but I’d rather see a better Barack-onomy.

Priorities, schmiorities. Don’t expect this guy to ever stop living like a rock star and become a President. He’s a PINO–President in Name Only.
Here’s a preview of this guy’s latest Walter Mitty fantasy lived out while America sinks:

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Read Commerce Dept. Special Agent David J. Poole’s Interesting Affidavit on Nabbed Iranian ****
An Iranian businessman, who bought millions in U.S.-made equipment–including Rolls Royce helicopter engines–for the government of Iran, tempted fate when he set foot in America, apparently for the first time. And he was arrested and indicted virtually on the spot.
My first question: Who knew Rolls Royce makes helicopter engines? Who knew they made them in the U.S. (in Indiana)? This appears to be an inside baseball detail in the weapons and aviation industry.
My second question and far more intriguing: Why did this guy fly to America, knowing he might get caught and arrested? With whom was he meeting here in the States? And why?
Customs and Border Protection agents are to be commended for being on the alert and noting that Hossein Ali Khoshnevisrad was arriving in San Francisco, Saturday. Glad we got him, but something doesn’t smell right here. Did this guy really think we wouldn’t be on to him and arrest him? Did he think he was that invincible?

Iranian Nuke Arms Dealer Who US-Made Bought Rolls Helo Engines Nabbed
More:

A Tehran businessman who allegedly helped run a major weapons-smuggling ring for Iran was charged yesterday with multiple export-related crimes, two days after he was arrested in San Francisco after stepping off a flight from Europe.
Hossein Ali Khoshnevisrad, 55, was described by U.S. officials as a key figure in Iran’s vast network of businesses and front companies seeking Western technology for weapons ranging from ballistic missiles to improvised explosive devices. Documents and officials from the Justice and Commerce departments linked Khoshnevisrad’s firm to a scheme to acquire millions of dollars worth of parts for military helicopters and jet fighters, using Malaysian and European companies as middlemen.
At least some of the parts were intended for an Iranian company that the State Department has linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles program, according to documents first obtained by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. The case was the latest in a series of attempts by the U.S. government to crack down on illicit procurement networks that feed Tehran’s pursuit of high-tech weapons systems.
The arrest of Khoshnevisrad was an unexpected bonus in those efforts, U.S. officials said. After tracking the businessman and his import company, Ariasa, for months, investigators with U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered that the entrepreneur was traveling from Iran to the United States for what was believed to be his first visit to this country.
A party of federal officers was waiting for him early Saturday as he arrived at San Francisco International Airport with his wife and son after a stopover flight from Europe. Khoshnevisrad was confronted in the airport’s customs area and detained without incident.

Whoa. Would have loved to be a spectator for that “meeting.”

“It is rare that a guy of his stature in the procurement business comes to the United States,” said a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe, said the case “demonstrates the scope and reach of these procurement networks, and their global efforts to insulate themselves using trading companies around the world.”

Again, the question I ask is, why? Why did he dare come here? With whom was he supposed to meet? Who in the San Francisco area has ties to a man who is helping Iran get nukes? Those are the $64,000 questions here.

Ariasa, the official said, relied chiefly on Malaysian trading partners — including a phony “book trader” — to circumvent bans on direct exports of technology to Iran. The link is notable, he said, because Iran appears in recent months to have shifted the routing of many of its purchases through Asia, following a crackdown on several front companies in the United Arab Emirates.

Ah, our “moderate,” Israel-hating friends at the UAE. Shocker. We know they’ve been making their shores the transfer point for the Iranian nuke quest.

Khoshnevisrad, balding with gray hair and a mustache and wearing a blue dress shirt and slacks, made his first court appearance yesterday at an arraignment before a U.S. magistrate in San Francisco.

Burning Question: Does anyone from Iran (or Iraq) not have a mustache?

With his family members in the courtroom, he was formally charged with four counts of export-related charges, tied to a series of alleged deals to ship helicopter engines and military-grade surveillance cameras to Iran.

