Riehl World View

Cop Killer Is "Domestic Terrorist" Nidal Hassan, Not So Fast

Shoot a police officer and allegedly be the guy who also bombed some police cars, no problem. You're promptly designated a Domestic Terrorist. But when a Muslim attacks other soldiers, according to the Christian Science Monitor it could just be PTSD and, according to the Washington Post, at most it requires further study. Well, that's a head scratcher, ay?

(CNN) -- A suspect in the shooting of a Seattle, Washington, police officer is also believed to be behind the bombing of four police cars, Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said at a press conference Saturday.

Christopher Monfort, 41, remained hospitalized in serious condition after being shot by officers during a confrontation Friday.

"This man, from everything that we can tell, appears to be a lone domestic terrorist," Pugel said.

There Are No Tears In Heaven

My God. There are no tears in heaven but there are, unfortunately, tears on earth, Perhaps sometimes simply just not enough.

Honor Killings and Political Correctness

It's ... beginning to look a lot like Britain, ........, everywhere, ... you go....

Yesterday, Noor Almaleki of Arizona died of injuries sustained when her father allegedly ran her over in his Jeep in what officials called an attempted honor killing. The twenty-year-old Almaleki had apparently become, according to The Arizona Republic, "too Westernized."

Why Health Care Reform Will Implode

From Congress Daily - subscription required. There are still a number of dirty little secrets stalking the back alley's of Congress ready to derail health care reform. And chief among them is abortion. Surprise, surprise, it's moderate and conservative Democrats, especially many who won seats in the last election, preparing to cause trouble, no matter how much Pelosi wants to not discuss the issue right now.

The topic is one way to get leadership aides to deviate from sunny pronouncements declaring smooth healthcare sailing and point instead to a litany of unresolved issues -- medical devices, revenue measures, regional disparities and hospitals were all on one leadership aide's list.

The stumbling block is especially huge given the dynamics of many of our largest cities. Catholic hospitals carry the bulk of the load for health care in those areas. They've already dug in their heels on this a long time ago, claiming they would close facilities before allowing them to perform abortions. Given that lower income urban populations look to be a big beneficiary of health care reform, just imagine the fiasco if they faced having nowhere to go to get it. Obama may, or may not get rid of all the nukes in the world, but this one is set to go off right in his face. So far, no one can say the issue is close to being resolved. Kaboom!

House Speaker Pelosi Friday dismissed questions about abortion, saying that how to "procedurally" handle floor debate on health care has not yet been decided. Still, leadership aides acknowledge Democrats need to make some changes to the bill's abortion language before the bill comes to the floor.

"This is not a done deal; I do think there is an impressive effort to find a compromise," a Democratic leadership aide said. "I don't know if we are ever going to be where Stupak is, but we'll be in a place that will satisfy a majority of those folks that he considers with him right now."

If they don't, Stupak will carry through on his threat -- and "I guess they run the risk" of losing, Stupak said.

If leaders can't agree on changes to the abortion language, they will have to court anti-abortion rights members one by one, hoping to peel enough away to strip the group of its power to hold up the bill. The question is whether other changes will resolve the concerns of members who might not be willing to derail all of health reform because of abortion.

One example is Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Pa., a freshman in a swing district facing a possibly tight re-election contest without President Obama on the ballot. With the election likely becoming a referendum on the president's domestic programs, she has yet to announce whether she will support the healthcare package -- even though Pelosi spent an hour at a briefing touting Dahlkemper's efforts to allow children to stay on their parents' insurance policies until they turn 27.

Moderate and conservative Dems are already feeling exposed due to all the concessions they've made on a number of policies. This could easily be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Democrats don't want to talk about abortion rights, but it could sink health reform.

"Most people would have preferred not to have to talk about abortion at all in health reform," said a Democratic aide who worked on the Energy and Commerce Committee's abortion negotiations. With Republicans likely to try to use the emotional issue to draw support and money for 2010 contests, Democrats tried to make the bill "abortion neutral" -- maintaining existing federal policy without further restricting abortion rights.

But anti-abortion rights Democrats are forcing the conversation, and leaders have to answer because there are enough of them to disrupt the overhaul effort. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., says he has gathered a group of about 40 lawmakers who are willing to vote to prevent House leaders from bringing the health overhaul to the floor unless they allow a vote on an amendment to explicitly outlaw federal funding for abortion.

