February 17, 2012 - The FBI arrested a Moroccan man near the U.S. Capitol this afternoon. The man was in the U.S. illegally and - from all accounts - was working alone. Amine el-Khalifi, 29, reports The Washington Post, "was picked up while carrying an inoperable gun and a fake suicide vest provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates, U.S. officials said. The Post says that Khalifi was a resident of Alexandria, Virginia and "had been under investigation for about a year."
Shortly before el-Khalifi was arrested, says Fox News, he was "praying at a mosque in the Washington area." El-Khalifi's destination was Capitol Hill, where he allegedly intended to blow himself up.
Fox also says that he has been in the US "for about 12 years" and that he "allegedly weighed hitting various targets ranging from a military installation to synagogues before settling on the Capitol."
The FBI was investigating el-Khalifi for about one year, and arrested him as he was on his way to the Capitol. His arrest was the result of a lengthy sting operation that involved supplying him with a non-working gun and a vest that he thought was packed with real explosives.
The FBI says el-Khalifi was allegedly planning "to detonate what police say he thought were live explosives," reports the AP. "U.S. Capitol Police say their officers and FBI officials arrested him Friday in a sting operation. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement, and the purported explosives were deactivated, so the public was not in danger." Although el-Khalifi was working alone, the FBI led him to believe that the agents assisting him in were working with al-Qaeda.
El-Khalifi is a Moroccan national who had overstayed his visitor's visa for years, according to officials. El-Khalifi "had been under investigation for about a year, according to a counterterrorism official and a law enforcement official," reports AP.
In January 2011, says a report at TheBostonChannel, "a confidential source reported to the FBI that El-Khalifi met with other individuals at a residence in Arlington, Virginia. A person there produced what appeared to be weapons and El-Khalifi 'expressed agreement with a statement by this individual that the "war on terrorism" was a "war on Muslim," and said that the group needed to be ready for war,' the affidavit read." El-Khalifi allegedly also stated that he would "be happy killing 30 people."
"Details of today's arrest and the nature of the alleged plot are still emerging," says DCist.com, "though what is known so far sounds considerably more low-tech than another recent bust on a potential attack on the Capitol."
CNN's Jack Cafferty slammed the Democrats in Congress last night for their failure to pass a federal budget (see the video below). Although he was scolding the Dems in Washington for their lack of resolve, Cafferty could have been talking about Illinois legislators in Springfield.
Although the Illinois General Assemby did pass something of a budget in early June, they just couldn't muster the courage to include any substantial spending cuts. Governor Quinn, a Democrat himself, just can't muster the courage to veto that worthless budget.
WJBD Radio reports that Quinn "did say however he wishes that the General Assembly had done more to close the state's spending gap. Instead, lawmakers have handed Quinn the power to make the cuts he deems necessary." The state's fiscal year ends on June 30th, 19 days from now, but they just could take the time to hammer out the needed cuts in billions of dollars being misspent and wasted. They passed the buck, literally and figuratively, to the hapless Pat Quinn. WJBD says that he "is still pushing for the Senate to pass a four-billion-dollar borrowing plan to pay down the state's pension debt."Quinn, however, is as cowardly and as clueless as the legislators: On the one hand, he wants the lawmakers to reduce the state's deficit, yet on the other hand he thinks that borrowing four billion dollars to do that is somehow better than actually reducing spending. In other words, neither the Illinois Governor nor the Illinois lawmakers have the courage to make politically unpopular - but absolutely necessary - cuts in spending. As Jack Cafferty would say, "they can’t be seen cutting things in an election year.""The budget approved by the General Assembly last week has a $25.9 billion general fund, that has already been cut by $1.3 million. But with $6 billion in overdue bills and a $3.7 billion pension contribution due in a little more than a month, programs and services will be eliminated," reports The Quincy Herald-Whig. "Mike Rein of Transitions of Western Illinois said the state owes $2.5 million to that agency, which serves people who have disabilities and those needing mental health counseling. 'Illinois is a deadbeat state. They don't pay their bills,' Rein said."The "deadbeat state" of Illinois is so bad a paying vendors and service providers that a debt-brokering company in Georgia is moving to take advantage of the situation. Put simply, the company will loan money to qualifying vendors who are stuck waiting for "deadbeat" Illinois to pay them for services rendered. MyFoxChicago reports that Alpharetta Industries can arrange "for struggling vendors to sell their overdue paper at a discount. Sellers would get most of the money owed to them now. The buyers would collect the full amount from the state later. [They] would take a cut as the middleman."While some would call Alpharetta Industries "vultures," MyFoxChicago quotes one vendor as saying that, "At the end of the day it was better to have some money than no money." Those are the words of Na-Tae Thompson, "whose nonprofit True Star Foundation is waiting on $75,000 from the state that hasn't arrived." (Source: Ibid)If Alpharetta is a "vulture," then the State of Illinois is a parasite, sucking out lifeblood and giving nothing back. It should be remembered that vultures do not kill. Rather, they clean up the mess. Parasites, all too often, cause death or incapacitating illness, and only then do the vultures have opportunity. Unlike a real vulture, however, debt brokers offer the victims of parasites the time and hope needed to heal and, possibly, recover.
