By Debbie Schlussel
A number of readers have asked me what I think of the just-announced Congressional candidacy of Dr. Jack Kevorkian a/k/a Dr. Death. Well, I’m bummed about it, and not for the reasons you might think.
It’s rare that I endorse liberal Democrats. But when the liberal Democrat is running against a phony conservative Republican who is one of Hezbollah’s two best friends in Congress, I’ll take the lib any day. I’d much rather have a sincere liberal than a phony American.
That’s the case with Congressman Joe Knollenberg, the man Kevorkian is running against and against whom the liberal Democrat (not Kevorkian) has a chance of beating. I’ve known Mr. Knollenberg for many years, and he’s been my Congressman for several of them. Unfortunately, Knollenberg–along with another Republican, Congressman Darrell Issa–is Hezbollah’s go to guy in the U.S. Congress.

Dr. Death’s Candidacy
May Help Re-Elect Hezbollah’s Joe Knollenberg

GOP Congressmen Darrell Issa & Joe Knollenberg:
Hezbollah’s Hookers in Congress;
Schlussel Endorses Their Opponents Peters, Hamilton
As I’ve detailed on this site, Knollenberg has taken thousands in campaign contributions from Hezbollah’s officially-designated American agent Nijad Fares and his Hezbollah front-group PAC, American Task Force for Lebanon Policy. And in return, Knollenberg sought $268 million–and got over $86 million–of your tax money for Hezbollah. The money–purportedly to rebuild hospitals and orphanages “destroyed” by Israel–actually went straight into the coffers of Hezbollah for the purposes of sending more Isrealis and American soldiers fighting in Iraq to hospitals and their kids to orphanages. Knollenberg and his then-Chief of Staff Paul Welday sought this money at the request of Fares–whose father Issam Fares was formerly the Hezbollah-installed Prime Minister of Lebanon–and pro-HAMAS/pro-Hezbollah James Zogby, head of the deceptively-named Arab American Institute (very little American about it, but for an office address).
Fares, it should be noted, also donated to Muslim Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison and the Presidential Campaign of Jihad Fred Thompson, which was shabbily run by Fares’ other pan-Hezbo friend, Spencer Abraham. The is the company which Joe Knollenberg keeps. Check out all of Nijad Fares’ campaign contributions (he’s a close friend of the Bush family, FYI).
One other thing about Jihad Joe Knollenberg: He also made earmarks of millions in your tax money, sending it to 1) the anti-Israel/pan-jihadist Arab American National Museum, and 2) the deceptively-named “Seeds of Peace” summer camp, in which victims of terror and kids of Muslim terrorists are told they are equal and that Holocaust-denial is a valid position; the camp was founded by Yasser Arafat’s favorite biographer.
So, how does this relate to Congressional Candidate Dr. Death? Well, Kevorkian is properly reviled by most conservative and Republican voters. He will only take votes away from Joe Knollenberg’s very viable Democrat opponent, Gary Peters. The election will be very close. In 2006, Nancy Skinner–who barely put up a fight and raised little money–nearly beat Knollenberg. And the time is now to do it.
Moreover, if he wins, it’s believed that Joe Knollenberg will thereafter retire and somehow get his son, Michigan State Rep. Marty Knollenberg, into the seat. Besides supporting gay marriage and other gay issues, Marty Knollenberg–as I’ve repeatedly noted–also took oodles of money from Hezbollah’s Nijad Fares.
Why would a Texas agent of Hezbollah donate money to a State Representative in Michigan? Answers: 1) To reward his daddy for sending millions of your tax money to Hezbollah; 2) to reflect pan-Hezbollah policy in the Michigan legislature; and 3) to get Knollenberg to “see things the Hezbollah way” should he get to Congress.
Michigan’s Hezbollah-Knollenberg dynasty must be put out to pasture. And that’s why I’m supporting liberal Democrat Gary Peters for this seat. Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s candidacy will put my efforts at Knollenberg Family Retirement ’08 in jeopardy. And I’m not happy about it. He’s the Ralph Nader in this race between Hezbollah vs. America.
That said, I condemn Gary Peters’ and Central Michigan University’s (Peters headed CMU until recently) outrageous, illegal activities in their efforts to stifle my friend, CMU student and conservative activist Dennis Lennox‘s free speech rights and ability to film and report on Peters’ and his liberal minions’ activities at CMU.
One more thing: I’m also hereby endorsing Robert Hamilton, Democrat opponent of Hezbollah’s other GOP Member of Congress, Darrell Issa a/k/a Jihad Darrell of suburban San Diego. Not only has he worked very hard for Hezbollah and Syria and repeatedly praised Yasser Arafat, but he called Israel–a la Jimmuh Carter–an “apartheid” state. More on that race, later. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, Aleikum Salaam Joe Knollenberg. Let’s hope Dr. Death’s candidacy won’t stop your impending political death at the hands of voters in November.
If you live in Issa’s san Diego-area district, vote for Hamilton. If you live in Knollenberg’s Detroit-area district, vote for Peters.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’m scheduled to be “O’Reilly Radio Factor” at 9:40 a.m. Pacific/ 12:40 a.m. Eastern, today. I’ll be interviewed by the great Guardian Angel, Curtis Sliwa, who is subbing for Bill O’Reilly. Listen Live.
Curtis and I will be discussing the predicament of embattled, indicted, Pimp-Daddy Detroit Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick.
My writing about Hizzoner Kilpatrick includes these two columns:
* D-Day in Detroit: Thuggish, Pan-Islamist Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick Learns His Fate
* On Detroit’s Lying Pimp-Daddy Mayor and His Latest Scandal

