A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Britain Lowers Threat Level - Britain lowered its terrorist-threat level but simultaneously expanded background checks for skilled immigrants yesterday. Authorities continued to monitor about 1,600 people believed to be plotting terrorist attacks. (READ MORE)
Bush Braces Americans for Prolonged Struggle in Iraq - President Bush yesterday used a July Fourth speech to airmen in West Virginia to brace Americans for another year of war in Iraq, saying the U.S. struggled for six years in the Revolutionary War to win independence from Britain. (READ MORE)
Antiwar Push Falls Flat on GOP Targets - A summertime push by liberal political groups to turn selected Republican members of Congress against the war in Iraq has been slow to grab the attention of lawmakers on the hit list. (READ MORE)
U.S. Troops Mark July 4th With Commitments - Hundreds of U.S. troops marked the Fourth of July by re-enlisting in the military yesterday while others took oaths of American citizenship in ceremonies at the main U.S. headquarters in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Surge Seen in Applications for Citizenship - New feelings of insecurity in immigrant communities are helping fuel a rise in the number of legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Badger 6: Choosing a Narrative and Making Sense Out of Chaos “Following September 11, 2001, the mantra for so many people was ‘every thing's changed.’ My mentor looked askance at that analysis. In his view this threat had always been there actively trying to do something of this nature. They had successfully struck around the world in some complex attacks. The only thing really different was the locale and methodology. I am undecided about the issue, but it seems to play somewhat a role in what narrative you analyze the Iraq War under. That is why neither of the popular narratives, the narrative of Iraq as World War II or as Vietnam Redux resonate with me.” (READ MORE)
The Calm Before the Sand: The Fourth “It's the Fourth of July--Independence Day. Being in Iraq, this day is of special significance for me. However, rather than revisit the usual themes so often discussed on this important date, I'd like to shift the focus to something more personal. For just a moment, I'd like to drop the soldier mask. I miss the Independence Day celebrations of my youth.” (READ MORE)
Calvey in Iraq: 4th of July “Greetings from Baghdad! Happy Independence Day! My usual 4th of July is filled with picnics with hot dogs and apple pie, parades, and fireworks. This year is a little different. Here in Baghdad, there was sort of a picnic outside the Dining Facility (DFAC), although I did not see any hot dogs or apple pie. There were no parades, unless you count convoys of Humvees and Bradleys whizzing by. And there will be no fireworks- the whistling type of fireworks sound too much like mortars, and it would make no sense to freak anybody out with the noise.” (READ MORE)
Desert Flier: Independence Day “Big voice booms ‘Clear all roads from Trooper Gate to Charlie Medical. I say again clear all roads from Trooper Gate to Charlie Medical.’ Iraqi civilians were struck by a VBIED that was gunning for an Iraqi Police checkpoint. Two families in a big minivan, including seven children!” (READ MORE)
Jack Army: My Little Devil “I'm not obsessed, believe me. My every thought isn't overshadowed by the unconscious memory of the VBIED, but I do think of it often. In fact, every time we get ready to go out of the wire, I think of it, how it happened, how we could prevent it again, or at least identify it sooner and keep it away from us. Tonight, as Independence Day winds down where I am, I was perusing the blogs that link to JACK ARMY, and I came across a link from Some Soldier's Mom to this video of the VBIED that her son was injured by.” (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: The Baghdad Chef Speaks On Camera “I had the privilege of eating at a restaurant in Baghdad and had the greater privilege of meeting the chef who prepared the meal for those seated at our table. He was a quiet, yet, friendly man who is an excellent chef and also owns the restaurant. I wanted to find out how he felt about the conditions of the city he calls home and what, if anything, he misses about Saddam Hussein in power.” (READ MORE)
Michael J. Totten: Iraq Trip Confirmed “My media embed with the United States military in Iraq is confirmed. I leave Monday for Kuwait. The first part of my trip in country will include Baghdad and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province. The weather is supposed to be (ahem) lovely this time of year. I'm going to be out of town for a day or so, but I'll be back here before I leave -- so don't go anywhere.” (READ MORE)
Mike Sears: 4th of July......Iraq “4th of July and I am in Iraq, I am out from Camp Fallujah and at the Air Base of Al Asad on a collection trip. While out and about today I thought about today and what it means, lots of BBQ's and swimming back home but just another day here, no need for fireworks while in Iraq! In the evening I caught a small part of one of my favorite movies, ‘Patton’ with George C. Scott, and it made me travel back in my memory to 20+ years ago and got me thinking about my Uncle Ray.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
WSJ Review & Outlook: Trade Double-Cross “Democrats are promising to improve America's image in the world if they retake the White House next year. Tell that to Peru and Colombia, which are watching Democrats in Congress renege on free-trade assurances that are barely a month old. House Democrats pulled that fast one late last Friday, shortly before a holiday weekend when few were watching. They also announced their opposition to a free-trade pact with South Korea only a day before the deal was signed, and for good measure they announced that an extension of trade promotion authority (which expired June 30) is essentially dead as long as they run Congress. Ah, bipartisanship.” (READ MORE)
