Israel Navy Kills 4 Palestinian Militants Off Gaza

Published June 07, 2010

| Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- Israel's navy killed four Palestinian militants in diver suits off the coast of Gaza early Monday in the first violence at sea since a deadly raid against an international flotilla last week killed nine pro-Palestinian activists and set off an international storm of criticism against Israel.

In Istanbul, a 20-member Asian security group kicked off a summit with Turkey seeking to condemn Israel for last Monday's raid.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06/07/israeli-navy-fires-palestinian-divers-gaza-medics-say-killed/

Via Daniel Foster:

Journalist Helen Thomas was scheduled to be the graduation speaker at Walt Whitman High School later this month -- until Sunday, when she was disinvited after comments that she made about Israel and Palestine made many in the community uncomfortable, Montgomery Board of Education President Patricia O'Neill said Sunday.

"We became aware that there are some unfortunate comments from her that are airing on YouTube," O'Neill said. O'Neill said that especially given the large Jewish population at Whitman, the school system was not comfortable with having Thomas speak at the graduation on June 14.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/maryland/helen-thomas-disinvited-from-g.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Top U.S. journalist loses agent, friends after saying 'Jews should get the hell out of Palestine'

Former White House Press Secretary: Revoke Thomas' credentials; ex-White House Counsel: She has shown herself as bigot.

By Natasha Mozgovaya

Senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas may have apologized for her recent on-camera remarks calling on Jews to "get the hell out of Palestine" and go home to Europe, but her reputation seems beyond repair amid the abounding calls for her resignation.

In the wake of the incident, Thomas' agent Nine Speaker Inc. announced that it would no longer represent her.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/top-u-s-journalist-loses-agent-friends-after-saying-jews-should-get-the-hell-out-of-palestine-1.294556?localLinksEnabled=false

Iran offers escort for Gaza ships

By ASSOCIATED PRESS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
06/06/2010 18:02

Iran would be willing to send its Revolutionary Guard members to accompany further aid ships to Gaza, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday in an interview cited by Reuters.

"The naval wing of the Revolutionary Guard is ready to assist the peace flotilla to Gaza with all its effort and capabilities," Khamenei's Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ali Shirazi stated. 

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177635

Normandy ceremonies mark 66th anniversary of D-Day

COLVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Veterans and those grateful for their sacrifices have marked the 66th anniversary of the D-Day landings, remembering the invasion that turned the tide of World War II.

U.S. veteran William Duane Bush, wearing a military jacket, raised the American flag at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach. It was the first time 93-year-old Bush of Lincoln, Nebraska had returned to Europe since the war's end.

An ecumenical service was held at the cathedral in the town of Bayeux, where a wreath-laying service also took place at the British military cemetery.

Some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the capture of Normandy.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlK7B89utqDEw5Gn8raOK264iKsgD9G5Q1M00

FDR D-Day Speech:




Reagan's D-Day Speech on the 40th anniversary:

Feds Arrest 2 NJ Men Headed To Terror Camps

June 6, 2010 - 1:35 AM | by: Mike Levine

Federal authorities arrested two New Jersey men late Saturday night as they tried to leave the country for terrorist training camps in war-torn Somalia, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The men, identified as 20-year-old Mohamed Hamoud Alessa and 26-year-old Carlos Eduardo Almonte, were taken into custody by FBI agents and others at J.F.K. International Airport outside New York City. They were set to take separate flights to Egypt and then make their way to Somalia, where an Al Qaeda-linked group known as al-Shabaab has been warring with the nation’s fledgling transitional government.

One source called Somalia "the Afghanistan of now," suggesting that the near-anarchist state in Somalia has allowed the country to become a fertile training ground for terrorist recruits from around the world.

Alessa, a U.S. citizen, and Almonte, a Jordanian citizen believed to also have dual U.S. citizenship, "grew up" in the United States, becoming the latest in a "disconcerting pattern" of "people living among us" who are radicalized with extremist ideology, one source said.

The men did not pose an "imminent threat," but "getting on planes to receive" terrorist training means they posed a broader threat, the source said.

Federal authorities have been watching Alessa and Almonte since 2006, when the men's unspecified "internet activity" led the New York Police Department to launch an investigation, ultimately dubbed "Operation Arabian Knight."

The FBI and others had the two men under surveillance for a significant amount of time, with one official calling the investigation "well organized."

While a team of federal authorities watched the men arrive at J.F.K. International Airport, others raided their homes in Elmwood Park, N.J., and North Bergen N.J.

