Arsalan Iftikhar's Thank You Letter To Don Lemon

Fox News anchors work heard to be ignorant and offensive. For Don Lemon, it just comes naturally. Lemon unsurprisingly placed his foot in his mouth when he asked Muslim civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar if he supported ISIS.

“Again in August, 16 percent of French citizens support ISIS,” Lemon pressed. “Would you describe those who support ISIS as Islamic extremists? Do you support ISIS?”

The question stunned Iftikhar.

“Wait,” he replied. “Did you just ask me if I support ISIS? I just answered your question. I said that obviously these 16 percent of people support the ideology, but again, I don’t think that would necessarily extrapolate to supporting of killing of innocent people.”

Imagine asking a German civil rights lawyer if he supports the Nazi Party. That gives you an idea of how tasteless Lemon's question was to Iftikhar.

In Islamic Monthly, Iftikhar thanked Lemon in an open letter. Get ready for the snark.

“Now to be completely honest with you,” Iftikhar wrote, “I totally thought that I had misheard him because surely there was no respectable journalist in the world who would ask a Muslim human rights lawyer whether he supports an organization which violates human rights each and every day.”

“But then I remembered that I was dealing with Don Lemon,” he said.

Just reading that made me flinch. Iftikhar delivered a serious burn to Lemon. Unfortunately for Lemon, Iftikhar is just getting warmed up.

Iftikhar wrote, “In less than 24 hours, there were nearly 5,000 media articles written condemning Don Lemon for his asinine question in major publications such as BuzzFeed, Deadspin, The Hollywood Reporter, USA Today and more. Most of these articles called the ISIS question just the latest in a series of major Don Lemon on-air gaffes; including his previous theory about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 perhaps flying into a “black hole” or once asking an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim why she didn’t bite off the comedian’s penis whilst being allegedly raped by him.”

Iftikhar finishes off Lemon with these paragraphs.

“I can honestly say that I have never become more ‘famous’ than after this latest Don Lemon gaffe,” Iftikhar said, before implying that Lemon has perhaps brought enough embarrassment on CNN that he may be following the likes of Ed Henry over to a different news network.

“It is a sincere honor to be added to the litany of famous ‘Malaysian-black-hole-penis-biting’ Don Lemon media gaffes which can be added to his audition tape for his next job at FOX News Channel,” Iftikhar wrote.

“So from the bottom of my heart,” he concluded, “I want to publicly thank Don Lemon for making me famous with his patently offensive racist dumb-ass question.”

Let's recap Lemon's other lowlights.

Lemon was actually stupid enough to ask Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, if Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in a black hole. Lemon finds a way to trivialize a tragic plane disappearance.

Lemon projected blame on alleged Bill Cosby rape victim, Joan Tarshis, for not defending herself. If you wonder why more women don't come forward about being rape than just watch this interview.

Lemon: Can I ask you this, because—and please, I don't mean to be crude, OK?

Tarshis: Yeah.

Lemon: Because I know some of you—and you said this last night, that he—you lied to him and said, "I have an infection, and if you rape me, or if you do—if you have intercourse with me, then you will probably get it and give it to your wife."

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: And you said he made you perform oral sex.

Tarshis: Right.

Lemon: You—you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it.

Tarshis: Oh. Um, I was kind of stoned at the time, and quite honestly, that didn't even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.

Lemon: Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?

Tarshis: Yes, that's what I'm thinking you're ...

Lemon: As a weapon.

Tarshis: Yeah, I didn't even think of it.

Lemon didn't have to ask that.

Amanda Carpenter's Hysterical Tweet

We're likely keeping Benghazi terrorist on a ship instead of GTMO, a secure facility that's made for this http://t.co/WRzD2CaXYR

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) June 17, 2014

Via Talking Points Memo: Ted Cruz speechwriter, Amanda Carpenter, somehow believes that Ahmed Abu Khatallah is going to overtake an entire Navy crew unarmed and swim to shore. Carpenter has been watching Under Siege one too many times.

