Bush Memo from 2002 could complicate challenge of Arizona immigration law

By Jerry Markon

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

In the legal battle over Arizona's new immigration law, an ironic subtext has emerged: whether a Bush-era legal opinion complicates a potential Obama administration lawsuit against Arizona.

The document, written in 2002 by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, concluded that state police officers have "inherent power" to arrest undocumented immigrants for violating federal law. It was issued by Jay S. Bybee, who also helped write controversial memos from the same era that sanctioned harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects.

The author of the Arizona law -- which has drawn strong opposition from top Obama administration officials -- has cited the authority granted in the 2002 memo as a basis for the legislation. The Obama administration has not withdrawn the memo, and some backers of the Arizona law said Monday that because it remains in place, a Justice Department lawsuit against Arizona would be awkward at best.

"The Justice Department's official position as of now is that local law enforcement has the inherent authority to enforce federal immigration law," said Robert Driscoll, a former Justice Department Civil Rights Division official in the George W. Bush administration who represents an Arizona sheriff known for aggressive immigration enforcement. "How can you blame someone for exercising authority that the department says they have?"

The Arizona law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) last month, makes the "willful failure" to carry immigration documents a crime and empowers police to question anyone if authorities have a "reasonable suspicion" the person is an illegal immigrant. It has drawn words of condemnation from President Obama and intense opposition from civil rights groups, who on Monday filed what they said was the fifth federal lawsuit over the legislation.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said the department is considering a lawsuit against Arizona, and Civil Rights Division lawyers have been studying the law and consulting with some civil rights groups.

"The Civil Rights Division has been working around the clock," said one outside lawyer who has spoken to Justice Department officials. The lawyer spoke on the condition of anonymity because the contacts are not public. "They have a lot of attorneys on it, and they're taking a really hard look at filing their own lawsuit or intervening." Justice Department officials declined to comment Monday beyond saying they are continuing to review the government's legal options.

The 2002 opinion, known as the "inherent authority" memo, reversed a 1996 Office of Legal Counsel opinion from the Clinton administration. "This Office's 1996 advice that federal law precludes state police from arresting aliens on the basis of civil deportability was mistaken," says the 2002 memo, which was released publicly in redacted form in 2005 after civil rights groups sued to obtain it.

Office of Legal Counsel documents do not have the force of law but carry great weight within the executive branch and are considered to be the Justice Department's official position on a legal or constitutional issue.

Cecillia Wang, managing attorney of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project -- which filed Monday's lawsuit in federal court in Phoenix along with the NAACP, the National Immigration Law Center and other groups -- said the 2002 memo would not present an obstacle to a Justice Department lawsuit. She said the power that the Arizona law gives to police "goes far beyond" the basic arrest authority cited in the memo.

But Wang renewed the ACLU's call for the Obama Justice Department to withdraw the 2002 memo, which she called legally incorrect. "The fact that this memo is lurking out there gives cover and comfort to people in Arizona and other states who want to pass these overbroad and extraordinary anti-immigration measures," she said.

Ready Or Not Here Comes The Next Bubble-Ticking time bomb! $600 trillion in derivatives at risk Is the next financial bubble beginning to burst?

Posted: May 17, 2010
12:34 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

With all the focus on Greece and the European Union debt crisis, little attention has been given to what is most likely an even bigger time bomb – the emerging $600 trillion bubble in derivatives that will mostly likely burst as the debt crisis deepens, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

"Nor is it clear that President Obama, who took huge campaign contributions in 2008 from Wall Street, will be able to bring derivatives under federal regulations this year, even if the White House manages to get financial industry reform measures through Congress," Corsi wrote.

(Story continues below)

As interest rates begin to rise worldwide, Red Alert predicts losses in derivatives may end up bankrupting a wide range of institutions, including but not limited to municipalities and state governments around the globe, major insurance companies, top investment houses and commercial banks, as well as universities of all types, even those with the largest endowments.

"Defaults now beginning to occur in a number of European cities prefigure what may end up being the largest financial bubble in history ever to burst – a bubble that today amounts to more than $600 trillion," Corsi wrote.

The Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, now estimates that derivatives, the complex bets financial institutions and sophisticated institutional investors make with one another on everything from commodities options to credit swaps, topped $604 trillion worldwide – or $0.68 quadrillion – at the end of June 2009.

• A quadrillion is the number 1 followed by 15 zeroes, as in: 1,000,000,000,000,000.

• To visualize a quadrillion, multiply 1 trillion by 1,000.

To illustrate the relative magnitude of derivative contracts globally, the CIA Factbook estimates the 2009 Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, of the world was just under $60 trillion.