Daniel Henninger: It's Not the Economy, Stupid “For the professional politician, carving and chiseling a path to the White House, the task at hand is figuring out what ails the collective mind of the American electorate, this week and when the 300th week of the campaign lumbers into view next year. Yesterday found candidates Biden, Dodd, Clinton, Obama, Brownback and Romney floating like tireless balloons through Fourth of July parades all over Iowa. After that, our 20 or so presidential diviners and their retinues will continue to belly-flop into towns across America, trying to connect, trying to discover the one thing that will still animate voters when the final bell rings Nov. 4, 2008. How about this issue: cars filled with nails and tanks of propane gas, blown up by people whose goal in life is to murder Western infidels.” (READ MORE)
Some Soldier's Mom: Celebrating Independence Day “This is how I am celebrating Independence Day: I'm going to wake and go to my full pantry and select one of four brands of coffee in our pantry -- four of at least 15 brands available in the five fully stocked and overwhelmingly large grocery stores within 5 miles of our home. I will celebrate the bounty and resounding economic freedom we enjoy. I'm going to read the newspaper that arrives at my home daily -- one of 3 or 4 available and one that I selected. Congress shall make no law respecting...or abridging the freedom... of the press...” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: The face of evil “Ever since I first heard that many of the would-be bombers caught in Britain and Scotland and Australia were doctors, something preyed at the back of my mind. There was a significance there, an essential truth that needed to be put to words. I wrestled with it for some time, then happened to read a novel where two medical professionals in the Service were questioned why they were sharing medical techniques with an ‘enemy’ doctor. They responded by quoting an oath they had sworn before enlisting:” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Other Ways to Celebrate the Fourth “In Baghdad, 325 U.S. soldiers became Americans. ‘Near the front of the hall, Pfc. Mark Ayson, with a black brace on one wrist and an M-4 rifle slung across his back, had tears in his eyes. Ayson, 26, of Pensacola, Fla., was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 8. Less than a week before the ceremony, he was riding in a Humvee that was hit by a copper-plated explosive in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya.’” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Red Mosque leader captured while trying to escape … in a burqa “Remember, according to some sources, this is the guy who’s the new spiritual leader of the Taliban. Ah well. When the going gets tough, the tough get going out the door, in women’s clothing: ‘The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman’s burqa.’” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Bush: We must win in Iraq “For the fourth time, President Bush came to West Virginia to deliver his Fourth of July address. This time he visited the highly decorated 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, AP reported. 'However difficult the fight is in Iraq, we must win it,' Bush said.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: AP: Hypocrisies Abound “Ron Fournier, the AP's political analyst, takes a look at the effect that the Libby commutation has had on the political scene -- and sees hypocrisy everywhere. While he slams Bush for disregarding the same federal sentencing guidelines he espoused as both candidate and President, Fournier saves his most biting criticism for the wife of his predecessor: ‘This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.’” (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Al Qaeda's Message On July 4th “Well, Americans celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, al Qaeda's Zawahiri decided to release another tape threatening to take away those rights. ‘As Americans celebrate the 4th of July today, Al Qaeda’s top deputy Ayman Zawahiri is appearing in a new internet video praising jihadi fighters in Iraq and elsewhere. Dressed in all white and sitting before a news studio background, Zawahiri warns Americans that “Today, the wind - by grace of Allah - is blowing against Washington.”’” (READ MORE)
Atlas Shrugs: Islamic Bosnia: "It Began with a Lie" “Julia Gorin and Claudia Rosett are both extraordinary journalists breaking two of the most important and explosive news stories in our young century (and certainly of our day.) They toiled relentlessly, singularly, despite the derision of the thumbsucking, lapdog media, agenda driven politicos and international hacks. Rosett is clearly deserving of a Pulitzer in the mind numbing oil-for-food scandal and Gorin did yeoman's work in the he hoax perpetrated on all of us, Clinton's military intervention on behalf of Muslims in Bosnia, paving the way for militant Islam. Al Qaeda's Balkan Links.” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: The Invisible Men “Before the West goes on another round of self-flagellation about how hard it is to be Middle Eastern, and a doctor, in Britain, here's an article in the Australian describing what it's like to be black, a woman and foreign in Saudi Arabia. ‘During our first two months in Jeddah, my wife Faye and I relished our new and luxurious lifestyle: a shiny jeep, two swimming pools, domestic help, and a tax-free salary. The luxury of living in a modern city with a developed infrastructure cocooned me from the frightful reality of life in Saudi Arabia. My goatee beard and good Arabic ensured that I could pass for an Arab. But looking like a young Saudi was not enough: I had to act Saudi, be Saudi. And here I failed.’” (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Liar in Chief “Jeez, ALa doesn't want profanity on this site and without it I really can't tell you how I feel about this man. The first time I was old enough to vote in a presidential election, I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Then GHW Bush. I felt pretty good in 1992, having gone two for two. I was living in San Diego at the time. Pete Wilson had just left the Senate early, having won the California governorship. Diane Feinstein was running to serve his last two years. Barbara Boxer was running for a full term as senator. So, you can imagine, I was pretty well crushed when the election results came in and it was Clinton, Feinstein and Boxer.” (READ MORE)
