The Beginning Of The End...or is it simply the end?

The Last Straw, or, The Final Nail In The Coffin
By JR Dieckmann

When the primary elections began, John McCain was at the bottom of the list of those favored to become president. Then, almost overnight, one of the most disliked members of the Republican establishment jumped to the top of the list based on the votes of a handful of people in liberal and moderate states. Any and all conservative candidates were driven out of the race before the vast majority of Republicans even had a chance to vote for them.

Doesn’t this seem just a little suspicious to you? To me, it doesn’t pass the smell test and it would be most interesting to know what has gone on behind the scenes and out of view of the American people that brought this about. Hopefully, in time we will get some answers and those responsible will be held accountable. One of those responsible for it is John McCain himself with his McCain/Feingold 2002 Campaign Reform Act.

To prevent this from happening again, all primaries, or at least the vast majority of them must be held on the same day, as the candidates campaign to the nation instead of individual states. No more open primaries. Only Registered Republicans should have a say in who is selected to represent their party. Primary voters should be pre-registered before a given deadline, not simply sign up on election day.

You just don’t let the stockholders of Ford vote for the CEO of General Motors, or the stockholder of Sylvania vote for the CEO of G.E. This current policy is simply ludicrous, and now we see the results.

We have been told that McCain will be the likely nominee because of his support for the war on terror. This explanation simply doesn’t hold water. Romney, Thompson, or Hunter would have been equally capable of prosecuting the war on terror, maybe even better than McCain because they don’t have a problem with interrogating terrorists. Now McCain is trying to take credit for “the surge” a credit that rightfully belongs to Gen. David Petraeus who planned and executed it. I’m not buying it, there is something else going on here.

One explanation for this disaster is that the Republican party has been actively expanding it’s membership by appealing to the left. This used to be a party of conservatives but now conservatives have been relegated to fringe right of the party. You hear it all the time on Fox News and other media outlets that those who oppose John McCain are simply the “right wing” traditionalists of the party. When did the Republican party become a chicken with wings? And who now is at the heart of the party? Apparently, it’s not us chicken wings anymore.

Now begins the makeover of John McCain to try to sell him as a conservative. It started with McCain’s speech at CPAC last week where he professed the virtues of conservatism and mentioned the few areas where he has been conservative. But the bulk of his record over the past 10 years was left out of that speech. On every issue that conservatives have been at odds with the Democrats and President Bush on since his reelection, such as amnesty for illegals and “man made” global warming, McCain is in agreement with them.

In California, a recall election of Gov. Grey Davis was held in 2003. The contenders for the office were Cruz Bustamonte (D), who was the lieutenant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), and Tom McClintock (R). McClintock made a name for himself by getting the Grey Davis vehicle tax 300% increase repealed earlier that year and starting the proceedings for the recall of Davis. He was our champion, and the real Republican we wanted to become governor.

Then Arnold jumped into the fray and stole the limelight from McClintock with his celebrity fame. We knew at that time that Arnold was pretty much a RINO and married to a Kennedy Democrat, but he had split the Republican vote. To assure defeat of Bustamonte, we were forced to hold our noses and vote for Schwarzenegger. Now the Republican party is asking us to do it again with McCain on the national level? That’s the last straw, in my book.

Let’s face it. The way it looks now, the next 4 years are going to be a disaster for the country no matter who is in the White House. Terrorism and the economy are both about ready to blow up in our faces, and unfortunately, the only real leaders who could have dealt with it have been drummed out of the race. We have to begin looking ahead and beyond the next four years to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If we continue to accept the status quo of the Republican party, it will only keep moving us further to the left while the Democrat party does the same. Before you know it, we will be living in a socialist country. We have to draw the line at some point or accept the inevitable consequences of not doing so.

Nikita Khrushchev and the communist party said they will “take us over from the inside.” If you don’t believe this is happening now, then I challenge you to read this. The movement to the left that we are seeing today is all a part of that plan, and they are doing it right under our noses. The evidence could not be clearer with the remaining presidential candidates we see on the stage today. Communism is only a heartbeat away from the socialist policies that are now being forced down our throats by the U.S. government and those proposed by the candidates. Are we going to be a part of the problem, or a part of the solution?

McCain may have started his political career as a conservative but he is certainly no conservative now. There is no need to go into all the times he has stabbed conservatives in the back in the Senate with McCain-Feingold election reforms, McCain-Kennedy amnesty for illegals, and now McCain-Lieberman global warming legislation that puts forth the proposition that we can control the weather by regulating and taxing free enterprise, while opposing American energy independence by placing our hopes on future alternative fuels rather than meet our current needs by expanding domestic oil production and nuclear electrical power.

