By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
Remember the Goose Creek terrorists? Youssef Samir Megahed and Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, the two guys who keep smiling in every photo (mug shots, in court, et al.), were stopped by State Troopers in Goose Creek, South Carolina near a military installation, with pipe bombs in their trunk (which they claimed were “just fireworks” and barbecuing materials).
Well, as investigator Bill Warner points out, the New York FBI is heavily involved in the case. Why?
Yesterday, The Tampa Tribune reported that there is now a third suspect, Moroccan national and University of South Florida student Karim Moussaoui, who was involved with the Smiling “Just Fireworks” terrorists, Megahed and Mohamed. He possessed a firearm, in violation of his visa and immigration status and on November 14, a federal criminal complaint was filed against him.

Mohamed and Megahed:
Smiling “Just Fireworks” Terrorists Have Mysterious New York Ties
As Bill Warner points out, the affidavit, signed by Tampa FBI Agent William Ortiz, accompanying the complaint notes that in August, Moussaoui told New York FBI Agents about his activities in July at a shooting range with Megahed:

4. On or about August 12, 2007, MOUSSAOUI told New York FBI Agents that on one occasion, he and AHMED LNU (a person now known to the FBI as AHMED ISHTAY) went to a shooting range with YOUSSEF SAMIR MEGAHED. He claimed that MEGAHED went to the range but that MOUSSAOUI and AHMED remained in the store browsing. MOUSSAOUI told New York FBI Agents he did not see what type of weapon MEGAHED used on this visit to the range.

[Emphasis added.]
So why is the New York FBI office involved when the activities of all of three of these people, thus far disclosed, occurred in Florida and South Carolina.
Apparently, they have a strong tie to New York–either Muslim terrorists there or a terrorist attack planned for the area.
What is the New York connection? And who is Ahmed Ishtay a/k/a Ahmed Lnu? What is his role in this terrorist conspiracy?
Stay tuned. We’ll be watching.
***
Bill Warner points out that everyone’s trying to minimize the third terrorist in this plot as just an innocent, green immigrant:

Everybody is downgrading the arrest of Karim Moussaoui as no big deal, just some naive Moroccan playing with a .22 rifle at the Shooting Range, he did not know the “Fed Rules”.

Riiiight. Just an innocent Muslim Arab hangin’ with two Muslim Arab terrorists at weapons training. Uh-huh. Nothing to see here. Move along.
**** UPDATE: Bill Warner sends the smiling photo of Karim Moussaoui, the third Smiling Terrorist and notes that the Temptations, sang in their 1971 song, “Smiling Faces,” sang:

Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes they don’t tell the truth, Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies

By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, I’ve repeatedly detailed the feds repeated losses in terrorism cases in court, most of which I’ve predicted (not a hard thing, given the feds’ track record). There was Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, then the Detroit Al-Qaeda terror cell (a case prosecutor Rick Convertino won, then the feds sabotaged it and asked the judge to throw out the convictions), then Sami Al-Arian and his co-defendants, then the Holy Land Foundation defendants, and so many more.
Score two more HUGE losses for our deliberately incompetent Department of “Justice” on the War on Terror.
Remember the Miami Muslims who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago? They trained in the martial arts in abandoned buildings in a warehouse district of Miami–exactly like the jihadist plot in Showtime’s first season of “Sleeper Cell.”

Convicted Islamic Jihad Terrorist Sami Al-Arian Going Free
Well, despite an FBI undercover informant and lots of evidence against the seven defendants, we lost . . . again.
Late yesterday, one of the seven–a lawful alien seeking citizenship–was acquitted and a mistrial was declared on the other six, as the jury of O.J.-The-Sequel actors was unable to reach a decision. Yet, more bad news that the feds fail to make their cases, with shoddy jury-picking, shoddy courtroom presentations, and “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” presentations of even the most inconclusive evidence to dilute their cases against terrorists:

Some believed the government’s conspiracy case was strong because the seven defendants took an oath to al Qaeda and had videotaped alleged target sites.
But other jurors thought the defendants, especially ringleader Narseal Batiste, were simply trying to con thousands of dollars out of an FBI-directed informant, who infiltrated the group and led the seven men deeper into the alleged terrorism plot. . . .
Batiste and his men believed he was a member of the terrorist group and gave him lists for weapons, ammunition, vehicles and other resources for their fledgling Islamic army.
The challenge for prosecutors was proving the defendants’ criminal intentions to join the conspiracy — one that an FBI deputy director said was more “aspirational than operational.”