Flogging Journalists: Yes, Or No?

Tell me you aren't tempted to sign on to just a little bit of sharia law when it comes to flogging journalists. I don't think they should get it for discussing sex, though.

What I wouldn't give to see Keith Olbermann travel to Saudi Arabia for a special report on teen pregnancy. In this case, it seems the Saudi king has decided to give this female journalist a pass. The case against her was actually dropped but she was sentenced to be flogged as a deterrent. That would do it, I gather. Geesh!

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The Saudi king has waived a 60 lashes punishment for a female journalist charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, a government official said Monday.
King Abdullah's decision followed intense media attention sparked by Saturday's sentencing of journalist Rozanna al-Yami, who was ordered flogged by a judge in the western city of Jiddah.

Al-Yami had been charged with involvement in the preparation of a sex talk show and advertising the segment on the Internet.

Public talk about sex is taboo in this ultraconservative country, where the sexes are segregated.

Al-Yami—believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to get a flogging punishment—said Saturday that although the charges against her were dropped, the judge sentenced her "as a deterrence."

"Typical American" Ph.D Terek Mehanna Plotted Terror Attacks

The AP reports Tarek Mehanna was just a "typical American kid" who earned a doctorate degree according to friends, though he did want to kill two former unidentified members of the Executive Branch now out of office and shoot down taxpayers in a shopping mall because their tax dollars supported the Iraq War and they were unbelievers.

Thank God there wasn't anything unusual about him and his friends. They might have managed to pull it off.

BOSTON (AP) -- Tarek Mehanna grew up in Boston's upscale suburbs, earned a doctorate in pharmacology, taught religion and math at a Muslim middle school and was considered a typical American kid by those who knew him. Yet Mehanna, who had Egyptian and U.S. citizenship, told a friend he felt out of place in America, according to documents filed in court. And prosecutors say he used his hostility toward this country in a plot to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, assassinate top politicians and shoot down shoppers in U.S. malls.

Mehanna, 27, was arrested early Wednesday at his parents' home in Sudbury, an affluent town around 20 miles west of Boston. He was charged with conspiring with two others - Ahmad Abousamra, an American now in Syria, and an unidentified man who is cooperating with authorities - to support terrorism.

Ultimately, the trio never came close to pulling off an attack. Authorities say they never got the terrorist training they sought. The men told friends they were turned down because of their nationality, ethnicity or inexperience, or that the people they'd hoped would get them into such camps were either in jail or on a religious pilgrimage.

They abandoned the mall attack plans after their weapons contact said he could find only handguns, not automatic weapons, authorities said.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said the men justified the planned attacks on malls because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the government and are "nonbelievers," Loucks said. He refused to identify the targeted malls.

Kansas Priest May Yet Get Medal Of Honor

Seems like a story worth noting.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Kansas priest already under consideration for sainthood has won the endorsement of the Army's top civilian leader to receive the Medal of Honor.

The Rev. Emil Kapaun was a captain and chaplain in the Army in the Korean War and was taken prisoner in 1950 when the Chinese captured his unit. Kapaun continued to serve the men's needs, risking his life to provide them with food and water amid squalid conditions.

Kapaun, a Roman Catholic, died in a prison camp seven months later.

In one of his final acts as Army secretary, Pete Geren wrote Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., saying he agreed that Kapaun was worthy of the honor. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also endorsed Kapaun's honor.

Seven chaplains have received the Medal of Honor, including Vincent Capodanno, a Navy chaplain from New York, killed in Vietnam in 1967. In 2006, Capodanno was declared a Servant of God by the Vatican, a step toward canonization.

Helen Kapaun, the chaplain's sister-in-law, said her husband Eugene, 85, has prayed that he would live to see his brother honored.

"We hoped it would have been sooner," Helen Kapaun said Monday. "I think there were a lot of circumstances that had to be finished in God's hands. Now, it proves that he was a saintly, holy man."

Tiahrt began efforts to honor Kapaun in 2000 after reading about his life.

"It's hard to imagine living through something like that. He handled it like a saint," Tiahrt said Monday. "This is the kind of person that we ought to emulate."

