Two Yemeni men who arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from Chicago were arrested by Dutch authorities Monday and charged with preparing a terrorist attack after officials found suspicious items in their luggage, Dutch and U.S. officials said.
U.S. authorities requested the arrest after discovering that one of the men had checked his luggage from Chicago to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, then left Chicago on a different flight to Amsterdam, said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case.
The luggage sent to Virginia contained a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, in addition to three cell phones taped together and several watches taped together.
The owner of the luggage, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, a Yemeni citizen who lives in Detroit, also was carrying $7,000 in cash, said a Dutch official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
After sending his luggage to Dulles, al Soofi was joined in Chicago by a second man, Hezam al Murisi, and the two men flew on United Airlines flight 908 to Amsterdam. U.S. air marshals were aboard the flight.
Al Soofi's luggage was flown to Virginia and was headed for Dubai, then Yemen. But once authorities learned al Soofi had taken a different flight, federal officials in Virginia ordered the aircraft to return to the gate to remove his luggage. Another inspection revealed no explosives.
Yemeni men were testing flight security of U.S. with some abandoned luggage
This had to have been some sort of test run for something. Empty bottles with electronics attached? Really? What else would that be?
Airport Business, via the Virginian-Pilot newspaper site:
Click the link for the whole article as on Airport Business.
- jR (AirFarceOne on Twitter)
European Vacation was a Bad Trip for the First Lady
Is it a sign of more gaffs to come (Bill Ayres named Sec of State), or not appreciating the bad mojo from the good-life gaffs of the past (golfing golfing golfing), or have we reached "la la la I don't hear you" levels of denial from the Obama team (a speech about basketball, perhaps, coming)?
Now a vacation caused the Obamas to look, thus America to look, spoiled and, well, elitist. Not because taking a break is wrong, but since dragging all the security that will fit in several large aircraft to Europe, this is another "ignorant Americans" moment offered up to those who still "hate" (envy, mock, distrust, misunderstand) America. And it was on the time card of the great fixer-uppers of our worldwide reputation, the Obamas. They are collecting some nice gaffs for the world to enjoy.
There was the "historic" speech in Cairo that was a forgettable moment, the promise of closing Gitmo (a first thing that Obama signed was the order), the "stupidly" inspired beer summit, the amazing number of self-referencing pronouns in all the long-winded speeches, the "urgent" need to pass Obamacare LAST August though this August there's still few who know what's in the passed bill, the Air Force One trek to convince the Olympic Committee of how important Obama's presence is (and something else, about Chicago) and to take 15 minutes out of a busy day to speak to his top general, the AF1 trip over Manhattan nice and low, and many others. Plenty of silliness, and that's without looking into Joe Biden's record.
Some of us educated, hard-working folks get a week off and hope we don't have to put the car in the shop; we hope it's only a furlough and not leading up to a layoff. Now, I don't expect the White House to feel too bad for us, but it would be nice if they focused on the truly critical problems that we care about. Pretty sure trips to Europe are not on the list of 9.5% of those who wish they were working but are not. Among rest of us many are just happy to ride it out.
So the First Lady -- the administration -- decided to take an overseas break, in a way rubbing the little people's grudging reliance on government decision-makers in our noses, it seems. I figure that insulting the underemployed and jobless was not the intent, but it is still a bit crass to jaunt off to Spain and make a spectacle of it. And they have been making quite a stir over there.
Meanwhile, millions of American homes have endured a "black summer," in the economic sense. Not a smooth move.
This Vacation Is a Bad Move, Michelle on Newser:
- Perhaps the most high-profile criticism has come from the Daily News in a column by Andrea Tantaros that likened the "material girl" first lady to Marie Antoinette.
- Not everyone agrees: Today in the Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh strikes back at the Tantaros "hit piece in Mort Zuckerman's rag," saying the publisher has a vendetta against the Obamas. "I'd personally like to see Pres. Obama call Mr. Zuckerman out on this cheap shot."
Well, it's the Huff Post! Someone doesn't need to call them out for vending the Obama Kool-Aid, because that allegation is already established in fact. Of course, they are angry with Obama for not being utopian, peacenik, and leftist enough (in the open air, anyways).
