9/11: Are We Expected to Forgive?

Father Mychal Judge lost his life ministering at the Twin Towers on 9/11

One of the most basic foundations for any person of faith is the notion put forth by 18th century English poet Alexander Pope in that "to err is human, to forgive divine", and that we should love even our enemies. But how far does that go?

Are the families and friends of those killed in the Islamofascist terror attacks against America on September 11th, 2011 expected to forgive the terrorists who carried out the attacks and those who helped plan it, including people like the now-deceased Osama bin Laden?

Are the families of Holocaust victims to be expected to forgive their Nazi captors and murderers, including Adolf Hitler? The families of Sharon Tate, the Labiancas, and their other victims expected to forgive Charles Manson and his followers? The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman expected to forgive O.J.?

Would the widow of murdered Philly cop Danny Faulkner, Maureen, and his fellow Philadelphia police officers be expected to forgive Mumia Abu-Jamal? Would all of the jPhilly police officers' families who had their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, parents, friends and co-workers taken from them in recent years, even over the department's history, be expected to forgive those who murdered or were otherwise responsible for the deaths?

There is an easy answer to what is basically one question: should we be expected to forgive people for the very worst things that they could possibly due to us and our loved ones. That answer is an unequivocal, resounding, empowering "Yes".

Join the 912 Project

The picture accompanying this story might look like a scene out of some late 1960's, Gump-esque, anti-Vietnam War rally with counter-culture hippies, radicals, and others disenchanted with the actions and policies of their government protesting those actions and policies.

However, the picture, one that many of you likely have never seen because the former mainstream media does not want you to know about these events and thus fails to cover them or under-publicizes them, is not from the 'Summer of Love' but rather it is from the end of this very past summer. September 12th, 2009 to be exact.

The Americans in this counter-culture demonstration, the new generation of 'radicals', gathered in the National Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and all over Washington, D.C. to demand fundamental change.

You might have heard that before somewhere, the "Change" idea? The one word slogan was deftly used in last year's U.S. presidential campaign by Barrack Hussein Obama. It was meant to galvanize those sitting on the fence in the election to support a change from the policies of the George W. Bush administration which had governed for the previous eight years.

But while Obama and his people sold that idea as a change from Bush policies to what they described as some new, more enlightened and peaceful era, what they were actually selling was a bill of goods. Their real motive was a change in the very fabric, culture, and traditional values of America.

What Are You Prepared to Do?

In the motion picture "The Untouchables", Kevin Costner plays legendary FBI man Elliot Ness. He is trying to break the grip of organized crime on the city of Chicago, and is running into obstacles at every turn when his partner puts things into clear resolve.

Sean Connery's grizzled veteran police character turns to Ness and asks the key question: "What are you prepared to do?"

It is this very response that is the key question that needs to be asked when talking about the big problems in our world today.

There are many well meaning people in America who are concerned about Third World hunger. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about AIDS in Africa.

There are many well meaning people who are concerned about illicit human and drug-trafficking. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about illegal aliens flooding into the United States.

There are many well meaning people who are concerned about ethnic cleansing in various nations. There are many well meaning people who fully understand the danger from and are concerned about the spread of radical Islam.

But most of these people don't have a clue as to what they should do next. Many simply resort to the easiest thing for them individually: they write a check. "Hey, if I mail off $20 to some organization each month, I can feed one child. If everyone did that, we could feed all the children."

Nice sentiment, but is it true? The organization doesn't take your $20 and go shopping for the child whose photo and alleged 'bio' they sent to you. They pool all the money sent by people like you, and put it together in trying to improve conditions in some particular village or country. There are many good people, Christian missionaries and others, out there trying to do this good, necessary work.

Unfortunately as often as the food and medical shipments get through to the village, they are even more frequently intercepted by military regimes in those nations, and sometimes by the governments themselves, and dispersed to a privileged few. That is the reality of what happens to the supplies bought by the check that you write.

Islamism Series: Challenging Obama

Welcome to the real world, President-elect Obama. It was one thing to use speaking eloquence and the Chicago political machine to rise to power.

It was one thing to win a U.S. Senate seat, and then use dissatisfaction with the status quo to rise to the Presidency. But that inexperience is about to catch up to you.

A few years in the Senate, most of it spent running for President, is simply not enough experience to be the leader of the free world. We in America and the entire Western world have to hope that the man is a fast learner.