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"See, it’s an election year; they can’t be seen cutting things in an election year."xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Cafferty said: At a time of skyrocketing federal deficits and a national debt that just passed $13 trillion, the Democrats in Congress can’t be bothered to pass a budget for next year. That’s their job. Congress is supposed to decide how to spend the taxpayers’ money. They are mandated to pass a budget; and presumably to stick to it… but that’s a whole other story. Yet efforts to pass a budget have stalled in the House because Democrats can’t agree on what and how much to cut.....Cafferty gets then turned sarcastic, but his words ring true:See, it’s an election year; they can’t be seen cutting things in an election year.As I said, that applies to the cowards of Springfield, too.Republican Bill Brady is Quinn's challenger in the Illinois gubernatorial race, and the latest Rasmussen pol shows Brady ahead of Quinn by 11 points, 47% to 36%. It's no wonder. Voters know that it's the Democrats who call the shots in Springfield, and that Quinn is one of them. The voters know that it's the Democrats who sunk Illinois into its current financial abyss, and most seem to understand that the Democrats are incapable of pulling us out. Perhaps the voters themselves can pull us out by means of voting for real change - and fewer Democrats - in November.
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Please help the Crow Creek Sioux in their struggle against an unusual land grab by Washington D.C.Have a look at the petition below, and please sign it. The Sioux made a video that explains their desperate situation, with the long but appropriate title, "As Obama promises 100 billion a year for UN Climate Scam, Our people live like this!!!"
A summary of the landgrab situation here, from USA Today:SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — About 7,112 acres of land on a poverty-stricken South Dakota Indian reservation was auctioned Thursday by the Internal Revenue Service but the buyer's identity is a mystery. The IRS auctioned the land on one of America's poorest Indian reservations after efforts Wednesday to block the sale in U.S. District Court failed.The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe had gone to court to try and stop the IRS auction to settle overdue employment taxes it claims are owed by the tribe. But the auction went ahead, with a winning bid of $2,577,210, IRS spokeswoman Carrie Resch said"It's the first time I've ever heard of the IRS moving against tribally owned property in this manner," said Robert Williams Jr., a law professor and director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona. (Source, and full story: USA Today, IRS to auction land on Indian reservation, by Jeff Martin, Dec. 3, 2009, accessed Dec. 22, 2009)
An excerpt from the petition reads as follows:On December 3, 2009 the Internal Revenue Service unlawfully auctioned off 7100 acres located on Crow Creek Sioux Tribal land.
The land is owned by Crow Creek Tribal Farms, Inc. a Tribal corporation and distinct legal entity from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe.
According to the recent motion for temporary restraining order, filed by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the IRS seized and auctioned the land to recover $3,123,789.73 dollars in unpaid employment taxes. The document states, Because of erroneous tax advice received from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe became delinquent in the payment of employment taxes collected by the IRS beginning in 2003. The BIA had informed the Tribe that, because it was a federally recognized Tribe, it was not necessary to pay federal employment taxes.
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation was created by the 1868 Treaty, Act of April 29, 1868, 15 Stat. 635, and by Section 6, Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888."Taxes collectd by the IRS?" Wait a minute. By treaty, the Indian nations are - nations. For Washington to tax any of the reservations created by treaty is illegal. Imagine Canada trying to tax Illinois, Michigan or North Dakota. It's long past time for Washington to live up to the treaties that it made with the Sioux and other Indian nations within our borders.
RELATED:Crow Creek gains support of Calif. tribeIRS sells SD Indian tribe's land to settle debtObama Administration Agrees to Settle 13-Year-Old Indian Lawsuit for $3.4 BillionCrow Creek: Stolen Lands, Wind Farms and Taking a Stand for the PeopleSouth Dakota Office of Tribal Government Relations -- Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
Video: Native American Rights Under Assault
Video: Crow Creek Indian Tribe on The Power Hour, 1/9: Government land theftLeave a Comment * Conservative T-Shirts * Follow CNB on Twitter * RSS Feed
The FBI was investigating el-Khalifi for about one year, and arrested him as he was on his way to the Capitol. His arrest was the result of a lengthy sting operation that involved supplying him with a non-working gun and a vest that he thought was packed with real explosives.
