Resume "didn't add up:"

In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post, WND has learned.

"Stunning" is the new "predictable."

Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract.

The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.

Islam and Coughlin recently quarreled over intelligence briefings Coughlin presented showing a close connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism. Coughlin's contract with the Joint Chiefs, which ends in March, was not renewed.

But as a result of the ensuing firestorm that played out in the conservative press – led by Washington Times Pentagon reporter Bill Gertz – Islam was put under a microscope, and questions were raised regarding his background.

...

A senior U.S. official says the life story Islam presented now appears sketchy.

"His resume didn't add up, and he knows it," the official said. "He's voluntarily leaving the government in March."

At the same time, a report by terror expert Steven Emerson revealed that Islam, as special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, has scheduled at least two meetings in the Pentagon with Syrian-tied radicals – including a leading member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood – in direct violation of U.S. policy.

As WND previously reported, FBI officials believe Islam is involved with the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is helping its front groups run "influence operations" against the U.S. government.

"He's a Muslim brother," an FBI official told WND. "He's a bad actor, and he's made other unreported nefarious contacts."

Congrats to the true check on government, the actual adversarial media-- the conservative/alternative one.

Much more at the link.

Meanwhile, Coughlin is still fired, because of course this latest revelation shows how absurd the notion is that there's some deep connection between Islam and terrorism.

Doesn't it?

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 07:01 PM | Comments (97)
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Among those exposed to "passive smoke"?

The findings showed the health benefits of European smoking bans in public places, said Francesco Forastiere, an epidemiologist at the Rome Health Authority who led the study.

"Most of this change is due to the decreased impact of passive smoke," he said in a telephone interview. "This is ... important because it shows the impact of a health intervention that can be achieved in other countries."

Please.

I'm no epidemiologist in the Italian Health Services Department of Just Making Shit Up (although it does sound kinda, hot), but c'mon. A barely 3 year old ban on smoking in bars and restaurants has lowered coronary disease among the poor afflicted second hand breathers by 11%?

Imagine what the upcoming pasta ban will do for them.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 04:09 PM | Comments (21)
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The tragedy is slightly lessened by the fact it was the jihadists planting the mine themselves who were killed.

A LANDMINE blew up in the home of a religious cleric in southern Afghanistan, killing the mullah, two of his sons and two other men who had been preparing an attack, police said today.

The cleric's wife was critically wounded in the blast in their compound in the southern province of Helmand late yesterday, and a daughter was hurt, provincial police chief General Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

The bodies of the mullah and his two sons, both under 15 years old, remained at the site of the blast, he said.

Other people in the compound said two other men were killed but their bodies had been removed before police arrived, he said.

Coalition forces have reported "a significant uptick in dramatic irony" in the Helmand province lately, and called this latest incident "as worrisome as it is hilarious."

Posted by: Ace at 02:55 PM | Comments (42)
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Mullarchy In The UK:

Up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.

And official figures on forced marriages are the tip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest.

The crisis, with children as young as 11 having been sent abroad to be married, has prompted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to call on British consular staff in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to take more action to identify and help British citizens believed to be the victims of forced marriages in recent years.

This is as the head of the Anglican Church actually calls for Shari'a courts in Britain.

Here's Hitchens on this ghastly idea:

A BBC interview with Williams had him saying that the opening to sharia would "help maintain social cohesion." If that phrase is even intended to mean anything, it can only imply that a concession of this kind would lessen the propensity to violence among Muslims. But such abjectness is not the only definition of social cohesion that we have. By a nice coincidence, a London think tank called the Center for Social Cohesion issued a report just days before the leader of the world's Anglicans and Episcopalians capitulated to Islamic demands. Titled "Crimes of the Community: Honour-Based Violence in the UK," and written by James Brandon and Salam Hafez, it set out a shocking account of the rapid spread of theocratic crime. The main headings were murder and beating of women, genital mutilation, forced marriage, and vigilante methods employed against those who complained. It could well be—since we are becoming every day more familiar with the first three—that the fourth is the one that should concern us most.

Picture the life of a young Urdu-speaking woman brought to Yorkshire from Pakistan to marry a man—quite possibly a close cousin—whom she has never met. He takes her dowry, beats her, and abuses the children he forces her to bear. She is not allowed to leave the house unless in the company of a male relative and unless she is submissively covered from head to toe. Suppose that she is able to contact one of the few support groups that now exist for the many women in Britain who share her plight. What she ought to be able to say is, "I need the police, and I need the law to be enforced." But what she will often be told is, "Your problem is better handled within the community." And those words, almost a death sentence, have now been endorsed and underwritten—and even advocated—by the country's official spiritual authority.

Britain, which nobly stamped out the scourge of slavery in much of the world, is on the brink of re-instituting it in order to "maintain social cohesion."

Thanks to dri.

Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (27)
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Bias in Hollywood? (Yes, the recording industry is Hollywood.) Nah:

Barack Obama topped a Clinton in another contest on Sunday -- the Grammys.

The presidential candidate beat both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carterto win best spoken word album for his audio version of his book "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream."

Clinton was nominated for his book "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World" and Carter for "Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World." Also nominated was Maya Angelou and Alan Alda.

Giggle. Could they be more cliched and obvious about it? What, did Pol Pot not have an album out this year? I really liked his special guest rap on the dance mix of Fergie's London Bridge.

Furthermore, I'm miffed they didn't nominate this incredible performance:

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (24)
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Another reminder that our system ultimately relies upon the good judgment and good faith of prosecutors -- and some just don't seem to have any of it at all.