These positions are certainly not conservative thinking and the Republican leadership knows this full well. Their job now is to try to convince conservatives that McCain is a conservative because they know that he cannot win the general election without the conservative vote.

Between now and November, there is going to be a massive propaganda campaign aimed at conservatives to try to convince them of a lie. I, for one, am sick and tired of being lied to by the Republican party and being told I have to vote for a liberal because it‘s better than the socialist alternative. In the short term, it may be. But in the long term, it’s only taking the country closer to communism if we continue to go along with it. If we don't stop it now, it is only going to be harder to fight against four years from now. After that, the socialists will be running the country and we won't have the freedom to do anything about it.

I know this is going to be very controversial, but we may have to let the Democrats show the country just how destructive they can be by giving them the White House for four years. They are likely going to win the election anyway. After 4 years, the country will be ready to throw them out and welcome a conservative leader into the White House. Sometimes you have to hit the bottom before you start the climb back up.

This election is no longer about electing a president to preserve conservative values in America, it is about electing a president to preserve Republican party power in America, a party that no longer represents conservative values. Their only interest is their own power, not our values. They have tried to gain and preserve that power by inviting moderates and liberals into the party to expand their voter base and in doing so, have turned their back on the conservative core values that created the party in the first place. Why should we care about preserving the power of party politicians who do not represent our values?

Either you care about, and believe in, your value system, or your don’t. If your only interest is in Republican party power, regardless of what it stands for, then go ahead and cast your vote for John McCain, thus validating the party’s move to the left and slide toward socialism in America. At some point, we are going to have to take a stand and hold our ground. I believe that time is now. It’s the “Boston tea party” all over again and it’s about time to throw the tea overboard.

We hear “But we have to vote for McCain to stop Hillary from becoming president.” I know this is a difficult position to be in, but who put us here? It was the Republican party leadership that controlled the process that lead us to this point and left us with a choice between a Marxist and a liberal. It looks now as though there is one other candidate who can beat Hillary, and that is Barack Obama. If he does, how do Republicans defeat an empty suit with no political record other than socialist rhetoric? Disaster for America is waiting no matter who wins this election, so prepare yourself for it.

I’m not sure which one would be worse in the White House, Clinton or Obama, but one of them is likely to be living there for the next four years. With McCain as the only other alternative, we might as well just get used to the idea because there are just too many conservatives who will not vote for McCain under any circumstances and no matter how many lies we are told about McCain in the coming months. He is who he is and we all know that. Most of us will not be persuaded to change our minds. We know there is little difference between McCain and the Democrats.

Mitt Romney could have united the party, but in some back room deal, he was thrown under the bus. The writing is on the wall. The Republican leadership does not want a conservative in the White House in 2009 for whatever reason. Perhaps it was because Romney is a Washington “outsider” and his campaign was based on the premise that “Washington is broken and I am going to fix it.” This likely didn’t set well with the inside-the-beltway establishment as Mitt wanted to fix the problems that they had created, and in doing so, would likely have them all out looking for work.

The only hope of having a manageable next four years is to elect conservatives to the House and Senate. In November there will be 435 House seats and 37 Senate seats up for grabs. When the congressional campaigns start, find your conservative candidates and do all you can to support them and get them elected. Talk to people about them. Talk to Democrats about them. Tell them your guy is just like John McCain. These people will believe anything. Tell them he even believes in Global Warming and raising taxes. That will surely get them on your side. But if he’s really a conservative, be prepared to go up against the Republican establishment which will probably try to defeat him.

Remember that no matter who is in the White House, Congress controls the legislation that is made into law and has the power of confirmation over judicial appointments. Neither Clinton, Obama, nor McCain will be able to appoint liberal judges unless Congress approves of them. McCain wants us to believe that he will appoint constructionist judges and hopes that we will forget about his “gang of 14” with the Democrats, designed to block Bush’s appointments. Bush got lucky with Roberts and Alito. McCain’s idea of an ideal judge, by his own admission, is Sandra Day O’Connor.

In all good conscience, I cannot condone the rewarding of John McCain with the presidency after all he's done over the past 10 years to oppose conservatism while stabbing Republicans in the back. Those who have put him in the position he is in now, along with the rest of us, will pay the consequences of their actions for the next four years and beyond.

What about Mike Huckabee? Huckabee’s only real support is in the Evangelical community, and I hold him personally responsible for conspiring with John McCain to destroy the Romney candidacy. Mike will likely be dropping out of the race shortly as he has now served his purpose to McCain and the Republican establishment.

So what are we to do? Vote for McCain as a vote against the Democrat? Vote for someone else, even if it’s a Democrat? Don’t vote at all? Or maybe vote, but just don’t vote for president? Some say the war on terror is the only issue they really care about and McCain is the only remaining candidate who will allow us to win the war. Of course that all depends on the next Congress and whether it is willing to continue funding for the war.