Just a day after Barack Obama received his first official security briefing from the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, the New York Sun reports that Obama and the American public will soon receive a video address from none other than Osama bin Laden himself.

Fanatical hate preacher Omar Bakri has led chats in extremist Arabic chat rooms announcing that the new video will likely come when Obama names his cabinet, and will warn Obama that "We will fight him if he fights against Islam."

A key Iraqi al Qaeda propagandist, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, made an Internet speech in which he told Obama that "it's better for you and us to withdraw your forces and return to your homes."

Incredible 9/11 Video

I was going to write today on the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but there is just so much information out there, and so many perspectives that have already been shared, that it was difficult to decide from what angle I wanted to approach it this time.

Then I came across a video at the National Terror Alert website, and I knew that the best thing to do would be to simply share that video.

It was shot as a home video by a couple living in an apartment building just 500 yards from the North Tower of the World Trade Center, with a remarkable view and incredible real-time commentary from the couple as they viewed things happening live that tragic, unforgettable morning.

View the video here: 9/11 VIDEO and never forget!

Islamism Series: Infiltration of America

Steven Emerson, one of the nation's leading terrorism experts, states it appropriately when he says that "only by knowing how the terrorists' networks operate...can we be vigilant in detecting any new activity."

There are at least three significant foreign Islamic terror groups operating in America today: Hamas, al Qaeda, and PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad.)

These groups receive support from, and give it to, countries such as Sudan, Egypt, and Afghanistan. They are here for the sole purpose of attacking America and Americans right here in our homeland, and they were getting more successful at it until the increased efforts of the Bush administration in the post-9/11 world slowed them.

But they have not stopped, they continue to plot and plan and make attempts, and without continued strong security and intelligence on our part they will succeed again, probably on an even larger scale than 9/11.

Emerson has divided the terrorists activities into four categories: recruitment, fund-raising/money-laundering, networking, and direct organization.

In recruiting, the Islamofascists love to find willing participants in Jihad who already hold American passports, at times finding these people among naturalized U.S. citizens of Middle Eastern descent. People who can generally travel freely into and out of the country, and within the country, with little suspicion.

Other recruitment, orientation, and indoctrination can come from websites and newspapers, and the terrorists actively use our freedoms against us. We cannot stop anyone from preaching violence unless a standard of "clear and present danger" is met. As Emerson states, "We cannot stop groups from gathering to share their political views, even if one of those views is that the U.S. must be destroyed."

Islamism Series: Introduction

This is the first part in what will be an ongoing series of postings relating to the serious problems posed to American society, and indeed to free peoples all around the world, by what I am going to term 'Islamism', and what has been given other names such as 'Islamofascism' and as taught this year in Pennsylvania MPO (municipal police officer) classes as 'Radical Islam'. At the bottom of each posting is a series of 'labels', and you click on the one named 'Islamism Series' in order to view all postings that come in this continuing series.

Since the beginning of 2008, I have been teaching a class at the Advanced Training Unit of the Philadelphia (PA) Police Department titled "Radical Islam", and it has been an eye-opening educational experience.

I have learned a great deal in the teaching of this class, as well as during a course that I took a few years back at the Community College of Philadelphia on the topic of terrorism with its text "Terrorism and Homeland Security" by Jonathan R. White.

In addition, my own personal reading done since 9/11 of books such as "American Jihad" by Steven Emerson, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East" by Martin Sieff, and "Holy War on the Homefront" by Harvey Kushner (all of which I highly recommend), the fact that Islamism is perhaps the overall biggest threat to American society in today's world has been driven home to me.

Just as eye-opening has been what I perceive to be an incredible lack of recognition of this fact by the American public, lulled back to sleep by the American media's political agenda, in the wake of the historically outrageous and devastating attacks that occurred just seven short years ago.

Islamism is defined as a set of ideologies that holds Islam, the Muslim faith, is not only a religion but also should be considered as a political system. Islamists would say that to call it a political system is to trivialize it, that the truth is that Islam should be a "complete way of life."

However you want to slice it, and by whatever words you want to associate it, Islamists believe that Islamic law (Sharia) must be the primary source of law and cultural identity within a state. Islamists believe that there can indeed by peace on earth: when Islam dominates and controls the world, and anyone who refuses to accept Islam is either subjugated under it or is killed.

