Noblesse Oblige

An autographed sax from Bill Clinton was found by the FBI in Norman Hsu’s apartment. Details at Suitably Flip.

Federal agents searching the Manhattan apartment of Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu this week seized a saxophone autographed by President Clinton, along with about 200 bottles of fine wine and Champagne.

Mr. Hsu purchased the instrument at an auction for $26,000 in October 2005, according to a representative of the American Red Cross. The auction was held during the centennial celebration for the charity’s New York chapter, where the former president was also honored.

E.M. Winston, the maker of the saxophone, donated the instrument. And President Clinton, who attended the event, signed it. Mr. Clinton owns an E.M. Winston saxophone that was given to him by the late David Ginott, the company’s president.

The saxophone purchase was part of an embrace of the Clintons that acquaintances said Mr. Hsu liked to display. He had a collection of photos on exhibit in his apartment, as he rose quickly to become a top supporter of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, ultimately raising more than $1 million.

Hat tip to Suitably Flip, I’ve been keeping a list of corrupt Clinton contributors and supporters, and he found one I missed back in September.

So, let’s add William Danielcyzk to the growing list:

William Danielcyzk ; Hsu Surrenders — Board of Trustees for New School, New York  ; Sant Chatwal – Indian Immigrant Bundler ; “Ray” Jinnah Rehman — previously of Pal-C ;Vinod Gupta — of InfoUSA ; Mayor Samuel Rivera ; Peter Paul

Meanwhile the latest update in Hillary’s attempts to contain the damage comes from the New York Times:

“The campaign will try to get most of the donors to give the money back right after the refunds, said a senior Democratic strategist who advises Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. “That’s the plan,” the strategist said.

The strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign deliberations, added that the Clinton campaign was deeply worried that the controversy could grow.

“They are worried there are more out there,” the strategist said. “Bundlers. The feeling is there are a few more that will have Hsu problems.”

In defense, Clinton advisers note that her top Democratic rivals, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, have their own fund-raising problems that will prevent them from attacking her over Mr. Hsu.

Bill Roggio has a detailed summary at The Long War Journal, stop by for a read and hit the tip jar while you are there.

Egypt has arrested 62 Islamists in a continuing crack-down on dissent, but interestingly enough the Islamists were targeting a pro-Democracy group and leader with a car bomb with aid from foreign groups. [ed: most likely these are Muslim Brotherhood members arrested, and probable source of the aid was Al Qaeda; I could be wrong here but it’s my operative assumption for the moment.]

From Gulf Times:

CAIRO: Egypt has detained 62 Islamists accused of plotting to blow up a pro-democracy lobby group in Cairo headed by Egyptian dissident Saadeddin Ibrahim, who is now in exile abroad, security sources said yesterday.
The sources said the men, accused of belonging to an Islamist group they called Takfir and Higra, were arrested over the past month on suspicion of plotting to blow up the Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies.
The sources said the men were motivated by anti-US sentiment. The Ibn Khaldoun Centre is led by sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim, a US-Egyptian dual citizen who has pushed for greater political freedoms in Egypt and who was jailed in 2002 on charges including damaging Egypt’s reputation abroad.
The arrests coincided with an escalating crackdown on political dissent in Egypt that has targeted journalists, rights groups and political opposition movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
The director of the Ibn Khaldoun Centre, Ahmed Rizk, said he had received no formal notice from the government about the arrests but planned to increase security around the centre.
Security sources said the men, who have not yet been formally charged but were in custody pending an investigation, denied the accusations.
Over the years the Egyptian authorities have detained several groups of what they call extremists on suspicion of planning acts of violence. But some of the cases have never gone to trial and the suspects have been freed.

Takfir and Higra are terms adopted by many groups the past years, it follows the Qutbist belief that the Muslim world is largely Takfir, and no better that Kaffirs, subject to war and death. This is the evil means by which they justify murdering the ummah, they are the Neo-Takfiris and they came to be before the Neocons.