By Debbie Schlussel
We saw a truckload of these kinds of advice articles during the whole Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the Impeachment process back in the late ’90s.
Now, it’s come back to us, with Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick’s 12-Count/8-Felony Indictment. Today’s Detroit Newsistan bears the article, “How to Discuss The Mayor With Kids.” A snippet:

Take Lashaylah Lathon-Bey, for example. The 10-year-old Detroiter easily recounts the entire scandal, starting with the never-proven Manoogian Mansion party in 2002. She details alleged stories about dancers at the party, an assault that may have taken place at the party, police officers getting fired, a federal lawsuit they filed, their trial, text messages and the mayor’s criminal charges.
And while the fifth-grader may recall the timeline in great detail, she also has learned a lesson from the mayor’s legal troubles.
“If he had told the truth when this all first happened, he wouldn’t have these charges on him now, and he probably wouldn’t have to be in trouble,” she says. “Every day, we tell my little 6-year-old brother that it’s not OK to lie. The mayor is a bad influence on certain kids, kids who are still learning about things.

BTW, here are another couple of videos for the song “Party @ The Manoogian” (whoever made the second vid apparently reads this site, as he/she used the pic of Kwame “The Kingpin” that I scanned and frequently use on this site (below). The red Lincoln Navigator was a scam in which Kwame improperly tried to lease, at Detroit city expense, two red Navigators for his wife at a cost of $25,000 each, for a 2-year lease, and pretended they were “police vehicles” for undercover drug buys:

By Debbie Schlussel
More than 6.5 years since 9/11, I’m wondering just what President Bush has done . . . other than create a giant bloated bureaucracy (DHS), a disgusting national policy of sycophancy to Islam, and making us less safe.
Well, Washington Times investigative reporter Bill Gertz, gives us yet another example of what President Bush has “done for us” to “make us safer.”
Printing U.S. passports–yet another “job Americans just won’t do”:

The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies – including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage – raising concerns that cost savings are being put ahead of national security.