Hmmm . . . does his family live here? Is it comprised of U.S. citizens? Reports said he flew here only with his wife, not “family members.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Kelly requested that Khoshnevisrad be held without bail, saying he posed a “very serious national security risk.” The magistrate agreed with that request.
The aircraft parts, valued at more than $4 million, were purchased from U.S. firms and routed through a network of front companies, according to documents obtained by the Berkeley, Calif.-based CIR.
Among the purchases were 17 Rolls-Royce helicopter engines, manufactured at a factory in Indiana and allegedly destined for Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Co., and 11 aerial-surveillance cameras sold by a Pennsylvania distributor and allegedly intended for mounting on Iran’s F-4 fighter jets, according to an affidavit by investigators for Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement. The U.S. firms apparently were unaware that the parts were intended for Iran, federal officials said.
The documents, including an affidavit from the Commerce Department filed with the magistrate, indicate that Khoshnevisrad’s network also allegedly involved trading companies in Ireland and the Netherlands and American freight carriers, one of which was described in court records as “the Irish trading company’s designated freight forwarder from New York.”
The investigation of Khoshnevisrad relied in part on intercepted e-mails between him and his business partners. Excerpts from the e-mail exchanges appear to show Khoshnevisrad, while negotiating deals with Irish and Dutch trading partners, often acknowledging that the companies would have to circumvent U.S. export laws.
“We have your ‘three engines’ ready to ship/deliver in Kuala Lumpur,” a representative of the Irish trading company wrote in a Jan. 15, 2007, e-mail, one of several cited in the Commerce affidavit. “We are giving you . . . top-quality service . . . under extreme[ly] difficult conditions (embargo[es] . . . export controls).”
In another e-mail to Khoshnevisrad about three weeks later, the Irish trading company wrote, “Aviation/Equip[ment] . . . embargo . . . very, very ‘strong’ right now on ‘Iran.’ Extreme vigilance ‘worldwide’ in place.”
In another case involving alleged front companies, the Justice Department indicted a number of Iranian businessmen and firms for illegally purchasing electronics used to make IEDs of the type used to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq.

Again, why would someone so clever and aware of American laws and that he was violating them, dare enter America at the risk of being arrested and caught? That isn’t normal. Typically guys on this level wouldn’t be caught dead in America.
They’d only be caught making America dead.
This kind of thing usually only happens in the movies and on TV. What do you think is going on here?

By Debbie Schlussel
As I’ve repeatedly noted on this site, the animal rights folks and PETA a/k/a “PUTAh” (People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals and humans) have won. We may mock their stupid media-grabbing tactics, but they’ve gotten American society to elevate animals to a humanized status. In many cases, people treat dogs better than humans, with aromatherapy and yoga for dogs and doggie massage. Etc., etc., ad absurdum.
Now, though, at least Freshpet–a dogfood producer–and Tyson cop to it and admit they’re trying to get humans to see their pets as human-like, to make a buck:

With the economy going to the dogs, meatpacking giant Tyson Foods Inc. is forming an alliance to make a product its executives think is recession-proof: deli-like food for pets.

Tyson, Springdale, Ark., is expected to announce Tuesday that it bought a minority stake for millions of dollars in closely held Freshpet Co., a Secaucus, N.J., company that is rolling out refrigerated dog food to thousands of stores such as Kroger, Supervalu and PetSmart.
The Freshpet brand is unusual because the company’s executives, a collection of former Meow Mix managers, are trying to make dog food look, smell and taste as much like human food as possible. The line, the first national brand of refrigerated pet food, is aimed at consumers who give their pets everything from clothes and car seats to cemetery graves.
“Everyone talks about the humanization of pets,” said Scott Morris, Freshpet marketing vice president. “But pet food looks the same as it did 30 years ago.”
Tyson, which is being battered by gyrating feed costs and slowing consumer demand for pricey steaks and chops, is betting that some consumers won’t cut corners when it comes to their pets. It is a phenomenon that is coming under increasing scrutiny during the recession.
Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Swiss foods giant Nestle SA, which owns several pet-food brands, said earlier this month that consumers who have “humanized” their pets refuse to trade down despite the economic climate.