A problem with this case was that an Arabic FBI informant was paid $80,000 to persuade these Black mostly immigrants to take the Al-Qaeda oath and give them a camera to videotape sites to blow up. But, yet, with so many fervently Muslim Arabs (and other Muslims) in America who openly support and endorse terrorism, the FBI–instead of entrapping them as they did with these guys who are not as much the genuine article–sponsors their banquets and hangs with them in “outreach.”
This is why we are losing the domestic War on Terror and will continue to do so.
Then, there is Sami Al-Arian, the Islamic Jihad founder and worldwide chief in the ’90s. Despite the fact that he is a terrorist who–from our shores–openly financed bus bombings of innocent people, including the murder of New Jersey college student Alisa Flatow, he is about to go free. Why?
Well, ask your feds. Ask the incompetent Justice Department officials whose salaries you pay and who threw Al-Arian’s trial. Then, they made a deal with him–a plea agreement. Because Al-Arian knew that he beat a trial in Federal Court, would probably beat a retrial, but would lose in Immigration Court, where the standard and the judges are tougher, he and the feds made a deal.
He would cooperate in prosecution of Islamic charities in Northern Virginia, which were laundering money from the Saudis to Al-Qaeda (and had laundered mucho moola to Al-Arian and Islamic Jihad). He agreed to testify against them. In exchange, he was sentenced by a tough-acting judge to a soft five years in prison, which he’s now served. Then, he would be deported to Egypt, where a guy like that is a hero.
But Al-Arian refused to testify against the charities and other defendants. He violated the plea deal because, he claimed, he only meant to testify if people’s lives weren’t ruined, according to his lawyer, George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley (thanks to Bill Warner for the tip). Hello . . . ? All such testimony destroys people’s lives–the people who deserve it because they committed crimes and ruined other people’s lives. So, did he get punished for that. Why, no. Of course, not.
Although originally, the federal judge put Al-Arian in contempt, the judge has now lifted that contempt order, pursuant to acquiescence by the feds.
Gee, way to get terrorists to abide by plea deals and testify against their compatriots. Why should they, if the agreement means nothing? If they are freed from jail anyway?
Now, Palestinian Al-Arian is going to Egypt to freedom and party-time. If you think he will give up his terrorist activity once he’s there and away from FBI/ICE scrutiny, think again. This will be the base of operations, from which he will share his expertise on how to terror fundraise in the U.S. and plan bus bombings of Jews. Love how we punish those terrorists.
A collective, non-stop laugh is coming out of the Muslim world. And they are laughing at you, America.
Congrats, your “justice” system is a circus. And the Islamic terrorists are P.T. Barnum. They’re running the show.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’ve received many Chanukah and Christmas cards this year (thanks to the readers who sent me e-cards!).

On a light and tasteless note, I received this hilarious card from my friend, former House Republican staffer and now-lobbyist Jason Roe, the smart guy and smart aleck who heads the Federal Strategy Group . . .

I’m surprised a lobbying group had the chutzpah to send something like this out. But, occasionally, humorless Washington departs from its predictable self. Very rarely, though.
Wide Stance.

By Debbie Schlussel
The mainstream media and Muslims–especially HAMAS front-group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations)–are making a big deal out of a story in which a Muslim man “saved” three Jews from attack in the New York subway from people who objected to them saying “Happy Chanukah” to subway riders.
That’s great. But ya know, there’s a reason anti-Semitism is at its highest levels since the Holocaust. And the Muslim religion is a big reason. So because one guy bucked his entire religion of 1.6 billion mostly Jew-haters, it’s really not a big deal. It’s hardly an H2O molecule in an ocean.
If only the media made as big of a deal of the regular assassinations of Jews–on a daily basis–by Muslims in and around Israel, as they are of this one guy, then we’d be in biz.