Corsi explained, "In other words, derivative contracts have now reach a level 10 times world GDP, an amount so incomprehensibly great that even a 10 percent default in derivatives would equal world GDP."

To learn more about derivatives and how the $600 trillion bubble may bust as the debt crisis deepens, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."

Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.

In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.

For full immediate access to Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, subscribe now.

Muslims in NYC Planning to Build Second, Smaller Mosque Near Ground Zero

s controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.

The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks.

In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that it plans to “build the 'House of Allah' next to the World Trade Center. Help us raise the flag of 'LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH' in downtown Manhattan."

One source said he believed the planners are considering a five-story building on 23 Park Place, closer to Ground Zero than the 13-story mosque the Cordoba Initiative is planning to build. But a tax record search shows that 23 Park Place is in private hands and has not changed owners since 2008.

Unlike the massive $100 million Cordoba House mosque, the Masjid Mosque is small – and it is no stranger to the neighborhood. Since 1970 it had been located at 12 Warren Street, about four blocks north of the World Trade Center, in a neat but nondescript industrial space that once housed a printing shop. It lost its lease in 2008 when the building was sold, and it was evicted from its second-floor prayer space on May 25 of that year. Since then it has been operating out a cramped basement space in a nearby building at 20 Warren Street.

On Friday evenings the mosque, which is popular with street vendors and taxi drivers, becomes so crowded that worshipers spill onto nearby sidewalks to pray in what has come to be a community event.

A press representative for Daisy Kahn, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative, said neither she nor anyone in her group had been aware of the Masjid’s efforts. “They have no connection to us,” she said. “We didn't even know they were there.”

Masjid mosque leaders claim on their website that they are deeply involved in converting people to Islam and run a special program to convert those who are interested.

Efforts to reach mosque leaders were not successful. Calls left with Naheem Mohammed, the mosque’s treasurer, were not returned. Calls to the mosque itself were not answered. And efforts to reach Abdullah El-Khory, the president of the mosque's board, were not successful.

Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, also declined to return several calls. The board, which monitors and approves all development in the financial district surrounding Ground Zero and has been stung by criticism from the families of 9/11 victims, is permitted to assess the impact of building a mosque at the site.

Obama ok's-Intel briefs: Bull's-eye put on Israel's nukes Arab interests want IAEA review of program

Posted: May 17, 2010
7:59 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

The Dimona site in Israel

In an unprecedented move, the Energy International Atomic agency is scheduled next month to take up the issue of Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal, an action which it never before has done, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The IAEA June 7 board meeting reportedly lists "Israeli nuclear capabilities" as the eighth agenda item. The item reportedly was added at the request of Arab interests.

In an April 23 letter to the IAEA, the 18 Arab national members of the nuclear oversight group urged IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to enforce a resolution calling on Israel to allow IAEA inspection of its nuclear facilities.

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Israel has refused to do so.

The agenda item, however, could be removed if the U.S. and other countries mount strong opposition to it.

If the item remains on the agenda, it could deflect attention from the topic of Iran's nuclear enrichment efforts and Tehran's refusal until now to adhere to numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to halt its nuclear program. If the item is removed from the IAEA agenda, it could encourage other Arab countries to undertake a nuclear initiative, making it impossible to achieve a nuclear-free Middle East, which already may be too late due to Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal.

For the rest of this report, and the full reports on the following topics, go to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

• Latin America: Obama's 'man' in Brazil pursuing nukes
  
  
• United States: Cutting the brass
  
  
• Middle East: 'War' enters Israeli rhetoric
  
  
• Asia: Conflict may embroil subcontinent
  
  
• East-South Asia: U.S. backs PRC military help to Pakistan
  
  
• Middle East: Iran, al-Qaida teaming up
  
  
• Russia selling arms to Syria

Eric Holder & the Muslim Extremists in Detroit

By Debbie Schlussel

As I told you more than a week ago, Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was scheduled to speak, last night, to the usual suspects in the Detroit-area Islamic community, including CAIR and my “buddy,” “former” Islamic terrorist, marriage and immigration fraud perpetrator, and FBI award revokee, Imad Hamad. I’m THE authority on Hamad, stopped that FBI award, and I’ve monitored and written a ton about him over more than a decade of following him (and being endlessly stalked by him). As I predicted, Holder pandered to the crowd and spoke Hamad’s “language.”