What’s sad is that, while they wouldn’t “trade down” for their pets, they–the ones who aren’t gay–would “trade down” for their kids. Priorities. . . .
Tyson, which also is opening its research kitchens to Freshpet, is stopping short of using the Tyson brand on dog food, however.
Gee, I wonder why. They can “humanize their dog food,” but they won’t dare ruin their brand over it. Frauds.
EXIT Questions: If human deli meats are now dog cuisine, isn’t it tasteless to continue to call those certain deli delights by their insensitive names–hot dog, Coney dog, and hush puppy. I mean, that’s really bigoted and specie-ist.
If they can “humanize” dog food, what’s to stop them from “dog-izing” human chow?
Not much.

By Debbie Schlussel
No, I wasn’t away for a drunken St. Patrick’s Day celebration. I had a super top-secret, important meeting, and on my way back I got stuck in a traffic jam as all the streets to billionaire (and Detroit Pistons owner) Bill Davidson’s funeral were blocked off by the men in blue. More about Davidson in a later post. Sorry for the delay in posting to the site, today. Couldn’t be helped. Stuff happens.
A Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of my Irish and Irish-American readers. They say that St. Patrick drove all the snaked out of Ireland. We need a modern-day St. Patrick for the “Religion of Peace” in America . . . and Ireland, where the fastest growing religion isn’t Catholicism or the Protestantism of today’s orange-wearers. It’s Islam.
Yes, I know, I know–everyone’s supposed to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. And I feel kind of Irish because my Dad was a big fan of The Irish Rovers, The Clancy Brothers, and lots of other Irish and Celtic groups. And Ireland has a nearly thousand-year history of Jews, with the first of my fellow co-religionists arriving in 1079. Yes, the Emerald Isle is also the gefilte fish aisle. Read about the history of the Jews of Ireland.

Luck of the Irish, er . . . Muslims by the Great David Lunde
Sadly, it’s now the Green Tabouli Isle. Read more about the Islamic takeover of Ireland from my 2008 entry on St. Patty’s Day. Sadly, Irish eyes aren’t smiling–they’re weeping from underneath a niqab (full-Ninja Muslim face veil for women).
In the meantime, here’s some cool modern Irish-American music:

By Debbie Schlussel
When I wrote about men who knit and said they were girlie-men, I got a torrent of outrage from them. Forget Muslims (and “Watchmen” fans), I thought I’d get fire-bombed by the men with balls (of yarn only).
Now, I suppose I’ll get attacked by the silly male men who quilt. One of ’em, Mark Lipinski, has his own magazine, “Quilter’s Home.”
And not being content at being a girlie-man who knits, er . . . quilts, he and his friends in the quilter community find it necessary to transform quilts into attacks on Jesus, gun-owners, and people who want their kids to be able to look at a quilt without being oversexed. At least, I think this is the case.

I don’t know for sure because you can’t look at Quilter’s Home issues without paying up. And I wasn’t about to pay to see a magazine that is–no lie–sealed in plastic (like Playboy and Penthouse) and which Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts pulled from its stores across the country. Here’s the scoop:

Sex sells. Even, it seems, when it comes to quilting.
The January/February issue of Quilter’s Home magazine sold out despite‚Äîor maybe because of‚Äîa little controversy. The issue came sealed in plastic, like many adult magazines, and boasted the headline: “Shocking Quilts: We show you the controversial patchwork.”
Inside, an artful photo spread includes quilts stitched with a gun-toting Jesus, one woman’s homage to Viagra, ample male and female nudity, and at least one newborn “peering out from his mother’s lady parts,” as it was described recently in The Washington Post.
Needless to say, the graphic images have caused quite a stir in quilting circles. At least one major hobby retailer, Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts, pulled the issue from its 20 Chicagoland stores and others across the country. And the debate continues to rage in quilting forums online, where some are calling the material “objectionable” and others are praising the magazine’s creator, Mark Lipinski.
“The quilts are not offensive. Joann’s small-minded censorship is,” wrote a poster at marklipinski.com.
Jo-Ann’s declined to comment, but has pledged to carry future issues.

