FamilySecurityMatters.org Resident Cartoonist Steve Bowers, Esq., is an attorney and a keen observer of America’s political scene.
July 2009
Monthly Archive
Wed 29 Jul 2009 21:34
Wed 29 Jul 2009 19:43
Mexican illegal alien shoots at wedding reception crowd, but it’s okay, he’s a Wise Latino
Posted by: MalcontentCategories: All Posts , Illegal Alien Nation , Viva Mexico , Wise Latinos/Latinas
No Comment
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This undated police mug shot provided by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police shows Francisco Ponce. An 18-month-old Indiana girl was in critical condition Sunday, July 26, 2009 after being shot in the head when a man open fired during a wedding reception, police said. Ponce was arrested on a preliminary charge of attempted murder. |
INDIANAPOLIS — Authorities say a gunman opened fire at a wedding reception in Indianapolis, shooting a 2-year-old girl in the head, because he wanted to show how tough he was.
Marion County prosecutors charged 21-year-old Francisco Ponce on Wednesday with felony aggravated battery and other counts.
Prosecutor’s office spokesman Mario Massillamany says an attempted murder charge was dropped because it didn’t appear Ponce intended to kill anyone.
Police say Ponce fired three shots into the crowd at the Saturday night reception, striking Yuridia Sosa in the head and hitting two women in the legs. The child was listed in critical but stable condition Wednesday at Methodist Hospital.
Massillamany says Ponce is an illegal Mexican immigrant and prosecutors will try to have him deported.
Hmm, if someone opens fire into a crowd, how is it you can even think that the shooter had no intention of killing anyone? Because the shooter said he was only trying to show how tough he was. Well, alrighty then! It’s comforting to know that the prosecutors will TRY to have the armed and dangerous " tough" POS Mexican illegal alien deported.
Had enough yet?
Wed 29 Jul 2009 19:03
U.S. Soldier Demands Apology From U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill
Posted by: MalcontentCategories: All Posts , Congressional Critters
No Comment
Via Bob McCarty
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) held a town hall meeting last night at Forest Park Community College in St. Louis.
The subject: Obamacare. While hundreds of her upset constituents attended the meeting, the senator did not.
Instead, the loyal supporter of President Barack Obama opted instead to send a team of staffers in her place. Coward! a
As the headline above intimates, the crowd was large and angry and included one veteran of the fighting in the Middle East who was captured on video demanding an apology from Senator McCaskill for not following the Constitution.
Wed 29 Jul 2009 18:32
I have no idea whether Barrack Obama is a natural born American. I’m not a "birther" and I haven’t spent a lot of time on the issue, but I have noticed a lot of people are curious, not just fringe "kooks", but reasonable people who seem to have logical reasons for their curiosity. I do not know if Obama fits the constitutional requirements for the Presidency, but I do know Democrats, and when then work hard to hide something, that something is usually a doozy.
Think for a moment of other recent examples of Democrat cover-ups. John Kerry comes to mind. The press excoriated anyone who questioned his military record. Yet, despite the very public promises to release his full record, most notably to the late Tim Russert, he has never done so. He never will, because in that record one would find just what a liar John Kerry is. Apparently, he never actually made the trip to Cambodia that is seared in his memory, but he did take one to Paris to talk to the Viet Cong. So far, thanks to President Carter reinstating his medals, it has been a very successful cover up.
John Edwards portrayed himself as the quintessential husband and father. His boyish good looks, his empathy for the downtrodden and his abiding love for his cancer stricken wife made him a vice-presidential shoo-in, except for that mistress and love child that he visited regularly. Despite his staffers covering for him and the press spiking reporting on the affair, it came out, a very unsuccessful cover-up for Edwards. We are assured however, that even though he admits the affair, the child is not his. Oh, and there will be no DNA testing of the child.
How about all the assurances that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good order? No audits or reforms necessary, everything is just fine. How many members of Congress blocked meaningful regulation for many years? The Democrats have profited and continue to profit greatly from the two enterprises, costing the taxpayers billions. Yet a majority of Americans blame President Bush for the financial crisis. Yet another successful cover-up, as well as an effective propaganda campaign courtesy of the party of coincidence. Do you remember that financial crisis that miraculously popped up last November? You know, just before the election. Pure coincidence, really, you can trust the Democrats.
