The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 02/05/2006 - 02/12/2006

Friday, February 10, 2006

Poll: GOP Has Edge in 2008 Prez Race

The 2008 race for the White House is looking good for the GOP.

That's the conclusion of a new Fox News poll, which finds that strong support from within their party as well as from majorities of independents helps Republican candidates outperform Democratic candidates in head-to-head presidential matchups.

The poll asked about Republican candidates Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Democratic candidates Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Overall, the Republican candidates top their Democratic opponents, and while the two Republican candidates get about the same level of support in each trial heat, Clinton performs significantly better than 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Kerry.

Among registered voters, Giuliani bests Clinton by 11 percentage points and Kerry by 19 points. McCain tops Clinton by 13 percentage points and Kerry by 20 points. These results are in line with past Fox News results on these vote questions, with the only real change being a lessening of support for Kerry.
There are clear differences in the amount of support the candidates receive from within their own party. For instance, Giuliani and McCain capture between 84 percent to 89 percent of the Republican vote in the matchups, while Clinton captures 70 percent to 75 percent among Democrats, and Kerry�s highest is 65 percent.

Furthermore, Democrats are two-to-three times more likely than Republicans to say they would vote for the other party�s candidate. In the Giuliani-Clinton vote, 17 percent of Democrats say they would vote for the Republican, while 7 percent of Republicans say they would vote for Democrat. The other matchups show even higher numbers of party switchers among Democrats.

What about swing voters? The Republican candidates receive over 50 percent of the vote among self-identified independents in each of the four matchups.

Clinton has the highest portion of voters that say they would "definitely� vote for her, but she also has about twice as many as Giuliani and McCain that say "under no conditions� would they vote for her.

Over a third (35 percent) say they would definitely vote for Clinton, 19 percent say maybe and 44 percent say no way. In comparison, 30 percent would definitely vote for McCain, 40 percent would consider it and 22 percent definitely would not vote for him. Giuliani�s results are almost identical to McCain�s.

On a wide-ranging list of individuals, the poll asked the simple question � "would this person make a good president?� Three people receive support from at least half of voters: Giuliani (60 percent), McCain (55 percent) and Clinton (50 percent). Nearly half think Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (47 percent) and John Kerry (45 percent) would be good.

A third (34 percent) think former Vice President Al Gore would make a good president, putting him ahead of talk show host/entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey (24 percent), Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. (23 percent), and George Pataki (15 percent). Oprah receives twice as much support as real estate developer/television personality Donald Trump (11 percent) and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (11 percent).

AP Poll: Surveillance Program Gains Support

President Bush's monthlong campaign to convince the public that the government's eavesdropping program is an essential anti-terrorism tool appears to have made an impact, a new AP-Ipsos poll suggests.

Some 48 percent now support the administration's program to monitor - without a court warrant - some U.S.-based calls with suspected links to terrorists. That's up from 42 percent last month. Half now say the administration should have to get a warrant, down from 56 percent one month ago.

Bush has been particularly successful at making his case for the National Security Agency's controversial monitoring among men and core segments of his base.

After weeks of insisting that divulging details would harm the program, the White House relented Wednesday and briefed House intelligence committee lawmakers. Thursday, the Senate learned more about the NSA program.

Records Show Sen. Reid's Abramoff Ties

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.

The activities - detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press - are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.


Reid's office acknowledged Thursday having "routine contacts" with Abramoff's lobbying partners and intervening on some government matters - such as blocking some tribal casinos - in ways Abramoff's clients might have deemed helpful. But it said none of his actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff.

But Abramoff's records show his lobbying partners billed for nearly two dozen phone contacts or meetings with Reid's office in 2001 alone.

Most were to discuss Democratic legislation that would have applied the U.S. minimum wage to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory and Abramoff client, but would have given the islands a temporary break on the wage rate, the billing records show.

Reid also intervened on government matters at least five times in ways helpful to Abramoff's tribal clients, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action.
Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in collecting contributions around the times they take official acts benefiting donors.

Abramoff's firm also hired one of Reid's top legislative aides as a lobbyist. The aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff's firm that raised donations from several of his lobbying partners.

