ASHCROFT BY THE BOOK

Now no one here should be surprised at Al Quaeda's tactics, but it is amazing that the Dems are at all surprised. I found myself reading about the terror manual saying "of course that's what they'll do" and then realizing that such a thought would never occur to Ted Kennedy.

Or Russ Feingold(D-WI), who is wringing his hands over the "treatment" of the terrorists, but has no problem putting someone into jail and throwing away the key for trying to put a political ad on TV 60 days before an election.

I hardly think so. The paradigm is simple: No one's a really bad person, just misguided. I think his brothers' fates must mitigate against his own encounter with the law.

At the end of the day, Leahy's much ballyhooed 'hearings' became the proverbial dog that didn't bite.
The proceedings, ostensibly to plumb the administration's "controversial" decision to use military tribunals to try Osama Bin Laden and other foreign terrorists for war crimes, were billed in advance by the press as the moment America had been waiting for -- the greatest show on earth! U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft would be shamed and humiliated -- reduced to smoldering ash over Leahy's flaming grill, the *ash* in *Ashcroft* acquiring new meaning.
Last week's hearings with Michael Chertoff, Ashcroft's point man at DOJ's criminal division, were sold as dress rehearsal, a taste of what awaited his boss the following week. Chertoff was treated rudely, spitefully by tactless Committee Democrats. 'Ashcroft is toast now, and we're rearin' to go', Democrats would gleefully tell their media chums afterwards.
The Bush haters had everything vested in these Kangaroo hearings. They hoped the scintillating spectacle would light a fire under this issue, setting off a storm of popular resistance.
The opposite proved to be the case.
For Ashcroft, the hearings yesterday were certainly no Waterloo. Following Leahy's rambling/disjointed opening, the proceedings became a boring, humdrum display of mediocrity -- on a grand scale. Rather than blazing fireworks, the only detectable heat on that committee billowed from flaming liberals, who spend sleepless nights distressed over 'poor' Osama Bin Laden's "constitutional" "rights" and "liberties".
To hear the paranoid rantings of Leahy and his ilk, America becomes a totalitarian police state UNLESS Osama Bin Laden is read his Miranda rights, is formally served an arrest warrant and is accorded nothing less than all of the "rights" and "protections" reserved for every American.
Hold on, not so fast: Last time I checked, Osama Bin Laden wasn't an American...
Gee, apparently, the clique of demented black Helicopter schizoids on Leahy's side of that committee have yet to notice there's a war going on.
Oh, and the putrid hypocrisy of it all. The same charlatans piously feigning "concern" over "privacy rights" and the 'rule of law' -- without the vaguest hint of irony -- demanded to know why DOJ denied an FBI request for records of background checks on private citizens who purchase firearms!
Ashcroft calmly and gently reminded the gun grabbers that, er, that's the law of the land. The New York Times conveniently omitted this niggling detail from its Thursday 'blockbuster', from which Committee Democrats were obviously drawing their asinine line of questioning.
End of story.
On the public relations front, in an effort to limit negative fallout for Democrats, the media till now has been careful to frame this issue under the phony cloak of 'bipartisanship', as if opposition to military tribunals and other anti-terrorist measures derived equally from both sides of the aisle.
That charade is now over.
Last time I checked, leaky Leahy was not a Republican. Nor was that guzzling boozer, Teddy Kennedy. Nor was greedy-shyster-lawyer-turned-pol John Edwards of North Carolina. Near as I could tell, all the sniveling and snuffling and bleating emanated from the Democrat side.
But, through it all, America's top cop handled his detractors with aplomb. His steadfast composure, his grace under fire, his patient demeanor frustrated his former Democrat colleagues who tried desperately to trip him up. Everything the loonies threw at him, he would toss right back in their faces.
Man, am I glad adults are back in charge!

I went to the site provided by Ashcroft to see what I could about the manual by the al Qaeda.

The part before it gets into the "how-to" portion is a MUST READ for all FReepers!

We have all been told how peacful the people who follow the Koran (Quran[sp?]) are, and for the most part, they are. But read the introduction. Read some of the quotes from the Koran. The pure hatred spewed forth is enough to make a strong man sick to his stomach.

I copied a few selections from only the introduction of the al Qaeda manual, mainly for those who, like me, cannot stomach reading it all. Selected quotes follow. (Please forgive any mispellings.)

Pledge, O Sister

To the sister believer whose clothes the criminals have stripped off.

To the sister believer whose hair the oppressors have shaved.

To the sister believer who's body has been abised by the human dogs.

To the sister believer whose ...

Covenant, O Sister ... to make their women widows and their children orphans.

Covenant, O Sister ... to make them desire death and hate appointments and prestige.

Covenant, O Sister ... to slaughter them like lambs and let the Nile, al-Asi, and Euphrates rivers flow with their blood.

Covenant, O Sister ... to be a pick of destruction for every godless and apostate regime.

Covenant, O Sister ... to retaliate for you against every dog who touch you with a bad word.

(Further down)

The most truthful saying is the book of Allah and the best guidance is that of Mohammed. God bless and keep him. [Therefore] the worst thing is to introduce something new, for every novelty is an act of heresy and each heresy is a decption.

...After the fall of our orthodox caliphates on March 3, 1924 and after expelling the colonialists, our Islamic nation was afflicted with apostate rulers who took over in the Moslem nation. These rulers turned out to be more infidel and criminal than the colonialists themselves. ...

...Colonialism and its followers, the apostate rulers, then started to openly erect crusader centers, societies, and organizations like Masonic Lodges, Lions and Rotary clubs, and foreign schools. They aimed at producing a wasted generation that pursued everything that is western and produced rulers, ministers, leaders, physicians, engineers, businessmen, politicians, journalists, and information specialists. [Koranic verse:] "And Allah's enemies plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah."

...The confrontation that Islam calls for with these godless and apostate regimes, [Budge's note: mentioned are; Sadat. Hosni Mubarak, Gadhafi, Hafez Assad, Saleh, Fahed] does not know Socratic debates, Platonic ideals nor Aristotelian diplomacy. But it knows the dialog of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of cannon and machine-gun.

The young came to prepare themselves for Jihad [holy war], commanded by the majestic Allah's order in the holy Koran. [Koranic verse:] "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others beside whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know."