Oh, and there’s also a quilt of the Confederate Flag with lynching victims hanging in front of it.
The first thing that comes to mind is, “Why?” Why do they have to do this? Shock tactics just for shock value are stupid. Sure, his quilting magazine sold out, but so did the January/February issue.
Must everything be escalated and perverted and warped from what we normally think of it? What’s next–“Barely Legal Needlepoint”? “Lecherous Looming”? If you want Playboy, buy that crap. But don’t turn craft magazines in craft stores into the simulation of that and attacks on Christians and Second Amendment supporters.
Is there any envelope we won’t push “just ‘cuz”? If you spend your free time quilting your “homage to Viagra” or “ample male and female nudity,” there’s probably something wrong with you.
And, please, don’t send me e-mails about Michelangelo’s David. Hello . . . It’s a quilt.
By the way, if they really wanted to be edgy, they’d do a quilt of something shocking and meaningful . . . like a quilt of a Muslim woman being stoned to death or a Nick Berg video. I know, I know, who’d want a quilt of that? Well, who wants a quilt of naked people or an “homage” to Viagra?

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember the good old days–when aliens were from outer space, not the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe?
This morning, I was supposed to screen this movie, “Alien Trespass,” but, unfortunately, the print didn’t arrive from the studio on time, so they’re sending us DVD screeners. I can’t wait for this one, which comes out in April and looks like my kinda movie.
I love the old-fashioned alien and outer space movies, like the original “Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Forbidden Planet,” and the newer but old-styled “Mars Attacks!” “Mars Attacks!” is probably my favorite because everything that professor Piece Brosnan, President Jack Nicholson, and all the peaceniks in it say about how we have to just “understand” and be nice to the aliens (and then they get zapped) is what our leaders have been saying forever–and especially in the last 7.5 years–about Islam (with similar results).
Here’s the “Alien Trespass” trailer (stay tuned for my complete review on the day the movie debuts in theaters):

By Debbie Schlussel
Tomorrow, the federal trial begins for one half of the Smiling Terrorist “Just Fireworks” duo, Youssef Megahed.
And just in time for the trial, Megahed shaved off his extremist Muslim facial hair. Yup, the beard is gone, as noted by Tampa Bay radio personality Dan York, who–in the spirit of TV infomercialdom’s Billy Mays–calls it

“Terrorist Beard B Gone” . . . Shave it and forget it!

Extremist Makeover, Mosque Edition:
Islamic Terrorist Youssef Megahed Shaved Clean for Trial

“Oxiclean” Has New Meaning for Youssef Megahed’s Mega-Shave
I hope that bumbling federal prosecutors–who are on the way to losing this trial and were dying for Megahed to take a plea deal–point this out. But, don’t worry, they won’t. As you can see, Muhajid Megahed looks a whole lot less menacing without his Islamic facial hair.
As you’ll recall, Megahed (which is the Egyptian pronunciation of Mujahid–or jihadist/jihad warrior) and Ahmed Mohammed–both Islamic foreign student aliens at the University of South Florida–were stopped for speeding by South Carolina Deputy Sheriff Lamar Blakely, back in August 2007, who noticed that they had pipe bombs in their trunk. They repeatedly lied and changed their stories, alternately claiming the pipe bombs were “just fireworks,” and that they planned to grill at the beach. This, despite the fact that they could not name a beach and were driving out of the way.


