Big Enemies

Well, well, well. At least part of the effort to shut yours truly down over the last week is coming from guess where?

Saudi Arabia. (212.138.64.176) is one of the IPs that is hitting me very, very, very hard. But, they assure everyone that that is just because I am popular there. It says so right on their RIPE entry:

remarks:         Part of this IP block has been used for proxy/cache
remarks:         service at the National level in Saudi Arabia. All
remarks:         Saudi Arabia web traffic will come from this IP block.
remarks:
remarks:         If you experience high volume of traffic from
remarks:         IP in this block it is because your site is very
remarks:         popular/famous of Saudi Arabia community.
remarks:
remarks:         For any abuse activities please contact us through
remarks:         Email: abuse@isu.net.sa
remarks:         Phone: +96614813933 (24×7)
remarks:         Fax: +96614813221

Nice to know who is popular/famous.

Refocus?

The so-called Blind Sheik,  Omar Abdel-Rahman, is reportedly very ill indeed, bleeding internally and needing emergency treatment. The FBI has sent around a warning that there might be reprisals should he die. He called for reprisals against the US if he should die in US custody.

Although the FBI said there is no credible indication that a plan for retribution is in place, the agency sent the warning as Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman was treated in Missouri for bleeding.

The blind sheik, who was the alleged architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has called for revenge should he die in U.S. custody.

Bill Rosenau, a terror expert with RAND Corp, says that the death of Rahman is likely to raise his status to that of a martyr and refocus interest on the United States among radical Islamists. He says Rahman has been a lightning rod for years and his incarceration in the United States highlights the difficult problem of keeping terrorists incarcerated on American soil.

"Usama bin Laden has talked frequently about him and repeatedly expressed his interest in seeing him free. He has been a lightning rod for jihadists for a decade," Rosenau said.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but what exactly have the jihadis been focusing on up until now? They may not have struck here in five years, but I don't think their focus ever wavered. No, that's not quite right, either. They actually have been operating here, but in a media campaign that they have been winning with the help of the news media around the world.

It is prudent of the FBI to send a general warning, but not particularly enlightening for the press to trumpet it. In fact, it actually plays into the hands of the media campaign that the jihadis are conducting.

UPDATE: Others: Hang Right Politics, Riehl World View, Redstate, Hot Air, Wake up America, The Jawa Report,  Wizbang, Gina Cobb,

Comments Are Back On

let's see how this goes. They may go away at any moment if the site starts crashing again.

Update On Senator Johnson

The Associated Press is reporting that South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson is recovering normally, according to doctors. Johnson did suffer a hemorrhage in his brain but the doctors are saying he came through the surgery well. One of his aides told the AP that the Senator is responding to spoken commands, a truly good sign.

The South Dakota lawmaker, 59, was on "an uncomplicated post-operative course," the U.S. Capitol physician said after visiting him Thursday afternoon. Johnson suffered a hemorrhage in his brain caused by a rare and sometimes fatal condition.

"He has been appropriately responsive to both word and touch. No further surgical intervention has been required," said the physician, Adm. John Eisold. He had said earlier, "The senator is recovering without complication."

The senator's spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher, was asked by The Associated Press in an e-mail exchange whether that meant Johnson was responding to spoken commands. "Yes," she replied.

I have refrained from mentioning anything else about this although many people are well aware of the speculation the press has engaged in. I will only say this: it is disgraceful to focus on political issues when a man is fighting for his life. Say a prayer for him or at least keep him and his family in your thoughts. This is a very tough time for them, too.

Off To See The Wizard?

Curt over at Flopping Aces has been a bulldog on the story of the source that the Associated Press has cited repeatedly, "police captain" Jamil Hussein. He's been relentless at questioning the AP about it and in getting Centcom to verify that no such police captain is employed by the Iraqi government. Nor would a captain be authorized to speak to the press.

Now, former CNN chief Eason Jordan has invited Curt and Michelle Malkin to accompany him to try and locate Jamil Hussein in Baghdad. Curt is trying to get time off to do so.