This is what makes this decision so hard because it is very close to the truth. But I’m not convinced that even the Democrats are willing to take the blame for losing the war and it‘s consequences. Obama is the only one who really wants to pull troops out of Iraq. Granting terrorists safe haven in Iraq is unthinkable, but then so are the long term consequences of validating this election process with a vote for McCain. We can win the war, but lose the country, or we can lose both the war and the country. Either way, we, the people lose and the Washington politicians win.

This is the decision each of us will have to make for ourselves. At this point, I don’t even know what I will do in November. To me, none of the remaining candidates for president are acceptable. Maybe someone else will jump into the race on a third party ticket to save the day. I’m not sure that the idea that our guy is better than their guy on one issue is going to inspire a lot of people to go to the polls and vote. We saw a strong indication of that when Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 at the polls on super Tuesday, and MItt Romney was still in the race at that point and got half the votes. Do McCain supporters really think they can win in November without the rest of the party?

Is McCain’s nomination at the RNC Convention inevitable? The good people at OpenGOPConvention.com don’t seem to think so. They hope to influence enough delegates into supporting an alternate candidate selected by visitor voting at their website, so as to derail the McCain nomination at the convention. This is just one attempt by the people of the Republican party to take back their party from the Washington establishment party bosses who have corrupted and rigged this election to get one of their own elite Washington insiders firmly planted in the White House. We are used to seeing these tactics used in Russia and the Middle East, not in the United States.

As for the future of the disenfranchised conservatives that the Republican party has pushed off to the “right wing” and relegated to a minority faction of the party, there may be hope on the horizon. There is a grass roots effort going on now to establish the American Conservative Party, which could become a home for disenfranchised conservative Republicans.

It’s going to take time for this effort to get off the ground and become a viable party. I suggest you look at the discussions as this effort is being formed to consider if this is something you may be interested in. Right now it is in the discussion stages, just as our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were at one point in history.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” - Thomas Jefferson, from the Declaration of Independence.

God Bless America and help to guide her through these troubled times.

JR Dieckmann is Editor, Publisher, Writer, and Webmaster of GreatAmericanJournal.com. He also works as an electrician in Los Angeles, Ca. He has been writing and publishing articles on the web since 2000. His articles appear on other publications such as: The Conservative Voice; Real Clear Politics; New Media Journal; Mich News; Daley Times-Post; Renew America, and other conservative websites.

Coming To A Neighborhood Near You

This is what happens when you put the United Nations in charge....

WAKE UP AMERICA...the UN is
at your front door!

East Timor trying to close refugee camps By Donald Greenlees Friday, February 15, 2008

DILI, East Timor: When the rain-laden clouds open up, as they frequently do this time of year, the tarpaulin over Alicia Pinto's bed leaks and the pathway outside her tent home becomes a quagmire.

Still, a crowded tent in a camp for internally displaced people on the eastern fringes of Dili is better than going back to where she came from.

The house where Pinto lived with her family in Baucau, 120 kilometers, about 75 miles, to the east of the capital, was burned down in riots in April 2006, which forced a large part of the population to flee.

"We are afraid to go back," Pinto, 21, said Friday, as a wood fire filled the entrance to her tent with acrid smoke. "The neighbors won't accept us."

Pinto's family is among an estimated 100,000 East Timorese - about a tenth of the population - to have been ejected from their homes and communities by violence in recent years.

The camps are dotted around Dili, sitting alongside the city's best hotels where in the afternoon foreign workers and better-off East Timorese sip coffee and eat cake. The United Nations integrated mission in East Timor, brought in to help restore order in 2006, counts 58 camps in Dili, occupied by about 35,000 people.

But two years after the camps were set up, the UN mission and the East Timorese government are anxious to see them closed before they become a permanent fixture. Officials express concern over signs of growing aid dependency among some displaced people and the role the camps have played as focal points of unrest in the past.

This month, under instructions from the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, the monthly food ration supplied by the World Food Program to camp residents has been cut in half. In the latest food deliveries each individual has been allocated 4 kilograms, or 8.8 pounds, of rice and three-quarters of a liter, or 1.6 pints, of cooking oil. Starting next month, food deliveries by the Rome-based World Food Program will cease altogether.

The United Nations and the government hope that the cuts to food supplies will provide incentives for many displaced people either to return home or to settle elsewhere. The decision to reduce and then end food aid to camps is in part driven by a World Food Program survey last year that concluded that half the occupants of the camps did not need assistance and might have been encouraged to stay on in the camps to receive free food.

