FORMER GITMO DETAINEES HELP AL-QAIDA GROW IN YEMEN -- BY MIKE MELIA AND SARAH EL DEEB, AP, My Way

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - As a prisoner at Guantanamo, Said Ali al-Shihri said he wanted freedom so he could go home to Saudi Arabia and work at his family's furniture store.

Instead, al-Shihri, who was released in 2007 under the Bush administration, is now deputy leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attempted bomb attack on a Detroit-bound airliner.

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"PLAY-OR-PLAY" INSURANCE REFORMS FOR EMPLOYERS -- CONFUSION AND INEQUITY -- BY BRADLEY HERRING, Ph.D. and MARK V. PAULY, Ph.D.

One prominent feature of the current health care reform bills is a “play-or-pay” rule for employers: workers must receive part of their compensation in the form of employer-sponsored health insurance, or the company’s payroll will be subjected to a tax penalty. Although the latter possibility is framed as a penalty on employers, it would almost surely be passed along as a levy on workers’ wages.1

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US RELEASES 'DANGEROUS' IRANIAN PROXY BEHIND THE MURDER OF US TROOPS -- BY BILL ROGGIO, Longwarjournal

The British are all smiles over the release of Peter Moore, a British citizen who was held hostage by an Iranian-backed Shia terror group in Iraq. But there is little talk about the price paid to secure Moore's release. The US military has freed Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq, or League of the Righteous, as well as his brother Laith, several Qods Force officers, and more than 100 members of the terror group, in exchange for Moore.

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BEST WISHES FOR HEALTH AND HAPPINESS IN 2010!

And get well soon wishes to Rush Limbaugh! Sphere: Related Content

WHAT PRICE ARE WE PAYING FOR NOT TREATING ABDULMUTALLAB AS AN ENEMY COMBATANT? -- POSTED BY WILLIAM KRISTOL, The Weekly Standard

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, Dec. 29:

"Abdulmutallab remains in a Detroit area prison and has restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney, according to federal officials. Authorities are holding out hope that he will change his mind and cooperate with the inquiry, the officials said."

This has been changed in the online version

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DID THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION VIOLATE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER BY RELEASING QAIS QAZALI? -- POSTED BY BILL ROGGIO, The Weekly Standard

Did the Obama administration, by releasing Qais and Laith Qazali and more than 100 members of the Iranian-backed Asaib al Haq, violate an executive order put in place by President Ronald Reagan to prevent negotiations with hostage takers? Senators Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl asked that very question to the Obama administration in a letter sent to the president in July.

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2009: TIPPING POINT FOR DOMESTIC TERROR? -- BY PATRICK POOLE, Pajamas Media

This past year is simply without precedent in terms of the number of terror plots and cells exposed and disrupted. For those of us who closely monitor terrorism trends and have consistently warned of the escalating pace of Islamic radicalization — only to be ignored and attacked by Islamic apologists and their allies — 2009 has proven to be a cold and uncomfortable vindication of our concerns.

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BARBARA BOXER SUBSIDIZING RELATIVES WITH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS -- BY JAMES RICHARDSON, Redstate

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has diverted nearly half a million in contributions from her political action committee to her son’s political consulting firm from 2001 to 2009, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Boxer and Associates, owned by son Douglas Boxer, has in the last 8 years profited to the tune of $497,409.17, $36,000 of which was from last year alone as the politically-vulnerable Boxer readies for a contentious reelection campaign in the fall. These $36,000 in fees are supplementary to the $141,000 Boxer’s leadership

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A GUIDE TO THE BLAME GAME FOLLOWING FAILED TERROR ATTACK -- BY SUSAN DAVIS, Washington Wire, The Wall Street Journal

Keeping track of who is blaming whom for the failures in U.S. intelligence that allowed Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to almost blow up a U.S. airliner last week can be confusing, so Washington Wire compiled a guide in an attempt to make some sense of the Washington blame game starting with President Barack Obama.