Counterterrorism Blog: US Supreme Court To Review Guantanamo Terrorism Detention Cases “Catching the Bush Administration by surprise, the Supreme Court decided late last week to take a close look at the legitimacy and constitutionality of the operation and procedures of Guantanamo’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal and of the trials conducted by Guantanamo Military Commissions. The Court, in effect, reversed its earlier April 2007 decision, denying certiorari for two cases, Boumediene v Bush and Al Odah v United States, which raise constitutional and other issues regarding the procedures used to determine the status of, and to try, Guantanamo detainees. The Court invited briefs as to the constitutionality and legality of indefinite detention, the operation of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) and the Guantanamo Military Tribunals.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Red Mosque cleric Abdul Aziz captured wearing burka “As the standoff at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, between government forces and the radical, Taliban-supporting followers of Maulana Abdul Aziz and Ghazi Abdul Rasheed continues, one of the leaders of the mosque has been captured while attempting to escape, according to the BBC. Maulana Abdul Aziz was captured wearing a woman's burka. His arrest was confirmed by the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad. ‘He was the last in a group of seven women all wearing the same clothes. He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,’ a security official told AFP. ‘Our men spotted his unusual demeanour. The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly.’” (READ MORE)
Baron Bodissey: A Moderately Happy Medium “Years ago, I had an office next to a guy named Don. He was the Network Administrator for the same company that employed me, and, like most network guys, he had a strong libertarian bent. It goes with the turf — a network administrator is like a yeoman smallholder, guarding his domain fiercely from cyber-intruders: ‘No one’s gonna f**k with my network.’ On any given question — gun control, affirmative action, political correctness, global warming, government spending — Don held what would commonly be known as the conservative position. I doubt he voted for Democrats very frequently, even though he viewed Republicans with an almost equal contempt.” (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest: On the Libby Decision & the Left’s Silly Mantras “While Bruce and I have very different styles — and manner of blogging — we tend to agree on most political issues. I have to take issue with him with on the president’s decision to commute the jail sentence of Scooter Libby. I’m not sure it was a ‘half-measure’ as Bruce puts it. Given the circumstances of the case, with the prosecutor bringing up stuff in the sentencing face that wasn’t offered at trial, with the trial judge imposing a sentence in excess of that recommended by the probation office, I think the president did the right thing.” (READ MORE)
Gribbit: What Do We Celebrate On July 4th? “Some will say we celebrate the birth of a nation. But this is only partly true. We celebrate the idea of freedom. An idea born in a document signed on this date in the year 1776. A document that put King George III on notice that we would no longer be a puppet of a despot thousands of miles across an ocean. That document is the Declaration of Independence. Between June 11th and June 28th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson toiled over the draft which declared to the English Monarch that we no longer recognized his authority over us.” (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: Libby Commutation Sparks More Lies From Joe Wilson “Bottom Line Up Front: There’s just no easy way to say this: Joe Wilson is a pathological liar and a Sheehanite with a beard. The mutation of Joe Wilson has begun. Not only does he sound like a hippie, he looks like one, too. In interviews on CNN with John Roberts and Anderson Cooper discussing the Scooter Libby commutation by President Bush, Joe Wilson continues to perpetuate the ‘Bush Lied’ lie, not blinking an eye, still looking as if he believe what he’s saying.” (READ MORE)
Tel-Chai Nation: Alex Salmond is bad for Scotland “I support Scotland's regaining its independence from England again, if that's what the Scots want, to forge their own path and destiny, but if politicians like First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, are to be in charge, the country may one day find itself enslaved by the very ideologies and religion that are creeping into effect in England. Robert Spencer writes about the denial in Britain of the Islamic threat, and notes how Salmond is no better than former British PM Tony Blair and current one Gordon Brown.” (READ MORE)
Soldiers' Angels Germany: Independence Day - The Pledge “Brendan Miniter's column in yesterday's Opinion Journal takes a look back at the Revolutionary War battles which took place in and around New York. As a New Jersey native, the tragic retreat of General Washington's small Army through the state during the winter of 1776 was always very real to me. Many homes are historical monuments, and main throroughfares are marked with the sign ‘1776 Retreat Route’. And then there's the Palisades along the Hudson River, where fortifications still stand.” (READ MORE)
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