Radical Islam at Virginia Tech?

Ismael Ax walked his demented soul out into the quiet early-morning peace of his residence hall at Virginia Tech University. It was just after 7am on Tuesday morning, April 19th, 2007. But the peace all around him was about to be shattered by the evil raging in his own personal hell.

He was about to transfer all that evil into a terror attack of historic proportions. A few hours later, 33 people would lie dead at his hand, many others injured, thousands of lives changed forever.

The news reports have and likely will continue to refer to this killer by his legal given name of Cho Seung-Hui. They will refer to him as a student at Virginia Tech who was “disturbed” and that there were “warning signs” that preceded the attacks. But that is not how the killer referred to himself. The now-infamous letter sent to NBC news by the killer contained an explanatory letter which he signed “Ismael Ax”.

Why, considering the climate in the world since the overt terrorist attacks around the world over the last decade, would this demented soul not sign his name, and instead choose one with an obvious muslim connotation? Is there any reason to believe that this attack was not just a random one by a single disturbed individual, but instead is yet another example of radical islam rearing its ugly head?

The name he chose, Ismael, is one that is a uniquely Arabic spelling of the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac, who became the father of all the Arab peoples, just as Jacob/Israel became the father of all the Hebraic (Jewish and Christian) peoples.

The attacks occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and one of the professor’s killed was a Jewish holocaust survivor. But these are only the beginnings of the potential radical Islamic ties. He has at least one tattoo in Arabic writing.

His father lived in Saudi Arabia as a young man. His sister works for a contractor to the State Department that controls billions of dollars worth of aid to Iraq. He wrote some now notorious “plays”, the contents of which are now available on the internet. These plays rant about what he sees as American and western decadence, taking swipes at institutions as varied as McDonald’s, the NFL, and the Catholic Church.

Finally, his family had settled in Fairfax County, Virginia, home also to a 29-year old Virginia Tech graduate student from South Korea named Yong Ki Kwon, who was recently convicted of terrorism as one of the “paintball jihadis” who practiced massacres with their paintball guns. Fairfax County…Virginia Tech…South Korean…terrorism…jihad…coincidences all?

Taking all the listed “coincidences” listed here individually could be considered by some as playing into the concept of a “six degrees of separation” game between every major incident that occurs and radical Islamic terrorism. But as a law enforcement professional it is my opinion that taken together they add up more closely to the concept of “probable cause.”

The FBI and other investigators are no doubt beginning to look into these ties. There is reportedly much more on the tapes and in the personal writings of Ismael Ax than has been released to the public at this stage. My guess is that we will learn much more in the coming days and weeks that will thrust the issue of radical islam and it’s involvement as either a direct or indirect cause of this attack into the public debate.

One fact that is not for debate is that once again sin as evil has reared it’s ugly head, whether it has once again taken one of it’s most favored recent forms of radical islam or not. Paul in his letter to the Romans spoke of sin saying “when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

The Reverend Billy Graham wrote in his work “Angels” referring to Lucifer, originally one of the greatest of all angels, the Angel of Light: “Lucifer became Satan, the devil, the author of all sin; and it is sin that has always deceived, disturbed, betrayed, depraved and destroyed all that it has touched…Satan and his demons are known by the discord they promote, the wars they start, the hatred they engender, the murders they initiate, the opposition to God and His commandments. They are dedicated to the spirit of destruction.”

This “spirit of destruction” is everywhere you look on the news today. It can be found particularly in the results of the most recent work of sin in the life of a man who called himself Ismael Ax. A sinner as a disturbed and depraved individual, yet another tool chosen by Satan to use as a destroyer of human beings.

Radical islam is the root cause of many recent terror attacks, and we may soon learn that it once again has reared its ugly head, this time on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Hello, American Liberals? London Calling

What a difference a day makes. Twenty four little hours.

It was actually less than a day ago when the city of London was awarded the rights to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The city exploded with joy, and all of England looked forward to their opportunity to shine under the spotlight as the world gathered in the British Isles for the greatest sporting event for the first time in over sixty years.

And then less than twenty four hours later, Londoners were dead and wounded on their buses and in their subway cars, and the Brits were in shock. At least seven different explosions spread over at least four different sites rocked the city as the public transportation system became the target of a coordinated terrorist attack by Muslim extremists during the morning rush hour.