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NEWT GINGRICH ON U.S. SECURITY

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O WORLD! ENOUGH HESITATION! IT'S TIME TO ACT -- BY ARASH HEJAZI, Gaze Of A Nation

Hundreds of newspapers have been shut down in Iran; international reporters have been banned; hundreds of Iranian journalists are in prison; internet has almost been shut down; the sophisticated filtering system has blocked the contact of the Iranian people with the world; the police is massacring people in the streets in broad daylight and then blames the violence on the people themselves; the government

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HE'S BA-ACK! AYERS CALLS FOR BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL -- BY AARON KLEIN, World Net Daily

JERUSALEM – Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, a close associate for years of President Obama, is one of 431 academics to sign a petition calling for divestment, boycott and sanctions against Israel.

"As educators and scholars of conscience in the United States, we fully support this call," reads the online petition by an organization calling itself the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

"We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel's ongoing scholasticide and to support the non-violent call

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REP. MURTHA'S EARMARKS LEAD TO FEWER JOBS THAN PROMISED -- BY CAROL D. LEONNIG, The Washington Post

FORD CITY, PA. -- In 2005, Rep. John P. Murtha announced here that a technology firm was moving into an abandoned plate glass factory. Best of all, he promised, the new firm would generate 140 jobs.

The Pennsylvania Democrat steered $150 million in defense money to Caracal Inc., along with a $3 million grant for factory renovations. "Today's ribbon-cutting ceremony is yet another indication that our investment in this region's economic revitalization is paying off," he said that day. But

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EXECUTED FOR SORCERY? IN 2009? -- BY DAVID BOAZ, CATO@LIBERTY

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Lebanese television host to death for the crime of “sorcery.” Apparently Ali Hussein Sibat was recognized by Saudi religious police as he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. On his show, he gave advice to callers and made predictions about their future. He could be executed any day now. In an article

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HORIZONTAL INEQUITIES IN OBAMACARE -- BY MICHAEL F. CANNON, CATO@LIBERTY

In this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Mark Pauly and Bradley Herring show that the employer mandates passed by the House and Senate — where employers can either “play” by providing health benefits or pay a penalty — would result in grossly unfair treatment of similar individuals. Regarding the House bill, they write:

[B]ecause each company’s decision to play or pay would be driven by its average wages, heterogeneity within companies would cause the subsidies for many individual workers to be mismatched with their level of need. Moreover,


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RICH CLING TO LIFE TO BEAT TAX MAN -- BY LAURA SAUNDERS, The Wall Street Journal

Nothing's certain except death and taxes -- but a temporary lapse in the estate tax is causing a few wealthy Americans to try to bend those rules.

Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax -- which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate -- goes away for a year. For families facing end-of-life decisions in the immediate future, the change is making one of life's most trying episodes only more complex.

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O's DAY OF RECKONING -- BY RALPH PETERS, New York Post

It's showtime, folks! Today's the deadline President Obama imposed on Iran's leaders to give up their nuclear ambitions and be nice.

Not sure if the deadline expires at midnight in Tehran or on Washington time, but the mullahs and President Mahmoud "Mighty Mouse" Ahmadinejad aren't scrambling to give Obama a New Year's Eve smooch.

Rather than cave in to our president's mighty rhetoric, the Tehran tyrants took a break from killing protesters in the streets to attempt to import more than 1,300 tons of make-a-nuke uranium ore from Kazakhstan.

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U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY: AL QAEDA CLERIC MAY BE TERRORIST -- POSTED BY THOMAS JOSCELYN, The Weekly Standard

CBS news correspondent Bob Orr spoke with Harry Smith on Wednesday. Here is part of their exchange (emphasis added):

Smith: We are starting to learn a lot more about this radical imam, Awlaki, who is actually born in the United States. Tell us.



Orr: It's actually frightening, Harry. U.S. officials now, almost to a man, are becoming increasingly more convinced that Anwar Al-Awlaki is more than a radical cleric. The sources talked to say he's a coordinator, even a facilitator, or talent

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FIGHT EVERYWHERE: SCOTT BROWN FOR MASSACHUSETTS -- BY PATRICK RUFFINI, The Next Right

(text from within article)

And here's where the mammoth significance of playing in MA-SEN comes into the discussion: if Brown wins, Obamacare is dead. 60 becomes 59. Because Democrats will have lost the Liberal Lion's seat, whose photo stands in the Democratic Cloakroom with the words "Let's get this done."

