ISNA selection highlights procurement problem

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was a co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation’s financing of Hamas.  Yet INSA is being used as an endorsing agency for the selection of Muslim chaplains to serve in the military.

The reliance on ISNA as an endorsing agency is reminiscent of bid scandals in Afghanistan in which U.N. and U.S. officials have awarded contracts without adequately reviewing the bona fides of the contractor or subcontractor.

ISNA vetted two recently selected chaplains, but who vetted ISNA?  Is there no system in place to screen the endorsing agencies for ties to terrorism before they are selected?

Ryan Mauro from the Clarion Project explains this disturbing story in a Mar. 5 interview with Steve Doocy on the Fox News Channel.  Take a listen:

Bahrain enlistments triple that of U.S.

As a proportion of their labor force, 3.3 percent of Bahrain’s men serve in the Bahraini armed forces while just 1 percent of America’s labor force serves in the U.S. military, according to 2009 data from the World Bank.  Bahrain’s trend line is shown in blue and the U.S. is in red in this chart depicting the data:

Armed forces personnel (% of total labor force)
Data from World Bank, chart by Google

U.S. service levels have remained consistently under 2 percent for at least the last 20 years.  Bahrain’s has fluctuated anywhere from as “low” as 3 percent to a high of nearly 8 percent in 1995.

Do you think that when colonialism by Europe ended, or that as the U.S. reconsiders its involvement in the Middle East, that no military power would seek to fill the void caused by our departure?

These Islamic countries are addicted to military power—it helps them threaten Israel, to crackdown on their own populations, and to engage in perpetual border wars with jealous Arab neighbors.

2011: Salute the troops

Apart from hijacked aircraft, the terrorist weapon that has caused the highest body count against Americans since 9/11 has been the improvised explosive device (IED) used against military and contractor personnel serving overseas.

Roadside bombs probably caused two-thirds of combat deaths in Iraq during the eight-year conflict.

But IED attacks were down in 2011 compared to 2010, and 2010 was better than 2009.

The Iraq surge and IED-jamming technologies began a reversal of IED casualties several years ago.  During the final year of direct U.S. military involvement in Iraq, the IED numbers fell even lower thanks in part to aggressive infantry operations often led by U.S. and Iraqi forces working together.  The relevance of this story to terrorist financing is that U.S.-Iraqi cooperation and military intelligence contributed to the unraveling of the cell-structured financial network behind the insurgent plots.

Often operating in a cells with a bomb maker, an emplacer, a leader, and the money man behind the attack, U.S. and Iraqi forces were able to identify and detain many cell members throughout the year.  The detention of money men behind Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups slowed and impeded the ability of the cells to buy bomb parts and emplace more IEDs.

As usual, U.S. civilian bureaucrats have tried to snatch credit for the military’s success in Iraq; for example, the Department of Justice made a last minute indictment against Malaysian and Iranian businessmen who conspired to ship IED components into Iraq.  That’s an important legal case, but it should by no means distract from the main effort and sacrifice which was borne by U.S. troops.

Unfortunately, the insurgents will continue using IEDs against the legitimate government of Iraq in an effort to destabilize and discredit it.  But U.S. forces made remarkable progress against the weapon before departing in 2011, and we should acknowledge that success.

Treasury Police and soldiers nab ISI financier

How long before self-congratulatory Treasury Department flunky David S. Cohen claims credit for the detention of an Article 4 jihadist financer in Iraq by a combined assault force of Kirkuk police, Iraqi soldiers, and U.S. forces?

The arrest of another piece of excrement from the Al Qaeda front group Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) is a testament to the sacrifice and hard work of the American soldiers and marines who have waged a successful counter-insurgency operation over the last several years, and to the Iraqi military and law enforcement that the U.S. has trained to follow in their steps.

Previously, Mr. Cohen has bragged that the financial weakening of Al Qaeda and its affiliates are “a direct result of the pressures the U.S. government has placed on terrorist money men.”  Some grit and guts in Kirkuk help prove him wrong.

From Aswat al-Iraq (hat tip Rantburg) on Apr. 25:

A combined force arrested seven wanted persons, including a financier for the so-called Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) group, in two operations in Kirkuk on Monday, a senior security official said.

“A force from the Kirkuk Districts Police Department and Iraqi army, backed by U.S. troops, arrested in accordance with Article 4 of the law on terrorism six wanted men members of the ISI, including a financier of the armed group, in the district of al-Huweija,” KDPD Director Brig…

“The first raid covered the villages of al-Hanaf and al-Gheraib, in the district of al-Abbasi, (80 km) southwest of Kirkuk, while the second covered Debij village, in the district of al-Touz, Salah al-Din province,” he said.

Meanwhile, a source from the Kirkuk-based Joint Coordination Center said an improvised explosive device went off near a military vehicle boarded by a JCC officer in Huweija, leaving a guard wounded and the vehicle damaged.

The oil-rich Kirkuk, a city of mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen population, lies 250 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.