A branch of al-Qaeda operating in Europe has taken responsibility for the blasts, and warns specifically that the Danish and Italian governments, and the governments of all “Crusaders”, must pull their troops out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, or those nations will be next on the terrorists hit list. The group specifically states that the attack is in direct response to, and as retaliation for, the military activity in the Middle East.

The attacks are fresh and new, and the rightful target of our wrath should be those radical Muslim terrorists. Our rightful targets should be al-Qaeda, bin Laden and his agents and supporters. Our rightful thoughts should now be with the British people as they mourn solemnly their many losses, the least of which, as we know well here in America from our own experiences on 9/11, will not be the psychological damage inflicted on a free and open society.

However, there is another group, a group right here at home, that needs to be pointed out and singled out right now, while this latest transgression against humanity is still fresh in our consciousness. That group would be those in the American liberal political movement in general, and the Democratic Party in particular.

For many, many months now, leading liberal Democrats have been berating President Bush over the War on Terror. They have stated that it was an unjustified war, and have called for American troop withdrawals loudly and publicly, the drumbeat of their insistence getting louder and louder, the negativity of their rhetoric getting stronger and stronger, as the weeks have passed.

The liberal mouthpiece, the New York Times, said on June 28th in response to the President’s speech to the nation on the Iraq chapter of the war that Iraq “had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks” on 9/11/2001, and that it was wrong for the President to have used those references so strongly in his speech.

This is a theme that the liberals, from Ted Kennedy to Harry Reid, from Hillary Clinton to John Kerry, have been putting forth ad nauseam with speeches at the halls of government and on the airwaves and in the print media. These liberals have been using the fact of many mainstream Americans tiring of the war effort for political capital, trying to paint themselves as moderate, tolerant, and peaceful.

Well, you were wrong Teddy, Hillary, John, Harry, and friends. This is a war, and Iraq has as much to do with it as any other nation. Iraq is not alone. Afghanistan was the first chapter, Iraq the current, but it won’t be the last. The words of the European radical terrorists prove it once and for all, that the 9/11 attacks were a coordinated effort by a real enemy that is bent on destroying our way of life. And now they have struck our friends and allies.

Need still more, Teddy? How about the efforts of Saddam’s regime to recruit bombers to take out Radio Free Europe in the late 90’s?

Need more, Hillary? How about your own husband’s Justice Department in a ’98 indictment against bin Laden that stated “…..al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq” on projects including weapons development. Not the Bush Justice Department, your husband’s.

Need more, Msrs. Reid and Kerry? How about Saddam harboring ’93 Twin Towers bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin for a decade? Or his statement after the ’98 embassy bombing attacks by al-Qaeda calling bin Laden “an Arab and Islamic hero”? Or Abu Musab Zarqawi choosing Baghdad for surgery in 2002 after being wounded while fighting Americans?

There is so much more. The links between Iraq and al Qaeda, between Hussein and bin Laden, are so clear to anyone who looks with open eyes.

But the eyes of the American left, the liberal Democrats like Kennedy and Clinton and Kerry, remain blinded by an all-consuming hatred of George W. Bush, so much so that they endanger the lives of America’s service men and women by issuing anti-war and anti-administration proclamations on a daily basis that outlets like Al Jazeera use to fan the anti-American flames in the Middle East.

The actions and comments of the American liberal, leftist, Democratic party have been shameful as we try to fight and win a justified War on Terror, a war that they have made even more difficult. Shame on them, and all of their media mouthpieces like the New York Times, Al Franken, and Michael Moore.

The attacks this morning on our good friends and loyal allies over in England once again highlight for us that we are in a real war, one that will not be fought and won over weeks and months, but over years and perhaps even decades. In response to the attacks, President Bush stated with resolve; “We will not yield…we will spread a message of hope and compassion that will overcome their ideology of hate.”

God bless you, Mr. President. And God bless all of our fighting women and men in this most historic struggle. It is the age-old classic struggle of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral. It is really that clear a struggle, and it is long past time for the liberals to set aside their politics and stand up for democracy and freedom for once.

And finally, may God bless the British people as they struggle to come to grips with the war reaching their shores. Here is to hoping that they and all of Europe are prepared to do what needs to be done over the long haul to win this war. Because against this enemy, much as against the fascism of Nazi Germany over a half century ago, nothing short of complete and total victory is acceptable.