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58% OF AMERICANS SAY WATERBOARD THE NIGERIAN -- POSTED BY MICHAEL GOLDFARB, The Weekly Standard

On Monday I posted a question from a friend and suggested Scott Rasmussen might want to put that question to the American public. Here's the question as it was emailed to me:

Do you think most Americans prefer that this guy is A) Watching cable tv is a warm cell funded by taxpayers and enjoying his right to remain silent (i.e, BHO reality); or B) At an undisclosed location being waterboarded to learn about his little friends back in Yemen and their plans to kill us.

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TAKEYH: TIME TO CHALLENGE THE LEGITIMACY OF THE "ISLAMIC REPUBLIC" -- POSTED BY MICHAEL GOLDFARB, The Weekly Standard

Obama doesn't like to challenge the legitimacy of despots, thus the repeated calls for a relationship with Iran based on "mutual respect" and the use of the regime's preferred name, the Islamic Republic. But Ray Takeyh, who served in the Obama State Department as an aide to Dennis Ross on Iran policy and was earlier this year a

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WE ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE -- BY RACHEL ABRAMS, The Weekly Standard

President Obama and his players have spent six months praying for the nascent revolution in Iran to go away, pursuing what Fouad Ajami describes today as a cold-blooded foreign policy. Some of them who should know better have likely admitted the truth to themselves during 2 AM night-sweat sessions: there is nothing worthy about the behavior of the U.S. government they represent in this matter.

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OUR 2009 CHICKENS AND THEIR 2010 ROOST -- BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, National Review

A quiet year laid the groundwork for a troublesome one.

In the coming year, plenty of chickens will be coming home to roost.

Take foreign relations. In 2009, the new administration assumed that George W. Bush was largely responsible for global tensions. As a remedy, we loudly reached out to our foes and those with whom we had uneasy relationships.

But so far these leaders — like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin — have only interpreted Barack Obama’s serial goodwill gestures as weaknesses to be exploited.

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RESOLVED: TELL THE TRUTH -- BY CAL THOMAS, Jewish World Review

No one I know makes New Year's resolutions anymore. In part this may be because the resolutions often deal with our weaknesses — lose weight, quit smoking — so that when we fail, we resolve to stop resolving rather than be reminded of our inability to keep them.

Would that Congress might resolve to tell the truth. Most members probably know what truth is, but they cannot speak it for fear of offending groups that traffic in lies and fund their re-election campaigns. Lies usually raise more money


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NINE BIG STORIES THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA MISSED IN 2009 -- Fox News

From radical advisers in the Obama White House to hacked e-mails showing questionable work by climate scientists, 2009 has seen its share of scandals. But if you only followed the mainstream media, you might have missed some of the biggest stories of the year. Here's a list of the top nine stories the mainstream media ignored in the past year.

White House Green Jobs adviser Van Jones resigned from his post in September after weeks of pressure over his radical past. A former self-avowed Marxist and anarchist,

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BANKERS GET $4 TRILLION GIFT FROM BARNEY FRANK: DAVID REILY, Bloomberg

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- To close out 2009, I decided to do something I bet no member of Congress has done -- actually read from cover to cover one of the pieces of sweeping legislation bouncing around Capitol Hill.

Hunkering down by the fire, I snuggled up with H.R. 4173, the financial-reform legislation passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives. The Senate has yet to pass its own reform plan. The baby of Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, the House bill is meant to address everything

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JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT: THE MICE GUARD THE CHEESE -- BY NATHAN KOPPEL, The Wall Street Journal

Does the federal judiciary do a good enough job investigating misconduct complaints against its fellow judges?

It’s an oft debated topic that gets a particularly detailed airing today in this Houston Chronicle piece.

