Dad in father-son terror case pleads guilty to minor charge

Out in lettuce country, Lodi, California, there is news again about the father-son terror duo.

From AP:

A Lodi ice cream vendor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of trying to smuggle cash to Pakistan rather than be retried on allegations that he lied to the FBI about his son’s attendance at a terrorist training camp.

Umer Hayat, 48, was convicted of lying to customs agents about more than $28,000 he and family members were trying to carry on a flight out of the country three years ago. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop charges that he lied to the FBI and to recommend he serve no more jail time after spending nearly a year in custody.

There was speculation that the cash was going to terror groups in Pakistan.

Hayat’s son, Hamid Hayat, 23, faces at least 30 years in prison for supporting terrorism by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and lying to the FBI. His sentencing was postponed indefinitely.

Umer Hayat’s first trial ended in April in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in his case. He had been scheduled to be retried Monday and would likely have faced only a few additional months behind bars if convicted of the two lying charges, Scott said. He remains under house arrest until his Aug. 18 sentencing.

So it appears that the old man won't be going to prison. And a golden opportunity is missed: a Hollywood update of that great father-son prison movie, In The Name Of The Father. Daniel Day-Lewis could've appeared in this one too.

Third Wave Dave had a post on this story many hours ago, and he's not very happy with the plea deal.

Technorati tags: Daniel Day-Lewis Lodi Hayat California Pakistan Terrorism اسلامی

Only in Detroit...

From AP:

A historical marker bolted to Tiger Stadium has been stolen.

Someone took the plaque off an exterior stadium wall, but police have no suspects or clues, Sgt. Omar Feliciano said Wednesday.

The cast-aluminum marker, which was erected in 1976 next to a Ty Cobb plaque, identifies the stadium as a state historical site and details the history of the place where the Detroit Tigers played from 1912 to 1999

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This type of stuff just doesn't seem to happen anywhere else.

Technorati tags: Detroit Detroit Tigers MLB Baseball Michigan crime

Marathon Pundit exclusive: Prof. Klocek’s defamation suit against DePaul moving toward trial

Late Wednesday, Marathon Pundit has obtained a copy of the below press release about the Thomas Klocek free speech case from TC Public Relations.

Covering the crimes against free speech by DePaul University has almost become a full time job for me.

(May 31, 2006, Chicago ) Today the most significant hurdle was cleared in the defamation law suit of Professor Thomas Klocek against DePaul University. Judge Stuart Nudelman of the Illinois Circuit County Law Division Court agreed that Klocek’s claims have merit, which will allow his suit against DePaul to move forward toward a trial by jury.

Judge Nudelman believes that DePaul’s actions to discipline Professor Thomas Klocek went to such extreme that their conduct rose to the level of defamation. He noted that DePaul exhibited destructive political correctness when it gave way to its fear of students’ reactions to Prof. Klocek’s challenges to the student groups’ literature and perspective on the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Judge Nudelman also commented that if such limited debate took place when he was a student, it would have resulted in having an inferior educational experience.

Judge Nudelman also stated that DePaul’s public disclosures about Prof. Klocek defamed him in that they denigrated his ability to perform as a professor.

"We have cleared the biggest hurdle before trial. The judge has agreed with us that we have properly stated valid claims for defamation charges against DePaul and individual defendants, including DePaul’s president," said Andy Norman, Klocek’s attorney with the law firm of Mauck & Baker.

Background of Case:

A defamation suit was filed in Illinois ’ Cook County Chancery last June charging that DePaul University and its leadership defamed Professor Thomas Klocek when DePaul publicly characterized arguments he presented to members of Palestinian and Muslim student groups as racist and bigoted. The suit seeks damages against DePaul for maligning Klocek’s integrity and professional competence. The defendants named include: DePaul University ; Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul; and Susanne Dumbleton, Dean of DePaul’s School for New Learning.

For much more on the Klocek case, visit FIRE and read Professor Suspended for Expression Without Due Process

Previous Marathon Pundit post: One year anniversary of the Thomas Klocek press conference at DePaul

Technorati tags: DePaul Chicago Illinois Free Speech Academic freedom Thomas Klocek Law AcademiaIsrael politics defamation

The long gray line

During my morning run with my trusty Motorola RAZR phone, I came across these garbage bags in the Linne Woods Forest Preserve near my home in Morton Grove, IL.

What is going on?

Well, those bags are filled with garlic mustard, an invasive weed that crowds out native tree species species.

Volunteers throughout Cook County pull weeds by hand so young trees have the space to grow.

From the Harvard Gazette via the Sisu blog:

The tree-stifling alien, garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), first introduced into the United States in the 1860s, has since spread to Canada and 30 states in the East and Midwest, with recent sightings as far west as Oregon.

It's a tough fight. Near those trash bags, I took a picture of an overlooked--or recently sprouted--garlic mustard plant.

Technorati tags: nature Photos garlic mustard illinois environment weeds

FAA sucks air out of wind farms

With gasoline prices around $3 a gallon, lessening our dependence on oil, specifically foreign oil, should be a national priority. Fossil fuels pollute, but wind farms don't.

This is a story I've been keeping an eye on for a while. It's clear that there is an anti-wind farm faction in Washington. Who could be behind such benevolent things?

Well, the Kennedy family for one.

