May 26, 2005

A NEAR CONTINUOUS HEMORRHAGE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS:

[Rumsfeld] said U.S. officials must also deal with “a global Internet with universal access and no inhibitions, e-mail, cell phones, digital cameras wielded by anyone and everyone” and “a seemingly casual disregard for the protection of classified information, resulting in a near continuous hemorrhage of classified documents, to the detriment of the country.”

I wonder who’s doing the leaking. Presumably it’s not people who support the war in Iraq, who are leaking the classified documents, but it is instead mostly Dems who are doing so. However, it may be that some Republicans are doing so in pursuit of some sort of political jockeying.

In either case, it’s a disgrace, and the people doing it should be identified and held accountable.

CAR THEFT IS FUNDING TERRORISTS:

Arizona has one of the worst auto theft problems in the nation. Tonight we learn that some of those stolen cars are actually being used to fund terrorism.

Every 20 seconds a vehicle is stolen. As many as 200,000 of them leave North America through sea ports and cross international borders annually.

Some of those are making it to the Middle East to be sold by terror groups.

These are terrorists training to attack. Training isn’t cheap.

Law enforcement has discovered a new link between training terrorists and stolen vehicles.

Mikel Longman is with the Arizona Deptartment of Public Safety and is also a member of the North American Export Committee.

He says, “Interpol has identified vehicle theft and crimes involving vehicles and insurance fraud as being a primary illicit fundraiser for terrorist type activities.”

Organized crime groups are using the stolen vehicles to carry illegal drugs, some to smuggle human cargo, others to bring in laundered cash.

This is the second news story I’ve seen today tracking down how terrorists are illegally raising money. (The first one is noted here. ) This appears to indicate that we’re making additional advances toward shutting the terrorists down.

Terrorists Profit from Counterfeiting

As I noted previously Harvey Kushner has reported that terrorists use sales of counterfeit items in this country to raise substantial profits.

From Josh Meyer in today’s LA Times:

WASHINGTON — When Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Stedman was booking a clothing store owner last year on charges of selling counterfeit high-fashion merchandise, his attention was drawn to the large and colorful tattoo on the man’s arm.

The tattoo included Arabic writing, suggesting it wasn’t a gang symbol or the mark of one of the many organized crime syndicates that have helped make dealing in knockoff goods — like Gucci handbags, Prada shoes and Louis Vuitton watches — a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States.

It turned out to be a symbol of allegiance to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant organization that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist group.

The case of the tattooed merchant was one of several in Southern California in which alleged Hezbollah operatives had been caught trafficking in counterfeit merchandise, Stedman and other experts told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

They said that suspected Hezbollah operatives in the U.S. and other groups accused of terrorist activity were raising as much as $30 million a year in America through the sale of counterfeit merchandise and other criminal enterprises, and sending unknown but substantial sums back home.

THE BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES BY THE BRITISH AUT (ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS) HAS BEEN OVERTURNED.

VIA MATT LEWIS, JUNKYARD BLOG HAS BIG NEWS FROM WASHINGTON STATE:

There appears to be important new evidence to the effect that some Dems may have falsified results in Washington State.

...a King County supervisor of absentee votes is admitting she falsified a report to make votes cast match with number of voters. She’s saying there are 800+ more votes cast than registered voters.

IRAQ ASKS U.N. TO LET U.S.-LED FORCE REMAIN:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iraq has asked the U.N. Security Council to let a U.S.-led multinational force remain in Iraq, acknowledging it was as yet unable to assure its own security.

The request came in a letter from Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari circulated at the United Nations on Wednesday.

“As we stand now, our country continues to face an armed insurgency, which still includes foreign elements opposed to Iraq’s transition to democratic rule,” Zebari said in the letter to Danish Ambassador Ellen Loj, the Security Council president for May.

Iraq is asking the U.S.-led forces to stay. That takes the steam out of some people’s charge that the U.S. is in Iraq as an occupier.