I try to keep track of the various terror trials that get local news coverage but little attention nationally. In September, the Christian Science Monitor counted up 21 terror plots uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11. Usually the dinosaur media doesn’t want to worry the pubic with such disquieting facts–that attempted terrorism goes on rather frequently and all around the country.

Also, the word “plot” implies collusion with others, so single Islamic killers are not counted, e.g. Naveed Haq who murdered Pam Waechter and shot five other women in the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. He phoned his mother after the shooting from jail and told her she should be proud that he was a martyr and would be going to heaven. Also, my blog post about the probable jihad killer Suleiman Talovic in Salt Lake listed other jihad criminals who apparently acted alone, Refugee Rampage in Salt Lake.

Anyway, the Sears Tower plotters were Haitians and the leader of the plot got a very lightweight sentence considering.

The leader of a group which plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago has been sentenced to 13.5 years in prison.

Narseal Batiste, 35, also planned to bomb FBI offices, along with four other men who have already been given prison sentences.

Prosecutors said the men conspired to provide material support to al-Qaeda but defence lawyers said the plot was never serious.

Prosecutors in Miami had sought the maximum 70-year sentence for Batiste. [Sears Tower bomb plot leader Narseal Batiste jailed, BBC, November 20, 2009]

The Fort Hood shooter was not as assimilated to American values as the protectors of diversity would have you believe.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.

In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).

Hoekstra said he is “absolutely furious” that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan’s attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.

“This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies–not the CIA–have the lead,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. ” Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect.” [Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda,November 9, 2009 ]

How curious that information about Hasan’s fondness for terrorism is being squelched.

Another item of jihadist evidence is the card which Hasan handed out along with Korans (reported by Atlas): It reads SoA under his name, meaning “Soldier of Allah.”

Furthermore, the feigned shock of the Army that Muslims in the American military would go jihad is belied by the list from WND noting “At least a dozen other Muslim soldiers have been convicted of terrorism or espionage since 9/11.” If the military doesn’t think there is a Muslim terrorist problem in its ranks, then it is not paying attention or is in serious denial.

• NAVY SIGNALMAN HASSAN ABUJIHAAD last year was convicted of tipping off al-Qaida to battlegroup movements in the Persian Gulf, including disclosing classified documents detailing the group’s vulnerability to terror attack
• ARMY RESERVIST JEFFREY LEON BATTLE in 2003 pleaded guilty to conspiring to wage war against the U.S., confessing he enlisted “to receive military training to use against America”
• ARMY RESERVIST SEMI OSMAN in 2002 was arrested for providing material support to al-Qaida and pleaded guilty to weapons charges after agreeing to testify against other terror suspects
• MARINE ABDUL RAHEEM AL-ARSHAD ALI trained at a suspected al-Qaida camp and was charged with selling a semiautomatic handgun to Osman
• ARMY SGT. ALI “THE AMERICAN” MOHAMED trained Green Berets at the elite Swick warfare school at Fort Bragg before stealing classified military secrets for al-Qaida and helping plan the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa
• ARMY SGT. HAMMAD ABDUR-RAHEEM in 2004 was convicted of terror-related charges
• ARMY SPC. RYAN G. ANDERSON in 2004 was convicted of leaking military intelligence to al-Qaida terrorists, including sensitive information about the vulnerabilities of armored Humvees
• ARMY SNIPER JOHN ALLEN MUHAMMAD was sentenced to death after fatally shooting 10 in the nation’s capital a year after the 9/11 attacks
• FORMER ARMY LINGUIST AHMED FATHY MEHALBA in 2005 was convicted of stealing secret documents listing, among other things, the names of al-Qaida detainees from Gitmo
• SENIOR AIRMAN AHMAD AL-HALABI in 2004 was convicted of mishandling classified documents as an Arabic linguist at Gitmo
• ARMY CAPT. JAMES “YOUSEF” YEE in 2003 was formally charged with mishandling classified information – including maps of a new Gitmo facility – as a Muslim chaplain at Gitmo.

Furthermore, TheReligionOfPeace.com (known for keeping count of deaths at the hands of jihadist Muslims) notes that the Sons of Allah are winning in terms of killing infidels. Only one death can be chalked up to “backlash” and that was immediately after 9/11.

• People killed by radical Muslims on 9/11: 2,996
• Muslim-Americans killed “in revenge”: 1

Army Didn’t Want To Appear Too “Anti-Muslim”, Hasan Had Links To Hijackers.

A while back, I did a blog item titled
Immigration Advisers Indicted In Alleged “Tell Feds You’re Gay” Scam. That guy has now been sentenced:

A self-proclaimed immigration expert who advised his clients to falsely claim to be gay to win asylum in the U.S. was sentenced this morning to 18 months in prison by a federal judge in Seattle.