The German hostage and other in Afghanistan have been freed with the release of six Taliban, but at what price? What has me wondering is this story that appeared the day before the release of the mysterious “escape” of Timor Shah, terrorist leader.

from e-Ariana on the hostages freed:

KABUL – A German engineer and four Afghans taken hostage in July were freed Wednesday in exchange for six Taliban fighters, an Afghan official said.

Rudolf Blechschmidt and the four Afghans were handed over by local elders to officials from Afghanistan’s intelligence service in the Jaghato district of Wardak province, said the district chief, Mohammad Nahim.

Six detained Taliban militants had been freed in the swap, he said.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that Blechschmidt had been freed, and the former captive told Spiegel magazine on his release that he was “doing well.”

“I’m just a little tired,” he told the magazine in a short telephone interview posted on its Web site.

Blechschmidt had also talked with the German ambassador by telephone and confirmed he was safely in the custody of Afghan security forces, Steinmeier said in a statement.

“We are all pleased and relieved,” Steinmeier said.

The release comes just two days after Blechschmidt appeared on a new videotape, appealing to Afghan and German governments to make a deal with the militants for his release before winter.

Besides the news of the Al Qaeda affiliate leader fighting deportation in Norway in the previous article, there’s lots of other Al Qaeda news today, so here’s an update.

In Algeria they’ve killed the AQ number two there, and the explosives expert who’s taken Al Qaeda in Algeria (aka GSPC) down the new path of suicide bombing, from AP:

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerian security forces identified a radical Islamic militant slain over the weekend as the No. 2 leader and explosives expert of al-Qaida’s North Africa affiliate, reports said.

Sofiane el-Fassila, alias Hareg Zoheir, was an alleged mastermind of several recent suicide bombing attacks in Algeria that were claimed by an insurgent group now calling itself Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, newspaper reports said Tuesday, citing security officials.

El-Fassila and two suspected accomplices were shot dead Saturday near a roadblock put up by security forces in the town of Boghni in the restive Kabylie region east of Algiers, the daily Liberte reported.

In Pakistan the Waziristan War continues as Pakistani Army forces enter their fourth day of offensive operations against Al Qaeda, Taliban, and tribal supporters in North Waziristan. This is their last solid base, and their last hope so let us hope that the Army continues Al Qaeda’s demolition now that Al Qaeda has declared war on their previous hosts. In this last ditch defense of their original base AQ is even calling back forces from Aghanistan just to survive. Continue reading →

The founder of Ansar al Islam, a Kurd known as Mullah Krekar, aka Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, operates multiple Islamist recruiting websites from Norway including one hosted in California. He has direct, known Al Qaeda affiliations, and the UN has marked him as a terrorist. Norway allows him to do so, although they say they monitor his web usage.

Right now our good friends in Norway, who are hosting him as a refugee, are in court trying to strip his refugee status and expel him. I’m all for doing that, but why haven’t they impounded every computer in his house to follow up on his known terror affiliations?

Since they can’t protect him as a refugee anymore they want to make him someone else’s problem rather than arrest him as a terrorist. He’s on his third appeal in the case, and still denying everything even though one of the websites is in his wife’s name. Continue reading →

Another grim milestone is reached along Al Qaeda’s march to grasp power within the Islamic world; Al Qaeda and their allied terror groups killed 1,129 Muslims in the month of September. The victims were murdered through an assortment of suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, mosque bombings, and marketplace bombings. Most of these deaths took place in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Algeria.

There were 1,380 other Muslims maimed and injured in the same incidents. These figures are gathered from terror reports during the month of September, and exclude deaths of Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and other denominations. Those deaths were far fewer in proportion to the number of Muslims murdered and maimed.

It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that this is going on, Al Zawahiri really leads now, and he got his start by murdering fellow muslims. The Muslim brotherhood, the Qutbists, and the hard-liner Deobandis who follow Al Qaeda are really the Neo-Takfirists; like the Azraqi’s of old they consider themselves above the laws of sharia they supposedly support.