Mario Piperni dot Com

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Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen’s dishonesty on full display.

KILMEADE: First off, Marc, do you think — do you think it’s wrong to defend criminals? If you’re a defense lawyer for a bad guy, whether it’s Sammy the Bull or John Gotti, does that make you bad? Is that what they’re doing?

THIESSEN: No, but they – I mean, well, first of all, what these people did, most of them, was not defend people who were in the criminal justice system. The sixth amendment says that if you’re accused of a crime, you get to have legal representation. What these people were doing, most of them, was trying to spring terrorists out of Guantanamo who were held under the laws of war. Send them back out to the battlefield where they – where we have evidence they’ve killed Americans since. And one of these lawyers, Jennifer Daskal, has actually said even if we know that they will go out and kill Americans, we should still release them.

There’s not much one can do except to call out right-wing lies and idiocy each and every time it occurs.  Here in fact is what Jennifer Daskal said about holding Guantanamo detainees indefinitely.

An insurgency like al Qaeda is not static, but fluid and dynamic. If the particular detainees in Guantanamo are kept out of circulation, others can — and will — fight in their place. The supply outstrips demand. The high-profile detentions of a few dozen potentially dangerous men in Guantanamo do little to make the United States safer. To the contrary, it delegitimizes U.S. moral authority, helps to fuel the “recuperative power” of the enemy, and undercuts critical efforts to win hearts and minds.

Clear, clean-cut logic…not the type you’ll hear in the following Theissen interview with Jon Stewart.

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Here’s how the chronic lying pattern of Republicans plays out.

1.  Republicans scream that trying the underwear bomber in the criminal justice system is wrong and represents a danger to national security.

2.  Attorney General Eric Holder states that the Bush administration tried over 300 terrorist or terrorism-related cases in that same criminal justice system.

3.  Republicans scream that Holder is a liar.

“There haven’t been 300 high-profile, dangerous terrorism cases in the United States. If there were, we would have heard about them.”  -Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)

“The 300 number is as false as false gets.”  -Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino

4.  Fact:

Back in the FY 2009 Budget request submitted to Congress in 2008 (under the prior administration), it was the Bush DoJ which cited the 300+ figure. Not once, but twice — as evidence of its success in combating and punishing terrorist activity.

Since 2001, the Department has increased its capacity to investigate terrorism and has identified, disrupted, and dismantled terrorist cells operating in the United States. These efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001, and zero terrorist attacks on American soil by foreign nationals from 2003 through 2007.And:

The Department has made significant strides in the global war on terror by identifying, disrupting, and defeating terrorist plots within the United States and ensuring those responsible are brought to justice. Since September 11, 2001, the Department has charged 512 individuals with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes and convicted or obtained guilty pleas in 319 terrorism-related and anti-terrorism cases.

End of story.  Republicans lie with impunity.
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The state of fear lives on.

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

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Mr. Bloomberg’s remarks on Wednesday set off a stampede of New York City officials, most of them Democrats well-disposed toward President Obama, who suddenly declared that a civilian trial for the 9/11 suspects was a great idea — as long as it didn’t happen in their city.

The argument being made is that it would cost a gazillion dollars to set up security in Lower Manhattan and that the disruption to the city would be untenable. I don’t know. I’m thinking that now that they’ve got the trial moved out of the city, the scaredy-cats will get it moved out of the state and eventually out of the country.  Another moral victory for the terrorists.

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The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security has released digitally created pictures of Osama bin Laden.  This is what evil might look like more than eight years after 9/11.

With the vast intelligence network out there and a $25 million bounty on bin Laden, how is it that this guy is still running free?

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This is all good but check out the O’Reilly comment at the 6:42 mark…
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O’Reilly’s words…

‘One more terror attack…because there have been three on Obama’s watch in the first year. One more on our soil, you know, a major one where you get dead bodies…he is done.”

And what exactly is it that Republicans and conservatives want more than anything else?  To take over Congress and the White House? Absolutely.

Would a “few dead bodies” almost guarantee that for them?  Probably.

