“The only event on the CPAC schedule about terrorism was ‘Why real conservatives oppose the war on terror,’” said Pamela Gellar, who blogs at Atlas Shrugs and is a rock star among terrorism-focused conservatives. They’d invited a writer for the libertarian AntiWar.com to participate in that panel, said Gellar. “Why don’t they just have Cindy Sheehan?”

“She takes names,” marveled one student near the doors, right before Gellar called the Christmas Day terrorist the “balls bomber.”

“He’s got more balls than our political elites, right?” she said.

In the front of the room, images of Muslim riots played on a pull-down screen, stopping when the speaker line-up got started. In the back, signed copies of “Muslim Mafia” were on sale. The line-up of speakers included “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam” author Robert Spencer, former Pentagon analyst Steve Coughlin, and congressional candidate Lt. Col. (ret.) Allen West. And the first speaker was Wafa Sultan, a former Muslim who won fame in 2005 for her combative debates on Arab-language TV.

“It seems that Obama’s administration is not yet prepared, and neither was President Bush,” said Sultan, to call out Islam as an “aggressive and violent ideology that aspires to world domination.”

Sultan spoke slowly, apologizing for her accent — the only interrupting sounds came from the room’s air conditioner. “September 11 was a tragic moment in history,” said Sultan. “The integration of Islam in our society is a subject of equal concern. I urge each of you to fight the application of Sharia law in this country.” She closed by paraphrasing Thomas Paine. “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child can live in peace. Islam is here. Let us deal with the evil of Islam now. Right now! So our future generations can live in peace!”

Sultan wrapped up, nodded at her standing ovation, and apologized again for her accent.

“The truth is intelligible,” said Spencer, “no matter what the accent may be.”

In the latest case, information from laptop computers and other material suggest the five men reached out to al Qaeda, the militant network operating from the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said a Pakistani intelligence official. The men came in contact with al Qaeda through its local operatives, he said.

Police found jihadist literature at the house where the men were arrested, as well as maps of cities and installations — suggesting they could have been planning attacks in Pakistan, said Usman Anwar, police chief of Sargodha.

The Post:

U.S. officials said they are exploring possible criminal charges in a case that has morphed from a missing-person investigation prompted by concerned family members in the Alexandria area, who contacted the FBI.

“To prove something in a U.S. court requires meticulous effort, so we want to be cautious and careful not to characterize anyone as a terrorist unless and until we are certain that charges can be filed,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

I’ll have more soon on the question of growing domestic radicalization.

Whole letter after the jump.

Jihad at Fort Hood

Every American this morning should be outraged not only about the murderous rampage against U.S. soldiers in Ft. Hood, Texas, by Major Nidal M. Hasan, but also by the sickening effort of Big Media, and even some U.S. officials, to deceive us about what has taken place.

For eight years we have been fighting radical Islamists around the world, and we have been the victims of jihadist attacks by lone radical Muslims repeatedly here in the U.S. Yet as the story broke of the carnage yesterday, 13 dead and 30 wounded, virtually every major media outlet, along with our own government, seemed to have as their main goal convincing us that the event had nothing to do with terrorism or radical Islam.

But minute-by-minute, more information is coming to light that can’t be ignored. We have found out that six months ago Major Hasan may have defended Muslim suicide bombers on his web page, comparing such acts to the sacrifice a U.S. solider makes when he falls on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Col. Terry Lee, who worked with the killer, said Major Hasan had said, “Muslims shouldn’t be fighting Muslims.” Back in June, when a Muslim convert assassinated a U.S. soldier at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, Col. Lee said that Major Hasan seemed happy about the event and that he was confronted by other officers. (You may recall that it took days for Obama to acknowledge that attack, yet the White House issued a rare Sunday statement when late-term abortionist George Tiller was killed.)

In recent weeks, while off the base, Major Hasan started wearing Arabic and religious clothing. He passed out Korans on the morning of the shooting. Survivors in the facility where Major Hasan went on the attack reported that he yelled, “Allahu Akbar,” (Allah is great) before he opened fire – the same words shouted by the jihadists on 9/11 and which have been repeated by our enemy in every attack since.

Nor is this an isolated incident. In June 2003, Sergeant Hasan K. Akbar attacked his fellow soldiers as they gathered in Kuwait to start the liberation of Iraq. He killed two officers and wounded many more. Numerous plots by American Muslims have been uncovered in recent years to attack Fort Dix, the Quantico Marine Corps base and other military facilities.

