A National Security staffer noted that "'There is absolutely no plan to release or transfer the Blind Sheikh,' said National Security Staff spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. 'Reports saying otherwise are completely and unequivocally false.'" [emphasis mine] in response to news that negotiations over handing blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman over to the Egyptian government to finish his confinement with the benefit of being able to visit with friends and family may be currently under discussion.
New Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi has certainly made it clear that he'd like to negotiate a prisoner swap for Abdul-Rahman for "humanitarian reasons,"* and that only "recent incidents around the US embassy in Cairo have delayed efforts in this regard."
A blog post over at RedState points to a Weekly Standard article demonstrating a compelling case that recent attacks on U.S. diplomats in the Middle East have been part of a larger effort to release Abdul-Rahman.
The articles and reports I've seen have not said there is a plan to release Abdul-Rahman -- only that there have been tentative negotiations in that direction underway.
Hair-splitting is raised to an art form in this nation's capital, and "absolutely no plan" may mean "at this moment". It does not in any way, shape or form answer the question of whether negotiations may have been or may still be under discussion. That is the more significant question.
_____
*Such as being allowed visitation with friends and family. Bear in mind that while under heavy security in a U.S. prison the blind sheikh was able to pass on marching orders to his network via one of his attorneys until she was caught. Certainly his visitors and his correspondence would fall under far less scrutiny in Egypt that it would in the states.
Hold the Bus!
If you're wavering at all about who to vote for in November, strongly consider this:
That members the current administration are even considering this action is madness.
*Abdel Rahman should die in prison, then be buried at sea ala bin Laden, thereby refusing his worshipers a martyr's temple.
Are senior Obama administration officials considering transferring to Egypt a poisonously influential Islamist cleric serving a life term in federal prison for trying to unleash a war of urban terrorism in the United States? That's the impression several officials have given over the past three months, apparently out of fear that if the cleric dies in U.S. custody, American outposts in the Middle East could be overrun by vengeful mobs.Omar Abdel Rahmen is the architect of most of the large-scale terrorist attacks in recent history:
He served as spiritual adviser to El Sayid Nosair (in connection with the 1990 assassination in Manhattan of Meir Kahane, a right-wing Israeli politician) and to the band of terrorists who carried out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six and wounded numerous others (an operation undertaken in part to free Nosair from jail). Abdel Rahman was convicted in 1995 of participating in a seditious conspiracy that included the Kahane murder, the 1993 WTC bombing, and a plot to blow up other landmarks in New York and to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when he visited the United Nations.Furthermore:
In 1997, members of Abdel Rahman's organization (Gama al Islamiyah, or the Islamic Group, which is designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization) murdered more than 60 tourists at Luxor, Egypt, and inserted notes in the body cavities of several victims demanding the Blind Sheik's release. Also in the mid-1990s, Abdel Rahman contrived from jail to issue the fatwa that Osama bin Laden cited as authorization to carry out the 9/11 attacks. The sheik's confinement was on bin Laden's list of grievances meant to justify that atrocity.Apparently Obama and his merry band of foreign policy morons learned absolutely nothing from the foreign policy disaster of the release of the Lockerbie bomber (supposedly on his deathbed), who was made a hero on his return to Libya. Abdel Rahmen's foul deeds are on a far larger and more heinous scale. To release him to Egypt would be the equivalent of having Osama bin Laden* in our grasp and then deliberately setting him free to plan jihad on a mass scale.
That members the current administration are even considering this action is madness.
The State Department's spokesperson last week, after the ceremonial "let me be clear," said that there had been no approach on this topic "recently" from any "senior" official of the Egyptian government—an elucidation laden with ambiguity and certain to send chills up the spine of anyone familiar with Abdel Rahman's record and President Morsi's inclinations.
All of this plays out in the context of an Obama administration that hasn't hesitated to employ executive orders to get around Congress, led by a president who was caught on a "hot mike" assuring Russia's leaders that if he wins re-election he will have more "flexibility" to accommodate Russian demands that the U.S. curtail missile defense in Europe._____
*Abdel Rahman should die in prison, then be buried at sea ala bin Laden, thereby refusing his worshipers a martyr's temple.
Road Rage
A huge tip of the cap to the Sweetheart of Shell Knob, MO. That made my day!
In the Rear View Mirror
For a guy who didn't believe in life after death or immortality, Old Crankypants sure manages to manifest his presence on the internet and in the hearts of his friends and other music lovers:
Thanks, Catfish! What a lovely surprise.
Thanks, Catfish! What a lovely surprise.
Full Stop
Fan of Taylor Swift or not, I defy you to get through this video without shedding a tear:
Simply heart-breakingly lovely.
Simply heart-breakingly lovely.
Spit-Take
Quote of the Day:
"If I ever get a tumor, I'm naming it after him."Whites is my favorite new source of the giggles.
Rubber-Necking
Jim Carrey and Nicholas Cage in the same movie? Yep. It's either going to be truly "Kick-Ass"...
... or a complete train wreck.
Whaddaya think?
... or a complete train wreck.
Whaddaya think?
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