By Barry Rubin

On the basis of easily obtainable evidence, it is possible to ask the following questions:

Why has there never been any government investigation that yielded changed policies into Pakistani complicity in protecting Usama bin Ladin and the Taliban at a time that these forces were killing hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan and elsewhere?

How has large-scale U.S. aid to Pakistan continued without change and without this question being answered?

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By Jessica Vaughan, CIS.org

Contrary to the claims of illegal alien advocacy groups, many of the detainees being released by ICE under the bogus pretext of sequestration-mandated budget cuts are in fact criminals, and hardly harmless, according to a variety of sources.

Here are some categories of detainees who were released from ICE detention over the last week:

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By David North, CIS.org

Those interested in or advocating “comprehensive immigration reform” should examine the thoroughly researched, well-documented findings of a federal commission that spent more than five years — and numerous hearings — dealing with exactly that subject.

This was the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990.¹ The Commission had impressive credentials, access to millions in federal funds, and was served by a highly competent staff. It had four Democratic appointees and four Republican ones, and with three chairs who were, in turn, a then-member of the College of Cardinals, a former member of the U.S. House of Representative, and a former member of the president’s cabinet.

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By David North, CIS.org

To what extent are the pro-amnesty people advocating what the illegal aliens want for themselves, and to what extent are they calling for, instead, what the advocates want to do to the illegal aliens?

That question was implied in yesterday’s marathon immigration policy hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.

In other words, to what extent do the illegals simply want the right to work legally in the United States, and to what extent do their supporters want something far more sweeping — full citizenship? How much of the push for change relates to raw politics, rather than to better treatment in the labor market?

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), a newcomer to the Judiciary Committee, a former immigration lawyer, raised this issue at the hearing when he commented that when he was working with migrants he found that they were not seeking citizenship in most cases, but what they wanted was the right to work legally in the United States. (Labrador, of Puerto Rican ancestry, represents one of the least Puerto Rican constituencies in the House.)

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By David North, CIS.org

Birth tourism — which recently has become a local controversy in Southern California — arises from a confluence of strong factors, illustrated in the diagram below.

Birth tourism is the planned birth of an infant in the United States by a visiting alien mother who seeks at-birth citizenship for the baby; typically she and the baby leave the country after the birth, but the child can return at any time in the future, and years later can set in motion the legal immigration of his or her parents and other family members.

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While the Obama administration calls for a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to acquire 7,000 “personal defense weapons” — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians. …

Critics, such as Republican New York state Sen. Greg Ball, are already blasting the DHS request, arguing that the government deems these firearms as suitable for self-defense but want to ban civilians from owning them.

“Now the Department of Homeland Security even agrees that these modern sporting firearms, made illegal by Governor Cuomo, are suitable for self-defense,” Mr Ball said.

- The Washington Times, January 27, 2013

What a surprise. It seems that the hypocrites who govern us want to protect themselves with weapons that they would deny their own constituents. But defenders of the right to bear arms as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment aren’t being complacent. They’re fighting back against anti-gun shills like President Obama (D) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Not so fast there Diane and Barack. The Associated Press just released an article entitled “Democrats [Ds] may stand in Obama’s way on gun measures.”

[TAKE ACTION NOW TO PROTECT GUN RIGHTS]

In their attempt to gut the Second Amendment, Obama and Feinstein have proposed, among other extreme measures, a “ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines,” like the AR-15. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is “seeking more than 7,000 AR-15s and matching 30-round clips ‘suitable for personal defense use in close quarters.’” So what does DHS’s desire to purchase 7,000 AR-15s tell us? According to TheBlaze:

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By Jessica Vaughan, CIS.org

Last week ICE arrested Roberto Galo, the unlicensed Honduran who killed a young man named Drew Rosenberg in a traffic crash in November 2010, and is detaining him without bond. Galo’s arrest is appropriate but, incredibly, despite the fact that Galo repeatedly violated California driving laws and killed someone, ICE had to make an exception to its policies in order to take him into custody and seek his removal.

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By Barry Rubin

The expression, “With friends like you who needs enemies?” is an apt summary of a major problem for U.S. foreign policy during Obama’s second term.

Here’s the issue: a number of supposed allies of the United States don’t act as friends. In fact, they are major headaches, often subverting U.S. goals and interests. But to avoid conflict and, for Obama, to look successful to the domestic audience, Washington pretends that everything is fine.

Consider, for example, Pakistan. The United States has given billions of dollars to that country in exchange for supposedly helping keeping the lid on Afghanistan — and especially to ensure the Taliban does not return to power — and to fight terrorism, especially al-Qaida.