Jason Bourne’s Passport & Yours Now Vulnerable to Chi-Coms, Islamofascists

The Government Printing Office’s [GPO] decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.
The profits have raised questions both inside the agency and in Congress because the law that created GPO as the federal government’s official printer explicitly requires the agency to break even by charging only enough to recover its costs.
Lawmakers said they were alarmed by The Times’ findings and plan to investigate why U.S. companies weren’t used to produce the state-of-the-art passports, one of the crown jewels of American border security. [DS: “Crown jewel”? More like, Cubic Zirconium.] . . .
But GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency’s internal watchdog, doesn’t share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct. 12 report that there are “significant deficiencies with the manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the internal controls for the process.”
The inspector general’s report said GPO claimed it could not improve its security because of “monetary constraints.” But the inspector general recently told congressional investigators he was unaware that the agency had booked tens of millions of dollars in profits through passport sales that could have been used to improve security, congressional aides told The Times. . . .
According to interviews and documents, GPO managers rejected limiting the contracts to U.S.-made computer chip makers and instead sought suppliers from several countries, including Israel, Germany and the Netherlands. [DS: The Islamo-dominated Netherlands. Yup, that’s where we want our passport chips made. Same for Germany. Remember the “Hamburg Cell” of which Mohammed Atta was a proud member? As for Israel, their chipmakers probably have better security than we do here. Probably.]
Mr. Somerset, the GPO spokesman, said foreign suppliers were picked because “no domestic company produced those parts” when the e-passport production began a few years ago.
After the computer chips are inserted into the back cover of the passports in Europe, the blank covers are shipped to a factory in Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok, to be fitted with a wire Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna. The blank passports eventually are transported to Washington for final binding, according to the documents and interviews.
The stop in Thailand raises its own security concerns. The Southeast Asian country has battled social instability and terror threats. Anti-government groups backed by Islamists, including al Qaeda, have carried out attacks in southern Thailand and the Thai military took over in a coup in September 2006. [DS: And not mentioned here, the leader of the government–who took over in that coup–is a devout Muslim.]
The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. e-passport covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in Thailand could lead to a halt in production.
Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising additional questions about the security of America’s e-passports.
A 2005 document obtained by The Times states that GPO was using unsecure FedEx courier services to send blank passports to State Department offices until security concerns were raised and forced GPO to use an armored car company. Even then, the agency proposed using a foreign armored car vendor before State Department diplomatic security officials objected.

These are just excerpts of a much longer and more in-depth article. And it’s the first of three parts in a series on passport security, er . . . insecurity, by Bill Gertz.
What else will he report. Fear the worst. President Bush’s gladhanding of extremist Muslims and setting up giant law enforcement bureaucracies who do way too much of the same and way too little of national security, will be the legacy of his Administration. As will this.
Thanks a gazillion (in fake and compromised passports), Georgie.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
If you’re thinking of purchasing a new digital camera, you might want to forget about choosing an Olympus camera. Unless you are Muslim. Islam is apparently the scene Olympus wants you to see when you use their camera.
Reader “S”, an Arab Catholic who grew up in Iraq and came here to escape Islamic repression, writes that he was shocked to see the symbol of what he was trying to escape on the menu of an Olympus camera:

Hi, Debbie:
I was shopping for a digital camera with my son, who is considering getting one of the new weather-proof, crush-proof new-for-2008 models from Olympus camera.

To my surprise, when he pressed the “menu” button, we were presented a picture of the terrorist, devil-cult, symbol: “the crescent moon and star” as one of the “menu” selections.
Olympus’ “ignorant” engineers (or maybe Islamist engineers) must’ve thought nothing of it, but they could’ve chosen a different icon to represent the “Scene” menu item.
All I can say, if I could speak directly to whoever is doing this at Olympus is the following: Go ahead and do whatever you like, it’s your product, but keep in mind that I can choose NOT TO BUY your biased, in-my-face offensive product, it’s my money.
BTW, in case you need to verify the picture of the camera’s menu, it’s contained within the English User’s Instruction Manual that is posted in this PDF file at the Olympus site). The picture is on page 22 (you can magnify the page to get a good view of it).

I asked Minister of PhotoShop, Master David Lunde of Lundesigns, to remake the Olympus digital camera menu in ways to my liking. Here are a couple of versions. How do you think these would go over in, say, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, or HAMASastan?

Jewish & Christian Versions of the Islamic Olympus Camera by David Lunde
Well, then, why should we accept an Islamic camera here?
Further, why is this so disturbing and offensive to Reader “S” (as it should be to us)? Well, this was the experience of Reader “S”–now a proud American and U.S. citizen–growing up in Islamic Iraq (where it is now even worse–Good luck being a Christian in George W. Bush’s “democratic,” “liberated” Iraq):