Obama AG Eric Holder Hangs With/Panders To Islamic Terrorist Imad Hamad

(Hamadafat by Six Meat Buffet/Preston Taylor Holmes)

But as I’ve also noted, this isn’t anything new. For the past week, the CIA has been in town (Dearbornistan, to be exact), heavily recruiting Arab Muslims and other Muslims, claiming they need these people as Arabic linguists and “to understand the culture.” But the CIA continues to forsake the Christian Arab community and reject them as linguists and cultural advisors and consultants. It’s disgusting. But not anything I didn’t tell you about when CIA Director Leon Panetta was in town pandering to Hamad, Hezbollah agent Osama Siblani, and a host of other extremist cretins who openly praise mass murdering terrorists.

And, as I’ve noted over the years, this ain’t an Obama thing. This uber-pandering and brown-nosing of the most extreme Muslims in Detroit was begun by George W. Bush, when he was campaigning for President and sought (and got) the Muslim endorsement and after 9/11 and for his entire Presidency, when he sought to pander even more. It was in 2003 that I stopped the FBI from giving Hamad a national award at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, a move that brought me a lot of attacks from all over the place. But I didn’t care. It was the right thing. Truth won out. But some people don’t really care so much about the truth.

And, in that vein, it’s interesting–not to mention extremely petty and typical of her extreme egomania–that Michelle Malkin, who noted this, cites Daniel Pipes on Hamad. She knows I’m THE authority on Hamad. Like I said and as she well knows, my 2003 New York Post columns exposed Hamad and stopped the FBI award.

And Pipes only knows about Hamad from me. Everything he cites about Hamad on his blog is basically ripped off from my site and my research, his usual M.O. of recent years. This site is the number one result on google for Imad Hamad. But Malkin is so spiteful, vindictive, and again, petty, she went out of her way to cite Pipes instead. She’s aware of my work on Hamad because, in her less megalomaniacal days, she congratulated me for stopping the award to Hamad and cited my New York Post column about then-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) chieftess Julie Myers’ confab with Hamad. Yup, she’s bothered by me. HA! Some of us are experts who care about getting things done. Others are dilettantes who don’t know what they’re talking about, but love to whine and deny others credit for their expertise, years of research, and hard work.

You can’t get in the way of the Fraudkin, or her pettiness (and petty theft, as both Geller and I can tell you) will be visited upon you in spades, especially if you get under her skin. Yup, I get to her. And it’s funny, the insecurity. I guess she didn’t like my asking her why she continues to help and raise money for a woman and her organization which praised and condoned Muslim death, rape, and torture threats against me and my family. And I’m sure she didn’t like, a couple of weeks ago, when I asked her why she promoted a viciously anti-Semitic article on her site (more on that later). I’m not the first to whom she’s done this.

When she shamelessly ripped off Pamela Geller’s scoop about Rachael Ray, Dunkin’ Donuts, and the keffiyeh, she finally gave Pamela a tiny credit on her site. But then, she removed it out of spite. She loves to get credit for her work, but when it comes to other people, well, it depends how well you pander to her.

And then, there’s the anti-Ann Coulter petition Malkin circulated at CPAC, trying to get conservatives to denounce her use of the f-word (rhymes with “maggot”). She also cornered Sean Vannity for her now-defunct Hot Air videos, putting him on the spot, trying to get him to denounce Coulter, but he wouldn’t bite after Malkin’s repeated whining that her kids heard the word (it’s CPAC! don’t bring your toddler brats). Remember that the next time you read her “work.” Underneath it all, it’s basically score-settling, and you’re not getting the full or accurate picture (she denounced Bill O’Reilly for having Al Sharpton on his show because she had a falling out with Bill O, but won’t mention that her buddy Sean Vannity has Sharpton on more than any show on television).

Some of us get things done–I stopped Hamad’s FBI award and the FBI thanked me (among other things this site and its readers have achieved). Others just whine, obfuscate, engage in hypocrisy, and settle scores. Then, they pretend like they did something. But they never really achieve anything of note . . . except fame and fortune. Hey, isn’t that what Paris Hilton and Heidi and Spencer are seeking, too?

Pajamas Media’s Breaking “Exclusive” Covered by Schlussel a Month Ago

By Debbie Schlussel

More evidence that Pajamas Media is neither to be taken seriously nor believed. First, I told you about the lie-filled video about Detroit by lazy punk (and anti-Semite) Steven Crowder. He completely pulled “facts” out of his butt and made up things like “bear sightings” in Detroit. Now, there’s Richard Pollock, PJM’s Washington Bureau Chief.