Jews Saved on Subway By Muslim Anomaly
But they (the Mainstream Media) don’t. They don’t care about Jews being slaughtered by Muslims. It happens every day. And Jewish lives just ain’t that important to them. Just like they weren’t too important to them, during the Holocaust, when the New York Times and other papers wouldn’t cover it and covered it up.
So, to the Muslim guy who helped these Jews under attack, I say, good for you. You are courageous. But where are the other 1.6 billion of your fellow co-religionists?
There at a mosque listening to a sermon about killing Jews and Christians and others, or watching Al-Jazeera or Al-Manar or Al-Arabiya hearing similar instructions. Or at a bookstore helping make Mein Kampf a continued best-seller in the Muslim world. Or partying to Daniel “I am a Jew” Pearl and Nick Berg videos.
They’re the ones who tell me everything I need to know about your faith. Not your one anomalous and meaningless instance of Muslim Man Bites Non-Halal Dog.
The consistent trend in your religion is so far in the other direction, it fell off the continuum.

By Debbie Schlussel
We all know that, if it came down to it, People for the Unethical Treatament of Animals and humans (PUTAh) a/k/a “PETA” President Ingrid Newkirk would never offer herself oup for experiments to save our lives. She’d never offer to take the place of one of the animals she claims is so precious and equal to a human being.
Yet, PETA continues in its absurd media-grabbing tactics with a letter to Homeland Security’s Michael “Serpenthead” Chertoff asking him to something good that has nothing to do with his horrid “leadership”–experimenting on animals to improve medical countermeasures that could help protect us–and her and her PUTAh friends–in a biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear terrorist attack. That’s a National Institutes of Health endeavor:

PETA Targets DHS Over Worthy NON-DHS Program

“I urge you to put an immediate end to this completely unnecessary abuse of chimpanzees,” Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wrote to Chertoff.
PETA set its sights on Chertoff because his department oversees work done under a government program called Project BioShield, a multiagency effort to improve medical countermeasures that could help protect people during biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear terrorist attacks.
The bioterrorism research, being conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), involves tests on chimpanzees to try to develop antibody treatments for potentially deadly pathogens such as anthrax and smallpox ‚Äî pathogens the government warns could be used by terrorists to sicken and kill thousands of people. Bioterrorist attacks are one of the government’s biggest concerns in the war on terror.
PETA says the tests require painful bone marrow extractions and decades of cruel isolation for the caged chimps and aren’t needed. . . .
[A spokesman for NIH where the research is conducted said that] nimals in federally funded research projects are protected by laws and regulations “to ensure they are used in the smallest numbers possible and with the greatest commitment to their comfort.”
He added that the animals are given anesthesia and other medication to prevent pain during the bone marrow extractions. . . .
Dozier said “national and international sentiment has clearly turned away from using chimpanzees in research.”

Uh, it has? News to me. The only poll they need to take for this is of people dying of smallpox or anthrax exposure. I guarantee the results of that polling will be otherwise.
Give these fatal illneses and exposures to Newkirk and the PUTAh gang. And then see whether or not they want to die or have animal experimentation. If they choose death, well . . . that’s what natural selection is all about.

By Debbie Schlussel
This must have been an interesting cab ride:
Retired Formula One race car driving champ Michael Schumacher and his family were late for the airport in Germany. So, Schumacher booted his taxicab driver and drove, er . . . raced the cab to the airport himself:

“It was sheer lunacy,” cabbie Tuncer Yilmaz told the Muenchener Abendzeitung newspaper. “He took the curves with full speed, but you couldn’t even notice it. He just knows how to do it.”

Schumacher gave him a $146 tip plus the $88 fare.