A spate of recent high-profile complaints against judges, including the sexual-abuse charges against former Texas federal judge Samuel Kent (pictured), has prompted experts and members of Congress alike to call for reforms and more disclosure of federal disciplinary decisions, the Chron reports

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MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR (CHINESE) INVESTMENT -- BY STEPHEN M. WALT, Foreign Policy

I hope everyone takes a look at the Times piece on China's commercial activities in Afghanistan. While we've been running around playing whack-a-mole with the Taliban and "investing" billions each year in the corrupt Karzai government," China has been investing in things that might actually be of some value, like a big copper mine.

As the article suggest, it's not like U.S. troops are "guarding" China's investments. Rather, there's a tacit division of labor going on, where "American troops have helped make Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment."

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A NEW WAY ON IRAN -- BY JACOB LAKSIN, Frontpagemag

As the clock counts down on the Obama administration’s end-of-year deadline for negotiations with Iran, it’s timely to review what the administration has to show for its policy of engaging the regime.

Obama’s investment in this policy has been substantial. The president has personally reached out to the Iranian leadership, even going so far as to send letters appealing for better relations to the country’s unofficial leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When demonstrations erupted this June in the wake of a blatantly

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US RELEASES 'DANGEROUS' IRANIAN PROXY BEHIND THE MURDER OF US TROOPS -- BY BILL ROGGIO, Longwarjournal

The US has released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.

Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. The US military directly implicated Qais in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.

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'THE GIFTS' OUR POLITICIANS GAVE US IN 2009 -- BY CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS, UnionLeader.com

WITH THE YEAR finally lurching to a sputtering end, we can give thanks and hope that many of the gifts of 2009 will not be revisited upon us in the coming year. Both state and federal policy makers did their best to make the last year one we won't soon forget.

You can't start any discussion of legacy without mentioning the crushing burden of debt that should make our grandchildren detest us. Washington has had a credit card for years and is running it up with the sort of reckless abandon we expect from a 6-year-old in a candy store.

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AFTER DETROIT: PRESIDENTIAL TO-DO LIST FOR PLUGGING GAPS IN STOPPING TERRORIST TRAVEL -- BY JAMES JAY CARAFANO, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation

The problem in stopping terrorist travel to the U.S. is not airport screening per se. Trying to turn every airport into another Maginot Line or Fort Knox is going to fail sooner or latter. Instead, the best way to stop terrorist plots is to frustrate them before they get started—thwarting the 2006 London-based conspiracy to smuggle liquid explosives on U.S.-bound international flights is a good example

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WHAT WAS THE MOST COVERED-UP STORY OF 2009? -- World Net Daily

Overwhelming evidence Fort Hood mass murderer was an Islamic terrorist who considered himself part of a greater plan to bring the U.S. under Saudi-style Islamic law tops the list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year, according to an annual WND survey.

At the end of each year, news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories in the previous 12 months.

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RADICALIZATION IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE U.S. -- BY DOUG HAGMANN, CFP

As initially reported by this investigator on Canada Free Press and the Northeast Intelligence Network, authorities have been investigating U.S. links to Muslim terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. As detailed in our update posted at 9:00 pm ET on December 25, 2009, we were the first to report that federal investigators were interviewing at least three other individuals said to be in the Detroit area in relation to this bombing plot.

Authorities have now revealed that Abdulmutallab attended a two-week seminar at the Al-Maghrib Islamic Institute in Houston in 2008. The Al-Maghrib Institute has direct

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MR. OBAMA, THOSE ARE OUR PRISONERS AT GITMO, NOT YOURS; LEAVE THEM WHERE THEY ARE -- BY JERRY McCONNELL, CFP

How many more American lives are going to be risked before the anti-American traitors in the Obama Administration, including himself, stop their efforts to close Guantanamo Bay military prison facility?

