PrairiePundit

AP /Houston Chronicle: The FBI used mob muscle to solve the 1964 disappearance of three civil rights volunteers in Mississippi, a gangster's ex-girlfriend testified Monday, becoming the first witness to repeat in open court a story that has been underworld lore for years. Linda Schiro said that her boyfriend, Mafia tough guy Gregory Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI to help find the volunteers' bodies. She said Scarpa later told her he put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman's mouth and forced him to reveal the whereabouts of the victims. The FBI has never acknowledged that Scarpa, nicknamed "The Grim Reaper," was involved in the case. The bureau did not return a call for comment Monday. Schiro took the stand as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of former FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who is charged in state court with four counts of murder in what authorities have called one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history. Prosecutors say ...

Washington Times: Lawmakers, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have taken thousands in campaign cash from an embattled Nobel-prize winning scientist while earmarking federal money for his New York lab. Mrs. Clinton and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, also a New York Democrat, requested a $900,000 earmark in June for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where James D. Watson served as chancellor before resigning last week after apologizing for comments that suggested that people descending from Africa aren't as intelligent as those from Europe. Federal campaign filings show that Mr. Watson has donated more than $70,000 to candidates and their political causes, including a total of $3,000 to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign on May 17 and June 25. Two days later, a Senate committee report showed that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer earmarked $900,000 for the lab. The majority of Mr. Watson's donations over the years have gone to Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, who has received mo...

David Brooks: Some elections are defined by the gap between the rich and the poor. Others are defined by the gap between the left and the right. But this election will be shaped by the gap within individual voters themselves — the gap between their private optimism and their public gloom. American voters are generally happy with their own lives. Eighty-six percent of Americans say they are content with their jobs, according to the General Social Survey. Seventy-six percent of Americans say they are satisfied with their family income, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Sixty-two percent of Americans expect their personal situation to get better over the next five years, according to a Harris Poll, compared with only 7 percent who expect it to get worse. Researchers from Pew found that 65 percent of Americans are satisfied over all with their own lives — one of the highest rates of personal satisfaction in the world today. On the other hand, Americans are overwhelmingly pessim...

NY Times: Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer. When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives. Afghan and American officials say the Siberian intended to be a suicide bomber, one of several hundred foreign militants who have gravitated to the region to fight alongside the Taliban this year, the largest influx since 2001. The foreign fighters are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than even their locally bred allies, officials on both sides of the Afghan- Pakistan b...

Times: Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britain’s leading mosques, according to research seen by The Times. Some of the fundamentalist works were found at the bookshop in the London Central mosque in Regent’s Park, which is funded by the Saudi regime and is regularly visited by government ministers. Its director, Ahmad al-Dubayan, is also a Saudi diplomat and was among those greeting King Abdullah when he arrived in Britain last night for his official state visit. Extremist literature, including passages supporting the stoning of adulterers and waging violent jihad, was also found on sale at many other mosques regarded as mainstream institutions. More than 80 books and pamphlets were collected during a year-long project in which researchers visited 100 mosques across Britain. One book, Fatawa Islamiyah, which urges the execution of apostates, was found in bookshops a...

This is from the UK Times: Hanged tourist ‘knew he would die’

Telegraph: An Afghan tribal leader is in talks to defect from the Taliban and take thousands of armed tribesmen with him to fight alongside British forces in southern Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with Mullah Abdul Salaam and his Alizai tribe, which has been fighting alongside the Taliban in Helmand province. Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001. Military sources said British forces in the province are "observing with interest" the potential deal in north Helmand, which echoes the efforts of US commanders in Iraq's western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from their al-Qa'eda allies. The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afgha...

CNN: ... Also Monday, the Iraqi army freed eight of 10 kidnapped Iraqi tribal sheiks in a raid, Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said. Two other sheiks who were abducted Sunday remained missing, said al-Askari, and the Iraqi army continues to work toward their release. Four kidnappers were killed in the raid, which took place in Baghdad's Rusafa district on the Tigris River, the spokesman said. The U.S. military has blamed a former Mehdi Army militia brigade commander for the sheikhs' abductions. The commander, Arkan Hasnawi, is responsible for the kidnappings, the military said, citing intelligence sources. The military said Hasnawi "has joined forces with Iranian-supported special groups that are rejecting [Mehdi Army leader] Muqtada al-Sadr's direction to embrace fellow Iraqis." ... The story also indicates that U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, injured when an IED exploded near his vehicle. Dorko took command of the U.S. Army Co...

