Fetus Ripped from Murdered Mom Found Alive!

This horrifying story has at least this one bright spot: the baby - one month shy of full term - was found alive. Thank God.

MY ONLY OTHER COMMENT: maybe Scott Peterson's defense wasn't entirely incredible after all!? Maybe he didn't do it - or (more likley, based on all the circumstantial evidence) he did do it, and he'd heard of these "fetus-snatching" murderers and had planned to blame it on them from the get-go? I must add: this is a type of criminal I really never believed existed. It is truly horrifying.

I'm a bit surprised that Geragos hasn't yet exploited this story and demanded that the Modesto Police re-open Scott's case and also demand that the FBI investigate whether or not there's an international "fetus-snatching ring" that operates in California, too.

GENERAL IN CHARGE OF IRAQ WARNS SYRIA

FROM THE WASHPOST:

Iraqi Insurgents Directed From Syria

By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, December 17, 2004; Page A29

A top Army general said yesterday that the Iraqi insurgency was being run in part by former senior Iraqi Baath Party officials operating in Syria who call themselves the "New Regional Command." These men, from the former governing party of deposed president Saddam Hussein, are "operating out of Syria with impunity and providing direction and financing for the insurgency," said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. commander in Iraq. "That needs to stop," Casey said at a Pentagon briefing.

It's a fine article; RTWT!

I have been posting on the Syrian problem for weeks. (See HERE and HERE and HERE for starters.) The entire success of all operations in Iraq depend on preventing the "insurgents" from being re-supplied or reinforced.

These warnings - two days ago from Bush, and yesterday from Casey - need to be backed up with a credible, time sensitive threat (something like): "Close the borders by January 7, 2005 or you will be attacked and your military and economic infrastructure demolished."

ALL FIVE ISRAELIS KILLED IN TUNNEL BOMB WERE MUSLIM

But you won't ever read that fact in the Old Media. You have to go to FRONTPAGE.

The five IDF soldiers were Beduin volunteers - Arab/Muslim citizens of Israel.

Why doesn't the Old Media want you to know this? Because it shatters the Left's "party line" on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Left wants you to think that this is a war between carpetbagging Jewish colonialists and native/Third World Arabs.

In fact, the war is NOW about what it has always been about: the very existence of a Jewish state. Those who use terror and propaganda to attack Israel want to destroy Israel, commit genocide against the Jews, and make all of what was once British Palestine (not just the occupied territories) an "ethnically cleansed" Jihadist state. And they'll kill anyone who gets in their way - even their fellow Arabs and Muslims. RTWT.

WHY THE PENTAGON SHOULD ANNOUNCE EXACTLY WHEN IRAQI "OCCUPATION" WILL END

Both the Baathists and the alQaida in Iraq are using the US military presence in Iraq as a powerful propaganda weapon against the USA and the Iraqi Interim government; it helps them recruit people to join them, and to give them aid and comfort.

The USA could demolish that propaganda tool very easily.

The Pentagon should announce exact when that US forces will withdraw.

The Bush Adminstration has clearly and correctly argued that setting a calendrical date would be counter-productive: the enemy could and would merely wait until we withdraw, and then mount a huge counter-offensive against the nascient Iraqi democracy.

Therefore, we should announce that the "WHEN" of our exit is NOT A MATTER OF TIME , but a matter of CONDITIONS; we will withdraw when 3 obvious conditions are met:

(1) When there is an elected government of Iraq; (2) when the Iraqi defenses can defend the borders and maintain law and order; and (3) when the elected government of Iraq ASKS us to leave.

These three conditions should be widely broadcast within Iraq and throughout the Arab/Muslim world. The USA and the Iraqi Interim government could then argue that any and all insurgent actions are actually PROLONGING the so-called "occupation."

This would cost the USA nothing and wouldn't diminish our military position one iota. It could make it more difficult for the insurgents to find cover - which in turn might help us find and defeat them. And it would put an onerous responsibility on Iraq's neighbors - Syria and Iran; it allows us to vigorously argue that: "if they REALLY want us out of the region, THEN they must tighten the border."

This PR effort would be a major victory in the Information Front of the War - a front that we have not been doing too well on lately.

1944: Battle of the Bulge; 2004: Battle of the Bilge

My friends at POWERLINE posted a link to a GREAT column by Paul Greenberg - a column written on this, the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.