And Reid's longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery case and is now helping prosecutors investigate the conduct of lawmakers, congressional aides and administration officials his team used to lobby.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to comment on the Reid contacts.

Reid has assailed Republicans' ties to Abramoff while refusing to return any of his own donations. He argues there's no need to return the money.

"Senator Reid never met Jack Abramoff and never has taken contributions from him, and efforts to drag him into this are going to fail," Manley said. "Abramoff is a convicted felon and no one has suggested the other partners we might have dealt with have done anything impermissible."

While Abramoff never directly donated to Reid, the lobbyist did instruct one tribe, the Coushattas, to send $5,000 to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund, in 2002. About the same time, Reid sent a letter to the Interior Department helpful to the tribe, records show.

Abramoff sent a list to the tribe entitled "Coushatta Requests" recommending donations to campaigns or groups for 50 lawmakers he claimed were helpful to the tribe. Alongside Reid's name, Abramoff wrote, "5,000 (Searchlight Leadership Fund) Senate Majority Whip."

Following a pattern seen with Abramoff and Republicans, Abramoff's Democratic team members often delivered donations to Reid close to key events.

Reid himself, along his Senate counsel Jim Ryan, met with Abramoff deputy Ronald Platt on June 5, 2001, "to discuss timing on minimum wage bill" that affected the Marianas, according to a bill that Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's firm, sent the Marianas.

Three weeks before the meeting, Greenberg Traurig's political action committee donated $1,000 to Reid's Senate re-election committee. Three weeks after the meeting, Platt himself donated $1,000 to Reid.

Bush Offers Detail of 2002 Attack Plot

President Bush said the U.S.-led global war on terror has "weakened and fractured" al-Qaida and allied groups, outlining as proof new details about the multinational cooperation that foiled purported terrorist plans to fly a commercial airplane into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast.

"The terrorists are living under constrant pressure and this adds to our security," Bush said. "When terrorists spend their days working to avoid death or capture, it's harder for them to plan and execute new attacks on our country. By striking the terrorists where they live, we're protecting the American homeland."

But the president said the anti-terror battle is far from over.

"The terrorists are weakenend and fractured, yet they're still lethal," the president said in a speech at the National Guard Memorial Building. "We cannot let the fact that America hasn't been attacked in 41/2 years since September the 11th lull us into the illusion that the threats to our nation have disappeared. They have not."

Bush has referred to the 2002 plot before. In an address last October, he said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts. The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.

He said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who was captured in 2003, had already begun planning the West Coast operation in October, just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. One of Mohammed's key planners was Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the al-Qaida related terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Hambali found Southeast Asian men who would be less likely to arouse suspicion and who were sent to meet with Osama bin Laden, Bush said.

Under the plot, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower, Bush said.

The president said the plot was derailed when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaida operative. Bush did not name the country or the operative.

Bush said only that "subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations" after the arrest of the unnamed operative led to information about the plot, and to the capture of other ringleaders and operatives involved in it. Hambali, for instance, was captured in Thailand in 2003 and handed over to the United States.

"It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot," the president said. "By working together, we took dangerous terrorists off the streets. By working together, we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland."

Bush's speech in October cited two other attacks inside the United States that were foiled, including one to use hijacked planes to attack the East Coast in mid-2003.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Cartoon-protest leader welcomed 9-11

Reports tie him to bin Laden, other terrorist leaders

The Danish imam who helped instigate a protest against satirical drawings of Muhammad that has escalated into deadly riots worldwide supports al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and told Muslim worshipers not to grieve victims of 9-11, according to news reports.

Imam Ahmed Abu Laban, leader of the Islamic Society of Denmark, said in his Friday sermon days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that he shed no tears for the victims, reported the Israeli daily Maariv.

The Danish paper Kristeligt Dagblad said in a Sept. 19, 2001, report that in his sermon the Friday after the attacks, Abu Laban praised the Taliban as people who were trying to build a nation in Afghanistan.

Maariv noted Muslims in Denmark joined in jubilant celebrations over the 9-11 attacks.