By Debbie Schlussel
A record high number of U.S. Army soldiers have committed suicide, this year, according to Army statistics of suspected and confirmed suicides. The number–a rate of 18.4% per 100,000 soldiers is the highest since the Army started counting in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The figures are troubling. And because they want to blame it on our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, MSM outlets like USA Today, are making the story front page news. And liberal Senators, like Patty Murray (D-Washington) are also blaming it on that.
But there’s another story behind the numbers:
We don’t know how many of those who committed suicide were even sent to the war zone. And Army research shows that almost 70% of suicides in 2006 were spurred by failed relationships. Did those relationships fail because one spouse was stuck in Iraq or Afghanistan? Or were there other causes. Also, the stats show that, but for a dip in the suicide numbers in 2004 (in the middle of our Iraqi involvement), the suicide rate has climbed steadily, including in 2001 and 2002–before we ever went to Iraq.
You can blame a lot of things on the war in Iraq. But not this.

By Debbie Schlussel
Thinking of sending a holiday card or letter of thanks to our wounded troops or to just any soldier serving?
Sadly, that deed is now dead. If you send such a letter, it will be returned to you or thrown away unopened:

Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to “Any Wounded Soldier” for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages.
Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season.
“Are we going to forget our soldiers because we are running in fear?” Fena D’Ottavio asked. The suburban Chicago woman was using her blog to encourage friends to send mail to unspecified soldiers until she learned of the ban, which she called a sad commentary on society.
Last season, despite the rule, officials say as many as 450,000 pieces of mail not addressed to anyone in particular managed to reach Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. But they were returned or, if they had no return address, were thrown out altogether, because the hospital lacked the manpower to open and screen all the mail, spokesman Terry Goodman said.
“A lot of this is because of security concerns because it’s unsolicited mail that someone is going to have to go through,” Goodman said. “Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn’t support the war, and then you’ve got a wounded soldier getting it.”
Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, a spokesman with the Army Human Resources Command, said no one tracks the amount of unnamed-soldier mail being returned, so it is impossible to judge the size of the problem.
The busiest part of the holiday season has yet to arrive, but officials said they are receiving far less mail this year addressed simply to “A Recovering American Soldier” or “Any Wounded Soldier.”
Candy Roquemore of Austin, Texas, was also promoting the idea of sending cards to wounded soldiers until she found out about the rule. . . .
She added: “I just wanted to say, `Thank you, sorry you’re hurt, and happy holidays.'” . . .
The USO is one of the organizations the military is encouraging people to support with donations as an alternative to sending cards to unspecified soldiers. The military is also referring people to the American Red Cross and a Defense Department Web site where supporters have posted thousands of messages to troops.
Some groups are offering to forward mail to the troops. Aides to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., are offering to accept letters, screen them through the U.S. Capitol mail operation, and get them to members of the armed forces.

To send one through Senator Sessions’ office, you must include the notation “Christmas Cards for Our Troops,” sending it to:
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions
335 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0104
Attention: Christmas Cards for Our Troops
Or you can send it through E.D. Hill at FOX News:
E.D. Hill
FOX News
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Attention: Christmas Cards for Our Troops
Also, although it is not as touching as sending a handwritten letter or tangible card, you can also post a note to our troops on “To Our Soldiers,” an Army site.

By Debbie Schlussel
The sports world is abuzz about the Mitchell Report to be released at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, today. Former Senator George Mitchell was commissioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) to investigate the use of steroids in the pro sports league. The report names names and is expected to name 60-80 former and current MLB stars, including many big names that will allegedly “shock you.”
But the study does not delve into illegal drug use in baseball other than steroids. And MLB Commissioner Bud Selig won’t even be at the press conference. He’ll hold his own later in the day.