It is becoming very well known to all but the empty-headed followers of our “Usurper-in-Chief” that the Obama-ites are determined to release all of the detainees that are currently housed in the ultra safe confines of that prisoner of war installation so that they might live to fight another day for Allah and kill as many Americans

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OBAMA'S ONLY REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT -- BY DANIEL GREENFIELD, CFP

Let’s get it straight, behind all the hubbub and noise, the international trips and summits, the TV specials and constant addresses to the nation and any other nation that would let him in, the huge spending plans and the photoshoots—Barack Hussein Obama has accomplished only one thing in his first year in office.

Obama’s only real accomplishment is that he took hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, and directed them to his donors on Wall Street, in the unions and

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INTERPOL AND EO 13524 AMENDING EO12425 -- BY HENRY LAMB, CFP

There has been a rash of emails about President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13524 which amends EO 12425, granting INTERPOL certain privileges. Here is our brief analysis of the situation.

The Executive Order draws its authority from the International Organizations Immunities Act passed by the 79th Congress December 29, 1945. The law grants to designated organizations a list of “immunities” including Section 2(c) which states:

“Section 2(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be

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TERRORISTS ALOFT OVER AMERICA SKIES, AWOL OBAMA ALOOF IN HAWAII -- BY JUDI McLEOD, CFP

At the risk of being branded a “birther”, is President Barack Obama’s post-Christmas Day Flight Northwest 253 terrorist attack a useful way to leave an impression that Hawaii is the place of his birth?

AWOL in Hawaii, Obama’s not coming back until Sunday. For certain his vacation has little to do with Christmas, which he tried to cancel on Christmas Eve with the symbolic passing of ObamaCare.

Nor according to his royal self, does he particularly believe in Christmas.

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THE UN AND INTERPOL HOW THE UN WILL GAIN POWER -- BY BARRY NAPIER, CFP

It is interesting that the man who cast aside the US Constitution like a rag, and imposes his own laws without consent, has agreed to allow an international police authority to overrule the US government.

Barack Obama signed an Executive Order giving express permission for Interpol to supersede the laws and police authorities of the USA.

Some have seen this as heralding loss of sovereignty. The truth is, the USA already lost it when it voted for Obama. Before the election he promised to hand over sovereignty to the UN, and this will

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TRIAL LAWYERS SIDESTEP MALPRACTICE CURBS WITH BLITZ IN CONGRESS -- BY JONATHAN D. SALANT, Washington Examiner

U.S. Senate staff members arriving at work by subway this month were greeted by signs proclaiming that "98,000 patients may die" through medical malpractice.

On a single day in October, lawmakers received visits from more than 70 victims of doctors' errors and the attorneys who represented them. And the trial lawyers' political action committee gave members of the Democratic congressional majority more money than all but two other PACs.

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NO UNIONS FOR AIR SAFETY WORKERS -- Washington Examiner Editorial

As 2009 comes to a blessed close, let us pause and give thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who placed a legislative hold on President Obama's nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration. DeMint won't withdraw his hold until Southers answers a simple question -- does he think TSA employees should be allowed to collectively bargain with the government on workplace rules and procedures?

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TERRORISM AND SECURITY SYSTEMS -- BY JIM HARPER, CATO@LIBERTY

Terrorism presents a complex set of security problems. That’s easy to see in the welter of discussion about the recent attempted bombing on a plane flying from Amsterdam into Detroit. The media and blogs are poring over the many different security systems implicated by this story. Unfortunately, many are reviewing them all at once, which is very confusing.

Each security system aimed to protect against terror attacks and other threats involves difficult and complex balancing among many different interests and


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IT'S THE END OF 2009. WHERE ARE OUR TROOPS? -- POSTED BY DAVID BOAZ, CATO@LIBERTY

This is not the change we hoped for. President Obama rose to power on the basis of his early opposition to the Iraq war and his promise to end it. But after a year in the White House he has made both of George Bush’s wars his wars.

Speaking of Iraq in February 2008, candidate Barack Obama said, “I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.” The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated, ”I was opposed to this war in 2002….