Over the weekend, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced that 51-year-old Albert Johnson had been arrested for the brutal rape and murder of two three-year-old girls in the 1990s. Johnson had been an early suspect in both cases, but despite the fact that the state had samples of his DNA on file for more than a decade, it never bothered to test it against the DNA found in the little girls.

That's because Mississippi District Attorney Forrest Allgood decided early on in both cases that he had his man, and little could convince him otherwise. One of those men is Kennedy Brewer, a mentally handicapped man who served more than a decade on Mississippi's Death Row, then served another five years even after DNA evidence had cleared him. Allgood insisted on retrying Brewer anyway, arguing that bite marks on the little girl's body matched Brewer's teeth.

Curiously, Allgood resisted testing the DNA from the crime scene against that of a man he had earlier convicted of an eerily similar crime—another rape and murder of a young girl in the same area. It now seems clear why Allgood resisted the test. As it turns out, the man he'd convicted for that crime, Levon Brooks, is innocent, too. Brooks had been sentenced to life in prison.

Hood is expected to announce on Thursday that Brewer has been completely exonerated. A similar announcement for Brooks could also come Thursday, or perhaps a few days after.

Had Allgood not fixated on Brooks after the first murder, he may have been able to prevent the second. Instead, we have two little girls dead, one man wrongly incarcerated for nearly two decades, and another who came perilously close to execution. And of course, there's also the matter of a two-time child rapist and murderer running free for 15 years.

It actually gets somewhat worse, if you can believe it. This isn't a lapse.

Posted by: Ace at 12:50 PM | Comments (22)
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who got his ass kicked on Super Tuesday? Mitt Romney.

You know who that benefitted? Teh Gheys.

No wonder Bart was so emotionally invested in the Mittster. It all comes into place.

To the blockquotes!

Now Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon says, "It's good news that McCain is on track to win the nomination because he believes in a big tent Republican Party. His record is not perfect, but there are definitely positive signs."

Here are highlights:

Pluses : McCain met with the Log Cabin in 1999 during his earlier presidential bid and expressed distaste for anti-gay discrimination. He's hired openly gay Senate and campaign staffers.

When U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a fellow Arizona Republican, came out in 1996, McCain declared that Kolbe "has the respect and appreciation of most Arizonans."

And, in 2004 and 2006, he voted against and spoke out against amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

During the recent Florida primary, his campaign placed anti-gay "robo" calls against Romney. The plus is that, according to a knowledgeable source, McCain never saw or approved the script, and senior staff stopped them.

Minuses: He opposes gay marriage, campaigned for an unsuccessful amendment to Arizona's constitution in 2006 that would have prevented recognition of coupled relationships other than male-female marriages and has said he'd support amending the U.S Constitution if federal courts order gay marriage.

He voted for Don't Ask, Don't Tell and still opposes lifting that ban on gays serving openly in the military. In 1996 votes, he supported denying spousal benefits to married gay couples and opposed outlawing anti-gay job bias.

We'll soon see whether the maverick McCain works to create a big tent party that values all its members.

So, the take away from this article is that John McCain, presumptive nominee of the GOP, now bears the stamp of approval from the Log Cabin Republicans.

I can't possibly see how this won't further endear him to all the Conservatives/Social Issues Voters planning to stay home in November.

I will admit that I am a little envious of one thing about this endorsement, though. Just once, I'd like someone to say that they admire me for my ability to "create a big tent."

(It doesn't mean it would be true. It would just be nice to hear.)

Posted by: Jack M. at 12:33 PM | Comments (72)
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Rufini 's done some analysis and finds Obama will come out on top with more delegates (but not enough to take the nomination without more superdelegates) by 59.

If Hillary manages to pull off her plan to change the rules post-facto and award Michigan and Florida their full delegate counts, Obama still leads -- albeit by only 12.

It's beginning to look like BizzyBlog's prediction will be borne out. Hillary, or "My Girl," as Ann Coulter calls her, is going to lose.

A new poll says that Obama beats McCain 48-42, whereas McCain and Hillary are tied.

PS, Gore's endorsement may swing a lot of those superdelegates, and Team Hillary is pretty sure they won't get the nod.

And... Heh.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (63)
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A freak accident, though one wonders why this doesn't happen more often.

The skate cut open his carotid and just missed taking out his jugular, too.

Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik required lifesaving surgery after severing his carotid artery, his agent told The Associated Press on Monday.

Zednik had surgery Sunday night and was in stable condition at a Buffalo hospital after losing a significant amount of blood during the game at Buffalo earlier in the day, agent David Schatia said. Schatia didn't have further details because he had just arrived in Montreal following a trip oversees.

Zednik was sliced across the right side of the throat by teammate Olli Jokinen's skate in a frightening accident midway through the third period of Buffalo's 5-3 victory.

Canada's Sportsnet cable-TV network reported on its Web site that the skate blade just missed cutting the jugular vein.

Here's the video, which isn't as graphic as you might think but does have a high cringe factor. Content warning.

Thanks to Cindy.

Posted by: Ace at 11:22 AM | Comments (27)
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Thus bringing us closer to the nightmare scenario of a McCain/Huckabee ticket.

TNR notes this Huckabee quote on it being more or less mathematically impossible for him to win the nomination:

The pundits say the math doesn't work out. Well, folks, I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles.

I guess the line is kind of cute. Or it would be cute, if he had a qualification for the presidency apart from his religion.

Posted by: Ace at 11:06 AM | Comments (21)
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