I lived among these Bedouins until the age of 23 in Iraq!! It was a miserable existence of a Catholic in Dhimmitude, as I experienced the full blast of hatred from these idiots who call themselves moo-slims (moo in Arabic means not, and salam means peace. Thus, mooslim means NOT-PEACEFUL!!).
I am a Roman Catholic . . . . In my high school (called Baghdad College – Established by the New-England Jesuits 1932, and who were accused of spying and were kicked out in ~1968), we had to study Islamic (Arab) history, no World-History at all!!
When the (Muslim) teacher called on me to recite an event in the life of their “perfect human and prophet” [DS: Mohammed], I refused to repeat the lame obligatory expression “May Allah Pray Upon Him and Bless Him” EVERY TIME I had to mention his name! It was bad enough I had to say his name!!
Well, I ended up failing history, and b/c there was no such thing as summer school, I had to repeat my entire freshman year because of their “prophet”!!
Now, think of it, how did a 14 or 15 year old know that it was an evil and hate-filled religion that he was studying in “history class”? Actually that was an indoctrination class, not a history class.
I think it was the wisdom of God that inspired me to think that way, and I still do!!
Thank God there ARE people of FAITH like you who GET how these Islamo-nuts are slowly encroaching on our way of life.

If only all Americans were as vigilant as American-by-choice Reader “S” who saw the results of what happens when people are not vigilant about the takeover of the so-called “Religion of Peace”.
Bottom Line in that vigilance: Don’t buy an Olympus camera. Clearly, they made their camera for one religion and one religion only. Not yours.
If we are not vigilant about “the little things”–these early, “tiny” symptoms of the spread of the viral infection–the big things, the monumental changes in our way of life, will happen before we know it.
The enemy is vigilant about the little things, slowly encroaching further into the heart of America and American pop culture.
And we should be not equally vigilant, but more so. Today, separate hours for Muslim women at the Harvard Gym and a Muslim camera. Tomorrow, a whole lot more.
Remember, the Jihad–the holy war–is fought not just with weapons, but with technology, pop culture, and any tiny piece of propaganda that can win over American (and other) hearts and minds.
Even an Olympus camera.
**** UPDATE: To those commenters who claim this “coincidental” configuration of a crescent moon and star, just like the Islamic symbol, is me seeing things that aren’t there, sorry, but this is not coincidence. There are no “coincidences,” especially in things like these.
To contrast this, Reader Stephen R. send ths Nikon camera night-vision icon and writes:

The Nikon camera icon is far less offensive than the olympus version.

By Debbie Schlussel
Watch this video from a few weeks ago, including audience reaction to Kwame “Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Detroit” Kilpatrick. Is it racist for me to ask whether that White guy they keep showing clapping enthusiastically, left his White card at the door? He reminds me of the reverse of the blind Black Klansman act that Dave Chappelle does.
Ken Cockrell, Jr., the man the Mayor called out, is probably Detroit’s next mayor, per the succession rules of the City of Detroit. While he is a relatively moderate and decent guy (the operant word being, “relatively”), his father Kenneth Cockrell, Sr. was a Marxist attorney and radical, allied with the Black Panthers and, reportedly, a supporter of “Palestinian liberation”.
Enjoy:

One other note on the video: If you are not from Detroit and recognize the female newscaster in this video, Diana Lewis, then you probably saw her in the first few “Rocky” movies. She majored in drama, not journalism, in college, and she and her daughter Glenda, who also reports and anchors for Channel 7/ABC Detroit, are constant MCs at events for the pro-Hezbollah/HAMAS American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). Hardly proper for an “impartial journalist.” I once had words with Diana about this, and she told me she made a mistake and wouldn’t do it again . . . but did it several times. Needless to say, I am NOT a fan.

By Debbie Schlussel
Although I have been extremely critical of Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Director of Investigations, Marcy Forman-Friedman, I have also praised her for her success in running the “Operation Greenquest” terrorism financing crackdown under the old U.S. Customs Service. I knew and gave tips to several agents involved in this successful operation to choke terrorism money laundering and funding. They made raids and stopped a number of large terrorism-financing monetary scams.
Now, though, it’s a different story.
When Homeland Security was created along with ICE, Forman-Friedman sought to keep Greenquest. But, unfortunately, she lost out, and the project was killed. Incompetent then-DHS chief Tom Ridge agreed to cede all terrorism investigations–including money-laundering investigations, on which ICE and the U.S. Secret Service successfully worked–to the inept FBI and signed an agreement with then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft to that effect.

