Muslims Seeking Greater Influence
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Effort puts resumes of top candidates in White House hands

In a bid to get more Muslim Americans working in the Obama administration, a book with resumes of 45 of the nation's most qualified—Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and public servants, all carefully vetted—has been submitted to the White House.



The effort, driven by community leaders and others, including Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), was bumped up two weeks ahead of schedule because White House officials heard about the venture, said J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association who sifted through more than 300 names.



"It was mostly under the radar," Williams said. "We thought it would put [the president] in a precarious position. We didn't know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community."



The effort aims to get the administration focused on Muslim Americans, a group that has at times felt like a pariah. During the campaign, Obama's staff prevented Muslim women wearing head scarves from being photographed behind him, in one of many incidents that left Muslim Americans feeling slighted by the candidate.

Now, Muslim Americans—who according to a recent study overwhelmingly backed Obama in the November election—have been carefully watching the administration's every step.



Most expressed disappointment with Obama's initial silence during Israel's offensive in Gaza. They've been encouraged by the video message the president issued recently to the Iranian people on the eve of the Persian holiday of Nowruz, and they want more diplomacy with Syria and Iran. They've been troubled by FBI admissions of sending what activists call "agents provocateurs" into mosques, and the bureau's break in ties with Muslim American organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations. >>> Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter | Sunday, March 29, 2009

David Miliband Calls Hillary Clinton to Voice Anger over Guantánamo Inmates' Transfer to Bermuda
THE TELEGRAPH: A high-level transatlantic row has broken out over the Obama administration's failure to consult Britain over the transfer of four Guantánamo Bay inmates to Bermuda.

Bermuda has agreed to take in four Guantanamo Bay detainees. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
David Miliband has telephoned Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, to express the government's disappointment at the deal.

British officials were informed the four Chinese Uighurs were heading to the United Kingdom's oldest dependency only as they boarded their plane for Bermuda on Wednesday night.

A British diplomat said: "The Foreign Secretary registered his surprise. It was a regrettable mistake. Bermuda, the UK and the US now need to work together to fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again."

A senior State Department official said this diplomatic understatement masked a real anger over the Obama administration's oversight among British officials, telling ABC News: "They're pissed". >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | Friday, June 12, 2009

Unchaining Cheney
Dick Cheney. Photo credit: Townhall.com
TOWNHALL: Dick Cheney is unleashed! After eight years of being nearly invisible to the media, the former vice president has come forth bearing wrath. He is now a man on a mission, an angry messenger. Very simply, Cheney believes the Obama administration is putting the United States in danger by dismantling the Bush anti-terror programs.

And Cheney has one very large point. Since the sneak attack on September 11, 2001, America has not suffered another violent terrorist episode on its soil. That is not in dispute, and the former vice president believes tough interrogations and aggressive anti-terror moves were the cornerstones of the shield.

Cheney also has two big bullets in his rhetorical arsenal. First, the Obama administration recently released classified interrogation memos but did not release the follow-up reports detailing what was gleaned by water boarding and other rough stuff. Cheney wants those memos out.

And second, there is no doubt that Democrats like Nancy Pelosi knew all about water boarding and went along with the interrogation program because the CIA told them it was vitally important for national security.

So, believing the truth is on his side, Cheney has launched a one-man jihad against the Obama administration for canceling what he believes are life-protecting anti-terror strategies. >>> By Bill O’Reilly | Saturday, May 16, 2009

Is There a War on the Term 'War on Terror'
abcNEWS – Blogs: Is there a war on the term "War on Terror"?

Apparently not.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to the story.

After days of confusion and denial about whether the Obama administration was officially no longer using the term "War on Terror," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the Obama administration is no longer speaking of a "War on Terror."

"I haven't gotten any directive about using it or not using it. It's just not being used," said Clinton during a briefing with reporters aboard her plane to the Hague to attend an international conference on Afghanistan.

"The administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself," she said at a different point during her trip. "Obviously."

The discontinuation of the term "War on Terror" marks a departure from the practice of the Bush administration which began using the phrase in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. >>> Jake Tapper, Teddy Davis, and Kirit Radia | Monday, March 30, 2009

Sources: US to Sign UN Gay Rights Declaration
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Washington (AP) – The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.

The move was made after an interagency review of the Bush administration's position on the nonbinding document, which was signed by all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress was still being notified of the decision. They said the administration had decided to sign the declaration to demonstrate that the United States supports human rights for all.

"The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world," said one official.

"As such, we join with the other supporters of this statement and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora," the official said.

The official added that the United States was concerned about "violence and human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual individuals" and was also "troubled by the criminalization of sexual orientation in many countries." >>> By Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer | Tuesday, March 17, 2009

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U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Obama administration said Friday that it would abandon the Bush administration’s term “enemy combatant” as it argues in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in a move that seemed intended to symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies.

But in a much anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terrorism suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration had asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, which was not significantly different from the one used by the Bush administration.

The filing signaled that, as long as Guantánamo remains open, the new administration will aggressively defend its ability to hold some detainees there.

“The president has the authority to detain persons” who planned or aided the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as those “who were part of, or substantially supported, Taliban or Al Qaeda forces,” administration lawyers wrote. >>> By William Glaberson | Friday, March 13, 2009

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Gary Bauer: Waiting for the American Jihad
HUMAN EVENTS: Last October, Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in a homicide bombing in Somalia. What distinguished Ahmed from other jihadists is that he was a 27-year old college student from Minneapolis and a naturalized American citizen, which made him the first U.S. citizen to become an Islamic homicide bomber.

Ahmed’s unusual path to martyrdom got the attention of American counterterrorism officials, who now report that more than a dozen Somali-American youths have disappeared so far this year. They are suspected to have returned to Somalia to wage jihad. Concerned about the radicalization of Muslim youths in America, the FBI is running active investigations in at least five major American cities.

These developments beg the question: If terrorist organizations can recruit American Muslims to travel to Africa to wage jihad, what’s stopping them from recruiting American Muslims to wage jihad in America? As Moar Jamal, Executive Director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, put it, “That kid that blew himself up in Somalia could have done it here in Minneapolis.”

With an Obama administration increasingly distracted by matters both petty (the Rush Limbaugh flap) and precarious (the economic crisis), and with what we are learning about Jihadist recruitment here, it is becoming increasingly clear that America is a country ripe for jihad.

A culture of Islamic radicalization already exists in America. But most Americans do not know about it because it’s happening in places most of us do not go -- our prisons. Prison Ministries Founder Chuck Colson has been a leader in highlighting the problem of radicalization in our prison system, and former FBI Director Robert Mueller has called America’s prisons “fertile ground for extremists.” A 2006 study called “Out of the Shadows” found that “tight knit communities of Muslims in prison are ripe for radicalization, and could easily become terrorist cells.” >>> By Gary Bauer | Friday, March 13, 2009

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