Shocking: Marco Rubio Blames President Obama For Boston Bombing

Brace yourselves: Sen. Marco Rubio blames President Barack Obama for the Boston Marathon bombing. Rubio (or a speechwriter) penned this piece for the National Review.

Until the Boston bombings, many of our citizens knew the effects of 9/11 only through the intrusive security requirements of air travel. If nothing else, recent events should remind us that we are a country at war, that radical Islamic jihadists are evil, and that America has a moral and security to lead the fight to defeat them. Unfortunately, we have a president who wants to declare the war over, the enemy defeated.

But if we're not even willing to characterize the war as a war, or the threat as a threat, how can we ensure that we will win this battle? If, instead, we want to see every act of terror in the United States as some isolated case, disconnected from a broader effort -- as administration officials are now spinning Boston -- we're doing a disservice to the American people.

Rubio's op-ed doesn't offer any points on what he would do differently. Would Rubio stay in Afghanistan? Would Rubio send U.S. troops to Syria or Iran. Rubio doesn't say. Rubio's only strategy is Obama isn't talking tough.

The Obama administration rejected using the Bush administration's talking point of "war on terror." Team Obama wanted no part of taking the slogan from the previous admistration that didn't catch Obama bin Laden or found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Unlike Rubio's false reality, President Obama made it clear that there was a war.

"We are indeed at war with al-Qaida and its affiliates," he said at the National Archives a few months after taking office.

Remember when Mitt Romney accused Obama of not describing the Benghazi attack as "an act of terror." Romney's whole point was not how he would handle security better but that Obama didn't sound macho enough. Romney was badly busted during the debate for falsely stating that it took Obama 14 days to describe the Benghazi attack as an act of terror.

There is no national security strategy from the current Republican establishment. It's just taking cheap shots at Obama and playing up xenophobic fears to the Christian Right voting base. If you doubt that Republicans are only interested in terrorism for scoring political points than why did Rubio say that President George W. Bush did a "fantastic job" as president.

George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight year, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney will face.

Rubio will go on Fox News and conservative talk radio and say that Bush's record on fighting terrorism is better than Obama's. No sane person believes that.

Anti-Choice Terrorism

A Planned Parenthood in Grand Chute, Wisconsin was firebombed.

On Sunday April 1, 2012 at 7:41 P.M. the Grand Chute Fire Department responded to Plannned Parenthood, 3800 N. Gíllett St for a fire alarm. While investigating the cause for the alarm, firefighters found evidence of foul play and requested assistance from the Grand Chute Police Department.

An unknown person placed a small homemade explosive device on an outside window sill to the buílding. The device later exploded, causing damage to the building. A small fire broke out at the time ofthe explosion, but it quickly burned itself out prior to the arrival of the fire department.

The Grand Chute Police Department is investigating this incident. It is believed the incident took place around 7:30 P.M. If anyone has about this incident, please contact the Grand Chute Department at 920-832-1575.

Sadly, incidents like this are no longer surprising.

Obama Backs TSA Intrusive Search Policy

Via Texas Betsy: change you can believe in. President Barack Obama backs the TSA nude x-rays and groping searches.

"But at this point, TSA in consultation with counterterrorism experts have indicated to me that the procedures that they have been putting in place are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective against the kind of threat that we saw in the Christmas Day bombing."

This is evidence Obama is not a policy wonk. A serious policy thinker would have realized the potential problems with nude body scans and body searches around people's sexual organs. Obama's security advisers pitched this policy and he signed off with out asking about the legal questions or if there were other options.

Bob Woodward on Morning Joe

Bob Woodward talks to Joe Scarborough about the problems President Barack Obama faces with Afghanistan, the CIA and his own military generals. Woodward wrote that Gen. David Petraeus refused to give President Obama an exit strategy for Afghanistan.

Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page “terms sheet” that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in “Obama’s Wars,” to be released on Monday.

According to Woodward’s meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives.