Greenberg wrote:

"Instead of sheltering behind the Siegfried Line, the "retreating" Germans were advancing. Through an only lightly defended 50-mile stretch of the Ardennes. Allied intelligence had collected reports of a transfer of German troops from the Eastern to the Western front in the fall of 1944, and there was ample evidence that they were being reassembled in the Ardennes, but word never filtered up to headquarters. No one had connected the dots. (Sound familiar?) [...] In the heat of battle, confusion reigned. Disguised as American MPs, English-speaking, American-accented Germans were sending relief convoys down the wrong roads, or into murderous ambushes. Just liberated French cities were exposed again, and Paris was jittery. The British press demanded that Eisenhower turn command of the land forces over to Montgomery - or anyone else competent. [...] In the heat of battle, confusion reigned. Disguised as American MPs, English-speaking, American-accented Germans were sending relief convoys down the wrong roads, or into murderous ambushes. Just liberated French cities were exposed again, and Paris was jittery. The British press demanded that Eisenhower turn command of the land forces over to Montgomery - or anyone else competent."

But that was then. Then, only the infamous yellow press of Fleet Street carped a negative line. NO ONE IN GOVERNMENT called for the Secretary of War to resign - (he was Henry L. Stimson, a secretary of huge import, and like Rumsfeld an enourmously talented and committed man on his 2nd tour of duty as leader of the department).

McCain and Kristol should be ashamed of themselves for caving into the negativists and defeatists who always seem to seek to scapegoat someone whenever there's a setback in this war. Well: setbacks are a part of war; the enemy is flexible, cunning and committed and they're bound to do things which will upset our plans. So, we must be cunning, too. Not defeatist.

I'd rather the McCains and the Kristols of the world - on the Right and on the Left - all kept their mouths shut, instead of carping each time we hit an inevitable bump in the road to victory - a victory that can only be lost if we lose our resolve; a resolve that can only be undemined by their short-sighted carping.

So... HEY YO... MCCAIN & HAGEL & KRISTOL (and now LOTT): ENOUGH ALREADY! Your seemingly unending calls for Rumsfeld to resign are nothing more than BILGE!"*

Bush and Rumsfeld have (for all intents and purposes) answered your call by saying what General McAuliffe said to the NAZIS at the Battle of the Bulge - "NUTS!"

*[Bilge as defined by the Navy: "Spaces at the very bottom of a vessel in which water leaks are allowed to collect for evacuation by the ship's pumps. Thus, the expression, 'That's bilge!', meaning 'Nonsense'. "]

FOR MORE ON THE "LET'S GET RUMSFELD!" CROWD (FROM THE EDITORS OF NATIONAL REVIEW), JUST CLICK HERE.

MUSAB AL ZARQAWI: master of disguise?

From Brunei On Line:

"Make-up may be Zarqawi's secret of eluding capture: Intelligence services

BERLIN (dpa) - Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and his terrorists in Iraq may be moving around Iraq with impunity because they spend hours in front of the mirror making up their faces, according to intelligence services quoted by the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel. In a story released before publication Tuesday, it said the services claimed the Jordanian Islamist's group were major buyers of rich theatrical make-up, and used the cosmetics to drastically change their appearance."

This news item gives those terrifying videotapes of Zarqawi's brutal beheadings a whole new layer of meaning and context: it's a macabre reality show in which he is the star. To read a fascinating column about this by Jason Burke - (about Zarqawi's "Theater of Terror") - just click HERE.

AL QAIDA'S GLOBAL HQ FOUND: it's in "Hubrisistan"

WW4 began in earnest 1979 - when the USA stood and watched as the Shah was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini (and stood by and watched as Saddam took power in Iraq, and stood and watched as the USSR invaded Afghanistan, too!).

America continued to stand by and watch as Jihadoterror spread around the world (in Beirut in 1982, and everywhere elsewhere since: the Philipines; Indonesia; North, East and West Africa; Kashmir; Pakistan; Thailand - to name a few).

The USA even aided Jihadism a little when it used the Mujahadeen (precursors of the Taliban) to oust the USSR from Afghanistan.

This event in particular gave the Jihadists a false-feeling - the feeling that they could defeat anyone and everyone who got in their way. This is their HUBRIS. To this day, they believe that THEY defeated the USSR, and that they can also defeat the West (by defeating the USA); thereby, the Jihadists believe they can achieve their ultimate goal: re-establish the tyrannical Caliphate under Salafist sharia.

The Jihadoterrorists saw America as morally weak and timid - too cowardly to fight the USSR themselves.

Somalia, the USS Cole, and the African Embassy bombings all added to this perception.

They see the USA victory in Afghanistan as a temporary setback; ditto Iraq. They believe that over the long haul the USA and the West will tire and surrender in Afghanistan and Iraq - and everywhere else. After all, it took Vietnam a decade of guerilla war to oust the USA; it might take just as long to oust the USA from Afghanistan and Iraq - and "Palestine" and Spain and Kashmir, and so on...

But this is a false reading of history - one based on HUBRIS, as I said...

The key reason it is pure unadulterated hubris is this: The Mujahdeen could not have defeated the USSR if the USA had not been training, supplying and re-supplying them. Guerilla forces need to be re-supplied in a long guerilla war. The Vietcong had the USSR. Neither the Vietcong or the Mujahadeen side could've won without a huge state willing AND ABLE to resupply a guerilla force for years and years and years.