ICE’s Abu E. Moskowitz:
What Me Worry About Terrorism Money-Laundering?
I Have a Falafel Party to Attend.

ICE’s Julie Myers Allows Multi-Million $ Terror Laundering Ring to Flourish
(Julie Myers Diet Coke by David Lunde/Lundesigns)
But ICE still maintains investigations in a lot of money-laundering cases, and both it and the FBI have done very little in the area. A Los Angeles Times article, while not addressing that, reports that America is now failing to stop terrorism-financing. While that is true and extremely alarming, the rest of the article is bunk.
The article, by L.A. Times reporter Josh Meyer whom I don’t respect (because he recently contacted me for an article, lied to me, and tried to rook me), blames America’s failure in stopping terrorism financing on a host of excuses. He quotes some CIA has-been, who is clearly clueless and out-of-the-loop, as saying that America can’t deliver on Bush’s promises to strike the financial foundation of terrorists. But we could deliver . . . if we–and top officials–really wanted to. Sadly, the bottom line is that there’s no will to do so. Obama lies and says, “Yes we can.” They lie and say, “No we can’t.”
I don’t just blame the FBI–which deserves a lot of blame. I also blame ICE “leadership,” especially Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess” and her top minions, like Brian Moskowitz a/k/a “Abu Moskowitz”, Special Agent in Charge for Michigan and Ohio.
I personally know of a giant terrorism money-transfer operation, a Hawala, that illegally sends several million dollars a month overseas to Kuwait and elsewhere in the Arab gulf.
And I know that Moskowitz knows about it and has done nothing to stop this ring, which stretches across America, has a huge base in Michigan, and involves some of the top Shi’ite Muslim clerics in town with tight ties to Iran (one of whom DHS chief Michael “Serpenthead” Chertoff feted on a trip to Dearbornistan, last year). Moskowitz’s agents met with me and tried to recruit me as an informant in this case. While I declined, I told them what I knew about the parties involved.
And, even though, for some time, an enterprising, courageous agent did the legwork and developed the case against this ring, conducting surveillance against the many participants in this terror-financing ring, Moskowitz has since decided to allow the money to flow and to do nothing because he and his agents are too lazy to do the legwork. They’d rather do dope busts, which are easier and net more glory from less work. Who cares about the people blown to bits from the millions they allowed to flow out of America into the hands of our sworn enemies?
Oh, and by the way, Julie Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess” and those at the highest levels of ICE were made aware of this terrorism-financing money-laundering ring. They’re looking the other way, too.
And so, every single week, millions of dollars are transferred through bank accounts all over town–by at least two parties in Dearborn and 20 or more other parties nationwide–to what even one of Moskowitz’s top deputies admitted was the financing of terrorism, including to blow up American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the money flows unstopped, right under the government’s knowing nose, while Brian Moskowitz hangs out with Muslims in town who contribute to this “banking” effort.
And rumor has it that Moskowitz may get a promotion to head the Tampa ICE office, where there is also a lot of terrorist financing activity, which he will also likely ignore while he searches for new extra-marital girlfriends and man-crushes (a la Imad Hamad, who is now also Julie Myers’ man-crush) in that city’s extremist Muslim community. The dung rises to the top at ICE.
Meyer’s LA Times article is rife with endless excuses his fed buddies are giving for why the FBI and ICE have done almost nothing to stop terrorism financing in the 6.5 years since 9/11. As you’ll note, from the excerpts below, they use the “untraceable” Hawala excuse. But the fact is, as noted in the Abu Moskowitz episode above, many of these Hawala’s are very traceable and involve hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars with a huge paper trail of bank-reported Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). It’s lazy top ICE officials, coupled with their PC-pander-to-Muslims ethos, that’s the real reason we are not stopping American dollars from going to finance Muslim terror. Same goes for the FBI (Famous But Incompetent):