Abu Laban reportedly has given political and financial support to the Egyptian terrorist group Gamaa al-Islamiya, which is part of bin Laden's network. In a Jan. 3 story, the Danish publication Sappho noted Abu Laban also has spoken highly of bin Laden, praising him for his ascetic lifestyle.

The reports of Abu Laban's links to terrorists were compiled by the weblog Gateway Pundit.

'Muhammad cartoon' proved fake

Imam added 3 especially provocative images to fuel outrage

One of three especially inflammatory but undocumented Muhammad images distributed by a Danish imam as an example of an "anti-Muslim environment" in the European country turns out to be a poorly reproduced copy of an Associated Press photo taken at a French pig-squealing contest.

The weblog NeanderNews pointed out the image used by Imam Ahmad Abu Laban was a faxed copy of AP's Aug. 15 photo of Jacques Barrot competing at the annual French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise.

Since last week, Muslims throughout the world have engaged in protests and deadly riots in response to 12 cartoons caricaturing Islam's prophet Muhammad published in September by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and three much more provocative images that Muslim leaders have been unable to document.

One of those images of mysterious origin, which never were published, is from the AP photo. Another depicts Muhammad as a pedophile demon and a third has a praying Muslim being raped by a dog, according to the weblog Gateway Pundit.

Abu Laban, leader of the Islamic Society of Denmark, took the images on a tour of the Middle East in December to rally support for his protest against the newspaper and Danish government. Tour spokesman Akhmad Akkari explained the three drawings had been added to "give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims."

Akkari claimed he didn't know the origin of the three images, saying they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. But he rejected a request by the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet to speak with the people who supposedly received them.

In a television interview, Abu Laban told Fox News the cartoons came from threatening letters, but he has not replied to the network's request to provide copies of the letters.

A profile of Abu Laban Friday night on Danish television documented his close ties to the Egyptian terrorist group Gamaa Islamiya.

Another program the same evening showed him speaking in English on Danish television in condemnation of the boycott of Danish goods, then, in an interview with the Middle East news channel al-Jazeera, happily remarking in Arabic about how well the boycott was going.

Walid Phares, senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, asked in an article published on Counterterrorism blog, "Why did it take five months for what Western media dubbed 'instant reactions to the insult' to materialize?"

Poll: Iran Biggest Threat to U.S.

Americans' fears about Iran have grown sharply over the last few months as efforts by the United States and Europe to slow Tehran's nuclear program have been firmly rejected, a poll found.

More people in this country now rate Iran as the biggest threat to the U.S., 27 percent, than say that about any other country, including North Korea, China and Iraq, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

As recently as October, Iraq and China were seen as the biggest threats, closely followed by North Korea.

"The threat from Iran has really penetrated, with two of three saying Iran's nuclear program represents a major threat," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "Among people who have been following news about the issue, there's even greater concern."

Two-thirds or more of those polled said they think that if Iran develops nuclear weapons, it is likely to attack Israel, Europe or the United States. Even more, 82 percent, say it's likely that a nuclear-armed Iran would provide nuclear weapons to terrorists.

More than three-fourths say the United Nations should take the lead in dealing with Iran on the nuclear issue, while 17 percent said the U.S. should take the lead role.

Congress Probing CIA's Secret Saddam Tapes

Nearly a year after U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer first revealed their existence, Congress has decided to investigate a "large collection" of recordings of Saddam Hussein as he presided over meetings with his top military commanders - evidence that could yield key answers about what the Iraqi dictator did with his weapons of mass destruction.

The New York Sun reported Tuesday that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of the recordings, although committee chairman Peter Hoekstra declined to describe for the paper the nature of the conversations or their context.

In April 2005, however, Iraq Survey Group chief Charles Duelfer announced the stunning find on the CIA's web site, saying: "A large collection of audiotapes from Revolutionary Command Council meetings chaired by Saddam is being translated and reviewed."

In an addendum to Duelfer's final CIA report that was overlooked by the press [except for NewsMax], Duelfer said: "These [tapes] will provide great insight into the decision making of the former Regime on a range of key subjects."