As it later turned out, the duo lived at a home once owned by Islamic Jihad terrorist group founder and American front man Sami Al-Arian, posted videos on YouTube instructing how to turn remote control toys into bombs on airplanes and practiced shooting guns at a gun range, in violation of their student visas. As it also turned out, a fellow Muslim shooting buddy of theirs–Karim Moussaoui, who was apparently working with them–was caught in New York City, trying to flee the country and was engaged in a sham marriage to an American woman with whom he never lived.
But, hey, given all this, I’m sure they’re just innocent, regular guys, and we’re just prejudiced against Muslim people.
Let’s hope that we don’t have an O.J.-style jury in this case that thinks that way.
But don’t hold your breath. I predict the feds will lose this. They have a terrible track record in prosecuting terrorists, not because they don’t have good cases, but because they’re not good prosecutors. But, hey, at least they’re consistent. . . consistent losers.
Sadly, with that, so is America’s national security.
By the way, Osama Bin Laden, too, would look a whole lot less menacing to a jury minus his beard.

***
In case you forgot, the other half of the “Just Fireworks” Smiling Terrorists, Ahmed Mohamed, pleaded guilty last year. So desperate were the feds not to try and lose the case against him that they gave him a plea deal that did not require the normal “cooperation with prosecution” in the Megahed case.

By Debbie Schlussel
When you go to a foreign country for the sole purpose of attacking that country’s soldiers and enabling that country’s enemies–in this case, one of its myriad Islamic terrorist enemies–you sometimes get what you deserve. You have put yourself in the position of a warrior, and you are no longer subject to the treatment that an innocent, peaceful civilian deserves.
There’s sort of a poetic justice in this story, since this guy, Tristan Anderson–a former UC-Berkeley tree-sitter–and his ilk threw rocks at Israeli soldiers. And since he’s part of ISM, the International Solidarity Movement, which helped hide Islamic terrorists the night before they blew themselves and many innocent Israelis and others up in Mike’s Bar in Tel Aviv. This is war, and this person is a warrior. In war, sometimes the bad guy gets hurt.

An American demonstrator seriously injured in clashes between protesters and IDF soldiers is in stable condition, a spokesperson for the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer said on Sunday.

“Peaceful Protestors”?:
ISM Activists Sabotage Israeli Anti-Terror Fence

Tristan Anderson, 38, of Oakland, California, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister during a protest against the West Bank security barrier in Nil’in on Friday and underwent surgery at the hospital, near Tel Aviv.
Anderson is on a respirator but in stable condition, the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.
The protest took place in the West Bank town of Nil’in, near Ramallah, where Palestinians and international backers frequently gather to demonstrate against the security barrier.
The IDF says the area where the protests take place is a closed military zone off-limits to demonstrations.
About 400 protesters turned out in Nil’in on Friday, according to the IDF. Some of them hurled rocks at troops, who used riot gear to quell the unrest, it added, without elaborating.
Ulrika Jenson, an International Solidarity Movement activist, said troops fired tear gas canisters into the crowd from a hill above.

No tears for this Anderson guy. You throw rocks and hang with a group that helps terrorists blow people up, you deserve what you get in response. This guy wasn’t in Israel for any positive purpose. He went where he was told not to go.
The difference between Israel and any other country in this region was that the Israelis only fired tear gas. Had this idiot, Tristan Anderson, gone to Gaza or the so-called West Bank to protest the terrorists there that constantly try to go through these barriers, he’d have been ripped to shreds. And we’d never hear of or about him ever again. He certainly wouldn’t be taken care of by Palestinians in their hospitals. They’d just kill him and cut him up like a chicken.
And it wouldn’t be a cause celebre for AP or anyone else.
Lefties are trying to turn this into another Rachel Corrie story. Corrie was the America-hating, American flag-burning woman who stood in front of Israeli bulldozers to stop them from tearing down a terrorist house under which terrorist explosives and weaponry were transported through tunnels. The bulldozer driver didn’t see her and she died.
There was a Rachel Corrie play/opera and other baloney tributes to this cretin who got what she deserved. If this Anderson cretin gets the same, expect, “Tristan, the Fertilized Musical.” The guy is already a martyr for these people, no matter what happens to him.
No tears from me for Tristan Anderson.