And last but not least, is the record of the Clinton administration’s contribution to 9-11. We know that members of the administration actively built barriers to data sharing between intelligence and law enforcement. We know the Clintons viewed terrorism as a law enforcement matter. We know that Madeleine Albright warned Pakistan before Clinton’s half-hearted cruise missile strike on Bin Laden, thereby giving days of warning to Al Qaeda.
We know that soon after the formation of 9-11 commission was officially announced the Clinton administrations National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, went to National Archives over a period of weeks to steal and destroy highly classified records of the Clinton administration decision-making process in handling Al-Qaeda and terrorism. He stuck them in his pants and socks and later burned and shredded them. You can bet they held incriminating evidence, evidence that would have tanked the Democrats on security issues and ripped away the "Clinton Legacy." It was a very successful cover-up, about which the press is remarkably silent. Berger received what amounts to a wrist slap, while old Bill laughed it off saying; "That Sandy, he’s so absent minded."
By all reports, Obama and his administration have gone to great expense to prevent examination of his birth record outside of carefully staged statements from loyal Democrats. When Presidential spokespersons ridicule and demean Americans, even political enemies, in a public forum, they are purposely inserting ideas into the public psyche, and when those ideas are choreographed with the press you can bet it was cooked up among the likes of ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, CNN’s James Carville, CNN commentator Paul Begala, and Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The message appears on leftist web-exchanges like Journo List and it is off to the political smear races. If you say a thing often enough, people will eventually believe it, for example; the press is in the Democrats’ pocket, the press is in the Democrats pocket, the press is in the Democrats pocket… Well, that one is real.
Now, conveniently, we have Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii’s Department of Health, telling us she’s seen the documents and they are legitimate. If one wanted to conspire to protect a Democrat President, who is from Hawaii, where else would you go for eager supporters. So the controversy continues until impartial credible observers review the documents. Maybe Obama was indeed born in Hawaii. Could the controversy be more accurately about who is father was and not his birthplace? It would certainly be an embarrassment after all the "Dreams of my Father" hagiographies and "my souls from Africa" shtick.
Conservative elites sniff in arrogant distain at the birth document "conspiracy theory, "of course, and admonish us not to fall into the Democrat trap. The controversy is not helping us they complain, the left is painting us as kooks. I hate to break it to you Professor, but the left always paints conservatives as kooks. They also fabricate, lie, manipulate and intimidate. It is standard practice, it will not stop, and you will see any conservative personality that gets traction get the "Ann Coulter" treatment for anything they say. Sarah Palin for example is the target of a well funded, well attended (by the press) smear campaign. It is organized, focused and financed by the Democrat machine. They view her as the chief threat to Obama in 2012. We have years of Sarah smearing to look forward to. The Obama birth records controversy will be similarly exploited for any political advantage, and used to demean and ridicule any on the right who pursue it. I’m no"birther," but I smell a cover-up, I’m just not sure of what. With the Democrats you can be sure, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and they are working overtime to hide it.
Think for a moment of other recent examples of Democrat cover-ups. John Kerry comes to mind. The press excoriated anyone who questioned his military record. Yet, despite the very public promises to release his full record, most notably to the late Tim Russert, he has never done so. He never will, because in that record one would find just what a liar John Kerry is. Apparently, he never actually made the trip to Cambodia that is seared in his memory, but he did take one to Paris to talk to the Viet Cong. So far, thanks to President Carter reinstating his medals, it has been a very successful cover up.
John Edwards portrayed himself as the quintessential husband and father. His boyish good looks, his empathy for the downtrodden and his abiding love for his cancer stricken wife made him a vice-presidential shoo-in, except for that mistress and love child that he visited regularly. Despite his staffers covering for him and the press spiking reporting on the affair, it came out, a very unsuccessful cover-up for Edwards. We are assured however, that even though he admits the affair, the child is not his. Oh, and there will be no DNA testing of the child.
How about all the assurances that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good order? No audits or reforms necessary, everything is just fine. How many members of Congress blocked meaningful regulation for many years? The Democrats have profited and continue to profit greatly from the two enterprises, costing the taxpayers billions. Yet a majority of Americans blame President Bush for the financial crisis. Yet another successful cover-up, as well as an effective propaganda campaign courtesy of the party of coincidence. Do you remember that financial crisis that miraculously popped up last November? You know, just before the election. Pure coincidence, really, you can trust the Democrats.
And last but not least, is the record of the Clinton administration’s contribution to 9-11. We know that members of the administration actively built barriers to data sharing between intelligence and law enforcement. We know the Clintons viewed terrorism as a law enforcement matter. We know that Madeleine Albright warned Pakistan before Clinton’s half-hearted cruise missile strike on Bin Laden, thereby giving days of warning to Al Qaeda.
