Al-Shabaab Targets Kenya

On Monday, a shopping center in downtown Nairobi erupted into chaos when a bomb exploded, killing at least one person and injuring dozens. While the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab has not claimed responsibility, evidence, according to Kenyan officials, indicates that the attack was carried out by al-Shabaab or one of its sympathizers.

More sophisticated than the recent spate of grenade attacks, the escalation of violence was not entirely unexpected. Last October, the Kenyan government launched Operation Linda Nchi, sending military forces into southern Somalia to eliminate al-Shabaab. Nairobi blames al-Shabaab for violating its territorial sovereignty through kidnappings and criminal activity, which have greatly hindered the country’s business and tourism industry. In response, al-Shabaab vowed retaliation. Then, in April, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi issued a terrorism alert, warning of a possible attack on hotels and government buildings.

Al-Shabaab train with weapons on a street in the outskirts of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab has warned of an imminent attack in Kenya threatening to bring down tall buildings within two weeks June 1, 2012. FILE

Kenya has a duty to defend its land and citizens, and its contribution to the African Union’s mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is badly needed, but it has come at a cost. Kenya’s geographic proximity to Somalia has resulted in increased skirmishes in the north, and Kenya’s porous borders have allowed significant spillover of Somali refugees. The Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya is the largest in the world, with approximately half a million people. It is also a fertile recruiting ground for Islamist militants seeking to radicalize vulnerable targets. Additionally, Somalis living in Kenya are often discriminated against, as they are stereotyped as criminals and terrorists. With Kenya preparing for elections in March 2013, al-Shabaab might also find opportunities to sow instability ….. READ MORE

NOTE: So now, Islam is attacking Christians and non-Muslims in the Sudan, in Nigeria, and now Kenya. So much for the religion of peace! I hope Europe and America learn sooner rather than later that Islamists will not stop until our way of life is gone along with our freedoms!

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Barack Pinocchio Obama

via The Weekly Standard

Are the media beginning to catch on to President Obama? The answer is a tentative yes. This doesn’t mean the press is softening its hostility to Mitt Romney. Heaven forbid! But at least for now Obama is getting razzed by the very people who used to uphold and defend him.

It’s about time. Obama and his team have been playing the media for fools. Think of the stories the White House has foisted on them (and some have bought). Obama secretly favors the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan. The Republican landslide in 2010 was consistent with Obama’s election in 2008—both pleas for change. His endorsement of same-sex marriage was courageous. And besides “gutsy call,” there was “nobody messes with Joe.”

A turnaround was perceptible last month after the president claimed “federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any president in almost 60 years.” This went too far. It clashed with the reality of a presidency in which hefty spending increases and soaring deficits are hallmarks.

Media fact checkers waded in, not from the right but from the Washington Post and the Associated Press. “Obama claim of thrifty spending falls short of reality,” AP concluded. Glenn Kessler of the Post said the president’s data “are flawed.” It was a full debunking, but Obama aides didn’t give up. They continued to argue Obama had slowed spending.

That’s another mark of the Obama presidency with potential for media attention: repeating a claim after it’s been exposed as false, misleading, or flimflam. Obama did this early in his presidency when he zapped House Republicans for rejecting his request to work with him on the economic stimulus. In truth, the stimulus bill was already a done deal—crafted entirely by Democrats—when the president spoke to the House GOP conference.

The practice popped up this spring in the Obama reelection video. The narrator, Tom Hanks, raises the story of Obama’s mother and suggests her health insurer curtailed her medical coverage as she was battling her terminal cancer. It “drained all her resources,” Obama adds in the video. But according to a biography of his mother published in May 2011, only disability coverage to compensate for lost wages was in dispute, not medical coverage.

Obama also plays fast and loose with numbers, a blinking target for the press. He said in Dearborn, Michigan, in April that the “most sluggish job growth that we’ve seen” occurred during the Bush presidency, “2000 to 2008.” The Washington Post’s fact checker, however, found that the “worst numbers on record occurred under [Obama’s] watch.” Nonetheless, Obama repeated the claim about Bush a few days later.

Like many Democrats, the president has insisted the health care policy endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “ends Medicare as we know it.” That policy was adjusted earlier this year to retain traditional Medicare—Medicare as we know it—as an option. But Obama didn’t change his tune. He told Associated Press editors in April that the Romney policy “will ultimately end Medicare as we know it.” … READ MORE