“This needs to be a plan about how we’re going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan,” Obama is quoted as telling White House aides as he laid out his reasons for adding 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation. “Everything we’re doing has to be focused on how we’re going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It’s in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room.”

Petraeus's reaction was, "They fucked with the wrong guy." Petraeus's only strategy was to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely.

Dumbass of the Day

Potential terrorists beware: if you are looking for a bomb it is not wise to post this tidbit of information of Craigslist. The terrorist in question is Jansson S. Wheeler. He is 76-year-old, blind and was turned in by his assisted living aide.

A serious side to the story is Wheeler planned on sending the bomb to a man involved with his estranged wife. Wheeler is old but it is best the authorites got to him before he could hurt someone.

New CNN Poll Helps Obama on Terrorism

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds 65 percent of Americans have a favorable view of President Barack Obama's handling of terrorism. 24 percent have a great of confidence in Obama. 41 percent have a moderate amount in confidence in Obama's ability to keep America safe from a terrorist attack.

More interesting is 57 percent of Americans approve of Obama's performance, in handling the infamous underwear bomber. The no fly lists are a disaster and need to be revised. Many people who are not terrorists are on the list. Despite warning signs, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wasn't put on the no fly list.

57 percent approve of Obama's handling of the underwear bomber attack. I'm surprised by those numbers. The White House is probably estatic. Terrorism is no longer a hot button issue. The poll finds 63 percent of Americans either not worried or very little worried. In 2010 it is the economy. Civil liberties is another issue that is not big. 79 percent support airports using body scanners.

It is good to see voters starting to ignore the Republican talking point machine of all torture all the time. Since when did Bill O'Reilly become a national security and Middle East expert?

Pakistan United Nations Building Attacked

Terroists are pushing to deteriorate stability in Pakistan. The Pakistani military have launched a brutal counter insurgency operation against the Taliban. Terrorist retaliation attacks have gotten more fierce. suicide bomber struck the United Nations food agency.

The United Nations announced it was temporarily closing all its offices in Pakistan after the noontime bombing, which blew out windows and left victims lying in pools of blood in the lobby of the three-story World Food Program compound.

"This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Geneva.

Since the counter-insurgency, the New York Times report scivilian casualities have decreased in Pakistan. The Taliban was killing civilians at will in the Swat Valley. Pressure needs to be kept on the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements in Pakistan. al-Qaeda operations chief Ilyas Kashmiri and hundreds of fighters have been killed by drone attacks. The decision on the Afghanistan policy will greatly decide the ability , of the United States, to strike terrorists in Pakistan.

Partygirl's 9-11 Entries

Psrtygirl wrote about the search for a missing friend after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Her entries on the day and aftermath of attacks quickly spread across the internet. These post are the best and most heartbreaking writing by a blogger. There is no faux politics. Only a young woman searching for her friends and attempting to make sense of the madness.

Go sign Partygirl's guestbook and give her your best wishes.

Saad bin Laden May Be Dead

The Associated Press is reporting Osama bin Laden's son Saad may be dead.

Saad bin Laden, a son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, may have been killed in a U.S. airstrike, U.S. officials said Thursday. The son was likely killed in Pakistan in the last several months, approximately in late spring, said a counterterrorism official, one of three Obama administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Though many in the intelligence community believe he is dead, they can't be 100 percent certain because no body or DNA evidence was recovered to prove it, one official said.

The Washington Post confirmed the story of Saad's possible death through their own source.

"There are some indications that he may be dead, but it's not 100 percent certain," said a Washington-based counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of CIA operations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier. He declined to say precisely when and where the strike occurred.

Saad served as a messanger between his father and the Quds Force of Iran. al-Qaeda used verbal messangers to avoid communication through cell phones and the internet. The Quds Force helps train and equip Islamic terrorists. Saad lived in Iran and Pakistan after the United States invasion of Afghanistan.

Intelligence official will never be completely certain if Saad is dead. The ability to find a body in Taliban-controlled Pakistan makes the task all but impossible.