We know that soon after the formation of 9-11 commission was officially announced the Clinton administrations National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, went to National Archives over a period of weeks to steal and destroy highly classified records of the Clinton administration decision-making process in handling Al-Qaeda and terrorism. He stuck them in his pants and socks and later burned and shredded them. You can bet they held incriminating evidence, evidence that would have tanked the Democrats on security issues and ripped away the "Clinton Legacy." It was a very successful cover-up, about which the press is remarkably silent. Berger received what amounts to a wrist slap, while old Bill laughed it off saying; "That Sandy, he’s so absent minded."
By all reports, Obama and his administration have gone to great expense to prevent examination of his birth record outside of carefully staged statements from loyal Democrats. When Presidential spokespersons ridicule and demean Americans, even political enemies, in a public forum, they are purposely inserting ideas into the public psyche, and when those ideas are choreographed with the press you can bet it was cooked up among the likes of ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, CNN’s James Carville, CNN commentator Paul Begala, and Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The message appears on leftist web-exchanges like Journo List and it is off to the political smear races. If you say a thing often enough, people will eventually believe it, for example; the press is in the Democrats’ pocket, the press is in the Democrats pocket, the press is in the Democrats pocket… Well, that one is real.
Now, conveniently, we have Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii’s Department of Health, telling us she’s seen the documents and they are legitimate. If one wanted to conspire to protect a Democrat President, who is from Hawaii, where else would you go for eager supporters. So the controversy continues until impartial credible observers review the documents. Maybe Obama was indeed born in Hawaii. Could the controversy be more accurately about who is father was and not his birthplace? It would certainly be an embarrassment after all the "Dreams of my Father" hagiographies and "my souls from Africa" shtick.
Conservative elites sniff in arrogant distain at the birth document "conspiracy theory, "of course, and admonish us not to fall into the Democrat trap. The controversy is not helping us they complain, the left is painting us as kooks. I hate to break it to you Professor, but the left always paints conservatives as kooks. They also fabricate, lie, manipulate and intimidate. It is standard practice, it will not stop, and you will see any conservative personality that gets traction get the "Ann Coulter" treatment for anything they say. Sarah Palin for example is the target of a well funded, well attended (by the press) smear campaign. It is organized, focused and financed by the Democrat machine. They view her as the chief threat to Obama in 2012. We have years of Sarah smearing to look forward to. The Obama birth records controversy will be similarly exploited for any political advantage, and used to demean and ridicule any on the right who pursue it. I’m no"birther," but I smell a cover-up, I’m just not sure of what. With the Democrats you can be sure, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and they are working overtime to hide it.
Wed 29 Jul 2009 13:56
Salt Lake City Wise Latino law firm charged with largest immigration fraud scheme in Utah history
Posted by: MalcontentCategories: All Posts , Illegal Alien Nation , Wise Latinos/Latinas
No Comment
Wed 29 Jul 2009 13:05
Disaster in the Making: Obama’s repeated demonstrations of his amateurism and immaturity
Posted by: T2MCategories: All Posts , Dear Leader
No Comment
After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust. When that person is the president of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited. Many people are rightly worried about what this administration’s reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief. He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts, including a nuclear Iran, which has every prospect of being an irretrievable disaster of almost unimaginable magnitude. We cannot put that genie back in the bottle — and neither can generations yet unborn. They may yet curse us all for leaving them hostages to nuclear terror. Conceivably, Israel can spare us that fate by taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities, instead of relying on Obama’s ability to talk the Iranians out of going nuclear. What the Israelis cannot spare us, however, are our own internal problems, of which the current flap over President Obama’s injecting himself into a local police issue is just a small sign of a very big danger. Nothing has torn more countries apart from inside than racial and ethnic polarization. Just this year, a decades-long civil war, filled with unspeakable atrocities, has finally ended in Sri Lanka. The painful irony is that, when the former British colony became an independent nation in 1948, its people were considered to be a shining example for the world of good relations between a majority (the Sinhalese) and a minority (the Tamils). That all changed when politicians decided to “solve” the “problem” that the