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By Charles M. Phipps on August 29th, 2014 
Breitbart is reporting that the Justice Department has announced it is suing the town of St. Anthony, Minnesota, over the town’s denial of a permit to create an Islamic cultural center, claiming the denial broke a federal law when the center’s application was rejected in 2012.
“An injustice has been done,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said on August 27. “I will not stand by while any religious group is subject to unconstitutional treatment that violates federal civil rights laws.”
The DOJ claims that the city violated the law when it refused the Abu Huraira Islamic Center the right to create an Islamic cultural center in the basement of the St. Anthony Business Center. The DOJ cites a violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that was enacted in the year 2000.
But the city fathers insist that the decision to deny the permit is based solely on zoning issues and had nothing to do with religion.
[…] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 27th, 2013 
The Cable is reporting that Senator McCain has hired Elizabeth O’Bagy, the former analyst at the Institute for the Study of War who was forced to resign after it was learned she lied about her credentials. Being discovered as a liar did not stop McCain and others in the Senate from using her ‘analysis’ to support their desire for military intervention in Syria. Bunkerville has the details on O’Bagy’s ouster at the Institute and also The Syrian Emergency Task Force.
Sen. John McCain has hired Elizabeth O’Bagy, the Syria analyst in Washington who was fired for padding her credentials, The Cable has learned. She begins work Monday as a legislative assistant in McCain’s office.
O’Bagy was a young but well-respected adviser at the Institute for the Study of War and had emerged quickly as an important voice among those arguing in favor of intervention in Syria. McCain and others had cited her work publicly […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 20th, 2013 
Just a few days after Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart reached an agreement calling on the Assad regime to turn over its chemical weapons to the international community, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be already undermining that agreement. Putin said yesterday that he can’t guarantee Syria will give up all their chemical weapons as part of a U.S.-Russian deal and suggested that Israel could help the situation improve by giving up its nuclear weapons. “Syria came into possession of chemical weapons as an alternative to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” Putin said at a gathering of political analysts. “The technological superiority of Israel in the region is so obvious that it doesn’t require nuclear weapons, which makes it a target and creates a special problem for it.”
This seems to me to be an attempt by Putin to pressure Obama into cooling the U.S. policy toward Israel’s nuclear program. Since Israel first acquired a nuclear reactor about […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 11th, 2013 
It seems appropriate today being September 11 to take a look at who our president’s new friends are. I’m referring to the Syrian rebels. So many things to cover…
Last week in Congressional hearings Secretary of State John Kerry testified that Islamic extremists are just marginal players in the Syrian civil war and are unlikely to benefit much from any bombing done by the United States. Rep. Michael T. McCaul (R-TX) disagreed with Kerry, saying that the classified briefings he received as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security indicated that “the majority now of these rebel forces – and I say majority now – are radical Islamists pouring in from all over the world to come to Syria for the fight.”
A Catholic nun who lives in the St. James Monastery in Qara, Syria has been reporting what has actually been happening in Syria and she had some not so complimentary things to say about the rebels.
In […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 10th, 2013 
Secretary of State John Kerry’s gaffe in London has allowed Obama to escape the Syria debacle while saving as much face as possible. Yesterday morning, Kerry responded to a question at a London press conference by saying Assad might be able to avoid a U.S. military strike if he turned over all chemical weapons within a week. He then said he didn’t expect that to happen. But, by the end of the day his alleged gaffe was embraced by Obama, Russia, Assad and British Prime Minister David Cameron. What a lucky break for Kerry! He makes a supposedly off the cuff remark, then all of a sudden all the major players are embracing the plan!
I’m not buying it. This just doesn’t pass the smell test. At the same time this is happening Harry Reid was delaying the vote in the Senate to authorize Obama to use military force in Syria. He said the delay was to give senators more […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 9th, 2013 
Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum has an interesting take on the situation with Syria. And that is to forget Syria and target the real threat in the Middle East – Iran. He rightly states that Syrian chemical weapons and their use pale in comparison to the danger and possible horror of Iranian nuclear weapons. He also points out a thought I have had all along, that being that while the deaths of 1,429 by chemical weapons is appalling, it is not worse than killing one hundred times that many through other means, including torture. Pipes sees three possible courses of action that can be taken and the benefits and consequences of each.
1. Knock off the Assad regime. Attractive in itself, especially because it takes out Tehran’s No. 1 ally and disrupts supply lines to Hizbullah, this scenario opens a can of worms: anarchy in Syria, foreign intervention by neighbors, the prospect of Al-Qaeda-connected Islamists taking […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 5th, 2013 
It is now coming out that the U.S. Central Command has a plan to secure the VX and sarin in Syria and that plan will require 75,000 American troops in Syria. The plan was devised more than eighteen months ago, long before Bashar al-Assad allegedly used chemical weapons against the rebels. A Department of Defense official told the U.K.’s MailOnline that, “The report exists, and it was prepared at the request of the National Security Advisor’s staff.” You can read the MailOnline’s complete article here.
At the same time this plan is seeing the light of day, Secretary of State John Kerry has been appearing before Congressional committees repeatedly asserting that there will be “no boots on the ground.” This is less than a day after Kerry said that securing the chemical weapons could require more than just air strikes.
Which is it? No boots on the ground or 75,000 troops on the ground? It appears to me the Obama […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on August 30th, 2013 
Most of the discussions I’ve seen about whether or not to strike Syria have focused on the lack of any national security interest to the United States, the fact that we would be helping Al-Qaeda, potentially further destabilizing the region and that Obama has not received authorization from Congress as he is Constitutionally obligated to do. But there is another facet to the issue that hasn’t received enough attention and that is the state of our military. Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe has posted a statement to his Facebook page in which he very succinctly outlines why we cannot afford for our military to become involved with Syria.
“Last night the Administration informed us that they have a ‘broad range of options’ for Syria but failed to lay out a single option. They also did not provide a timeline, a strategy for Syria and the Middle East, or a plan for the funds to execute such an option. Several members […] → Keep reading
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