Today, he has what he claims is an “exclusive” on Janet Napolitano’s meeting, last month, with a group of Muslim extremists (he says it’s Muslims tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, but in fact, it’s many noxious Muslim and Arab groups) and other ethno-centric activists (and, of course, PJM’s slobbering former advertising partner, Michelle Fraudkin, regurgitates this “exclusive” BS). Problem is, it’s not exclusive at all. It’s old news, and something I covered on this site the day after it happened. Schlussel Flashback:

Terrif: DHS Chieftess Recruits Muslim Extremists to Combat . . . Muslim Extremism?! – January 29, 2010, – 4:04 pm

And to make matters worse, Richard Pollock displays that he’s really not much of a competent journalist. Like his PJM colleague Steven Crowder, his phony faux-”exclusive” claims that the names of the organizations and participants in the Napolitano meeting aren’t available because Homeland Security refused to disclose them. Uh, hello . . . ? If you read my entry on the event, not only did I disclose some of the names and the organizations, but some of the Muslim and other organizations who participated also disclosed all of the participants in their own statements. Check out this press release, which discloses the names of all the organizations and the individuals representing them who were at the meeting.

I’ve cut and pasted, above, for the incompetent and research-challenged (that means you, Richard). And note that the Bush Administration–particularly Napolitano’s predecessor, Michael Chertoff–met with and welcomed all the same groups and people. New boss same as the old boss. (To those with the “miss me yet?” Bush signs, no, I don’t miss him. He wasn’t much better–or different–than Obama and I wish both were long gone.)

Here’s a tip to Richard Pollock for his next, um, “exclusive” (a month after everyone else wrote about it). Try google. I know that, like Steven Crowder, PJM likes to be lazy and lie, because they simply can’t be bothered to do their homework. But credibility is everything and PJM deservedly has less and less with people who have a clue (which doesn’t include Fraudkin, by the way).

“Exclusive”? Only if you think “news” that bread now comes in slices is also “exclusive.” Read it here first. Skip the incompetents.

Confirmed: Islamic Terrorist Financed Miss USA Contestant

By Debbie Schlussel

Last week, I told you about Rima Fakih, the Hezbollah-supporting Miss Michigan USA who will compete in tonight’s Miss USA pageant owned by Donald Trump on NBC. I told you about Fakih’s many relatives who are top Hezbollah terrorists and some who “martyred” themselves against Israel.

Islamic Terrorist/Immigration Defrauder Sponsored Miss USA Contestant

(Hamadafat by Six Meat Buffet/Preston Taylor Holmes)

But I also suspected that immigration/marriage fraud perpetrator, FBI award revokee, and “former” Islamic terrorist Imad Hamad (an open supporter of Hezbollah, HAMAS, etc.) also helped finance Fakih’s pageant candidacy. And I was right.

Because I exposed Fakih for who she really is, her thuggish cadre of supporters and their Islamic friends at a major Detroit newspaper responded with a front-page, gushing puff-piece and page-long waterfall of drivel. In yesterday’s Detroit Freepistan, resident Islamic regurgitator, er . . . “reporter” Niraj Warikoo noted that Hamad financed Fakih’s bid to become Miss Michigan. He also engages in taqiyyah (Islamic deception of the infidels) by pushing a fraudulent Christian angle for Fakih.

For previous pageants, Fakih sought — and received — support from Arab-American leaders in Dearborn, including Imad Hamad, head of the Michigan branch of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. His group helped once support Fakih financially. . . .

Though Muslim, Fakih’s parents celebrate Christmas and have a painting of Jesus in their home.

PUH-LEEZE. So what if they celebrate Jesus or Christmas? So do Alawite Muslims, including the Assad Family that runs Syria and persecutes and tortures Christians. The fact is, that Rima Fakih is a Shi’ite Muslim whose family are members of Hezbollah–the Islamic terrorist group that murdered over 300 mostly-Christian Marines and U.S. Embassy officials in Beirut. Hezbollah means the “Party of allah,” NOT the party of Jesus. Wake up to this PR fakery, people.

And then there’s Hamad, as you may remember, in 2003, I stopped the FBI from giving a planned award to Hamad, when I wrote about him in a New York Post column. Because the FBI finally recognized what I wrote–that Hamad was identified in videotape engaging in activities as a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist, that Hamad was a student visa violator who committed marriage fraud to stay here, and that Hamad praised as “patriotic” the teaching of three-year-old Palestinian kids to become homicide bombers against Jews and Christians–Hamad’s award was revoked.

Yup, what a great thing it’ll be for Donald Trump and his pageant if they pick the candidate who supports–and is supported by–several Islamic terrorists and terrorist groups, to be the next Miss USA. They’re idiots that they let her get this far. Trump could have expelled her the way he did with Miss California.

But he just didn’t have the cojones here. Hey, Donald, you’re fired.