Tamil minority was much more economically successful than the Sinhalese majority. Group identity politics led to group preferences and quotas that escalated into polarization, mob violence, and ultimately civil war. Group identity politics has poisoned many other countries, including at various times Kenya, Czechoslovakia, Fiji, Guyana, Canada, Nigeria, India, and Rwanda. In some countries the polarization has gone as far as mass expulsions or civil war. The desire of many Americans for a “post-racial” society is well-founded, though the belief that Barack Obama would move in that direction was extremely ill-advised, given the history of his actions and associations. This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites — and ultimately the number one elite, Barack Obama himself. Like so many before him who have ruined countries around the world, Obama has a greatly inflated idea of his own capabilities and of what can be accomplished by rhetoric or even by political power. Often this has been accompanied by an ignorance of history, including the history of how many people before him have tried similar things with disastrous results. During a recent TV interview, when President Obama was asked about the prospects of victory in Afghanistan, he replied that it would not be victory like in World War II, with “Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.” In reality, it was not Emperor Hirohito who surrendered on the battleship Missouri. American troops were already occupying Japan before Hirohito met Gen. Douglas MacArthur for the first time. This is not the first betrayal of his ignorance by Obama, nor the first overlooked by the media. Moreover, ignorance by itself is not nearly as bad as charging full steam ahead, pretending to know. Barack Obama is doing that on a lot of issues, not just history or a local police incident in Massachusetts. While the mainstream media in America will never call him on this, these repeated demonstrations of his amateurism and immaturity will not go unnoticed by this country’s enemies around the world. And it is the American people who will pay the price.
Wed 29 Jul 2009 13:03
Man says voice told him to start fire to get rid of the “heebie-jeebies†under his bed
Posted by: T2MCategories: All Posts , Bullshit
No Comment
KEENESBURG — A man accused of setting fire to a business and apartment complex in Keenesburg Monday night told deputies he had to set the fire to get rid of the “heebie-jeebies” under his bed.
Although the suspect, Jerry Lee Haffner, 41, is not on a mental hold, he may be evaluated because of the story he told deputies Monday night after the fire.
Haffner is being held in the Weld County Jail on first-degree arson charges, and his bond has been set at $100,000.
According to court records, the suspect told deputies he hears a voice in his head that belongs to an FBI agent named Melissa and the voice told him he had to start a fire to chase away the heebie-jeebies from under his bed. He said the heebie-jeebies are trying to kill him all the time.
Jerry Haffner said he used a can of spray paint and a cigarette lighter to make a kind of blow torch and aimed it under his bed.
The fire was reported about 5 p.m. Monday, and other residents of the apartments were home at the time of the fire.
At least one man had to be rescued when he was caught on the top floor of the building at 77 Main St. in Keenesburg.
According to Weld County Sheriff’s spokesman Shane Scofield, the man in the building was able to get one of his arms through a small gap in a window. Deputy Kris Haffner threw his baton to the man and told him to break the window with it. The deputy borrowed a ladder from a nearby business and set it up next to the window so the man could climb down, Scofield said.
Later, the deputy learned that the man suspected of starting the fire was a distant relative, Scofield said.
When first asked about the fire, Jerry Haffner told deputies it was an accident, started by a candle in his apartment. Investigators were suspicious about the story, and when they talked to him later at a bar, he told them about the heebie-jeebies.
He also said the FBI agent, Melissa, was “wired into his head.”
Jerry Haffner told deputies he self-medicates on methamphetamines for a mental disorder. He said he hadn’t taken his other medications for about four months, according to court records, but Jerry Haffner admitted to using methamphetamines the night before the fire.
Several other people lived in the building, but they are currently homeless because of the fire. Most of the fire damage was on the first floor, while the other apartments sustained water and smoke damage. No one was injured. The American Red Cross, however, was at the scene Monday night to help the residents.
Keenesburg fire officials weren’t certain about the dollar estimate on damage or when the residents could return.
This was a second arson fire in Keenesburg in the past week. On Friday, Richard Norton, 63, was arrested on attempted first-degree murder, arson and assault charges after he allegedly stabbed his boss at a recreational vehicle storage area and then set fire to the business. He was arrested after an 11-hour standoff with SWAT team members.
The boss, Dan Stallsworth, is recovering at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley from the injuries, but his condition could not be released by hospital officials.