No one is suggesting that an Al Qaeda operative contacted Major Hasan and ordered yesterday’s attack. But the evidence certainly indicates that Major Hasan was becoming more and more committed to radical Islam and growing increasingly hostile to the American military that paid for his education and repeatedly promoted him. NPR reports, “Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work… He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues…”

I understand the media’s politically correct mindset. What is inexcusable is why the military and the FBI continue to be so reticent about acknowledging the nature of the enemy we are confronting. Instead of going into denial, our military, the FBI and other intelligence agencies need to admit the obvious. While thousands of loyal American Muslims have served in the military, and some have died with other Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are also “sleeper cells” or “sleeper individuals” who are jihadist ticking time bombs inside our own ranks. Similar attacks are inevitable the longer our leaders engage in self-deception. The brave men and women in uniform, who are on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, should not have to worry about being killed at home by the same enemy they are fighting abroad.

Obama’s “Shout out”

As details of the Ft. Hood carnage poured in yesterday afternoon, the White House announced that President Obama would make a statement at a previously scheduled event. Close to 5:00 PM, cable stations switched to cover the president’s remarks as he was getting ready to speak at a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Interior Department. What happened next has callers to talk radio shows all over the country outraged.

Instead of bringing a somber demeanor into the room, the president seemed to many to be light-hearted and frivolous. He thanked various staffers, and then said he wanted to give a “shout out” to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, who he incorrectly identified as a “Congressional Medal of Honor” winner. After several minutes of banter, the president read a somber, brief statement about the shootings. Increasingly, this White House seems “tone deaf.” How hard is it to realize that this was not a time for joking or “shout outs.” In fact, it would have been more appropriate to cancel the speech and make a reassuring statement from the White House on the events in Texas.

This morning, the president made another statement ordering flags to fly at half-staff until Veterans Day. But he also cautioned us not to “jump to conclusions” until we have all the facts. (The last time there was a pending law enforcement issue, the president was the first to jump to conclusions when he said the Cambridge Police Department “acted stupidly” for arresting his friend Professor Louis Gates.)

Ah, but you’d be neglecting the cancer of religious extremism right here at home. Matt Duss at the Center for American Progress takes note of pastor Rick Warren, who appeared on Sean Hannity’s scummy little Fox News show to say that the U.S. has a divine obligation to attack Iran. Here’s the relevant exchange:

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous [by saying we should kill Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad]?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

Am I drawing an equivalence between Rick Warren and Islamic extremists? Why, yes, yes I am. That’s because his statements are identical to those of the demagogic, fanatical preachers who motivate perplexed children into fighting religious wars. As Duss observes:

[I]f this were a conversation between an Iranian TV host and an ayatollah in which they discussed scriptural justifications for “taking out” high ranking members of the U.S. government, you’d probably see Sean Hannity running the clip on his show — while slowly shaking his head in pious disapproval — as evidence of what crazy extremists those Iranians are. As it is, they’ll probably be running this on Iranian TV as evidence of what crazy extremists those Americans are.

Somewhere, a student with the wrong last name or the wrong place-of-birth is being pulled out of line at an airport and questioned, while religious fanatics like Warren enjoy the deference of politicians, businessmen and media figures.

Instead, he muses on the “underlying causes of Al Qaeda.”

It’s not poverty — “terrorism has been a bourgeois endeavor… if you’re poor, you’re too busy to be a terrorist.” (Later on, Marc Sageman, formerly of CIA, will speak, and his new book “Leaderless Jihad” suggests this is changing somewhat.) Disagrees that “weak or failing states cause this,” since most of the 9/11 plot was hatched and worked out not in the training camps of Afghanistan, but in Germany. So what is it?

“Radicalization caused by the Afghan jihad” was a huge contributor to 9/11. Bergen invites everyone to think about how many of these conditions, in different circumstances, still hold today.

“Let’s not be PC,” he adds, “it has something to do with Islam.” He says there’s enough “ammunition, selectively” in the Koran for jihad for it to be hijacked. “The decline of the Middle East… this feeling of humiliation, with Muslims being attacked by infidels.”

An observation: “the spread of communications technology,” without which bin Laden would just be “an angry men.” Muslim immigration to the West; authoritarian regimes in the Middle East; “U.S. foreign policies in the Middle East,” including support for Israel — Bergen is clearly a grown-up here; bin Laden has a strategy to “attack the far enemy [the U.S.] in order to get the near enemy [Mideastern autocratic regimes] to fall,” though it’s been “a total dud.”

We should still see an Al Qaeda threat in 2012, but probably not in 2016, Bergen says. Al Qaeda is losing popular support “and that does make a difference.”

There’s the rejoinder to Hoffmann, with Bergen citing stats on diminished Muslim support for suicide bombings. Also: too little bin Ladenist focus on a positive vision — a hazy “Caliphate” won’t do — and it’s making too many Muslim enemies.