Latest Obama Poll Numbers

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows President Barack Obama killing Republicans in polling numbers. Obama has a 65 percent approval rating. The Democratic Party has a 53 percent approval rating. Republicans have a much lower 36 percent.

This question was given to respondents.

Which of these statements comes closer to your view: (Beneath it all, Obama is an old-style, tax-and-spend Democrat) or (Obama is a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money).

58 percent felt Obama was a "new-style Democrat" that would be thrifty with tax dollars. 36 percent said Obama was a tax and spend Democrat. 52 percent approved of Obama's handling of the current Iranian crisis. Obama's major polling weakness is his bailout for automakers. 45 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved.

Health care

The polling numbers for health care reform are in Obama's favor. Obama needs to continue to speak to Americans and force Blue Dog and DLC Democrats to back the public option.

21a. (IF SUPPORT) What if having the government create a new health insurance plan made many private health insurers go out of business because they could not compete? In that case would you support or oppose creating a government-run health insurance plan?

56 percent would support health care reform that would kill insurance companies. Americans hate the insurance industry. I'm not anti-capitalist and understand businesses are to create profits. I don't want a health industry monopoly. I wrote the reason Republicans killed importing cheaper drugs from Canada is they are anti-free market. Health care industry lobbyists contribute to campaigns to discourage industry competion. Obama successfully pointed out the contradictions in Republicans anti-health care rhetoric.

OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If -- if private -- if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.

The Republicans lack of logic and Obama's political skills explain the current polling numbers.

Swat

A female resident the Swat area of Pakistan told American special envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, her husband was murdered by the Taliban. Last year, 162 girl schools in Swat were destroyed by the Taliban. The messege is Pakistani women are not allowed an education. The Taliban will bomb or burn the cchool to achieve receive complete female submission.

The North-West Frontier Province has experienced similar violence. Yasmeen Hassan, Equality Now's Deputy Director of Programs details the suffering endured by women.

“The attacks and threats have not been confined to schoolgirls. Women and girls have been ordered to wear full veils. Directives have been issued requiring that women be accompanied by male family members in public places and forbidding women from carrying compulsory government identification cards displaying their photographs. About a dozen women have been shot for "immoral activities," including Bakht Zeba, a 45-year-old social worker committed to advancing girls' education.”

The Pakistan military has lost control of Swat. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reports the Taliban is the unofficial government of the area. The Taliban has decapitated the heads of policemen. Residents are fleeing for relief camps.

Swat has long had jihadist elements. In 2001, Sufi Muhammad Khan led 10,000 followers out of Swat to fight NATO troops invading Afghanistan. His son-in-law, Maulana Fazalullah, went on a campaign against young girls going to school. Today Fazalullah is the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. He is engaged in a war with the Pakistani military.

All Roads Do Not Lead to Kabul

Nir Rosen reports that Kabul is a vabrant city. The rest of Afghanistan is a hellhole.

Rosen saw burning bodies in the Wardak western province. U.S. and NATO forces have difficulty moving conveys because of IEDs. The Taliban and other militant movements are Wardak province's unofficial government.

Given its location in between more populous urban centers, insurgents have made alarming gains in Wardak.

A shadow government collects taxes and runs roadside checkpoints, according to intelligence reports and residents, while fighters - many of them foreign - are largely free to train, stash arms and kidnap victims without interference.

The United States spent $270 million on a highway connecting Kabul to Kandahar. The highway is littered with car wreakage. In June of 2008, 54 trucks were destroyed in the Logar province. The goal of insurgent has been effective: take Afghanistan.

Former CIA Counterterrorist Center's Osama Bin Laden station chief Michael Scheuer wrote about how the Afghanistan people will never accept a Western occupation. The Afghan people feel the same about Americans as they do the Russians. Kabul will fall when Western forces leave.

Wrong Side of the National Security Debate

The Republican Party of Florida and Charlie Crist sent out a mailer playing the terrorism fear card.

While Democrats have called for surrender in the fight against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, they have also pledged to meet unconditionally with dictators and tyrants.