I worry, as others have,  that this may be a set-up of some kind.  Think about it.  Eason Jordon should have a easy time of finding Jamil Hussein since the AP has said they have been talked to him for over two years.  I have blogged many times that there may indeed be a man named Jamil Hussein but my argument has always been he is a fraud.  It has already been confirmed that he is NOT employed by the Iraqi government so why would we go skipping around Iraq in search of someone the AP could supposedly produce in a heartbeat? 

Captain's Quarters followed the Eason Jordan saga long before I started blogging. Let's just say that Jordan does not have what normal people would consider journalistic ethics. He is, after all, the man who protected Saddam Hussein from negative coverage to keep CNN in Iraq.

Murderous Regime

Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB agent who defected to Britain in 1985, still has many sources and contacts inside Russia. And they are telling him things about Russia today. In today's Washington Post, he shares that information. Murders are being carried out against Russia's enemies at a rather rapid pace. Alexander Litvinenko was only the latest.

There were no secret assassinations under Mikhail Gorbachev or Boris Yeltsin. But under Vladimir Putin, the militant element of the KGB (now known as the FSB) slowly began working to persuade the leadership to carry out such killings, according to my sources. "Too many enemies," they said.

Those members of the FSB have a different style than in the past, however. The Communist Party was cruel, but it had its rules. The current people are like bandits — no code, no rules, hard to distinguish from the Mafia. The gangster mentality started to spread after 2000; there were assassinations inside the country, of enemies of the regime. But there were so many contract killings at the time under Putin that it was difficult to tell which were the work of the FSB and which were not. In that atmosphere, it was easy to disguise an assassination.

The FSB has also become a protection racket. Some of those in business who are willing to go along with the FSB report everything to its operatives and also give 10 percent of their profits to the KGB's successor agency. And everyone is happy.

So in a way it's a big criminal state. The FSB has become like the Mafia in its methods and goals.

I've mentioned before that Russia more closely resembles an organized crime operation than a legitimate nation-state. There have been too many disquieting reports of Russian strongarm seizures of energy assets and too many suspicious deaths of opponents of Putin and his cronies. According to Gordievsky, the FSB has learned from one mistake the old KGB made: they no longer keep a paper trail of the hits they carry out. Too many of the old assassinations have been revealed as records surfaced. The FSB keeps it very, very quiet. Russia is becoming a problem once again.

Good Riddance Kofi

The Opinion Journal takes a look at Kofi Annan's departure from the UN. Comparing his farewell speech against his track record as Secretary General of the UN, it is hard to believe that at one time Annan was thought to be capable of reforming the institution. Instead, his decade long failure did much more harm than good.

America, Mr. Annan said, "has historically been at the vanguard of the global human rights movements. . . . When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objects, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused." That was a slap at the Bush Administration, which must be wondering what it got from Mr. Annan after coming to his political rescue last year amid Paul Volcker's Oil for Food revelations. But leaving aside this foray into U.S. politics, how have Mr. Annan and the U.N. met their own "ideals and objects"?

When Mr. Annan was named Secretary General 10 years ago, he did so as the U.S.-backed candidate of reform. Jesse Helms, then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Mr. Annan that "if you choose to be an agent of real and deep-seated change, you will find many supporters–and even allies–here in the U.S. Congress."

Senator Helms's expectations were not met. Seven years later–thanks to U.S. military action that Mr. Annan did everything in his power to prevent–we learned that he had presided over the greatest bribery scheme in history, known as Oil for Food. We learned that Benon Sevan, Mr. Annan's trusted confidant in charge of administering the program, had himself been a beneficiary of Iraqi kickbacks to the tune of $160,000. We learned that Mr. Annan's chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, had ordered potentially incriminating documents to be destroyed. We learned that Mr. Annan and his deputy, Louise Frechette, were both aware of the kickback scheme but failed to report it to the Security Council, as their fiduciary duties required. However, we haven't yet learned whether the senior Annan illegally helped his son Kojo obtain a discounted Mercedes, an issue on which the Secretary General has stonewalled reporters.

This corrupt man was given a pass by the left, even when his appalling behavior was revealed. By the end of his tenure, the UN is in much worse shape than it was ten years ago. Which may be actually the most positive thing to come out of his years in office. For it is much, much harder for the internationalists to hold that mess up as a role model. Hopefully, this is the last post I will ever do on the man, except maybe to remind folks when some try to retroactively beatify him later.