If liberals weren't struggling with having an objective perspective on the administration, then THAT would be newsworthy. As if the Huff Post wouldn't have someone eager (several someones were probably clamoring) to defend something as apolitical as a vacation, when it proves to be a PR debacle for the current administration. It's their job, isn't it? (It should not be their job, as journalists, to defend the absurd, but they obviously make it their job at Huff Post. Like so many other opinion sites and allegedly real journalism outfits.)
This Spain trip with one of the two First Kids shows, again, just how glassy-eyed and out of touch the Obamas (and handlers) are -- or want to be -- with the state of things for so many non-elites and non-politician's wives. Both of them. It's only more clear on her part with the trip than it has been.
And thanks to writers such as Taylor Marsh, we have continued evidence of the knee-jerk, pro-Obama stance that the sad little news and opinion site offers.
Face it: The First Lady ought to stay home for vacations and not bring a cadre of security and create all sorts of distracting hubbub in a foreign country when the world faces the worst recession since the Great Depression. It is akin to the glibness of aristocracy. And we don't do aristocracy here, señorita.
So while she's getting folks all worked up over the trip, what's Obama up to in Chicago? He net with Oprah and Gayle King. And? Not heard much about his little break.
Keep an eye on the elected one, news media, will ya?
-jR
Venezuela illegal drug trade booms as Chavez loses oil profits and Mexico burns
Venezuela illegal drug trade booms
http://usat.me?39367478
http://usat.me?39367478
Chavez's disconnect from US support, refusal to cooperate with even
the DEA, and his disconnect from Andean Community nations (some
neighbors of Venezuela), appears to be bringing out the worst in his
military.
Along with the some loss of oil profits, and since he seems not
interested in US collaboration any longer even on illicit drugs,
Chavez's military is now an international drug trafficking 'company'
to earn some extra cash. Is this another socialist, nationalist
dictatorship going to the gutter due to the ineffectiveness of an
ego-driven leader, or is allowing such illicit profiting part of
Chavez's ultimate goal of retaining his power? Could it be that Chavez
is becoming the Noriega of this decade, but with bigger assets? He is
more capable of harming his neighbors and the U.S. than Noriega.
Are his great Hollywood fans, such as Sean Penn and Danny Glover, and
that kind of delusional leftist, going to praise this military
profiteering, misdirect attention on it by likening it to US troops
trafficking during Vietnam, or will they just ignore it (and mock
those who do not do the same)? I think that since they are mostly
silent on Mexico's and Arizona's (et cetera) toll from human and drug
trafficking (such as murders, kidnappings and false IDs) and the
federal governmental failures on both sides of that border, they will
ignore or obscure this, too. Their agenda is clear, and it seems it is
clearly to win, then pick up after all the unfortunate collateral
damage from their focus on centralizing power rather than
decentralizing fairness.
Those who find statist leaders such as socialist dictator Chavez and
communist Castro (alt. Raul Castro) to be allies will not understand
why borders must be secured and stabilized here, but they will still
excuse so much in those restrained, centralized, closed nations. After
all, in their view it is simply the fault of the expansionist United
States of the 1800s and 1900s that created these dictators to our
south. CIA operations of the 20th century further forced these leaders
to be this way.
The U.S.'s entrenched Left will keep assaulting a law in Arizona that
they claim is racist (while even U.S. Attorney General Holder's
lawsuit against the law cites nothing on racism), they will keep
insisting that Tea Party activists permit racism in their ranks (or
worse, when it is untrue), and they will reject the need to better
patrol our border for drug gangs and criminals. They will keep blaming
everyone but themselves for things not going perfectly. They will keep
pretending until everyone agrees with them, of they will keep
insulting those who insist on disagreeing, no matter what. Shame.
Read an article on the Venezuela drug trade using the above link.
-jR
Obama is JUST a narcissist. Like Hitler was JUST a Nazi.
Barack Obama - Image via WikipediaHe is unquestionably a narcissist. He adores himself, and there were people in Chicago politics who loved him for it. They, in their own words, "protected" him from risky issues, on his way to the Senate, and to the White House. Protected.