The U.S.-led effort to choke off financing for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is foundering because setbacks at home and abroad have undermined the Bush administration’s highly touted counter-terrorism weapon, according to current and former officials and independent experts.
In some cases, extremist groups have blunted financial anti-terrorism tools by finding new ways to raise, transfer and spend their money. In other cases, the administration has stumbled over legal difficulties and interagency fighting, officials and experts say. . . .
“Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups continue to have access to the funds they need for active and expanded indoctrination, recruitment, maintenance, armament and operations,” said Victor D. Comras, a former United Nations terrorism finance official. [DS: Shukran (Thanks), Abu Moskowitz.] . . .
Also, the most deadly terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, have cost so little — often less than $10,000 — that they are virtually impossible to detect by following a money trail.
Terrorist networks need larger sums to travel, train operatives, bribe government officials, evade capture and expand support bases. Increasingly, however, they are moving funds below the radar of U.S.-led enforcement and intelligence-gathering efforts, officials and experts said.
Cash couriers use donkeys and camels in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan, for instance, and private jets are used in oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdoms to move cash, gold and jewels. The networks continue to rely on a centuries-old informal banking system known as hawala, which leaves virtually no trail. [DS: WRONG. See above.]
Overall, it is nearly impossible to distinguish funds meant for potential terrorism from legitimate transactions [DS: BS], said a senior State Department official, who, like some of the those interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity because of prohibitions against commenting on the record on counter-terrorism.
Current and former U.S. officials acknowledge they are struggling, especially because much-needed allies are unwilling or unable to assist. [DS: More like U.S. officials are unwilling to do anything more than diddly-squat on our own soil. Nice that they expect others to not follow this example abroad.]
“It’s not as much that we’re not properly executing our strategy,” [DS: Um, yes, it is like that. “Strategy”? What strategy? There is no strategy, and that’s the essence of the prob.] said Robert Grenier, a former senior CIA official. . . . .
Thirteen days after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, President Bush announced “a major thrust of our war on terrorism . . . a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network.” [DS: Like everything else Bush said post-9/11, total BS. Remember when he said “You’re either on our side or the terrorists side,” and then spent 6.5 years hanging with terrorists? Puh-leeze.]
“We will starve the terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places and bring them to justice,” Bush said in a Rose Garden speech, flanked by his secretaries of Treasury and State.

Please. Bush wouldn’t even force La Shish diners to starve on our own soil, even two years after the owner was indicted for sending millions to Islamic terrorists.
Desperate but not serious. And as for the L.A. Times, simply clueless . . . and the regurgitator of empty excuses for 6.5 years of many top federal law enforcement people NOT doing their jobs.
At least, Marcy Forman did do her job on this, and she was rewarded for it by having her successful operation “outsourced” to the failing FBI. But, for now, she is Moskowitz’s boss. So, why is she letting him allow his Muslim buds to send millions to terrorists?
Not a single FBI or CIA official was fired for 9/11 (and FBI agents like Harry Samit and Bob Wright who tried to stop this stuff were persecuted for it). So, like Alfred E. Neumann, why should they worry?

By Debbie Schlussel
My purpose in posting this video is not to show you why this “civilization” hasn’t invented anything new–other than new ways to kill–in years. Nor is it to make fun of a helpless, intellectually-challenged Muslim man. But it is, indeed, to show that neither the man with the camera, nor any of the other members of the Ikhwan (the “Brotherhood”) would help him for two minutes of suffering and screaming. This is how they treat each other, and yet we’re supposed to believe they are the “Religion of Peace” and make peace with ’em?:

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE: A Pilot Responds to Schlussel ****
CNN reports that less than 1% of American flights have a Federal Air Marshal (FAM) aboard. Hmmm . . . $720 million sent to Michael Chertoff for the FAM program for just this fiscal year. Where did the money go? (Watch the video interview with anonymous Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers):

Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.
That means that a terrorist or other criminal bent on taking over an aircraft would be confronted by a trained air marshal on as few as 280 daily flights, according to more than a dozen federal air marshals and pilots interviewed by CNN. [DS: This means that only 560-1,100 Federal Air Marshals are working and in the air at any one time. Um, again, where is the $720 mill going?]