Congress must approve legislation sending Kapaun's award to President Barack Obama, which Tiahrt hopes happens by year's end.

Coma Coma Coma Coma Coma Khamenei - You Come and Go o-oh-o ...

The latest from Michael Ledeen at PJM: Now, thank me for putting this old tune back in your head! heh!

This story has been floating around the net for the past day or so, but this report comes from a person who is in a position to know such things.  As I know very well (having been gulled into wrongly announcing Khamenei’s death a while back), it is easy to be misled, and Khamenei has had previous medical emergencies in the past, and recovered, but the source is excellent. Nonetheless, it’s always smart to apply the Reagan Caution:  Trust, but verify.  I’m doing my best.

Here is what he/she says:

Christian Bomber Arrested In Conn?

Police have arrested two Connecticut men found with pipe bombs, rifles and a can of propane in their car. The one guy looks to be the same individual involved in a related incident from March. I suspect it's the details in that report that the Left will jump on - see below.

Police in Connecticut say they have arrested two people after stopping a car full of explosives in a New Haven residential neighborhood.

 New Haven Officer Joseph Avery says police don't know if the suspects planned to use the explosives, because they're not talking much to investigators.

Police charged 38-year-old John Iannucci of Branford and 27-year-old Jessup Bollinger of New Haven with manufacture of bombs, illegal possession of explosives and other charges.

From March 2009: Same age, same location. He claimed to have just been altering fireworks gotten while attending a Christian show and to be from a LE enforcement family and a solid Christian. Strange hobby for such a fellow, they don't usually make bombs.

“I bought fireworks in Pennsylvania last June for the 4th of July when I was there for a Christian show. I sing in a Baptist church in West Haven, solos and with the choir,” he said. “It was not a bomb. It was a hand-throwable firework.”

Iannucci admitted he altered the fireworks to make them launchable, but felt he was not doing anything illegal. He said the fireworks were in his car because he was transporting them to dispose of them.

Shockwaves were sent through one East Haven man’s life when fireworks he was carrying in his vehicle ignited accidently sending police into an extensive investigation.

On Feb. 26, East Haven police were called “to investigate the report of a suspicious device that detonated inside a vehicle causing injuries to the sole occupant,” stated Lt. Joseph Slane. “The incident occurred at approximately 7:48 p.m. when the operator was turning onto Grannis Street from North High Street.”

The operator of the vehicle, John Iannucci, 38, of 5 Ann Street received injuries to his hands and torso, police said. He was transported to the Yale Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford for treatment.

According to Slane, officers visited Iannucci at the hospital as part of their investigation, and then proceeded to Iannucci’s residence on Friday, Feb. 27.

“During the search of the residence, officers located items used by Iannucci to modify smoke bombs,” Slane said.

“No arrest was made at this time,” Slane added. “The department is looking into the legality of possessing such items and determining what charges may be filed.”

Iannucci said he regrets what happen and that the incident was just an unfortunate accident that’s now disrupting his life and family.

“I threw a cigarette out the window and it came back in and somehow set one of the fireworks off,” Iannicci said.

Iannucci was shocked by the number of authorities that showed up to search his home, including the FBI.

“I’m no bomb-maker. I grew up with law enforcement in the family. My father was a police officer,” he said.

Members of the Connecticut State Police Bomb Squad and the FBI Bomb Squad assisted East Haven Police.

Woman Puts Bad Check In Church Offering Plate

Damn. It's one thing to die and go straight to Hell. It's another to be prosecuted for kiting checks on top of it. All was not lost, though. She stole a wallet while she was there, as well. Forgiveness, ya think? I don't think the cops are that Christian.

NEW BRIGHTON, Pa. (AP) -- Police said a woman put a forged $50 check in a church offering plate and stole a woman's wallet from a pew in the same western Pennsylvania church. New Brighton police Chief Charles Van Fossan said Tuesday that police were still searching for a 20-year-old woman. She allegedly committed the crimes at First Presbyterian Church in New Brighton on Sunday.

Police said the offering check was from a previously stolen checkbook.

The woman used a credit card from the stolen wallet to buy about $200 worth of merchandise from a dollar store and a convenience store. Police said the woman also tried to use a credit card stolen from another church to get a $16,000 cash advance that a bank refused to issue.