After revealing the existence of the secret Saddam tapes, the top weapons searcher emphasized that media reports claiming that he had concluded that Iraq didn't have WMDs before the war were wrong.

"Some uncertainties remain and some information will continue to emerge about the WMD programs of the former Regime," Duelfer said. "Reports cited in the Comprehensive Report concerning the possible movement of WMD or WMD materials from Iraq prior to the war remain unresolved."

WMD Gear Found In British Mosque

A radical British imam was stockpiling protection gear for a weapons of mass destruction attack in a notorious North London mosque, British police revealed on Wednesday.

London authorities told Reuters that the discovery of the WMD-gear actually happened in 2003, but could not be disclosed until Tuesday, after Abu Hamza al Masri was convicted of 11 charges related to terrorism - including soliciting murder and possessing a terrorist training manual.

Hamza preached jihad at the notorious Finsbury Park mosque, where convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid and alleged 20th 9/11 hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui both worshipped.

According to Reuters, 150 police staged a dramatic raid on Hamza's mosque in Jan. 2003. Once inside, they discovered gas masks, chemical, biological and nuclear protective suits, blank passports, hunting knives, and blank-firing weapons, the news agency said.

Iran 'getting help with missiles'

German businessmen, former Russian military officer, North Korea implicated

TWO German businessmen, a former Russian military officer and North Korea are among those helping Iran develop missiles the West fears could one day carry nuclear warheads, diplomats and intelligence officials say.

Last month, German federal prosecutors charged two German citizens with espionage for helping a foreign intelligence agency acquire dual-use �delivery system� technology. The prosecutors announced the charge of espionage last week but did not name the country involved.

The two German men have been accused of �having sold a vibration testing facility in 2001 and 2002 on behalf of a foreign military intelligence procurement entity,� the prosecutor�s office said in a statement on its website.

A German official familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation, said the country involved was Iran.

A European and a non-European intelligence official told Reuters that Russian middlemen were helping Iran get missile technology from North Korea that could bring central Europe within the range of Iranian missiles.

An EU diplomat, citing his country�s intelligence, said Iran had purchased 18 disassembled BM-25 mobile missiles with a range of around 2,500km from North Korea. He was confirming a German newspaper report from December that cited Germany�s BND foreign intelligence service.

Muslim newspaper ran cartoons 4 months ago!

No outrage when Egyptian publication headlined drawings on Ramadan cover

While Muslims across the world have rioted in the past week against countries whose newspapers have published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, there was no uproar when the same caricatures were prominently displayed in an Islamic newspaper four months ago.

The images originating in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September were reportedly featured on the cover and inside pages of Egypt's al-Fagr (the Dawn) in October, during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to the Freedom for Egyptians blog, al-Fagr included the cartoons on the front cover and page 17 of its edition dated Oct. 17. The headline, when translated, is said to read: "Continued Boldness. Mocking the Prophet and his wife by Caricature."

"The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests," notes the blog. "It would have been better that this [current] holy war against Denmark be launched during the holy month of Ramadan as many Muslims believe that Jihad during Ramadan would have been more worthy. This irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that this violent response to the cartoons is politically motivated by Muslim extremists in Europe and the so-called secular governments of the Middle East. I want also to mention that despite the fact that all editors who tried to reprint the cartoons in the Middle East nowadays were arrested, the Egyptian editors went unharmed."

To date, at least 10 people have been killed in Afghanistan alone from Muslim riots in connection with the cartoons, though protests have been taking place in many countries throughout Europe and the Mideast. Some 4,000 angry Muslims took to the streets of the Egyptian capital of Cairo this week, though there were no protests when al-Fagr published the images during Ramadan in October.

"This tells me one thing, at least, and that is the Egyptians who get this newspaper and who took to the streets are either incredibly stupid, hypocritical, or both," said an anonymous poster on FFE's blog. "They are stupid because they believe what they're told by the Arab press in the previous week without checking for the facts. They are hypocritical if they protested the second time they saw the cartoons and not protested when it was first printed. Here, I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'both.'"