The investigation found those low numbers even as the Transportation Security Administration in recent months has conducted tests in which it has been able to smuggle guns and bomb-making materials past airport security screeners. . . .
One pilot who crisscrosses the country and flies internationally told CNN he hasn’t seen an air marshal on board one of his flights in six months. A federal law enforcement officer, who is not affiliated with the air marshal service and who travels in and out of Washington every week, said he has gone for months without seeing a marshal on board. . . .
Yet, another pilot, who wanted to protect his identity because he carries a weapon in the cockpit, said he regularly flies in and out of New York’s airports and almost never encounters an air marshal.
“I would have to guess it’s fewer than 1 percent of all my flights,” the pilot said. “I’m guessing by the coverage of when I go to those cities, fewer than 1 percent.”
Air marshals who spoke with CNN anonymously in order to protect their jobs are especially troubled by the lack of coverage on flights in and out of Washington and New York, the two cities targeted by the 9/11 hijackers. Marshals, pilots and other law enforcement officials told CNN these flights are protected by far fewer air marshals than in the past. . . .
Air marshals told CNN that while the TSA tells the public it cannot divulge numbers because they are classified, the agency tells its own agents that at least 5 percent of all flights are covered.
But marshals across the country — all of whom spoke with CNN on the condition they not be identified for fear of losing their jobs — said the 5 percent figure quoted to them by their TSA bosses is not possible.
One marshal said that while security is certainly one reason the numbers are kept secret, he believes the agency simply doesn’t want taxpayers to know the truth.
“I would be very embarrassed by [the numbers] if they were to get out,” one air marshal said.
“The American public would be shocked. … I think the average person understands there’s no physical way to protect every single flight everywhere,” the air marshal said. “But it’s such a small percentage. It’s just very aggravating for us.”
Sources inside the air marshal field offices told CNN that the program has been unable to stem the losses of trained air marshals since the program’s numbers peaked in 2003 — and many of those who have left have not been replaced. . . .
David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance and a pilot himself, said that, based on conversations with other pilots and marshals, he believes the TSA is overstating the number of flights that are protected by a federal marshal.
In his e-mail to CNN, Alter wrote, “In 2007, the Federal Air Marshal Service attrition rate was approximately 6.5 percent, the same approximate average it has been for almost the entire period since the agency’s expansion after September 11, 2001.”
“I can only speak for myself and the 23,000 members of my organization, and we are not seeing anywhere near the coverage they are asserting they have,” Mackett said. “They are whistling past the graveyard, hoping against hope that this house of cards that they call airline security doesn’t come crashing down around them.” . . .
The federal air marshal budget this year is $720 million. But air marshals who spoke with CNN question where the money is going when their numbers are dwindling and fewer than 1 percent of flights are covered on any given day.

The next time you board a flight anywhere, your safety is likely in your own hands . . . and that of the terrorists who may be aboard. There isn’t a Federal Air Marshal anywhere for miles.
Michael Chertoff is atop the Department of Homeland Security, and under him, Kip Hawley heads the equally deceptively-named Transportation Security Administration which oversees the Federal Air Marshals.
Again, what happened to the money? And why aren’t we more adequately protected on flights? And how many times will these two men continue to pass the buck before the end of the year, when–thankfully–their time is up?
**** UPDATE: A pilot, who understandably wishes to remain anonymous, writes:

I am an armed pilot and I agree with the 1% assessment of FAM coverage. However, in rebuttal (and not in defense of DHS or “the skull”) there are quite a few armed pilots out there, the exact number I am not allowed to disclose. As long as we don’t accidentally discharge our weapon, we are there and trained and ready to defend our aircraft, and thus, our passengers.
I read your website daily, and I also study Islam and am attempting to learn Arabic so I someday may become a translator in the hope of defeating this Islamic menace we face. Notice I used the term Islamic menace and not Islamic extremist or war on terror.
Keep it coming, you are a g-dsend.

Thanks, anonymous pilot. And hopefully, many in your line of work have the same philosophy about the imminent threat, er . . . “Religion of Peace,” that faces us.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’m scheduled to be on “The Curtis Sliwa Show” on New York’s WABC-AM 770, this morning, at 10:40 a.m. Eastern. Listen Live.
Curtis and I will be discussing the predicament of embattled, indicted, Pimp-Daddy Detroit Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick.
My writing about Hizzoner Kilpatrick includes these two columns:
* D-Day in Detroit: Thuggish, Pan-Islamist Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick Learns His Fate
* On Detroit’s Lying Pimp-Daddy Mayor and His Latest Scandal