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A hard-fought bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate early Tuesday to spare all but the richest Americans from painful income-tax hikes teetered on the edge of collapse as angry House Republicans denounced its lack of spending cuts. …

- Yahoo! News, 1/1/2013

House Republicans have just cause to feel angry about the lopsided “compromise,” concocted by the Obama administration and Senate leadership, and passed this morning. In a sane world, “compromise” would mean both sides accepting some tax increases and some spending cuts, but the spending cuts were largely left out, and the middle class will get screwed with tax increases. Indeed:

… A report released by the Congressional Budget Office Tuesday complicated matters further still. The nonpartisan group “scored” the Biden-McConnell compromise as likely adding nearly $4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, hardening opposition among many Republicans seeking further spending cuts. …

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By Gary Gerofsky

The court systems are being abused by serial lawfare agents working on behalf of international governments and in some cases, terrorist-connected or terrorist-supporting Islamist groups. Where there is money, there is always a lawyer waiting to get a piece of the pie regardless of the merit or morality of the case. Frivolous lawsuits waste tax dollars, ruin lives, and tie up valuable court resources so that others are delayed or denied justice. We must act now to prevent our courts from becoming vehicles for Islamist and other groups who want to silence journalists and citizens; anyone who challenges and exposes their hateful, violent and vengeful ways.

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I woke today to find that 63.8% of the Egyptian electorate approved a very Islamist-biased new constitution, formulated by the Muslim Brotherhood. I have become increasingly fearful of the events now unfolding in the Middle East: A steady shift of power from corrupt pan-Arab nationalist leaders to Islamist extremists. These Islamist thugs taking power don’t represent an expression of democracy just because they’ve been elected. Egypt’s voters are by-and-large uneducated and/or illiterate, basing their decisions more on what their extremist imams preach every Friday in their sermons; basing their voting decisions much less, if any, on news, education, history, social media — the things that Westerners take for granted. Unfortunately, many Westerners equate an election with democracy, forgetting that Hitler was elected.

Islamists are extremely violent, misogynistic, anti-Western, anti-democratic, and intolerant thugs. They will do and say anything to achieve their ultimate goal, that of absolute power and total domination of the Earth under Islam. According to Raymond Ibrahim of the Middle East Quarterly, deceit is one of the primary tactics of Islamic extremists:

… This, then, is the dilemma: Islamic law unambiguously splits the world into two perpetually warring halves—the Islamic world versus the non-Islamic—and holds it to be God’s will for the former to subsume the latter. Yet if war with the infidel is a perpetual affair, if war is deceit, and if deeds are justified by intentions—any number of Muslims will naturally conclude that they have a divinely sanctioned right to deceive, so long as they believe their deception serves to aid Islam “until all chaos ceases, and all religion belongs to God.” Such deception will further be seen as a means to an altruistic end. Muslim overtures for peace, dialogue, or even temporary truces must be seen in this light, evoking the practical observations of philosopher James Lorimer, uttered over a century ago: “So long as Islam endures, the reconciliation of its adherents, even with Jews and Christians, and still more with the rest of mankind, must continue to be an insoluble problem.” …

I keep hearing the words of an old Who song, “Won’t get fooled again,” going through my head:

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

The title of a recent Al Khabar News report declares: “Morsi summons 3,000 jihadis from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia and Iran to be an Islamic army to strike the police and army forces” of Egypt.

According to the report, Ibrahim Ali, a lawyer of various Islamic groups, said that 3,000 leaders and members of the Jihad Groups and the notorious Islamic Group—including the brother of Khaled al-Islambouli, the army officer who planned and participated in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat—will arrive in Egypt in a few days.

Ali added that most of these leaders are coming from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, Kenya, Iran, and even London. Similar reports had appeared earlier, in November: these seasoned jihadis may already be in Egypt. Moreover, back in August, days after Morsi assumed Egypt’s presidency, he released jihadi convicts from the nation’s two most notorious terrorist organizations, Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group—including several held under tight security and on death row for committing especially heinous acts of terror in Egypt.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Who is worse, President Mohamed Morsi, the elected Islamist seeking to apply Islamic law in Egypt, or President Husni Mubarak, the former dictator ousted for trying to start a dynasty? More broadly will a liberal, democratic order more likely emerge under Islamist ideologues who prevail through the ballot box or from greedy dictators with no particular agenda beyond their own survival and power?

Morsi’s recent actions provide an answer, establishing that Islamists are yet worse than dictators.

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By Jon Feere, CIS.org

A coalition of high-immigration activist groups has filed a lawsuit against Arizona over the state’s decision to not issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens granted deferred action (DACA) by President Obama. In their complaint, the groups misrepresent DACA, inaccurately describing the program’s eligibility criteria. Specifically, the attorneys wrote:

Under DACA, certain DREAMers are eligible to obtain ‘deferred action’ from the federal government upon meeting specific criteria such as the attainment of a high school diploma and passing a rigorous background check including the absence of a criminal record.

This single sentence contains two factual errors about the requirements of the DACA program.

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by Daniel Pipes*

The Second Hamas-Israel War of Nov. 10-21 inspired a mighty debate over rights and wrongs, with each side appealing to the large undecided bloc (19 percent of Americans according to CNN/ORC, 38 percent according to Rasmussen). Is Israel a criminal state that has no right to exist, much less to deploy force? Or is it a modern liberal democracy with the rule of law that justifiably protects innocent civilians? Morality drives this debate.

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