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration may be required:

The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar.

But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts would spoil the view at their summer homes.

Opponents of the Cape Wind project include several influential members of Congress. Critics say their latest attempt to thwart the planting of 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has led to a moratorium on new wind farms hundreds of miles away in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Federal officials declined to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers said that at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of the year.

The anti-wind farmers faction includes Senator John Warner, (R-VA), who makes that questionable claim that wind farms disrupt the ability of radar to pick up the signals military aircraft and small planes.

Cape Cod is the epicenter of the anti-wind farm debate. A company called Cape Wind wants to build a wind form offshore from the popular playground of the rich.

I've used this excerpt before, but it's so good, I have to repost it again:

Here is a passage from Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy:

But from the moment the Kennedy family got wind of these plans (so to speak), they came out in strong opposition. Their complaint: The wind turbines would be built in Nantucket Sound, about six miles off the coast from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis. The problem was not aesthetic; the Kennedys wouldn't be able to actually see the turbines from their home. Instead Robert Kennedy Jr., who had been beating the drum for alternative sources of energy for more than a decade, complained the project would be built in one of the family's favorite sailing and yachting areas. The Kennedys were quickly joined by other affluent environmentalists with homes in the area, including newscaster Walter Cronkite and historian David McCollough, and the media war began.

Technorati tags: Politics kennedy Massachusetts Cape Cod Energy Environment Wind Farm John Warner Illinois FAA

Paris burning again

Here we go again. More riots, more torched cars in suburban Paris. Eventually this spate of violence will taper off and stop. And then it will start up again.

France has a long term problem on its hands, and there is no easy solution.

Technorati tags: Paris France paris riots française

Running ass-backward

(Photo by Stephen Morton / Associated Press)

As a runner and a blogger, I regularly get accused of being a ass-backward thinker, but no one has called me an ass-backward runner.

"Bud" Badyna is an ass-backward runner.

From Fox Sports:

Timothy "Bud'' Badyna has broken world records. He ran a marathon in under four hours. He finished a 10K race in 45 minutes.

Wait a minute, you say -- that's not so fast. Right. But Badyna set those records running backward.

Timothy "Bud" Badyna looks over his shoulder while running backward in St. Simons Island, Ga. Badyna holds the Guinness World Record for fastest backwards run in a 200-meter race which was set in January 2001.

Badyna, dubbed "Backwards Bud'' by fellow runners, holds the Guinness World Record for fastest backward run in a 200-meter race (32.78 seconds), set in 2001. In the early 1990s, he held the record for backward marathon (3 hours, 53 minutes) and 10K (45 minutes, 37 seconds).

Technorati tags: Running Run Exercise Racing

East Timor humanitarian crisis long in the making

The gang-led violence in East Timor has become a humanitarian nightmare.

From News.com Australia:

East Timor is suffering a humanitarian disaster, the Australian-born wife of President Xanana Gusmao said today.

Kirsty Sword-Gusmao said 50,000 hungry people were still displaced by violence in the capital Dili.

"Less than 48 hours ago there were 1000 people sheltering at the airport and eating grass for lack of any other food," she said to Channel 7.

Troops from Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia are attempting to restore order. It won't be an east task. The problems in East Timor go back centuries. It's colonial master was Portugal, and almost as a rule, former Portuguese colonies become failed-nations.

A few days after becoming independent from Portugal, Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor. After over a quarter-century of brutal Indonesian-rule, independence from Indonesia was obtained a few years after a UN-sponsored referendum. But international support of East Timor may be at the heart of the current troubles there.

From the New York Times:

More than half the foreign assistance was spent on salaries and consultant fees of the foreign advisers, according to the East Timorese government.

Technorati tags: East Timor Australia Malaysia New Zealand Portugal Indonesia

Daniel Pipes on illegal immigration in Europe

In today's New York Sun, Daniel Pipes has an interesting (what else is new?) article. For a couple of decades at least, illegal immigration from Muslim countries to Europe may be entering a new and frightening phase. His article is well worth reading, the excerpt below is mostly from the work of Rickard Sandell, the Senior Analyst, Demography and Population, Elcano Royal Institute

Rickard Sandell of the Royal Elcano Institute in Madrid has predicted that the migration now under way could signal the prospect of an African "mass exodus" and armed conflict. What one sees today "is only the beginning of an immigration phenomenon that could evolve into one of the largest in history. The mass assault on Spain's African border may just be a first warning of what to expect of the future."

Taking this scenario in a different direction, an easy salve to Europe's demographic problem can be found south of the Rio Grande. During America's industrial revolution, factory owners would send recruiters to European villages looking for workers. Although I've seen this idea mentioned a few times (but not a lot), by other writers, the EU should seriously consider sending immigrant recruiting missions to Mexico, Central America, and South America. Most of the people there speak a Romance language, and their cultural values, while somewhat different, still have a great deal in common with Europeans, in marked contrast to potential immigrants from Muslim nations.

Technorati tags: EU España Spain Europe Mexico Immigration Illegal immigration Islam

Light blogging day...

Yes, the blogging has been a little lighter of late. And there's a reason, but I can't really get into why. It's got nothing to do with my homelife. I haven't been arrested and no one is suing me. When the all clear has been sounded, I'll let you know.