The men have been charged with terrorism-related offenses and will appear in a Newark, N.J., federal court on Monday. In such cases, suspects are often charged with "conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization."

No more arrests related to the case were expected.

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/06/feds-arrest-2-nj-men-on-way-to-terror-camps/

June 5, 2010 6:00 A.M.

Israel, Turkey, and the End of Stability
Contempt for Israel is contempt for Washington.

Foreign policy “realists,” back in the saddle since the Texan cowboy left town, are extremely fond of the concept of “stability”: America needs a stable Middle East, so we should learn to live with Mubarak and the mullahs and the House of Saud, etc. You can see the appeal of “stability” to your big-time geopolitical analyst: You don’t have to update your Rolodex too often, never mind rethink your assumptions. “Stability” is a fancy term to upgrade inertia and complacency into strategy. No wonder the fetishization of stability is one of the most stable features of foreign-policy analysis.

Unfortunately, back in what passes for the real world, there is no stability. History is always on the march, and, if it’s not moving in your direction, it’s generally moving in the other fellow’s. Take this “humanitarian” “aid” flotilla. Much of what went on — the dissembling of the Palestinian propagandists, the hysteria of the U.N. and the Euro-ninnies — was just business as usual. But what was most striking was the behavior of the Turks. In the wake of the Israeli raid, Ankara promised to provide Turkish naval protection for the next “aid” convoy to Gaza. This would be, in effect, an act of war — more to the point, an act of war by a NATO member against the State of Israel.

Ten years ago, Turkey’s behavior would have been unthinkable. Ankara was Israel’s best friend in a region where every other neighbor wishes, to one degree or another, the Jewish state’s destruction. Even when Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP was elected to power eight years ago, the experts assured us there was no need to worry. I remember sitting in a plush bar late one night with a former Turkish foreign minister, who told me, in between passing round the cigars and chugging back the Scotch, that, yes, the new crowd weren’t quite so convivial in the wee small hours but, other than that, they knew where their interests lay. Like many Turkish movers and shakers of his generation, my drinking companion loved the Israelis. “They’re tough hombres,” he said admiringly. “You have to be in this part of the world.” If you had suggested to him that in six years’ time the Turkish prime minister would be telling the Israeli president to his face that “I know well how you kill children on beaches,” he would have dismissed it as a fantasy concoction for some alternative universe.

Yet it happened. Erdogan said those words to Shimon Peres at Davos last year and then flounced off stage. Day by day what was formerly the Zionist entity’s staunchest pal talks more and more like just another cookie-cutter death-to-the-Great-Satan stan-of-the-month.

http://article.nationalreview.com/435606/israel-turkey-and-the-end-of-stability/mark-steyn

Agents feared Mexican drug cartel attack on border dam

By DANE SCHILLER and JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

June 2, 2010, 10:15PM

An alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a dam along the Texas border — and unleash billions of gallons of water into a region with millions of civilians — sent American police, federal agents and disaster officials secretly scrambling last month to thwart such an attack, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

Whether or not the cartel, which is known to have stolen bulk quantities of gunpowder and dynamite, could have taken down the 5-mile-long Falcon Dam may never be known since the attack never came to pass.

It may have been derailed by a stepped-up presence by the Mexican military, which was acting in part on intelligence from the U.S. government, sources said.

The warning, which swung officials into action, was based on what the federal government contends were “serious and reliable sources” and prompted the Department of Homeland Security to sound the alarm to first responders along the South Texas-Mexico border.

Mexico's Zeta cartel was planning to destroy the dam not to terrorize civilians, but to get back at its rival and former ally, the Gulf cartel, which controls smuggling routes from the reservoir to the Gulf of Mexico, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, head of the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition, as did others familiar with the alleged plot.

But in the process, massive amounts of agricultural land would stand to be flooded as well as significant parts of a region where about 4 million people live along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7033818.html

Slouching Towards Athens

The Obama agenda and the Europeanization of America.

By ARTHUR C. BROOKS

Our friends across the Atlantic are fond of saying that Europeans work to live while Americans live to work. According to the data, they are basically right. Statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that while the average Italian, for example, enjoys 42 days of vacation per year, the average American has 16.

A predictable corollary: Many Europeans also expect others to work so they can live. The International Social Survey Programme asked Americans and Europeans whether they believe "It is the responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes." In virtually all of Western Europe more than 50% agree, and in many countries it is much higher—77% in Spain, whose redistributive economy is in shambles. Meanwhile, only 33% of Americans agree with income redistribution.