Christian Science Monitor: On Tuesday in Iraq's Anbar Province, where jihadi fighters once enjoyed sanctuary, Sunni Arabs turned out en masse to commemorate Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a leader suspected of having been killed for helping the US rout Al Qaeda from the province. He was hailed as a "martyr." In Lebanon last month, the efforts of Al Qaeda-inspired guerrillas to take over a Palestinian refugee camp were crushed. And in his latest audiotape, Osama bin Laden adopted a rare contrite tone, admitting "mistakes" by some Al Qaeda militants in Iraq. Across the Arab world, where Al Qaeda had sought to build influence and bases of operation on the back of widespread anger against the US over its war in Iraq and the broader war on terrorism, the movement is now showing signs that it is stalled, if not in retreat. Experts say Al Qaeda's failures have largely come down to its brutal methods, which have turned off large numbers of Arabs. They say that ...

Bill Roggio: Coalition and Iraqi special operations forces continue to target al Qaeda's propaganda capabilities. Over the summer, US forces scored a major victory with the capture of Khalid Abdul Fatah Da’ud Mahmud al Mashadani , also known as Abu Shahed. Mashadani was al Qaeda's minister of information and served as the go between for al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al Masri and Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. The capture of Mashadani has shed light on al Qaeda's media operations, and has allowed Multinational Forces Iraq to roll up al Qaeda's media cells throughout Iraq. "Since the surge began, we’ve uncovered eight separate al Qaeda media offices and cells, have captured or killed 24 al Qaeda propaganda cell members and have discovered 23 terabytes of information," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith , the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Forces Iraq in a press briefing. Most recently, four members of al Qaeda's al Furqan media ce...

Herald Tribune: An ardent lifelong Democrat, Hillary Keyes thought that when her party took control of Congress, it would finally bring an end to the Iraq war. After all, to her the 2006 election was a mandate on Iraq. But Keyes is at the 2007 state Democratic Party convention this weekend, still pleading with members of Congress from her own party to end the war. "It's so frustrating," said Keyes, of Boca Raton. "People I know are frustrated with the Democratic Party." While the war for most is the biggest issue in America, ending it has become a serious dividing point for Democrats. At the state Democratic Party convention, the division is hard to miss. While state Democrats were listening to U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speak on Saturday, anti-war activists were a few miles away demanding an end to the war and expressing doubt that Democrats would stand up and get the job done. Many Democrats see Hoyer's moderate approach to Iraq as a ke...

Opinion Journal: Just when you thought someone might be confirmed in Washington without a partisan fight, Senate Democrats are suggesting they may not approve Michael Mukasey as Attorney General after all. The judge's offense is that he's declined to declare "illegal" an interrogation technique in the war on terror that Congress itself has never specifically banned. Last week, Democrats postponed a vote on his nomination. And all 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have sent Judge Mukasey a letter expressing alarm that he refused to repudiate "waterboarding" during his recent confirmation hearing. "I don't know what's involved in the technique. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional," the judge had said. This seems fair enough, because both the Justice Department's legal opinions on interrogation and the specific CIA practices are classified. It would be irresponsible for Judge Mukasey to make any declarations a...

James Zirin: Thomas X. Hammes is a retired Marine colonel. He is the author of a seminal book on conducting counter-insurgency warfare. The work is called "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century." Recently, he made an intriguing proposal on how to battle jihadists on the Internet (a virtual agora where Islamist militants appear to consort with alarming frequency). This is what he said: "For the last few years, individuals and private organizations that are pro-Israeli have been in a daily fight to shut down or deface anti-Israeli Web sites. Unofficial and informal, this Internet Hagana has had considerable success. They cannot shut down all hostile sites because they keep popping up, but at least they have not completely ceded the field to the Internet jihadists. "While we have a few Americans who take similar action against mufsidoon (evildoers) Web sites, why don't we encourage Americans/western 'geeks' to go after these Web sites? Exploit...

Steven Emerson: THE trial of four key figures with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development ended last week with a hung jury. Holy Land's defenders and allies are trumpeting the mistrial as a huge victory. Yet the defendants remain in legal jeopardy, with a new trial almost assured - and the prosecution has, at a minimum, closed a lucrative funding channel for the Palestinian terror group Hamas. Prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas deserve praise for bringing this case in the first place. The trial record conclusively demonstrated that Holy Land and several of its unindicted co-conspirators - including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) - grew out of Hamas. Moreover, it showed that they spent the better part of 15 years deceiving government agencies and the media, hiding their true goals under a mask of work for charity and civil rights. ... Moreover, the trial uncovered numerous ugly secrets of Holy Land and its leaders. For starters, it exposed a...

