Show me the official predictions of that and I'll show you the stories about Iraqis who were, in fact, relieved and welcoming.
Hawash hogwash
: So it turns out that terrorist nerd Maher Mofreid "Mike" Hawash now admits that he did give aid to the terrorists (see below).
The fact that he was incompetent at it -- that he couldn't even get himself into Pakistan to fight alongside his fellow terrorist slime -- is neither here nor there. It only shows that you shouldn't arm a geek.
The important truth is that after the Taliban and Al-Queda committed an atrocious attack on this country and its civilians, this scum now freely confesses that he went abroad with the intent to fight alongside them against us. Traitor. Terrorist. Sewer rat. Pick your moniker.
Now he'll pay in prison. Now he'll turn on his fellow travelers. Justice served.
Yet still, the guy remains the darling of paranoid fools who think that our government is somehow the enemy. They're still whining (in my comments below, for example) that Hawash was held as a material witness before he was charged. Give it up.
Yes, the guy was hauled off in shackles -- and good on the government for finding out about his crimes and locking him up before he could commit more. I'm grateful for that. Yes, they held him as a material witness; that is a tool in the government's arsenal and if you don't like it, get a new law passed or take it on in the courts (because in this country, you can) but note that this is what police and prosecutors do: They got the bad guy, they got the confession, they got the truth, and they got his cooperation to stop other criminals before they murder more of us. Thank goodness.
I'll defend civil rights as loudly as the next person. I'll fear and sneer at John Ashcroft as much as anybody. But I'll also defend the government as it does its first and most important job: Defending us.
: There is a new priority in this country: We must protect our citizens from terrorist attacks that we now know all to well are real. We forget that at the peril of our lives.
So am I OK with the government locking up "Mike"? Oh, you bet. Am I OK with the TSA and the airlines making sure that our planes are safe -- even to the point of failing to see the humor or irony in a "suspected terrorist" button or a note about a bomb? Absolutely.
I will say this again and keep saying it: I stood a few hundred yards below two jets as they vaporized at the World Trade Center, taking thousands of innocent lives with them. The threat is that real. I will not see that happen again because we want to be nice to "Mike" or because some jerk wants to make an obnoxious point. Tough. It's a new, hard reality we're living in.
: Oregonian columnist David Reinhard didn't buy the Hawash hogwash and stood up bravely against the PC mob that supported him. Reinhard wrote last May:
But after federal prosecutors charged Maher "Mike" Hawash with conspiring to wage war against the United States and aid al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan -- well, the "dark night of fascism" humbug looked a spot weak.
And his column
today says:
Hawash seems to have owned up to his wrongdoing. I wonder if Hawash's friends and those who were so quick to excoriate the government in this case ever will.
Sticking by a friend -- even a guilty one -- through tough times is one thing. Hawash's friends don't need to apologize for this one bit. What was disturbing in this case, however, was their raw hostility to the government and anyone who questioned Hawash's innocence. Against all evidence to the contrary, Hawash's friends and some media commentators were so eager think the best of "Mike" that they were ever-ready to think the very worst of our law enforcement officials.
I wonder if folks who played the cheapest kind of identity politics in this case -- they're picking on Hawash because he's an Arab American in post-9/11 America -- will ask forgiveness. Will the chatterboxes who likened law enforcement officials to Nazis or Latin American juntas apologize for their disgraceful references? Will they even recognize the war on terror is not a game, played with overwrought metaphors and tired phrases? I wonder if we'll see "We're sorry. We were wrong" on the "Free Mike Hawash" Web site.
Bam!
: Give these people credit: The Free Mike Hawash site did acknowledge their hero's copping to a plea of aiding and abetting terrorists. "Aug 6: Mike pled guilty today to one count of his three-count indictment. He admitted attempting to enter Afghanistan with members of the "Portland 6". We hope that justice has been served, and our focus now shifts to support for Mike's family in this difficult time."
Oh. Nevermind.
: Note also that Hawash has agreed to travel to Guantanamo, presumably to testify against terrorist slime there. See his plea deal here.