George Mitchell & MLB Commissioner Bud Selig
I think MLB should ignore the report, as it will. Why? Well, if you think calls for Barry Bonds to have an asterisk by his name are bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. Team wins, champions in pennant races, virtually all of baseball’s scores and teams’ records will have to be asterisked. We’re talking a good number of players. It will be too much for baseball to start disqualifying people for what they did in the past. And that will put the sport out of business. Not that I’m worried about these multi-millionaire players and their billionaire boss/team owners. I don’t. But they do care about themselves. And business is business.
Many of the players named will either deny their usage or say that they have since ceased usage of illegal steroids. And, remember, George Mitchell ain’t a court of law. He’s simply a smart but highly overrated former Democratic U.S. Senator from New England.
The only reason owners commissioned this report was to show Congress that it was doing something, so that Congress wouldn’t take away the age-old exemption MLB has from anti-trust laws and further regulate the sport. And MLB owners, through Selig, will say that they’ve already taken steps, enacted new, frequent steroid testing of players, and put in place harsh (in some cases, career-ending) penalties.
The new steps in place basically proscribe MLB from doing anything to the players named in the report, anyway. The new tests take place now and can’t apply to allegations–or even proven instances–of what substances players used in the past. The clever Donald Fehr and the Major League Baseball Players Association made sure of that.
So, the report means nothing. It will just provide fodder for the scandal sheets and bring 60-80 people under a microscope. But, hey, misery loves company. And with 59-79 other people to share in the misery, those named today won’t be the lightning rods Barry Bonds has been.
So, do you want 60-80 plus asterisks and the past few seasons of Major League Baseball asterisked the way some called for that with Barry Bonds?
If not, then the report means nothing.
****
For once, I agree with my friend and former radio colleague, Detroit Newsistan Sports columnist Rob Parker (a huge baseball fan), who essentially says the same about the Mitchell Report:

Detroit Newsistan Sports Columnist Rob Parker

[T]he uncovered information — compiled after more than 20 months of interviews and investigations of many baseball personnel — isn’t worth anything and should be taken with a grain of salt. Clearly, it’s nothing more than window dressing for those in Congress and others outside of baseball to prove something was done in light of these revelations. . . .
That’s why commissioner Bud Selig should do nothing. Yes, nothing. No suspensions, no damnation of the sport. And for the first time, it’ll be a good thing.
What’s done can’t be undone.
So unless Selig is ready to wipe out everything during this period — wins, losses, hits, runs, home runs and awards — there isn’t anything that can be done.
You can’t change history, even if it’s lousy. . . .
Still, it’s funny how countless players in the NFL are suspended for steroid use on a yearly basis and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. No one wants the NFL to tear up records or question its integrity of the sport. It’s simply accepted.
And as we’ve seen in cycling, track and field and so many other sports, this is a widespread problem, not just a baseball problem.
The Mitchell Report will tell you baseball has flaws and warts just like the rest of society.
This whole idea baseball has to be perfect and have unblemished integrity is silly.
Selig has to hold on to the idea baseball never has been healthier and is booming. Selig recently announced baseball generated a record-breaking $6 billion in revenue this season. In the storm of all the steroid talk, fans have continued to flock to ballparks all over the country, setting an all-time attendance record three seasons in a row.
Make no mistake about it: That means more than any report — even if it names names.

The marketplace has decided. And the baseball marketplace clearly doesn’t care about steroid use. They want to see home-run races.

By Debbie Schlussel
On Monday, I wrote about “There Will Be Blood,” the long, miserable, anti-Christian, anti-business movie that all the mainstream media movie critics are raving about. I did not like the movie, released at the end of this month. It stars British/Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis, whom I described as a “great actor.”
Reader HR sets me straight and sent me this long, lying anti-Israel propaganda piece Day-Lewis wrote for The Times of the UK. Clearly, I was wrong about Day-Lewis. Regardless of his acting skills, he’s not great at all. Instead, he’s just yet another self-hating Jew and far-left Hollywood ranter.

What Daniel Day-Lewis Won’t Admit:
There Will Be Palestinian/Islamist-Spilt Blood
As HR wrote to me:

Did you forget his [Daniel Day-Lewis’] visit to Gaza in 2005?
Did he ever visit Israel to offer support and condemn the Palestinian killers?

HR is right. Mea culpa.
Don’t help Daniel Day-Lewis continue to export his far-left, self-hating views. Skip his movies, especially this very dreadful one.
It’s true that “There Will Be Blood,” so long as Israel exists among a religion that wishes its (and all non-Muslims’) death–the same religion that Day-Lewis seems to have an undue “guilt complex” for.