Wed 29 Jul 2009 12:06
Obama Demands $60 Billion in Savings From Military Fighting Two Wars
Posted by: T2MCategories: All Posts , Dear Leader
No Comment
This is the same Barack Obama who asked the entire federal government to come up with $100 million in savings over the next year and couldn’t deliver on deadline. Yet the military, actively engaged in two hot wars and fighting a global war on terror, or counterinsurgency, or contingency operation, or whatever the euphemism of the day is, will be asked to cut six hundred times as much in order to "pay for new priorities to be set by the Defense secretary, a top Pentagon official said Tuesday," according to the latest report from CQ’s Josh Rogin:
The order from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is based on an assumption that there will be no real growth in defense budgets over the next five years, a radical departure for a department whose budgets have increased more than 80 percent since 2001….
One of the driving factors so far in the evaluation is the prospect that defense budgets largely will be static in fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2015, said David Ochmanek, deputy assistant secretary of defense for force transformation and resources.
The military services must “find offsets” to make room for the new capabilities that Gates wants to add or expand, he said. “They’re now busily looking for those billpayers,” said Ochmanek. “That’s how the zero growth assumption manifests itself.”
Zero growth for our troops. Zero growth for the defense of our country. And all the while, ballooning deficits to pay for health care, stimulus spending, car companies, and a $20 million dollar vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. Republicans are busy fending off ObamaCare (and having some success), but I suspect that when the dust settles on all Obama’s domestic initiatives, and assuming there is at least some marginal economic recovery over the next 18 months, this gutting of our nation’s military may well be the most fertile ground for Republicans in the midterm election — and in 2012.
Wed 29 Jul 2009 08:09
Banned, the police Union Flag badge that backs British troops
Posted by: T2MCategories: All Posts
No Comment
Scores of Scotland Yard officers are in open revolt after being banned from wearing Union Flag badges in support of British troops.
Met chiefs have decreed that the tiny emblems – which cost £1 with proceeds going to charity – must be removed after a complaint that they are offensive.
But furious junior officers are continuing to wear them in defiance at the politically correct stance.
A petition has been launched on the Downing Street website demanding they be allowed to wear the badges, which are to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and the Help for Heroes charity.
Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘The decision to forbid police officers from joining the rest of the country in showing support for those who are fighting for their country is nothing less than shameful.’
The row started when 200 officers at Heathrow Airport were barred from wearing the badges last month on the grounds that they were in breach of the Met’s strict dress code.
The order is thought to have followed a complaint from a member of public that the symbol is ‘offensive’.
But about 70 officers, many of whom have been in the Services or have relatives fighting in Afghanistan, have ignored the directive despite warnings of disciplinary action.
Mr Smyth, who represents more than 30,000 rank and file officers, said staff in the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Group, CO19 firearms squad and dog units have joined the revolt. In a statement on the Metropolitan Police Federation’s website, he said: ‘As the country mourned the deaths of young soldiers and saluted the heroism of the men and women fighting in Afghanistan, Met officers at the airport were ordered to take off small, one-inch square Union Flag badges because someone had complained they were offensive.’
One of the emblems. The banning order is thought to have followed a complaint from a member of public that the symbol is ‘offensive’
Officers at Heathrow were also ordered to take down a Union Flag hoisted on June 27 – Armed Forces Day – because it was not an ‘approved ensign’. Strict rules are in place about when the Union Flag can be flown at individual police stations.
Mr Smyth added: ‘These orders from senior officers are legal and must be obeyed. They are, however, also completely crass.’
He added: ‘Personnel serving in the armed forces pass through Heathrow, but are being denied any boost to morale they might get from a very modest display of support by the Metropolitan Police. ‘It is not even as if the wearing of “unofficial” badges is without precedent.’
Mr Smyth said said senior officers routinely turn a blind eye to constables wearing gay pride ribbons when they go on marches.
Strictly speaking, officers are not allowed to wear any type of badge on their uniforms. Mr Smyth said: ‘From what I can gather, someone may have complained that the Union Flag is offensive. I find that hard to believe. We take the oath to serve the Queen and these badges are for a charitable cause.’
In 2003 police officers were for the first time allowed to wear their uniforms during the Gay Pride march in London. Senior officers are said to routinely turn a blind eye to officers wearing gay pride ribbons when they go on marches
He added that as the row has escalated, hundreds of patriotic officers have expressed an interest in buying the Union Flag badge.
In February, Scotland Yard was hit by another row over political correctness after the Union Flag hanging outside a police station was replaced by a gay rights flag to mark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) history month.
This is despite Met rules stating that only the Union Flag and its own flag can fly from force buildings. Scotland Yard said last night: ‘The Metropolitan Police has a dress code policy to clarify the dress standard expected from all staff whether they are wearing uniform or plain clothes. The Met wants to ensure that everyone projects a smart and professional image in support of delivering a quality service.
