Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Terrorists might be among us but don't worry be happy....



They could be the people on the bus seat across the aisle, or the neighbors: members of East African groups that a recently released government memorandum says are “ready to die for the cause.”

The FBI and Homeland Security Department don’t know where they all are. And it’s unclear if they know how many arrived.

But in a rare admission, a Justice Department memo and other documents obtained by the San Antonio Express-News say federal authorities know terror suspects are in this country and know who allegedly helped bring them here through Mexico and Texas: a Somali man in custody near San Antonio.

Last year, Houston-area news outlets reported that homeland security issued a vague bulletin to Texas law enforcement to be on the lookout for Mohamed Ali, a purported member of Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, which has aligned itself with al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden.

The government in 2008 designated Al-Shabaab a terror organization. It’s part of an insurgency determined to set up an Islamic theocracy in Somalia and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

Locally, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has been trying to retrace the steps and untangle the contacts of Ahmed Muhammad Dhaka.

He has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since entering the country from Mexico through Brownsville in March 2008 and later applying for asylum.

His case resulted from an earlier, unspecified terrorism investigation, records show.

Newly released public documents label Dhaka, 24, a “national security risk” and paint him as a facilitator of groups accused of funding terrorism. They also allege he smuggled potential terrorists here.

On Nov. 2, Dhaka pleaded guilty in San Antonio to two federal false statement charges: He admitted he uncharacteristic how he entered the United States, and that he falsely claimed a woman was his wife so she also could enter the United States. He’s to be sentenced April 28.

But though he admitted lying to get into the country, Dhaka denied the more serious charges and is fighting the government’s claim that he was a former member of al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islamic, two groups listed by U.S. authorities as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” or SDGT.

Dhaka also scoffed when federal prosecutor Mark Room berg told a judge in November that he had smuggled through Texas, or tried to smuggle, several East Africans with similar terrorism links.

Authorities declined to comment because Dhaka has not been sentenced. But in a memorandum obtained by the Express-News, the government seeks at least 20 years in prison for Dhakane, saying FBI agents caught him on tape boasting that he made as much as $75,000 in one day by smuggling Somalis.

And the memo said the subsequent statements Dhaka made to agents and in immigration court also helped identify him as a critical component in funding radical Islamic groups in Somalia, and as an unscrupulous smuggler.

“He admits that he knowingly believed he was smuggling violent jihadists into the United States with the full knowledge that if the decision was made by (the SDGT groups) ... these jihads would commit violent acts in and against the United States,” the memorandum states.

Links to jihads?

Neither Dhaka nor his federal public defender responded to interview requests.

“He was only convicted of the lesser offense of making false statements to federal authorities and none of the more serious acts,” noted Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law. “This fact reflects the policy of our government to essentially prosecute as early as possible regarding any hints of terror plots.”

Nothing to see here..Obama cites Soros-funded doctrine to justify bombing Libya President argues U.S.





In his address to the nation yesterday, President Obama cited a military doctrine funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros as the main justification for U.S. and international air-strikes against Libya.

Aside from directly citing the doctrine, Obama alluded to the Soros-funded military principle four more times in his 28-minute speech explaining why he decided to intervene in Libya.

The origins of the military doctrine cited by Obama yesterday went unreported by news media.

"Mindful of the risks and costs of military action," stated Obama at the beginning of his address, "we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges."

"But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act," he said. "That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks."

Responsibility to Protect, or Responsibility to Act as cited by Obama, is a set of principles, now backed by the United Nations, based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege but a responsibility that can be revoked if a country is accused of "war crimes," "genocide," "crimes against humanity" or "ethnic cleansing."

The term "war crimes" has at times been indiscriminately used by various U.N.-backed international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, or ICC, which applied it to Israeli anti-terror operations in the Gaza Strip. There has been fear the ICC could be used to prosecute U.S. troops.

The Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect is the world's leading champion of the military doctrine.