Visit Beautiful Fjuckby

The inhabitants of the village of Fjuckby, Sweden have apparently had enough of people laughing at them. They want the name of their town changed and have appealed to the Swedish government to be allowed to change the name to Fjukeby.

Tired of the mirth caused by the name of their tiny hamlet, a number of Fjuckby residents have handed in an application to Swedish authorities for a small change that could make a big difference by becoming Fjukeby.

"The word 'Fjuckby' today appears to spontaneously and repeatedly lead to associations concerning certain carnal activities between people and between animals," the residents wrote in their plea to the Surveyors Office.

"This regrettable fact breeds feelings of weariness, embarrassment and conditioned shame among the residents…"

According to a number of online translation programs, Fjuckby means nothing whatsoever in Swedish. So we here at Blue Crab Boulevard are not really sure what all the ruckus is about. But the word 'Fjukeby' means "The artist formerly known as Fjuckby". So really, they're right back where they started.

Star Quality

Certain behaviors seem to occur over and over in stars of the entertainment world. One of these is a propensity for some well-known and much publicized people to punch photographers. Whether it is Australian comics, British musicians or the body guards of American actresses, there are always a few of these stories floating about. But it seems that this type of behavior is not limited to the human species.

Tigers hate paparazzi, too.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Paparazzi-hating Hollywood stars have nothing on a young Indonesian tiger that destroyed three camera traps during a 10-day rampage through the jungle of Sumatra.

In each case, the film inside was spared and revealed that the same culprit was responsible for all three incidents, said conservation group WWF which set the cameras.

The infra-red triggered camera traps are used to photograph wildlife and identify tigers in remote areas.

In less than 10 days, the big cat attacked and destroyed three cameras WWF had stationed 12 kilometres (eight miles) apart.

But maybe it is not the tiger's star qualities, either. It could be that Sumatra is the location of the Animal Uprising™'s genetic research facility! The tiger was trying to destroy the evidence. Why are you looking at us like that?

Demon Mutant Deer

The Animal Uprising™ continues their genetic engineering program in the quest for the ultimate weapon. We've told you about four wheel drive chickens and even a four wheel drive dolphin, but this time they have topped themselves.

Seven wheel drive deer.

OSCEOLA — What has seven legs, male and female reproductive organs and nub antlers?

It sounds like a bad joke, but it's what Rick Lisko found in his driveway late last month.

Lisko hit the seven-legged nub buck while driving his truck through the woods down his mile-long driveway near Mud Lake in the town of Osceola in eastern Fond du Lac County on Nov. 22.

"It was definitely a freak of nature," Lisko said. "I guess it's a real rarity."

Lisko had slowed down as a buck and two does ran across the driveway.

"All of a sudden we felt the truck stop," he said.

The small buck had run underneath his truck, Lisko said. When he got out to look at the deer he noticed three- to four-inch appendages growing from the rear legs and later found a smaller appendage growing from one of the front legs.

"It's a pretty weird deer. It kind of gives you the creeps when you look at it," said Lisko, who described the extra legs as looking like "crab pinchers."

Hey! No insults, pal. The demon mutant buck had some control problems, apparently. But it is only a matter of time until they get it right. On the bright side, Lisko also says that seven-legged deer are delicious. He ate it. (Pictures are here).

Simple Solution

Confederate Yankee points out the most obvious way in the world that the Associated Press could improve their credibility. In the wake of the imaginary police captain incident, the AP's response has been to circle the wagons and denigrate anyone who dares to question them. They have also promoted some of the personnel involved in the promotion of stories that quote the fictional captain. But they could avoid future problems:

I'd like to introduce both a marvelous bit of technology to Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, AP international editor John Daniszewski, and the newly, and curiously promoted, AP Baghdad News Editor, Kim Gamel…..

….All that carnage, and your stringers without a Fun Saver.

Just think… how much credibility could have been saved if the Associated Press stringers had access to such technology on any its first three trips into the neighborhood to cover this story?