‘The dress code states only the approved corporate badging may be used and only on clothing authorised by the Clothing Board.’
Those wishing to support the badge wearing officers can sign the Downing Street petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PoliceUniform
Wed 29 Jul 2009 07:01
North Carolina Jihad
Posted by: MalcontentCategories: All Posts , Americans Who Hate America
No Comment
By: Robert Spencer
Seven American citizens and one U.S. permanent resident were charged in North Carolina with, according to the Justice Department, “conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.” The indictment centers around the activities of an American convert to Islam, 39-year-old Daniel “Saifullah” Boyd (a drywall contractor who was apparently the ringleader of this group). It reveals yet again the international scope of jihadist activity – giving the lie to the common Leftist assertion that various jihads around the globe are isolated nationalist insurgencies with no connection to one another.
Above all, in the words of U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding, “these charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home.” How did seven American citizens, with their leader a convert to Islam, get the idea that supporting terrorists and participating in terrorist training was consonant with their religion – and was, indeed, a religious obligation? Holding didn’t say. But that is the question that must ultimately be answered, and policy formulated accordingly, if homegrown jihad activity of this type is to be prevented in the future.
It all started in 1989, when, according to the indictment, Boyd went to Pakistan and Afghanistan, attended jihad training camps, and fought alongside jihadists in Afghanistan. He didn’t leave Central Asia until 1992. His wife Sabrina Boyd has pointed out indignantly that in Afghanistan in the late Eighties, Boyd was battling the Soviet invaders “with the full backing of the United States government.” Indeed. But at that time the U.S. was aiding the Afghan mujahedin against the Soviets – and once they drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan, those same mujahedin quickly dashed hopes that the U.S. had won over their hearts and minds, hewing closely to the jihadist perspective that both the Soviet Union and the United States represented Satanic superpowers at war with Islam. If Boyd was fighting alongside the Afghan mujahedin in the late Eighties and early Nineties, that hardly constitutes evidence that his commitment to America was strong, or that his commitment to jihad was weak.
Besides Pakistan and Afghanistan, Boyd also visited another jihadist hotspot, Gaza, in March 2006. According to the DOJ, he went there with one of his sons (two of whom are among the seven suspected North Carolina jihadists), in order to introduce the young man to “individuals who also believed that violent jihad was a personal religious obligation.”
Then a year later, Boyd and some of the others who have just been indicted went to Israel “in an effort to engage in violent jihad, but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts.” But Boyd didn’t give up: in February 2008, he “allegedly solicited money to fund the travel of additional individuals overseas to engage in violent jihad” and plotted with two others among the seven who were indicted, Anes Subasic and Hysen Sherifi, to send mujahedin to prime areas of jihad activity around the world, and to fund their activities. Sherifi traveled in July 2008 to yet another hotbed of contemporary jihad, Kosovo. Meanwhile, Boyd and the others were allegedly conspiring, according to the DOJ, “to provide material support and resources to terrorists, including currency, training, transportation and personnel. The defendants also conspired to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad during this period. The object of the conspiracy, according to the indictment, was to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.”
Sabrina Boyd, however, maintains her husband’s innocence: “We’re an ordinary family. We have the right to justice, and we believe that justice will prevail. We are decent people who care about other human beings.” However, that is not in dispute. The question is whether Boyd, his sons, and the other accused plotters cared about other human beings enough to wish to impose their vision of divine law – Islamic Sharia – upon them by violence, in accord with traditional tenets of the Islamic faith. Appearing to militate against this idea was the Boyd family’s unremarkable normality. A neighbor reported that “they were great neighbors. We never had any trouble with them. Their kids played with our kids.” Another added: “We never saw anything to give any clues that something like that could be going on in their family.” But from the looks of the indictment, the group never had any plans to wage jihad in suburban North Carolina. However, the fact that they were there at all should give law enforcement officials pause. Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the Charlotte Division of the FBI, declared: “The threat that extremists and radicals pose to America and our allies has not dulled or gone away. These arrests today show there are people living among us, in our communities in North Carolina and around the US, that are honing their skills to carry out acts of murder and mayhem.” Yet Harris and other law enforcement officials have shown little public interest in the question of exactly how converts to Islam and other Muslims in the U.S. come to believe that violence and hate are integral requirements of their religious observance. Until that changes, as time goes by Americans will be introduced to many, many more people like Daniel “Saifullah” Boyd.