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TIME FOR ENHANCED INTERROGATION -- IBD EDITORIAL

War On Terror: The U.S. now holds a prisoner of war who has knowledge that could foil future terrorist operations. The Obama administration has a moral obligation to extract it from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The White House seems very big on the idea that fear is our enemy, not our friend. When sheer luck prevented the destruction of Northwest flight 253, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano instantaneously insisted there was no larger conspiracy involved — even though the failed bomber himself said otherwise

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EVEN MOGADISHU DOES IT BETTER THAN DHS -- IBD EDITORIAL

Terrorism: For all the billions the U.S. spends on intelligence and homeland security, it's Somalia that has racked up a better record of stopping jet terrorists with explosive-filled underwear. Anyone out there appalled?

Last Nov. 11, sharp-eyed African Union troops, who serve as airport security in the failed state of Somalia, pinpointed a terrorist with a syringe detonator, lethal powder and explosives in his pants trying to board a Dubai-bound jetliner in Mogadishu.

They yanked him out of line and stopped him from getting on.

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PATSIES FOR PUTIN? -- IBD EDITORIAL

National Security: The White House wanted to "push the reset button" on U.S.-Russia relations this year. But recent remarks by Vladimir Putin indicate that Russia now takes us for a bunch of suckers.

Talks on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty have hit a snag. The old Start agreement expired Dec. 5 and with nothing to replace it, Russia is playing hardball. So far, unfortunately, it looks like the U.S. is playing only softball.

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POLL: MOST CHRISTIANS AND JEWS AT ODDS WITH THEIR LEADERS OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION -- BY CHRISTOPHER NEEFUS, CNS News

American Jews and Christians hold views about illegal immigration that are largely at odds with those of their spiritual leaders, according to a new poll from Zogby International.

The poll showed that while most religious leaders saw illegal immigration as a problem caused by barriers to legal immigration, most worshippers thought a lack of enforcement of current law was the problem; and while leaders thought employers needed access to more immigrant labor,


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WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM FLIGHT 253? -- BY MICHAEL DUFFY AND MARK THOMPSON, Time

The 23-year-old son of a banker from Nigeria should have tripped every alarm in the global aviation-security system put in place after 9/11: He bought a $2,831 ticket for flights from Lagos to Amsterdam to Detroit and paid for it in cash. He left no contact information with the airline. He checked no bags. Seven months earlier, he had earned himself a spot on a security watch list in Britain

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BYE, BYE BLAIR? -- POSTED BY MICHAEL GOLDFARB, The Weekly Standard

That's the way things seem to be headed. As we pointed out last night, administration officials have been saying (on background, of course) that the president "intends to demand accountability at the highest levels.” Presumably, accountability means someone is going to get fired. And if someone got fired for

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AL QAEDA'S TROJAN HORSSE -- BY THOMAS JOSCELYN, The Weekly Standard

Will the failed Christmas Day terror plot finally expose a former Gitmo detainee living in the UK for the jihadist that he is?

An intriguing name has surfaced in the worldwide investigation into Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's life. That name is Moazzam Begg, and it is a name that is well known to those left-wing journalists and human rights lawyers who take everything former Gitmo detainees say at face value.

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DEMOCRATS AND IMMIGRATION -- BY GARY ANDRES, The Weekly Standard

A couple of weeks ago, amidst the prolonged drama surrounding Senate passage of the Democrats' health care bill, House Democrats unveiled another major policy initiative for 2010--a renewed effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

The new bill didn't attract a lot of national media attention at the time. Health care sucked the air out of the news cycle. But a closer look at this developing story reveals an interesting twist. The House's new immigration gambit looks more like a political tactic aimed at dividing Republicans

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A BAD FIRST DRAFT -- BY PHILIP TERZIAN, The Weekly Standard

Journalists, long on confidence but chronically short of knowledge, have been lately offering end-of-decade summations. The fact that the first decade of the 21st century doesn't actually end until this time next year hasn't slowed them down; and there's universal agreement that this was, as Andy Serwer wrote in Time, "the decade from hell."

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SPIRIT OF AMERICA -- FROM THE SCRAPBOOK, The Weekly Standard

THE SCRAPBOOK wanted to give some of its space this holiday season to an email from our friend Jim Hake, founder and chairman of Spirit of America. This terrific non-profit supports our troops' efforts on the front lines by supplying materiel they judge will be helpful in accomplishing their mission.