Instead, we have a "he said, she said," stalemate where the AP claims these four mosques were rocketed, machine gunned, burned, and blown up, and coalition forces instead insist that only one mosque suffered though any attack at all, and that was a minor fire put out by the local fire department.

For a mere $3.75 they could equip a stringer with one of these marvelous inventions. But we all know they won't. But, as Bob points out, the first person to produce pictures showing that the four mosques are, indeed, intact will have destroyed the AP's credibility.

Real Agenda?

Katherine Kersten from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune suspects that she may have found the real agenda driving the incident of the six imams who were removed from an aircraft due to their suspicious actions. She may well be right.

On Dec. 1, a curious report on the grounded-imams incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport appeared on the website of the Iranian Quran News Agency. The report quoted extensively from Madhi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. The foundation is the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, "the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group," according to the Chicago Tribune….

….But the report on the Iranian website, which has appeared on a variety of Muslim websites worldwide, had a larger primary focus. After the imams incident, it quoted Bray as saying Muslims want "new, broad-sweeping legislation that will extract even larger financial and civil penalties for any airline that participates in racial and religious profiling."

The report is optimistic that Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will lend his support to new legislation. Ellison, it says, has expressed his opposition to "such racial and religious profiling." Ellison, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

One piece of legislation in the works is the End Racial Profiling Act. It is an important priority of Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, whose district includes one of the largest Muslim populations in the country. Conyers introduced the bill in 2004 and 2005, but it went nowhere. Now the alignment of forces may be changing. Conyers will probably be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when the new Democratic-controlled Congress convenes next month.

Conyers has been trying for years to force this legislation through. Up until now it has gone nowhere. Putting restrictions on security personnel would be disastrous. If they spend their time trying to meet arbitrary statistics rather than actually focusing on keeping people safe, sooner or later somebody will slip onto an airplane that should not. It is not just the six imams, either. There is a full court press going on here with other media outlets. For example there is this item in today's Washington Post:

Profiles of Men Who 'Fit the Description'

The stomach flutter starts as a cop strolls up, or a patrol car flashes its lights, or two officers stand atop the escalator at the Jamaica Center in Queens and run their eyes over the subway riders.

"I see a cop and I can't help it — I feel butterflies," said Tareaphe Richards, 21, a college student with an oval face and husky good looks. "They'll pull me aside sometimes because they say I fit the description. Yeah. Young black male. I always 'fit the description.' "

Dwayne Deacon nods as Richards finishes. They are standing in the student center at York College, a publicly funded junior college in Queens with a predominantly nonwhite student body. Deacon is fine-featured and dark-hued with a white do-rag and a trace of the West Indies in his voice.

The Post even admits this anecdotal and unscientific; more about feelings than about actual statistics. But that doesn't stop them from putting two pages of this up.

The Washington Post interviewed 12 young black men in Jamaica — streetwise and college students alike — and each said he had been stopped by police at least three times. The Post interviewed 12 young white men in Greenwich Village and Tribeca in Manhattan. Just one of them reported ever being stopped by an officer, for skateboarding in a subway station.

This was by no means a scientific study and some of the facts undergirding the stories are uncertain. Even the black men interviewed tended to agree that New York's police are not as aggressive as they were in the 1990s, when special units stopped and frisked 16 innocent young men for every one they arrested.

We have no way of judging how these men were selected either by the police or by the Post, so it is a double whammy meant to induce a feeling, a perception, that there is something amiss. But there is no real evidence. But there appears to be an agenda all right.

Johnson In Critical Condition

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson underwent emergency brain surgery last night at a Washington hospital. He is reported to be in critical condition at this hour. If you can spare a thought or a prayer for this man and his family, this would be a good time to do so.

Johnson suffered stroke-like symptoms Wednesday, just weeks before his party, with only a one-vote majority, was to take control of the Senate.

There was no formal announcement of the South Dakota senator's condition. A person in the hospital's media relations office, who declined to be identified by name pending a formal statement, said George Washington University Hospital was preparing to announce that Johnson's condition was critical. He would not describe the nature of the surgery.

There was no formal announcement of the operation, which lasted past midnight Wednesday, and was disclosed by another official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the subject.

Washington Post coverage here.