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Gonzales Defends NSA Wiretaps

President Bush's terrorism surveillance program is well within the boundaries of presidential authority in the time of war and it "may make the difference between success and failure" in stopping the next terrorist attack, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told lawmakers on Monday.

"As the president has said, if you're talking to Al Qaeda, we want to know it," Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gonzales argued that the program that has come under fire since the New York Times published details of it late last year is legal, despite critics' claims. He said federal appeals courts have ruled that warrantless wiretaps are legal under the Fourth Amendment when authorized by the president on similar matters.

Legislation passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, giving the president the authority to use military force in the War on Terror, "calls on the president to protect Americans both 'at home and abroad,'" and "to take action to prevent further terrorist attacks 'against the United States,'" Gonzales said.

The NSA program is "well within the mainstream" of what previous courts have allowed, he added.

"Our enemy is listening and I can't help but think they're shaking their heads in amazement" that details of the secret program were leaked in the first place, he continued, and that people would actually be calling for disarmament of a program that has helped thwart attacks on U.S. soil.

"I wish that there were more we could tell, it's not simply a coincidence the United States of America has not been hit again since 9/11 � it's because of tools like the Patriot Act, it's because of tools like the terrorist surveillance program," Gonzales added.

He reiterated the administration's stance that the president has the legal authority to authorize the National Security Agency to conduct some wiretaps on people inside the United States for two reasons: The Constitution allows it, as does Congress' post-Sept. 11 resolution authorizing the president to use all necessary and appropriate force in combating Al Qaeda.

Under the program, the secret NSA � which traditionally conducts domestic surveillance overseas � is allowed to wiretap some individuals inside the United States if they are suspected of communicating with someone linked to Al Qaeda or other terror groups abroad. The program does not allow for monitoring of domestic calls where both parties to the communication are within the United States.

"I think people who call this a 'domestic' surveillance program is doing a great disservice to this country," Gonzales said. "That's be like flying from Houston to Poland and saying that's domestic."

Moussaoui: 'I Am Al Qaeda'

Proclaiming "I am Al Qaeda," Zacarias Moussaoui disavowed his lawyers Monday and pledged to testify on his own behalf in the trial that will determine whether he is executed for terrorist conspiracy.

An often volatile figure in his proceedings, Moussaoui was removed from the courtroom during the opening of jury selection for speaking out of turn, each of the three times he appeared. "I want to be heard," he demanded. Of his lawyers, he said: "These people do not represent me."

After jury selection, expected to take a month, a penalty trial will determine whether the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent, the only person in the U.S. charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be put to death or in prison for life.

His morning outburst, a minute into proceedings, became the pattern for the day as each new group of prospective jurors was brought in to answer an extensive questionnaire on their religious beliefs, cultural biases, group activities and much more. In his third appearance, in the afternoon, he repeatedly vowed to testify when the time comes.

"For four years I have waited," he said. "I will tell them the truth I know. I will take the stand."

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema quickly ordered marshals to take him from the courtroom; he went defiantly but calmly each time.

Iraqi forces arrest top Al Qaeda leader

Iraqi forces have arrested a top leader of the Al Qaeda terror network, General Mahdi Sabeh Hashim of the interior ministry said in press remarks published on Monday.

Quoted by the government Al-Sabah newspaper, Hashim said ministry forces managed to arrest Mohammed Hadi Rabei Jassim. He said Jassim was arrested in the Adel neighbourhood in the western part of the city.

Hashim, however, did not say when the arrest took place. He said that the man was the fourth in the chain of command in the network led by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi of Jordan.

He said the arrested person was wanted by the ministry for involvement in terror acts such as car bombings here and in other Iraqi cities that "killed innocent people".

Hashim said the militant was arrested following information about his location.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Iran Tells Nuke Agency to Remove Cameras

Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals from sites and nuclear equipment that go beyond minimal commitments to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by mid-February, the IAEA said Monday.

In a confidential report to the IAEA's 35 board member nations dated Monday and made available to The Associated Press, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran also announced a sharp reduction in the number and kind of inspections IAEA experts will be allowed, effective immediately.