Saudis Lobby Chertoff on Behalf of Slave Owner/Rapist

The slave owner/rapist in question is Homaidan Al-Turki. In 2006, he was sentenced to 27 years to life for the rape and illegal imprisonment of his maid whom he brought to this country from Saudi Arabia.

The defense at his trial and the defense this representative of the Saudi government are using is the same. It's all about his religion. One small point. The maid was Muslim also.

Bin-Humaid took up the issue of Al-Turki during a meeting with US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in Riyadh on Wednesday. The talks, according to the Saudi Press Agency, focused on political, economic and educational issues as well as parliamentary relations.

Chertoff said the US judicial system aims to establish justice for all, adding that it would not do any injustice to foreigners. “Both sides have agreed to strengthening their strategic and historic relations.”

Here is story from the Arab News at the time the trial was ongoing.

Al-Turki said he treated the woman the same way any observant Muslim family would treat a daughter. “Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit,” he told the judge. “The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.”

A Bad Day Just Got Worse for Governor Steamroller

The hapless governor of New York just got a reminder from the Department of Homeland Security. First called to Washington to answer to his boss Hillary, and now this.

Chertoff: N.Y. to follow Real ID measures

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer may have abandoned his plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he expects New York to live up to Real ID security standards for the rest of the state's licenses anyway.

"Absolutely," Mr. Chertoff told The Washington Times in a telephone interview from London today. "We obviously never agreed with the idea of giving illegals driver's licenses and so we welcome New York's decision to abandon moving forward on that. As far as Real ID, we were pleased New York signed the agreement to move forward with that. The agreement is still in force."

Real ID sets national standards for licenses to be used for federal purposes, such as boarding an airplane. The goal was to make licenses secure documents and prevent illegal aliens from getting identification, but Real ID has become the latest flashpoint in the immigration debate, with opponents saying it amounts to a national identification system and discriminates against immigrants.

That's why all eyes were on Mr. Spitzer.

This morning he said he was abandoning his plan to issue licenses to illegal aliens, telling reporters in Washington that he just wasn't able to find enough support and blaming President Bush for failing to achieve a federal solution to immigration.

He announced his license plan six weeks ago and, after the initial backlash, sought to boost support by also agreeing to comply with Real ID, a federal law set in 2005.

Under that plan, New York would have issued several tiers of licenses — one to illegal aliens, marked as unusable for federal purposes; one to most residents; and an enhanced version that meets the international travel requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

But embracing Real ID didn't win Mr. Spitzer any new supporters and ended up costing him the support of immigrant rights groups who are fighting Real ID and who said Mr. Spitzer's move was propping the law up.

What a dope.

Read the rest.

A look back at the recent Spitzer buffoonery.

Looking back to September 21, it looks like we were on to something.

Who just got steamrolled, Eliot?

How convenient is this for Mrs. Clinton, who--surprise!-- has now come out against driver's licenses for illegals?

War on Something or Other

How are we supposed to fight an enemy bent on our destruction when we can't even figure out what to call the war itself?

U.S., British officials drop 'war on terror'

British bureaucrats and U.S. lawmakers are abandoning the phrases "war on terror" and "long war" as the Bush administration redefines the battle against al Qaeda as a global war of ideology against a network of terrorists.

"I recognize that using the term 'war' with respect to the struggle we're engaged in makes some people uncomfortable," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told students during a speech Thursday at Johns Hopkins University.

"We have to recognize we are fighting members of a movement and an ideology that seeks to advance a totalitarian world vision around the globe," he said. "And if we don't understand that and contend in the field of ideology, we cannot really match this enemy across the entire spectrum of the challenge."

The change in rhetoric began in March, when the Pentagon quietly ditched the phrase "long war." Last month, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee decreed they would no longer use the phrases "war on terror" and "long war."

Obviously, the Democrats owuld prefer to capitulate and surrender if it means gaining even one House or Senate seat. But the administration and Chertoff need to show some stones and call it what it is: A war against Islamofascism.