The Political Conundrum!

I was contacted by people at Muze Clothing after they found my blog. I checked out what they are doing and I must say that I fully support Muze Clothing and what they are doing for our warriors. They have a great product, in a unique niche and from looking at their paparazzi page, it seems that their clothing line is very famous.

Muze Clothing’s unique concept of creating shirts with compelling graphics and classic movie lines has created a tremendous fan base. The company will use this fan base to assist wounded troops, when service members and their supporters will submit movie lines and complementary shirt designs that exemplify the motto of freedom’s defenders, sacrificing their lives for their fellow Americans.

These submissions will be judged by a panel of celebrities. The winning submission will be incorporated into the newest Muze T-shirt with 100% of the proceeds on the sale of this shirt being donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

The Service Member with the winning submission (or the Service Member identified by the supporter with the winning submission) will be flown from a continental United States location with 3 friends to the shirt launch ceremony in Los Angeles on May 16th, 2009.

You can get more details on the promotion at: www.muzeclothing.com/blog/woundedwarriorsinfo

Please spread the word, submit your designs and ideas and lets see what a lot of great minds can come up with.

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Three U.S. Senators have today joined a U.S. House Member in requesting additional information from the FBI on the recent cessation of its relationship with the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was reported by the IPT on January 30. Moreover, the Senators specifically demand that all federal agencies cut any relationship with CAIR, a policy which I first enunciated on November 24, immediately after the guilty verdicts in the Holy Land Foundation criminal trial. Senators Jon Kyl, Charles Schumer, and Tom Coburn sent this letter today to FBI Director Mueller, asking whether all FBI field offices have cut off ties with CAIR and whether the Bureau knows of any other federal agencies with ties to CAIR.

In my post on November 24, I proposed the issuance of "a statement of policy which mandates that no component of the U.S. government will enter into any contract, grant, or agreement with any person or entity which is an unindicted co-coinspirator in a federal criminal case brought by the Department of Justice." The Obama Administration has plenty of incentive, in the form of this bipartisan letter, to do that now through a management memorandum issued by the Office of Management and Budget.

But Congress can also take direct action now by adding that policy to the FY 2009 omnibus appropriations bill now winding its way through Congress. Why wait?

A few days ago, the State Department announced it would meet with Syrian Ambassador to Washington Imad Mustapha. The Syrian envoy had largely been ignored by the Bush Administration since the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005. It will be Mustapha’s highest-level administration meeting in years.

The meeting with the Syrian ambassador follows closely on two Obama Administration overtures toward Syria—the licensing of spare parts for Syrian Airlines Boeing 747 airplanes and allowing the transfer of $500,000 in charity to a Syrian charity affiliated with President Asad’s wife, Asma.

With Lebanese parliamentary elections set for June, Washington’s initial foray into engagement highlights the challenge of how to balance diplomatic outreach to Damascus with its ongoing commitment to allies in Beirut.

I’ve written a piece on this issue for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy which can be found here.

A high-stakes decision on the fate of Lockheed Martin Corp's premier F-22 fighter jet will be made known only with the release of the fiscal 2010 budget likely in April, not by March 1 as had been sought by Congress.

A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after a failed launch early Tuesday, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space.

The leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan has directed Pakistani militants to immediately halt attacks on Pakistani forces and divert their resources to defeat the US-led international forces in Afghanistan, a media report said on Tuesday.

The Fort Bragg soldier accused of killing and mutilating an unarmed Afghan said his commander jokingly asked if he had gotten the man's ear after reporting the incident.

The release by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) of a draft staff report on U.S.-Cuba policy, his statement yesterday upon release of that report, and statements by Secretary of State Clinton on the future of the relationship point towards the removal of Cuba from the "state sponsors of terrorism" list within the next 18 months, perhaps even this year. Sen. Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the report with the following indictment of U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba: "Despite uncertainty about Cuba's mid-term political future, it is clear that the recent leadership changes have created an opportunity for the United States to reevaluate a complex relationship marked by misunderstanding, suspicion, and open hostility. Economic sanctions are a legitimate tool of U.S. foreign policy and they have sometimes achieved their aims, as in the case of apartheid in South Africa. After 47 years, however, the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people,' while it may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished population. The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests."

When posting news of the report, Steve Clemons also reported that U.S.-Cuba policy is under a complete review at the State Department. Secretary Clinton didn't deny that the review could include removal from the "state sponsors" list when Sen. Lugar asked a question on point during her confirmation process (see Question 104). The Lugar staff report discusses the process by which that would be accomplished (page 19). Michael Kraft discussed the process and other issues in a post about Cuba and North Korea on February 19, 2008. Quoting: "In Cuba’s case, the country has been relatively passive in its support for terrorism in recent years, perhaps because of the demise of the old Soviet Union, its major backer, and Cuba’s resulting economic problems. It remains on the terrorism list primarily because of its harboring of Latin American terrorist suspects and a few American fugitives from law. However, Castro’s regime has not sought removal from the terrorism list, making it more difficult for a President to be able to obtain and give Congress any credible assurances that the Cuban regime would not support terrorism in the future. Perhaps even more important is the opposition that would likely be aroused among the Cuban-American voting bloc in the politically important state of Florida. While Castro was in power no Administration has an incentive to take on that issue." During our panel discussion about FARC and Chavez last March, Jonathan Winer discussed the lack of evidence of Cuba’s support for terrorist groups in the past 10 years for terrorist groups with Steven Monblatt, the former Deputy Counter-terrorism Coordinator at the State Department.

Thus, based on an objective reading of the record, Cuba does not warrant inclusion on the list.

There would be another complication if the Administration moved to remove Cuba from the list, as I discussed last year when writing on the precedential value of the Libyan Claims Resolution Act: "Cuba is a special case. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Justice Department has already verified over 5,900 valid claims against the Castro regime for expropriating U.S. nationals’ property and for causing the disability or death of U.S. nationals, with a total principal value of over $1.9 billion. What happens to those certified claims if/when Cuba is removed from the "state sponsors" list and we normalize relations? Will those claimants be consulted before a settlement deal is concluded? At this point, I can only guess the answers." I predict that could be a sizable source of conflict, as that commission is not known for rapid adjudication of claims before it.

Mike Kraft wrote a year ago, "In short, any Cuban supporters... who may think that removing these countries from the terrorism list is a simple matter have more home work to do." Sen. Lugar's report and support for a sea change in relations moves the ball considerably.

Veterans advocates are venting anger and frustration toward the biggest charity within the U.S. military after revelations that it has been packing more money into reserves than it has spent on aid during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldiers forced to return to active duty haven't received the pay bonuses they were promised five months ago, advocates say.