Two of global group's advisory board members, Ramesh Thakur and Gareth Evans, are the original founders of the "responsibility" doctrine, with the duo even coining the term "responsibility to protect."

As WND was first to report, Soros' Open Society Institute is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect. Also, Thakur and Evans sit on multiple boards with Soros.

Soros' Open Society Institute is one of only three nongovernmental funders of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Government sponsors include Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Rwanda and the U.K.

Board members of the group include former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former Ireland President Mary Robinson and South African activist Desmond Tutu. Robinson and Tutu have recently made solidarity visits to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as members of a group called The Elders, which includes former President Jimmy Carter.

Annan once famously stated, "State sovereignty, in its most basic sense, is being redefined – not least by the forces of globalization and international co-operation. States are ... instruments at the service of their peoples and not vice versa."

Obama cited doctrine multiple times

Aside from his direct citation of the "responsibility" doctrine in his address last night explaining why the U.S. is acting in Libya, Obama alluded to the doctrine four more times.

The following are relevant excerpts from his address:

* In this effort, the United States has not acted alone. Instead, we have been joined by a strong and growing coalition. This includes our closest allies – nations like the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey – all of whom have fought by our side for decades. And it includes Arab partners like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who have chosen to meet their responsibility to defend the Libyan people.

* Last night, NATO decided to take on the additional responsibility of protecting Libyan civilians.

To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and – more profoundly – our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are.

The task that I assigned our forces – to protect the Libyan people from immediate danger, and to establish a No Fly Zone – carries with it a U.N. mandate and international support. So would the costs, and our share of the responsibility for what comes next.

Soros: Right to 'penetrate nation-states' borders'

Soros himself outlined the fundamentals of Responsibility to Protect in a 2004 Foreign Policy magazine article entitled "The People's Sovereignty: How a New Twist on an Old Idea Can Protect the World's Most Vulnerable Populations."

In the article, Soros said "true sovereignty belongs to the people, who in turn delegate it to their governments."

"If governments abuse the authority entrusted to them and citizens have no opportunity to correct such abuses, outside interference is justified," Soros wrote. "By specifying that sovereignty is based on the people, the international community can penetrate nation-states' borders to protect the rights of citizens.

"In particular, the principle of the people's sovereignty can help solve two modern challenges: the obstacles to delivering aid effectively to sovereign states, and the obstacles to global collective action dealing with states experiencing internal conflict."

More Soros ties

"Responsibility" founders Evans and Thakur served as co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which invented the term "responsibility to protect."

In his capacity as co-chair, Evans also played a pivotal role in initiating the fundamental shift from sovereignty as a right to "sovereignty as responsibility."

Evans presented Responsibility to Protect at the July 23, 2009, United Nations General Assembly, which was convened to consider the principle.

Evans sits on multiple boards with Soros, including the Clinton Global Initiative.

Thakur is a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, which is in partnership with an economic institute founded by philanthropist billionaire George Soros.

Soros is on the executive board of the International Crisis Group, a "crisis management organization" for which Evans serves as president-emeritus.

WND previously reported how the group has been petitioning for the U.S. to normalize ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition in Egypt, where longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was recently toppled.

Aside from Evans and Soros, the group includes on its board Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, as well as other personalities who champion dialogue with Hamas, a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

WND also reported the crisis group has also petitioned for the Algerian government to cease "excessive" military activities against al-Qaida-linked groups and to allow organizations seeking to create an Islamic state to participate in the Algerian government.

Soros' own Open Society Institute has funded opposition groups across the Middle East and North Africa, including organizations involved in the current chaos.

Power pushes doctrine

Doctrine founder Evans, meanwhile, is closely tied to Obama aide Samantha Power, who reportedly heavily influenced Obama in consultations leading to the decision to bomb Libya. Power is the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights.

Evans and Power have been joint keynote speakers at events in which they have championed the Responsibility to Protect principle together, such as the 2008 Global Philanthropy Forum, also attended by Tutu.

In November, at the International Symposium on Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities, Power, attending as a representative of the White House, argued for the use of