Absent that support, the Vietcong and the Mujahadeen didn't stand a chance.

For the Jihadoterrorists to believe that they can do it WITHOUT the support of a major nation state is nothing more than extreme HUBRIS. Fanatical hubris.

Which brings us to Afghanistan and Iraq - and Syria and Iran and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The current counter-revolution being waged by the Jihadoterrorists in Iraq will fail if they are not resupplied.

Which means IF the new government of Iraq, and the USA, and the "Coalition of the Willing" can stop Iran and Syria from aiding the Jihadoterrorists within Iraq - (and also stop the monetary and intel' support that Jihadoterrorists worldwide get from reactionary elements within the Pakistan's ISI and the House of Saud) - THEN victory by Iraq and the USA is GUARANTEED.

The converse is also true: if the USA and its allies fail to stop the influx of aid from Syria and Iran into Iraq - then failure is guaranteed.

Today, at a photo-op with Berlusconi, Bush overtly warned Syria and Iran about meddling within Iraq.

Bush spoke softly - but I pray he spoke loud enough so that his words were heard all the way in "Hubrisistan." If not: then I pray Bush uses the big stick - and not too late, either.

MAN BITES DOG!

Man Charged With Animal Cruelty After Biting His Dog

The pet owner says the act was for punishment and training purposes.

By CINDY SWIRKO

New York Times Regional Newspapers

GAINESVILLE -- A man accused of biting his Jack Russell terrier, Lady, as a form of punishment was arrested on an animal cruelty charge Saturday by Gainesville police officers.

THAT GENOCIDE IS IGNORED BY THE U.N. AND THE MSM IS EXPECTED. THAT IT'S ALSO IGNORED BY BLOGOSPHERE... WELL, IT'S DISAPPOINTING!

Congress holds an important hearing into a barbaric form of genocide perpetrated by a totalitatrian tyranny and it's virtually ignored by the MSM. I expect that. What I didn't expect was this: According to the NEWSNOW.CO.UK - a news aggregating site with robots that monitor 15,000 news sites every 15 minutes, (or-so-they-claim) the biggest blogs have had NOTHING to say about it either. Not a single story in the last month by the "blogosphere big-shots" on coercive abortion in totalitarian China - a sickening practice which is simply genocide (SEE BELOW). SHAME SHAME SHAME. No matter how you feel about elective abortion, everyone should oppose forced abortion.

Only two reporters in the MSM are following this story: Gary Dinmore at the FT, and Jim Abrams of the AP. READ THEM.

STATE-SPONSORED GENOCIDE IN CHINA

Today C-SPAN broadcast the House International Relations Committee hearing on state forced abortions, sterilization and infanticide in China.

China uses coercive practices to limit families to one child - like jail, forced labor in prison, forced unemployment, and exorbitant fines on families that have more than one child (an amount that's the equivalent of 8-10x's their annual income).

The result is that in some regions of China there are now 30% more males than females - because families forced to have only one child prefer a male child and use sonograms to abort female fetuses or infanticde to murder female babies. The unbalanced gender ratios which result foster other inhumane and regressive behaviors like sexual slavery, illegal trafficking in female humans, soaring rates of female suicide, and huge dowries - which treat females as chattel.

The Bush administration has pressured China on these human-rights issues, and has - for the last three years - barred U.S. funds for the U.N. Population Fund, because the UNFPA supports China's population planning programs which includes policies of coercive abortion.

IMHO, coercive abortion is nothing more than another form of genocide. Genocide in the name of economics.

Imagine if the NAZIS had - instead of using the death camps of the Holocaust - limited Jews to only one child and used forced abortions to guarantee that result; eventually the "Final Solution" would've succeeded; it would've taken longer, but had the same terrible effect.

We shouldn't be less horrified or outraged by this type of Chinese genocide - it's merely more insidious and invidious.

Chairman Chris Smith and Ranking Member Tom Lantos deserve our support.

For more information go here.

LET'S NOT FORGET: SADDAM ABUSED THE OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM ON CLINTON'S WATCH

(AP) -- U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos ... predicted the world body will have to clean house over allegations of corruption in the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program in Iraq. "As a supporter of the United Nations, I am convinced that the United Nations will have to do some housecleaning and I am convinced that on the basis of the evidence already in, governments will have to do significant mea culpas," he said. "It is clear that we are dealing with a gigantic fiasco unprecedented in United Nations history, and clearly responsibilities will have to be assumed by individuals in several countries and within this organization," he added.

Lantos is the only survivor of the Holocaust in Congress, and the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.

NEED I REMIND ALL OF YOU THAT MOST OF SADDAM'S STEALING AND BRIBING TOOK PLACE ON CLINTON'S WATCH! Well, his so-called "watch." What WAS he watching?! Maybe he was watching-out for Marc Rich?