Simply put, Europeans have a much stronger taste for other people's money than we do. This is vividly illustrated by the recent protests in the U.S. and Greece.

Why are citizens rioting and striking in Greece? Despite the worst economic crisis in decades, labor unions and state functionaries demand that others pay for the early retirements, lifetime benefits and state pensions to which they feel entitled. In America, however, the tea partiers demonstrate not to get more from others, but rather against government growth, public debt, bailouts and a budget-busting government overhaul of the health-care industry.

In other words, the tea partiers are protesting against exactly what the Greeks are demanding. It is an example of American exceptionalism if there ever was one.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575286451653109876.html

Federal Debt, Terrorism Considered Top Threats to U.S.

Republicans perceived as best party to deal with both

PRINCETON, NJ -- Terrorism and federal government debt tie as the most worrisome issues to Americans when they consider threats to the future wellbeing of the U.S. Four in 10 Americans call each an "extremely serious" threat, with healthcare costs ranking a close third.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/139385/Federal-Debt-Terrorism-Considered-Top-Threats.aspx

Likely intel chief Clapper held disputed Iraq WMD view

Will replace Blair as fourth intel director

By Eli Lake

President Obama's choice to be the next director of national intelligence supported the view that Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq sent weapons and documents to Syria in the weeks before the 2003 U.S. invasion.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and current undersecretary of defense for intelligence, will be the next DNI. A formal announcemente is expected as early as Saturday.

He will replace retired Adm. Dennis Blair, who resigned after 16 months in the position following several disputes with other intelligence leaders and, in particular, the CIA.

Gen. Clapper’s selection is a rebuke to senior members of the congressional oversight committees who had said they hoped Mr. Obama would nominate a civilian as his top intelligence adviser and someone with whom the president shares a personal relationship.

Gen. Clapper will be the fourth director of national intelligence since the position was created in 2005 to oversee and coordinate all 16 independent intelligence agencies.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/4/likely-intel-chief-clapper-held-disputed-wmd-view/

Via Allahpundit:

Imam unmosqued

Ground Zero booster tied to sea clash

By ANDY SOLTIS

Last Updated: 11:49 AM, June 5, 2010

Posted: 3:59 AM, June 5, 2010

The imam behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero is a prominent member of a group that helped sponsor the pro-Palestinian activists who clashed violently with Israeli commandos at sea this week.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a key figure in Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, according to its Website.

Perdana is the single biggest donor ($366,000) so far to the Free Gaza Movement, a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Monday.

Nine passengers aboard the largest ship died in clashes with Israeli commandos, and a new confrontation loomed today, when another Free Gaza Movement ship was due to reach Gaza waters in defiance of Israel.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/imam_unmosqued_0XbZMwCvHAVdRZEKgx29AK

Critics have bashed President Obama for being slow to seize the political initiative in combating the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast, now widely believed to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The White House has battled back, releasing a timeline of events showing that Obama was briefed—and deploying the Coast Guard—within 24 hours of the Deepwater Horizon blowout.

What has not been previously disclosed: The president was not only briefed on the real-time events of the spill, but also on just how bad it would be—and how hard it would be to plug the hole.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-04/obama-briefed-in-april-by-carol-browner-on-how-bad-bp-spill-was-/

Report: Turkish PM wants to visit Gaza

Roee Nahmias

Published:

06.05.10, 10:18 / Israel News

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is considering a trip to Gaza in order to break the siege imposed on the Strip by Israel, Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal reported Saturday, quoting "knowledgeable sources".

The newspaper said that "as part of the open conflict between Turkey and Israel following the massacre against the 'freedom sail' to Gaza and the protest sparked in the world, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is considering going to Gaza himself in order to break the blockade imposed on the Strip."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3899214,00.html

BAGHDAD (AP) - A senior Kurdish official in northern Iraq says Iranian troops have crossed the Iraqi border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels.

Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, said Saturday that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of Perdunaz after crossing the border last Thursday.

Yawar said the Iranian troops have ventured about a mile (1.6 kilometers) into Iraq. Perdunaz is an Iraqi border town east of the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

He said Iranian troops have been shelling the region for days in pursuit of a Kurdish rebel group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK. Iran has previously targeted the border areas in pursuit of PEJAK fighters.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G55U3G0&show_article=1