"The photo above," writes Hake, "shows Lieutenant Colonel Billy McCullough, Battalion Commander of the 1/5 Marines in Nawa, Afghanistan. The Marines in Nawa have made great progress in the last 6 months. McCullough is presenting the Marines

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WANTED: A NEW BAM FOR THE NEW YEAR -- BY MICHAEL GOODWIN, New York Post

When I say "Happy New Obama Year," let me be clear: I mean we need a new President Obama in the new year.

It won't be easy for Mr. Nobel Peace Prize to change course and his tune. But he doesn't have much choice if he wants to save his presidency and the country.

Facts have demolished the politically constructed fiction that got him to the Oval Office. The conceit that he alone knows best and that everyone who came before was debased has been exposed as a messianic myth.

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SYSTEMIC FAILURE -- BY R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR., The American Spectator

WASHINGTON -- A couple of weeks ago on Oprah Winfrey's "White House Christmas Special," our first postmodern president, Barack Obama, gave himself a "good, solid B-plus" for his performance over the past 11 months. Then he added that if his healthcare reform passes he will grant himself an A-. This is false humility.

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THE POLITICS OF INCOMPETENCE -- Washington Prowler, The American Spectator

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns -- if any -- from the Bush Administration.

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HUMAN IEDs -- BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, National Review

I think we will see some radical changes from the Obama administration very rapidly. When a Nigerian national, with a history of radical Islamic sympathies, previously reported to U.S. authorities by his father as a threat to America, buys a one-way ticket with cash, has no check-in luggage, previously was denied a British visa, boards a plane easily,

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HAPPY TEA PARTY NEW YEAR -- BY JED BABBIN, Human Events

It has been my custom to write a lighthearted year-end column, full of cheerful grumpiness that pokes fun at friend and foe alike. But not this year.

It’s not that 2009 hasn’t provided a wealth of material. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is a constant source of laughable chicanery, but Reid is beyond parody. He was perfectly serious in saying that opposition to the healthcare bill is tantamount to opposing the elimination of slavery. How can any parodist

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$100 MILLION MORE REASONS TO CANCEL KSM TRIAL -- BY REP. VITO FOSSELLA, Human Events

On New Year’s Eve in Times Square hundreds of thousands will watch the ball drop and usher in the New Year. Protecting them, will be a deployment of New York City Police officers -- simply, the best -- among other emergency and security personnel. The cost for security is high, but worth it considering the tradition

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IVANA TRUMP ESCORTED OFF PLANE: NAPOLITANO DECLARES 'THE SYSTEM WORKED' -- BY ANN COULTER, Human Events

In response to a Nigerian Muslim trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, the government will now prohibit international travelers from going to the bathroom in the last hour before the plane lands.

Terrorists who plan to bomb planes during the first seven hours of the eight-hour flight, however, should face no difficulties, provided they wait until after the complimentary beverage service has been concluded.

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ABDELMUTALIB'S ACT OF WAR -- BY WALID PHARES, Human Events

In the Arab world there is a saying: “Take their truth from their crazies.” I didn’t think it would fully apply in geopolitics until I heard Libya’s dictator, Moammar Qadhafi, claiming on al Jazeera few years ago that Bin Laden had acquired intercontinental missiles.

The “crazy boy,” as the late Egyptian President Sadat used to call him, argued sarcastically that al Qaeda has developed an unstoppable weapon: human transoceanic missiles. He meant by that Jihadists who were committed to istishaad

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DRUG GANGS: THE BRUTAL BEAST SOUTH OF THE BORDER -- BY JAMES ZUMWALT, Human Events

Hailed as a national hero, a Marine was killed December 16th in a raid to take down a top terrorist drug lord. His funeral five days later was attended by his grieving family, friends and others. But the family’s grief was short-lived. In a shocking display of brutality, a terrorist hit squad entered the grieving family’s home later that night and opened fire. When their guns fell silent, four members of the fallen Marine’s family

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