Steven Mahoney, who operated Mahoney and Associates in Kent for nearly nine years, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Mahoney, 41, admitted that he filed as many as 99 false immigration applications, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
…
According to the indictment in the case, Mahoney told immigrant clients to falsely state they were homosexual on immigration documents and that they feared persecution or even death if they returned to their own countries. Likewise, he advised others to claim discrimination over religious beliefs.

He was paid up to $4,000 for each false application he filed, according to the indictment.

In one instance, involving an individual identified in the indictment as A.K., Mahoney is alleged to have advised him to say on immigration applications that he was gay and that the militia in his country had attempted to rape his wife because of his sexual orientation, according to the indictment. Helena Mahoney allegedly helped the man obtain “documents about the gay community to assist A.K. in preparing for his asylum interview,” the indictment alleges.

Another immigrant, identified as G.V., reportedly submitted documents to the immigration officials claiming that he was afraid he would be maimed if he returned to his homeland “when in truth … G.V. was not afraid of such maiming,” according to the indictment.

It’s not clear whether any of the immigrants mentioned in the indictment was granted asylum status and allowed to stay in the U.S.

In seeking prison time, federal prosecutors said persecution of gays and Jews in Eastern Europe is real.

“By advising immigrants to falsely claim that they were gay or Jewish, [the Mahoneys] diminished the chances of those who genuinely seek asylum for those reasons,” prosecutions said in a news release. [Man sentenced to prison in immigration fraud case, By Mike Carter, Seattle Times, October 25, 2009]

You’ll notice that they convicted him but there’s no sign that they’ll follow up on the false refugee claimants and deport them. Also admitting gays on account of “persecution” will cause a problem–85 countries (mostly in the Third World) currently have laws against sodomy–which was the case in every state in the union until 1961, New York until 1980, and in 23 other states until the Lawrence v. Texas decision, as I wrote a while back.

Here’s the story:

Restaurateur pleads guilty to immigration charges

The Associated Press
SEATTLE —

An owner of a chain of popular Seattle-area Thai restaurants has pleaded guilty to immigration charges, admitting she recruited U.S. citizens to engage in sham marriages with Thai nationals.

The point of the marriages was to allow the Thai citizens to obtain legal status to stay in the United States.

Varee Bradford 44, of Sammamish, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and three counts of fraud relating to immigration documents. Bradford is an owner of the “Thai Ginger” restaurants.

She faces a maximum five years in prison on the conspiracy count, and a maximum 10 years on the fraudulent document counts. Sentencing is set for Jan. 22.

According to the plea agreement, the U.S. citizens were paid $20,000.

Federal prosecutors say that in late 2007, Bradford told a U.S. citizen who was actually an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that she would pay him $20,000 for entering into a sham marriage.

If a picture accompanies the story, we can see that Varee Bradford is from the Far East, and Google tells me that people named Varee are from Thailand. (Google always helps with the answer to the traditional American question “What kind of name is that?” since the press, for ideological reasons, refuses to tell you.)

A Thai restaurant site will tell you that Mrs. Bradford was born in Thailand, and is married (non-sham–they were in the restaurant business together) to an American citizen. But the Associated Press can’t be bothered.

From New Geography:

Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as “cool” urban places.

But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the “progressive” cities aren’t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.

In fact, not one of these “progressive” cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.

Read the whole thing.

In all the brouhaha over Rush Limbaugh being prevented from buying part of an NFL team, has anybody noticed that his endlessly denounced remark — the one he actually said in 2003, not the libelous made-up ones we’ve been hearing lately — about the media overrating black quarterbacks for political reasons have been largely vindicated?

Six years later, 2009 is turning out to be a bust for black quarterbacks in the NFL. Not a single one is having a good season. (more…)

“Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese.”

That was Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki speaking, on the occasion of becoming the second-fastest player to notch his 2,000th base hit in big league history (1,402), after Hall of Famer Al Simmons (1,390)… through a translator.

Suzuki is at the tail-end of his ninth big league season, and has resolutely refused to learn English. Were this his first season, using a translator might be justifiable, but even that’s a dubious proposition. When you go to live and work in a foreign country, particularly in a job in the public eye, learning the language is a simple matter of respect.
(more…)

In traditional Western cultures, below the rank of aristocrats, romantic and sexual impulsiveness was a major threat to social standing. The punishment in terms of class standing for out-of-wedlock births was so harsh that the illegitimacy rate among women in England in 1200-1800 was stable at around 3-4%, even though women didn’t marry on average until age 24 to 26.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s, which hit home in the 1970s, disrupted this traditional system of social sanctions. You can see its power in the spread of the term “single mother,” which is now used as a self-description not only by mothers who have never been married, but also by divorced mothers, and even by widows with orphans! My wife knew a Korean lady with two young daughters whose husband had been killed in a car crash. Being old-fashioned, I assumed she would describe herself with that honorable term “widow.” But, being a newcomer to America, she had realized what I hadn’t noticed yet: “widow” was out of fashion, “single mother” was in.