From my last post…

“…a successful act of terrorism on American soil is exactly what some on the right secretly hope for.  In their perverted order of priorities, it would guarantee them victory in 2012.”

1 + 1 = 2

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According to a new CNN/Opinion Research survey…

Nearly two-thirds of people questioned in the poll say they have a moderate or great deal of confidence in the administration to protect the public from future terrorist attacks, up 2 points from August. Thirty-five percent say they have not much or no confidence at all, down 1 point from August.

A number of Republicans have criticized the president over his handling of the attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. But according to the survey, 57 percent approve of the way President Barack Obama’s responded, with 39 percent disapproving of how he handled the situation.

“Only a third of Republicans have a positive view of Obama on this matter, but the key for the administration is the 55 percent of independents who approve of how the president responded to the incident on Christmas Day,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

And for anyone who believes in rational thought, the following is comforting…

“The public seems to react calmly to individual incidents, possibly because most Americans believe that the government cannot prevent every single terrorist plot from occurring.”

So true but it won’t prevent cons from exploiting every terrorist attack which will inevitably come – successful, not successful, real or perceived. And as ugly as it may sound, a successful act of terrorism on American soil is exactly what some on the right secretly hope for.  In their perverted list of priorities, it would guarantee them victory in 2012.

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Conservative Bob Barr schools Bill O’Reilly on terrorism and torture.
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When you have Karl Rove on your side of an argument then it should be obvious you’re on the slimy side of the issue.

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Here’s another idiotic idea from Republicans.

Congressman Gresham Barrett (R-SC) has announced his intention to reintroduce legislation that would prohibit “the admission of aliens from countries designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism as well as Yemen to the United States.”  The Stop Terrorist Entry Program (STEP) Act, first introduced in 2003, also would have required all persons from these countries on student visas, temporary work visas, exchange and tourist visas to leave the United States within 60 days, despite their legal status in the country.  Residents and nationals of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen would be affected.

Congressman Barrett said his bill came in response to the Fort Hood shooting and the Christmas-day attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit. “While President Obama may have declared an end to the War on Terror, it is clear our enemies did not get the message. Twice in the past two months, radical Islamic terrorists have attacked our nation and the Administration has failed to adapt its national security and immigration policies to counter the renewed resolve of those who seek to harm our citizens.”

This knee-jerk, simplistic response to the Fort Hood shootings and the undie-bomber would do nothing more than anger and alienate moderate Muslims. And it would do nothing to make the country safer. There have been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from either Iranians or Cubans.

What we’re looking at here is Republicans looking to appease the Muslim-hating xenophobes in their party. The teabaggers and rednecks would love it.  I could imagine them cheering as roaming gangs of repubs scour the countryside rounding up Iranians and others with funny sounding names and throw them in the back of cattle cars in preparation for deportation.

Will they ever learn?

Yes, we need to fix our intelligence. Yes, we absolutely must live up to our own ideals, as President Obama is trying to do in banning torture and closing Guantánamo Bay. We can’t let this “war on terrorism” consume us. We can’t let our country become just The United States of Fighting Terrorism and nothing more. We are the people of July 4th — not Sept. 11th.

-Thomas Friedman

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The essence of the President’s speech on the security failures which led to the undie-bomber incident came down to this:

“I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer.  For ultimately, the buck stops with me.  As President, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people.  And when the system fails, it is my responsibility.”

And with that, President Obama went on to outline a number of new measures for preventing security failures of this type from happening again. Compare the president’s attitude with that of the last guy who held his job.  In case you’ve forgotten:
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Andrew Sullivan notes…

It’s just one of those moments when you realize how profoundly weak and incompetent Bush and Cheney were, and how strong and adult Obama is in contrast.

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Rep. Peter King was asked what recommendation he would make to the President in the wake of the Christmas Day bombing attempt.

“One main thing would be, just himself, to use the word ‘terrorism’ more often.”

As TPM notes, President Obama used the word seven times in less than a month.  Yes I know, facts have a liberal bias.

In any event, King makes a great point for we all know that simply saying ‘terrorism’ over and over makes everyone safer.

terrorism

Feeling much safer now.

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