The NY Times in its lead editorial accuses the President of "trash talking" Iran by raising the specter of World War III if Iran develops nuclear weapons. The Times appears to be under the misimpression that there is something to be accomplished diplomatically with Iran despite a 28 year record of failure of diplomacy to get the Iranians to stop its war against us. What the President was doing was warning of the consequences that would befall the world if Iran got the weapons. That seems like a prudent step to those of us who can dee the failure of diplomacy with Iran. The Times editorial board also demonstrates it cluelessness on the Iraq war by calling it "pointless." What an insipid ridiculous statement for a major paper to make. There have been numerous points to the war in Iraq that the paper's reporters have noted even if the editorial board has remained willfully ignorant. Right now we are handing al Qaeda its biggest defeat since the fall of Afghan...

NY Times: ... “I am not going to be saying anything about what we may be doing with our longtime NATO ally Turkey, although we clearly are doing things with them,” General Petraeus said. “Nor am I saying what we’re doing with our longtime Iraqi partners,” he added. ... Well, I am glad the NY Times was able to clear that up.

AP /Houston Chronicle: Militants who follow a pro-Taliban cleric in troubled northwestern Pakistan agreed to a cease-fire today, a day after security forces backed by helicopter gunships targeted their hide-outs, killing at least 10 suspected insurgents, officials said. Residents said they had not heard any gunshots early today in Swat, a mountainous valley where the government has battled supporters of cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has launched a Taliban-style Islamization campaign in the once-peaceful and scenic district. He has also called for a holy war against the government. "This is a good thing that the militants have agreed to the cease-fire, and we welcome it," Arshad Majid, the district coordination officer in Swat, told The Associated Press by telephone. However, he would not say how many militants or security forces had been killed in the fighting in Swat since Friday when Fazlullah's supporters began ambushing security forces. The military's public rel...

Washington Post: These drug traffickers, with their steady supply of U.S. weaponry, are the target of President Bush's proposed $500 million U.S. aid package to help Mexico battle cartels. Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, hope that some of the money will be used to give Mexican police chiefs greater access to U.S. databases for gun traces. Currently, the traces can be made only through federal police headquarters in Mexico City. Many police chiefs do not even bother to make requests because of the inevitable bureaucratic delays. Corrupt customs officials help smuggle weapons into Mexico, earning as much as $1 million for large shipments, police here say. The weapons are often bought legally at gun shows in Arizona and other border states where loopholes allow criminals to stock up without background checks. The arms traffickers have left Mexico awash in AK-47s, pistols, telescope sighting devices, grenades, grenade launchers and high-powered am...

Michael Barone: ... Today's parties lack such narratives. The Democratic Party is all about, well, listen to its rhetoric. It's all about opposing George W. Bush and all his works. But where to go from there? Domestically, Democrats seem to be reviving the FDR narrative: Expand government to help the little guy. Some thoughtful Democratic strategists argue that although this view was discredited by the stagflation and gas lines of the 1970s, voters are once again ready for more government, and they can cite some poll results in support of that proposition. And it's true that the median-age voter in 2008 will have no vivid memories of the 1970s. But it's interesting that in resuscitating the FDR narrative, these Democrats -- even Hillary Clinton -- are setting aside the lessons of their party's only successful president of the past 40 years. Bill Clinton was careful to agree that the FDR narrative was obsolete, by backing welfare reform and a balanced budget, ...

John Boehner: ... The most striking feature of the Mother of All Tax Hikes is that it raises taxes on literally every single taxpayer. In 2001, the Republican-led Congress and the president enacted a sweeping tax cut plan that lowered taxes for every American. The Pelosi-Rangel plan would eliminate those tax cuts, raising taxes for every single tax bracket and eliminating the new 10 percent rate Congress established specifically to reduce the tax burden on low- and middle-income working families. And as if that is not enough, the Pelosi-Rangel plan also would reinstate the marriage penalty, which — before Congress began to phase it out in 2001 — punished couples by taxing them at a higher rate than they would have been taxed had they filed individually. Indeed, no family would be protected from the Mother of All Tax Hikes. How about small businesses, farmers and other job providers? To begin, the Pelosi-Rangel tax increase would bring the death tax back to life. Since 2001, the death t...