Politically Unbalanced

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage

An Iraqi court releases a Hezbollah terrorist who helped coordinate the murder of 5 American soldiers in 2007.

An Iraqi court recently ruled that Ali Musa Daqduq, a Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist accused of helping to coordinate the 2007 abduction and murder of five American soldiers in Karbala, Iraq, should be released due to “lack of evidence.”

The decision comes only months after the Office of Military Commissions started filing charges of murder, terrorism and espionage against Daqduq, marking the Hezbollah terrorist as the first potential defendant without connections to al-Qaeda or the Taliban to be tried before an American military commission.

The Iraqi court’s decision, however, comes as little surprise to the many American intelligence officials and lawmakers who expressed grave concern in December 2011 when, as the remaining American troops exited from Iraq, Daqduq was the last of 1,000 US detainees handed over to the Iraqi government.

That concern was pointedly expressed by Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who said, “Given Iraq’s history of releasing detainees, I expect it is only a matter of time before this terrorist (Daqduq) will be back on the battlefield.”

Those suspicions were heavily fueled by the Iraqi government’s stated promise that Daqduq would only be prosecuted on the single charge of illegalentry into Iraq with a forged passport, a charge which carried a maximum sentence of five years.

However, the Obama administration insisted that it had been assured by the Iraqi government that Daqduq “would be tried for his crimes,” criminality which included murder and terrorism.

Unfortunately, that assurance proved rather shaky in that it rested on an Iraqi promise that an investigative judge would consider the American allegations, a promise that apparently never materialized. As one intelligence officer said, “This is one of many things we just dropped,” adding that Daqduq “will go back to the Iranian terror machine.”

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage

While Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and his family are now reportedly free to leave China, millions of Chinese women are left behind to deal with the horrors of forced abortion and sterilization.

While blind Chinese dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng and his family are reportedly free to leave China, millions of Chinese women are left behind to deal with the horrors of forced abortion and sterilization.

The diplomatic tempest between the United States and China that surrounded Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest — including the ineptitude displayed by the Obama administration in facilitating his release from China — has been well documented.

However, lost in the diplomatic uproar has been little detailed discussion of the actual issue that caused Guangcheng’s imprisonment in the first place: namely, his opposition to the Chinese government subjugating women to undergo forced abortions and sterilization in adherence to the country’s “one-child policy.”

Adopted in 1978 to curb China’s huge population growth, the one-child policy limits Chinese families to one child per couple. While the policy was initially proclaimed by the Chinese government to last only a generation, it has morphed into a permanent campaign of institutionalized violence against women and girls.

In addition to forced abortions and sterilization, that violence includes violators of the one-child policy — including whole families– sentenced to prison, forced labor camps, beatings, home arrest, severe fines, and loss of jobs.

Those abuses have been highlighted extensively by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a commission created by Congress to monitor human rights in China.

In its recent annual report, the congressional commission noted Chinese “official campaigns, as well as numerous individual cases in which officials used violent methods to coerce citizens to undergo sterilizations or abortions or pay heavy fines for having ‘out-of-plan’ children.”

For its part, the Chinese government has steadfastly denied that it is forcing women to submit to abortions and sterilization given that both activities are illegal under Chinese Law. However, detractors say those laws are often ignored by government officials whose promotions are tied with keeping birthrates low in adherence to the one child policy.

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage

Despite a new CBO report finding a record number of Americans receiving food stamps, the Obama administration is working overtime to enroll more people into a program increasingly rife with fraud and abuse.

Despite a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report finding a record number of Americans receiving food stamps, the Obama administration is working overtime to enroll more people into a program increasingly rife with fraud and abuse

According to the CBO, a record 45 million Americans (one out of every seven people) are now receiving assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a 70 percent increase in participation since 2007.

While it should be noted that the Bush administration increased participation in the food stamp program by 63 percent during its eight years, enrolling nearly 11 million people, the Obama administration has taken that number to staggering new heights, enrolling nearly the same number of people in only three years.

Since 2007 spending on SNAP has also ballooned from $30 billion to $72 billion, an increase of 135 percent.  Moreover, the CBO estimates that spending on the program will continue to increase to $82 billion by 2013.

Eligibility for SNAP, which is administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) but whose benefits are distributed by the states, necessitates that a person’s income must be near or at the national poverty level.

As such, the CBO reports that roughly 65 percent of the skyrocketing growth in the number of participants and program costs can be attributed to a stagnant economy; 20 percent due to higher benefit amounts passed in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; and 15 percent from other factors, such as higher food prices.

Begun in 1964 as a temporary food aid program for low-income adults and children, the food stamp program has nevertheless exponentially grown to become more of a permanent entitlement with half of food stamp aid actually going to individuals who have received the aid for 8.5 years or longer.

While most of SNAP’s participants faithfully abide by the program’s guidelines, it’s not surprising to find that its dramatic growth has also witnessed a correspondingly high swelling in the number of cases of fraud, corruption and abuse by crooks and hustlers.

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