His narcissism is immediately evident in his lack of conventional humility in his speeches: "I" "I" and "I" everywhere with this president. It is also evident in his
While Obama was not raised in a wealthy family, he sure seems to have ... a golden stick in his butt. (Excuse the imagery.) I have not seen such infantile attacks on news media, or opposition -- EVER -- from a top leader, certainly not another president. (You understand that unless, like Sean Penn and plenty of others who've enjoyed USA liberties yet understand few of them, you count Castro and his kind as respectable.) It would be less disturbing if this behavior was not calculated, but these verbal attacks are part of a plan, not mood-driven one-offs. It is a part of radical activism, and he's invited it into the White House. (Almost as much as the former president of the SEIU, Andy Stern.)
With the divisiveness in our politics knocked up to a whole new level with him and Mme. Speaker Pelosi leading the spurning of clarity for ideology, ticked off that everyone won't simply let him (and Pelosi and that ilk) run us like some elected monarchy, I stand back and think that God's grace will be the only thing to spare us from the twaddle and naivete. Just gone from irritating, to mystifying, to amusing. Not a happy amusing, mind you, a shameful one. It would be funny, were it not a real life story, and were it not my president swaggering about so proud of himself, compelled to realize the unproven idea of the America he wants me to live in.
I applaud him (I do!) for bringing issues, including healthcare and the external reputation of American arrogance, to the forefront. It is how he's handling those and other issues, which is clumsy, that sets me off. His rhetoric is good, his actions aren't. The actions count more.
So I am counting on people acting to limit the power held by him and his fellow far-leftists, come the elections of November 2010. This country deserves hot debate, but not to be a high-tax, big government, welfare-heavy, centralized nation. It is the United States, after all, not the State, of America.
- jR, aka AirFarceOne (Twitter)
Fictional telling of radio fracas cynically skews the politics of it -- IMDb: Pirate Radio
The film "Pirate Radio," which is a fictional tale loosely -- very loosely -- based on the history of mid-1960's "pirate" rock radio broadcasting into the UK from ships, utilizes a favorite antagonist of Hollywood to tell the tale.
Unfortunately, it kinda ruins the film to realize that stereotypical foe to edgy pop culture was very contrary to the reality. The choice of antagonist says more about the writer-director of the film than it does the UK government's curious 1960's opposition to rock music radio. It not only betrays the thread of the true story, but misleads what political interests were ACTUALLY taking aim at rock radio in 1966.
Who was the foe in the film versus the FACTS? As given on IMDB.com:
The Government minister in charge of closing down the pirate radio stations is depicted as a right-wing reactionary, with a grand home with servants. In fact the responsible minister was Tony Benn, then the Labour government Postmaster General at the time, who is known as one of the most left-wing and socialist senior politicians ever. -- Via IMDb Goofs: Pirate Radio (2009)
I looked into Benn, and it checks out. He was on the far left, on and off, and outright Leftist. Seems like the left was telling people what they could do in 1960's UK, not the conservative right (Churchill's side). Go figure. I think that is a significant part of the story. But the writer, rather than use the unexpected truth, went for the cynical stereotype. Shame.
I can't stand it when a tale based on fact spins the factors in the tale so far that I am left with a feeling that they wish to put the history into a wrong turn, to follow a cynical narrative, purely to mislead the otherwise uninformed public. It destroys the tale's truth, since, as you know, all good fiction holds great truths.
As far as its entertainment worth, a quick review:
I must admit I was looking forward to this film for the story of the rules-damned DJs. But I was not as entertained or enlightened to the history as I'd hoped. The movie is full of morally incompetent DJs, save a few. While the attitude that gives the film offers a lot of adult fun, it clouds the overall story. It was meant to be a movie that highlights the lack of human sophistication in the rock world, I suppose. I had hoped it was going to be focused on the fight by a distrustful, stodgy status quo against a youthful, driven pack of rebel DJs who were determined to share rock music with others. I was not left with much of that, in the end.
It was a fun romp, but made me question the Neanderthal ideals of the characters more than it made me admire these original "pirate" radio DJs. I was hoping for the latter. I think the true story deserved a better movie, be it wildly far from the true story or not.
- jR
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