Jasper Journal

If you watched any of the news programs over the weekend,  you head the terror alert warnings about travel by Americans  to Europe. You also may have heard that Syria has rebuffed the administration and decided to forge even closer ties to Iran. Either one of these events is a serious blow to US interests. Taken together they reinforce the failure of the Obama administration to change things for the better in the world.  Remember how he trashed President Bush’s handling of the middle east and promised changes? As Sarah Palin would say, ” How’s that hopey- changey working for you now?”

No matter what you thought of President Bush, he had a firm grasp on international issues and was under no illusions about evil in the world.  Not so the messiah. He was  going to mend fences everywhere and be sensitive to  Islam. Well Iran is closer to nuclear weapons than ever before; our relations with Israel are at an all time low;  the Palestinian peace process is in shambles; and he has no problems with the Cordoba project  Islamic Center at ground Zero.  I’m sure that last item will really make us loved in the Islamic world .  So if you are planning a trip to Europe anytime soon and are apprehensive , remember our beloved leader has made the world a much more scary place for all of us.

A decision today by the Supreme Court on giving aid to terrorist groups came out the right way in my opinion: You cant! However I am shocked that three members of the Supreme Court voted that humanitarian aid and non military advice was OK.

This is why Elena Kagan’s nomination to the court must be blocked. She is cut from the same mold as Justices Ginzberg, Suiter and Sotomayor, all of whom disagreed with the majority. This case should have been a no brainer. But for the liberals, nothing is off limits including giving aid to terrorist groups. My dad would be rolling over in his grave right now if he knew how spineless and pacifistic several of our court members are. It will even get worse with Kagan. I suspect the NRA will launch a campaign against her, and rightly so. She is not a fan of gun ownership and the liberals are coming perilously close to getting five to vote for restrictive gun laws. I have included today’s ruling here so you can be shocked for yourselves. Stop Kagan!

Home / News / Nation / Washington High court backs law barring advice to terrorist groups
Dissenters allege breach of First Amendment right
By Robert Barnes
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a federal law that forbids providing training and advice to terrorist organizations even about entirely peaceful and legal activities, saying it does not violate the free speech rights of those who want to help.

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The court ruled, 6 to 3, that Congress and the executive branch had legitimate reasons for barring “material support’’ to foreign organizations deemed to be terrorists in the USA Patriot Act.

Those challenging the law “simply disagree with the considered judgment of Congress and the executive that providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization — even seemingly benign support — bolsters the terrorist activities of that organization,’’ Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority.

“That judgment, however, is entitled to significant weight, and we have persuasive evidence before us to sustain it.’’

He was joined by the court’s conservatives — Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — as well as its most liberal member, retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer took the relatively unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench, saying the court had abandoned its role of protecting individual liberties under the First Amendment because of national security threats Congress did not adequately justify.

“In such cases, our decisions must reflect the Constitution’s grant of foreign affairs and defense powers to the president and to Congress but without denying our own special judicial obligation to protect the constitutional rights of individuals,’’ Breyer said.

“That means that national security does not always win.’’

He was joined in the dissent by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.

The Obama administration said the law has been used about 150 times since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks. But it has rarely been used for the kind of speech involved in this case.

The aid groups that challenged the law had trained a Kurdish group in Turkey on how to bring human rights complaints to the United Nations and assisted them in peace negotiations. They suspended the activities when the United States designated the Kurdish organization, known as the PKK, a terrorist group in 1997. The groups wanted to give similar help to a group in Sri Lanka, but the United States designated it a terrorist organization in 1997.

Nearly four dozen organizations are on the State Department list, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Basque separatists in Spain, and Maoist rebels in Peru.

The humanitarian groups, including the Humanitarian Law Project, an organization based in California; Ralph Fertig, a civil rights lawyer; and Nagalingam Jeyalingam, a physician; want to offer assistance to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

The government  announced that there will be more  “random” swabs of airline travellers now,  looking for traces of explosives. While I am totally behind doing everything possible to make us safer,   suggest something totally radical: screening people more thoroughly who fit the profile of terrorists!

So much of the  “randomness”  process is to protect the government from charges of prejudice, and singling out certain ethnic or religious groups. While random anti terrorist measures are great, they cannot be a substitute for using all the resources at ones disposal. If the majority of terrorists come from one segment of the population,  only an idiot would not look more closely at that group.  If that population were  from any other than a currently protected minority, they would surely be subject to extra scrutiny. But today there are some groups that for political reasons are untouchable.

  Until we wake up and use all the analytical techniques available to protect the flying public, all the extra measures they invoke will be nothing more than feel good window dressing. We will still be vulnerable, but we will be politically correct. Try telling that to the families of victims on the next aircraft that suffers a terrorist attack because we were afraid to hurt someones feelings. Wake up America ; the PC police are out of control and we are in danger.