The Government Giveth, And The Government Taketh Away

Blessed be the name of the Government! OK, I got that off my chest. I found it in the Little Pink Book of Chairman Obama (and yes, I did just make that up). Within a twenty-four hour period the Obama administration made a move that almost looks sensible, followed by a typical Obama misreading of American law and temperament. The glow lasted less than a day between almost patriotic Obama and out-to-get-us Obama.

First, the good news. In a fit of patriotism and good sense, the Justice Department has made its first move against Iran. Well, at least that's what they'd like us to think. It just seems terribly coincidental that after several days of being pounded about political correctness resulting in the deaths of 13 American soldiers on American soil followed by a weak-sister response to the terrorism, the Obama administration decided it had better do something to make itself look a little less idiotic. And since it has also been pounded about its cowardice in the face of Iranian threats and lies, this seemed a golden opportunity to put on a show.

Four mosques and the Piaget Building in New York, all under Iranian control, have been under investigation and close watch since the middle of the second Bush administration. The Obama administration has been less enthusiastic about the pursuit, but since most of the evidence has been gathered, and much of the paperwork completed anyway, Obama and Eric Holder appear to have decided that this was as good a lifeboat as any. Pursuant to federal law, the government has seized the assets of the four Mosques and the Alavi Foundation which "manages" the Piaget Building on behalf of the Iranian government (the Foundation is a front for the Iranian radical government in order to avoid direct involvement in American financial affairs).

The more suspicious among us might consider this to be an extension of the stimulus package, since the mosques and the Piaget Building together are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But the merely cautious among us can't help but wonder how closely this is related to the angry controversy surrounding the multiple layers of defensive political correctness which allowed Malik Hasan, a known jihadist sympathizer and promoter of mass murder to rise the the rank of major in the U.S. Army before committing his terrorist act at Ft. Hood.

Before anyone gets his panties in a bunch over this attack on a house of worship, consider the true purpose of a mosque. Prayer and preaching are conveniently located there, but they could just as easily be conducted in a hastily thrown-up tent. Those who know Islamic history know that the original and ongoing purpose of a mosque is as an armory and money-for-Allah collecting spot, which later took on religious trappings. The mosque has never had the same religious significance to Muslims as the synagogue to Jews or the church to Christians. Radical Muslims get no more murderously outraged by the seizure of a run-of-the-mill mosque than they do about cartoons of Mohammed.

That said, who cares? It wouldn't be any different if these were synagogues or churches if they're being used as a front for terrorist activity. Many, many mosques are used for little more than recruiting stations for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. But you're unlikely to find a lot of churches recruiting soldiers for Christ, out to destroy or dominate everyone else. Check the basement of your local church or synagogue and see how many weapons of war you find. Look around the pews and library to see how many "kill the unbelievers" tracts you find, or how many priests you hear giving sermons about killing all the Muslims. You get the idea.

Nevertheless, that doesn't stop the always hysterical and perpetually grossly overweight Muslim celebrity Ibrahim Hooper from saying: "We are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide. Hooper is the most visible face of the terrorist-protecting and Iran-promoting CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Pay attention, Pastor James, Rabbi Dan and Father John--they're coming to get you next! Aw, baloney.

The Piaget building is an equally good front. The main floors are occupied by high-end jewelry stores, most particularly the namesake ultra-expensive Piaget watches. It appears to be a place of normal (if high-priced) commerce. Just don't look into the upper floors where the real business is being conducted.

Considering that the Obamists are hell-bent-for-leather to prosecute "hate speech," it's about time they went after terrorist funding organizations led by imams who preach jihad. Freedom of speech and religion are no more absolute than any other right, and when they present a clear and present danger to the survival of the Republic, they should be squelched.

So now to the bad news. In a move which pretty much undoes the good in the seizures of Iranian property, the Holder Justice Department, at the behest of their messiah, has now decided that military tribunals and admissions of guilt by the 9-11 conspirators (the ones who didn't fly the planes into the Trade Center Towers) aren't sufficient. No, like any regular American citizen accused of a civilian crime, these terrorist masterminds are entitled to all the benefits of our brilliant criminal courts (just like the O J Simpson double murder trial, with an equally likely result).

The Obamists have once again proven that liberals and leftists cannot distinguish between terrorist warfare and civilian crimes. One murder, 3,000 murders, what's the difference? And the "Justice" Department is going to bring out the very best right at the beginning. Chief jihadist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his closest terrorist buddies will be brought from Guantanamo and given a civilian trial right here on American soil that was bloodied and scarred by their acts of undeclared warfare and mass murder on civilian targets. How civilized.

Unlike Lincoln and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Obama and Holder apparently do think that the Constitution is a suicide pact. The terrorists were already being tried by military tribunals for acts of war in violation of all international treaties and plain human decency. They were getting full due process, access to counsel, and the right to see the witnesses against them. But as terrorists, they did not get to see all the evidence against them because in military trials they're only entitled to see the evidence which is being used against them in court. They don't get to see all the memos and investigatory procedures which were used to obtain that evidence, let alone the national security conclusions that were formed as a result of the information obtained.

We've already seen the best result of terrorist prosecutions in civilian courts after the first World Trade Center attack. Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman al-Sudais was tried and convicted as the chief organizer of the attack. He was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. So we got "justice," didn't we? Not exactly. Despite the fact that anyone with the least bit of common sense believed the death penalty to be the only appropriate remedy, the ultimate penalty was not imposed. But even if it had, he still had twenty or thirty years of frivolous appeals ahead of him, and given his age, it wouldn't have mattered much anyway.

But equally importantly, the conviction didn't stop his terrorist activities. While exercising his right to visit frequently with his civilian attorney in complete confidence, Rahman was gathering the information he gleaned from the civilian evidentiary process concerning how he was caught and what the intelligence agencies had learned about him and how to prevent future attacks. And this being a civilian prison and a civilian civil rights attorney, the inevitable happened. The unethical and treasonous attorney passed on the information to Rahman's cohorts overseas. She was caught after several trips to the Islamic terrorist information-gathering centers, and we'll probably never know how much of that information actually got to the 9-11 conspirators. But it doesn't take a great leap of faith to believe that they probably got plenty of it. Her punishment for her complicity was to be disbarred and charged with relatively minor criminal offenses. I'm sure that's of great comfort to the victims of the 9-11 attacks, dead and alive.

So if you happen to be in New York City some time in the near future, and see Khalid Sheikh Mohammed window shopping on Fifth Avenue before setting off his next murderous attack, be sure to send a thank you note to Barack Hussein Obama and Eric Holder.