The Bush administration have agreed to an Iraq timetable and have taken North Korea off the terrorism list. The Republican talking points are out of step with the current Bush administration policies. The neoconservatives have lost the debate. A McCain defeat will be another nail in the neoconservative coffin. This is what happens when a presidential candidate heeds Bill Kristol's words.

The Maverick's Secret

John McCain has a secret plan for capturing Osama bin Laden. It's so secret the Maverick won't even share it with the White House. If that doesn't tell you how unserious McCain is on national security then nothing will.

So Washington Wire was wondering, what does McCain know that President Bush and the Pentagon don’t about how to sweep up America’s most elusive enemy.

“One thing I will not do is telegraph my punches. Osama bin Laden will be the last to know,” he said today while riding on the back of his bus between Florida events. In other words: he’s not telling. Why not share his strategy with the current occupant of the White House? “Because I have my own ideas and it would require implementation of certain policies and procedures that only as the president of the United States can be taken.”

Apparently, McCain's plan is so secret, McCain may not even know how he plans to capture bin Laden.

Rudy's Racist Campaign Chair

John Deady is the co-chair of state Veterans for Rudy. He channels his inner caveman to explain why he supports Rudy Giuliani.

"He's got I believe the knowledge and the judgement to attack one of the most difficult problems in current history and that is the rise of the Muslims, and make no mistake about it, this hasn't happened for a thousand years. These people are very dedicated and they're also very very smart in their own way. We need to keep the feet to the fire and keep pressing these people until we defeat or chase them back to their caves or in other words get rid of them."

I'm not surprised by the quote. Deady is exactly the kind of xenophobic person Giuliani is attempting to appeal to. Giuliani's appeal his he will be utterly ruthless. Giuliani bogusly brags about using "enhanced techniques" and believes torture "depends on who does it." Nevermind that New York City first responders say Giuliani did a horrible job handling 9-11. Only a man of Giuliani's judgement would place the emergency command center in the World Trade Center. Giuliani's handling of the health threat from the dust was his worst offense.

At the same time, the administration warned companies working on the pile that they would face penalties or be fired if work slowed. And according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers.

“The city ran a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns,” said David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group.

Competence and protecting citizens doesn't register in the cavemen minds of Giuliani supporters. They want some good old fashioned torture and bloodshed. Whether the victims are innocent or guilty is secondary. God will sort them out.

Torture Tapes Destroyed

The CIA admitted to destroying videotape of of interrogation of two Al Qaeda suspects. The Agency destroyed the tapes in 2005 out of fear of potential criminal prosecution. If that isn't a tipoff that the CIA and White House is violated the law then I don't know what is. The CIA would not have destroyed the tapes if they weren't concerned that their actions qualified as torture. The Geneva Conventions (which the United States signed) is quite clear on this.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

The Bush administration has violated all of these rules. Children have been held prisoner. Khaled El-Masri was illegally kidnapped. Alberto Gonzales contends that there is no express right to habeas corpus. The White House has maintained that violated our rights is to keep us safe. You can guess how CIA Director Michael Hayden explains why evidence was destroyed.

General Hayden said in a statement that leaders of Congressional oversight committees were fully briefed on the matter, but some Congressional officials said notification to Congress had not been adequate.

"This is a matter that should have been briefed to the full Intelligence Committee at the time," an official with the House Intelligence Committee said. "This does not appear to have been done. There may be a very logical reason for destroying records that are no longer needed; however, this requires a more complete explanation. "

Hayden's statement doesn't pass the bullshit test. The 9-11 Commission asked if such tapes existed. The CIA never handed any tapes over Philip D. Zelikow, never knew of the tapes existence.

"The commission did formally request material of this kind from all relevant agencies, and the commission was assured that we had received all the material responsive to our request," said Philip D. Zelikow, who served as executive director of the Sept. 11 commission and later as a senior counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The policy of the Bush administration is deny, cover up, get caught, lie and repeat cycle. Nothing they say should be taken at face value.