And yet … the old logic that children need two parents to have the best chance to succeed in life still plays out even though we aren’t supposed to mention it. What I’ve noticed in socializing with financially successful families whose children are on the academic fast-track is that they follow the old rules implicitly. Divorce is relatively rare, illegitimacy even rarer, mothers who aren’t highly-paid executives are typically housewives, and so forth.

So, by removing social indoctrination of the masses, the post-Sexual Revolution system selects even more than the earlier system for social success by individuals who are intelligent and cold-blooded. In contrast, people of impulsive temperaments and less ability to foresee the consequences of giving into their impulses are now much more on their own with far less guidance from the culture.

Thus, the people in the upper reaches of society are increasingly of what you might call a Swedish or Swiss personality (or are Asian immigrants whose families never took seriously the 1960s).

But nobody is supposed to notice that publicly. So, the top level of our society continues to argue for the breaking down of old restrictions, whether on the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman or that their should be limits on debt and interest rates. After all, individualistic self-determination works fine for the upper middle class. (more…)

Randy Cohen, who writes “The Ethicist” column for the New York Times Sunday Magazine is the gift that keeps on giving. C. Van Carter of Across Difficult Country points in a comment to Cohen’s April 13, 2008 entry:

Years ago in Seattle I worked for an insurance company with just one Jewish employee, a good friend. He invented Jewish holidays, taking days off several times a year. As the only other employee at all familiar with Judaism, I could have finked on him or kept silent and been disloyal to my employer. I kept silent. Was that the right choice? — WALTER HENRY, DOWNEY, CALIF.

It was an acceptable choice. … This is not to justify your friend’s actions. He lied to his boss and burdened his co-workers, who presumably filled in for him while he was out cavorting.

So says my head . . . but my heart says mazel tov! This imaginative scheme imposed a tax on ignorance, penalizing an employer for lacking even a cursory grasp of a world religion’s holidays. Such a plan could encourage all of us in our diverse, immigrant nation to learn more about our neighbors, or reward them with extra vacation time if we cling to our provincialism. Diwali — real or imaginary?

I do have some sympathy for your boss. When I was growing up, autumn’s Jewish holidays seemed to occur in such rapid succession that I half suspected our rabbi of inventing them to qualify for some kind of bonus.

Send your queries to ethicist@nytimes.com or The Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10018, and include a daytime phone number.

Something that has changed over my lifetime is the decline of “Is it bad for the Jews” thinking on the part of Jews about the behavior of other Jews. While “Is it good for the Jews” thinking by Jews about the behavior of non-Jews is going strong, the urge among Jews to chastise other Jews for bad behavior that might offend non-Jews has gotten rarer and rarer. (You can occasionally find manifestations in Jewish publications such as The Forward.)

You might think that Randy Cohen would have written something like, “To my fellow Jews: please do not cheat non-Jews (or Jews, either); especially, do not play tricks that call attention to your Jewishness. It’s bad for the Jews.” But, fewer and fewer Jews worry about other Jews making a bad impression anymore.

Here’s an exception that validates the tendency: I vaguely recall a minor incident from early in this decade in which some British journalist (perhaps Toby Young?) was complaining because the New York Times had censored some phrase of his, such as “for Christ’s sake” or something like that. The NYT copyeditor explained to him, roughly, “The New York Times is a Jewish-owned newspaper in a mostly Christian country. Thus, the copyediting policy of the New York Times is to not treat the name of Jesus Christ with casual disrespect.”

I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s really old-fashioned. You don’t see much of that kind of thinking anymore.” Of course, copyediting is a bastion of traditionalism.

That kind of prudence-based respect is largely gone. What you see now is a fair amount of public expression of Jewish anxiety about right-wing Christians coming after them with pitchforks and torches and such, but, the psychology is 180 degrees different from the copyeditor’s. The people claiming to be terrified of being oppressed by Christians aren’t acting like they are. Indeed, they act as if they hold their putative oppressors in contempt for being weak.

The simplest explanation for this sizable change is that Jews in America have gone from being the underdogs to the overdogs. But nobody is supposed to mention this historic shift in public.

Well, here is a happy story. [Canadian sentenced to prison for smuggling South Koreans into U.S., By Ian Ith, Seattle Times, July 10, 2009] Illegal aliens from South Korea no longer have to come here and be sex slaves. Because of a US-Korean agreement, the illegal alien business from Korea has dried up. Koreans can come here easily now as legal immigrants. This is the happiest story since Cinderella. Bet this didn’t make your local news.[VDARE.com note: The headline says "Canadian" man, which may conjure up pictures of a hockey player, a Scotsman, or a Ukrainian immigrant, but actually his name is Jin Kyu "Alex" Sohn.]