Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who blithely admits to planning the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in downtown New York, deserves to be put to death. Less clear is Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement last week that New York City was the best venue to pursue the case against them.
This is plainly absurd. Holding the trial in New York puts a big bull’s-eye on the downtown area. It is common sense that holding the trial in the twice-attacked lower Manhattan community makes it more likely New York will be attacked again. Moreover, the cost of providing security for the trial could easily exceed $100 million for a city that is already embroiled in a fiscal crisis.
In all likelihood, the tragedy at Fort Hood would have been avoided if political correctness hadn’t led military and government officials to turn a blind eye to clear signs that Maj. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist.
Even now, after the full extent of this tragedy has sunk in, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has warned the public not to make any connections between Maj. Hasan and Muslims. “As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty, as well," said Gen. Casey.
It is true that this tragedy should not become an excuse to nurture irrational fear and loathing of Muslims. But we cannot become so neutered by political correctness that we ignore the facts. Maj. Hasan’s killing spree was the most deadly act of terrorism on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.
The tragic shootings earlier this month at Fort Hood have raised a number of questions throughout the country. How could this have happened? Was it terrorist driven? Were there warning signs that could have prevented this? Did the shooter act alone?
But what concerns me is the one question that was seemingly raised but never really answered, and then quickly shoved under the rug. That question centers around how Maj. Hasan was actually subdued. Who shot him and ended this rampage of violence?
With painful fits and struggles, Sarah Palin has birthed her way back into the national spotlight. Her memoir, Going Rogue, made the best-seller list online more than a month before it was even released. Earlier this week she was on “Oprah” to promote her book and to proclaim her return to the political zeitgeist.
So should we take Palin seriously as a 2012 GOP candidate? On “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, roundtable commentator David Brooks was harshly dismissive of the idea, calling Palin a “joke.” Fellow commentator George Will was a little more restrained, observing, “This is what happens in the vacuum of a third year out from a presidential election.”
I am tortured. I want to admire President Barack Obama. With his calm, measured voice and warm smile, I want to bask in his oven of love.
So help me understand. What, precisely, is there to admire about this president's policy decisions? The administration has poured $787 billion into economic stimulus. But where are the jobs? In February, the administration promised that the stimulus package would give an immediate boost to the economy. Since then, the economy has contracted and Americans have lost nearly 3 million jobs. What has the stimulus package done other than steal trillions of dollars from the taxpayers and sow unmanageable debt into the economy for decades to come?
Since appearing on a Nov. 11 taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Charla Nash’s destroyed face has become an Internet sensation.
Nine months ago, Nash was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee. The chimp ripped off her nose, her lips, one thumb and a large part of her scalp. Surgeons had to create a hole in her face so she could drink meals through a straw. In her first interview since the highly publicized attack, Nash appeared on Oprah adorned in a black veil. During the early part of the interview, Nash explained that she wears the veil so as not to scare people away.
Since 1899, Who's Who in America has chronicled the lives and careers of America's most noteworthy people. The 2007 edition made no mention of Barack Obama. Two years later, he was elected president.
To no small degree, President Obama’s appeal was based on the fact that he was perceived as a political outsider — a community organizer who could bridge the gap between the parties. This got me wondering, who might be a dark-horse candidate for the Republicans in 2012?
There is a scene in Steven Spielberg’s film “Saving Private
Ryan” in which a young man has his arm blown off. He stumbles around, gazing at
his shattered limb, unsure of what to do.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is now conscious and being nursed back to health by hospital staff, just days after he opened fire at the Fort Hood Readiness Center, massacring 13 servicemen and -women and injuring 30.
It is inconceivable to me that we are actually helping this man live. Hasan worshipped at the same Virginia mosque that two Sept. 11 hijackers attended in 2001 — a time when radical imam Anwar al Awlaki preached there. Awaki, who now lives in Yemen and who preaches global jihad against the U.S., praised Hasan’s atrocious slaughter of U.S. servicemen as “the Right Thing" and called Hasan a "hero."
Everyone in the D.C. metropolitan area remembers. I still think of it every time I see a white van. I even think about it when I see someone hustling to their car at a gas station. In October 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd terrorized this area by randomly discharging bullets into strangers while they were pumping gas or strolling with their families through mall parking lots. Over a two-month period, they shot 16 people, killing 10.
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