"If we do not discontinue this we basically support a policy of creating a nation of beggars and people who live on handouts," said Finn Reske-Nielsen, who coordinates all the United Nations' humanitarian operations in East Timor.

The United Nations and the government aim to replace general food aid with a distribution program that focuses on the most vulnerable people in and outside the camps, including the elderly, the sick and those widowed or orphaned in conflict.

But the goal of some in the United Nations and government to close the camps by the end of the year could prove difficult to achieve.

The World Food Program reported in September that almost 87 percent of people in the camps were there because their homes had been destroyed or damaged.

Most of that destruction took place in 2006, when a confrontation between the government and elements of the army spilled over into wider unrest in Dili and various parts of the countryside. During the violence tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes and 37 people were killed.

At the heart of the dispute was a complaint by soldiers from the western districts of the country that they were discriminated against in promotions and conditions. Many communities across the country divided along regional lines, neighbor suddenly pitted against neighbor.

The events of that year also gave rise to the rebellion of Alfredo Reinado, a former military police officer who led the shooting attacks this week on Gusmão, who was unharmed, and President José Ramos-Horta, who is being treated for his wounds in Australia. Reinado was killed.

In returning home, camp inhabitants face not only the problems of rebuilding but of settling a complex array of communal issues. In about 6 percent of cases, according to the World Food Program, the homes of displaced are occupied illegally by others.

The East Timorese have in the past shown a considerable ability to reconcile conflicts and rebuild communities.

They have no shortage of experience after the country was torn by civil war in 1975 following the abrupt end of colonial rule by Portugal and virtually razed in 1999, when the people voted in a UN-sponsored referendum to end 24 years of occupation by Indonesia, prompting an angry backlash from the losers. East Timor gained formal independence in 2002.

But many of the victims of the most recent troubles say that even after two years the wounds are still raw. They complain that progress toward reconciliation has been slow.

In the Becora camp in the eastern outskirts of Dili - home to about 362 displaced people - Annabella Fatima da Cruz occupies a tent only a short walk from her old home. Eight months pregnant with her first child, da Cruz says she would like to have a permanent home in time for the birth.

She said she would like to go back to her old neighborhood, but that is not an option.

"The situation is not safe," she said. "There was a dialogue, but it has not produced anything yet." She added: "I have no idea how long I will live here. It depends on the government."

The UN mission, which oversees policing in East Timor, and the government say there has been a steady decline in security problems across the country. UN officials are nonetheless sympathetic to the concerns.

"The security situation is improving going by crime statistics," said Atul Khare, the chief of the UN mission, in an interview. "But the actual security situation and fear of insecurity are two different concepts. You can have a great fear of insecurity without any crime at all."

Finn, the UN humanitarian coordinator, is concerned that the camps themselves will serve to perpetuate security problems if they are not shut soon.

"Clearly if we are not careful and we don't solve this problem as soon as possible we run the risk of creating a whole generation of traumatized youngsters who can become a source of societal instability in the longer run," he said.

Indeed, the camps are not necessarily a haven. Humanitarian workers say there are reports that in some camps residents are preyed upon by organized gangs.

Last week, the leaders of a large camp near Dili airport ordered residents to reject food deliveries as a protest against the decision to cut the ration in half.

Luiz Vieira, the head of the International Office of Migration in East Timor, said there was also evidence of aid being diverted and sold.

"Many people who want to accept the half ration have not because they have been threatened either implicitly or explicitly," he said.
Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/

Protecting Heroes

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:20 PM PT

War On Terror: The Democratic Congress takes forever to pass a key law authorizing terrorist surveillance and shielding the telecom companies that facilitate it — proving again its incompetence on national security.

Related Topics: Global War On Terror Election 2008

---

After nearly seven months of pointless delay, the U.S. Senate has finally passed, by 68 to 29, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allowing the government to keep the tools it needs to continue to foil future terrorist attacks.

The measure also grants immunity from civil lawsuits to telecommunications firms that aided the National Security Agency in post-9/11 surveillance. (An attempt to remove the telecom protection from the bill by Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin failed, 67 to 31.)

Senate passage of the FISA renewal — and by such a resounding margin — is another victory for President Bush, who simply refuses to act like the lame duck the big media insist he is. With a congressional recess impending, however, the House Democratic leadership now seems poised to delay acting on the Senate bill.

The ingratitude of so many congressional Democrats for a program that has saved so many lives, and their irresponsibility in making us vulnerable to future attack, is incomprehensible.

Still, Democratic senators as liberal as Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia voted against their party colleagues. (As Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Rockefeller knows more than most about the effectiveness of NSA surveillance; Mikulski is an intelligence panel member too.)

Rockefeller defended the telecom carriers, who could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in lengthy litigation for their good-faith cooperation to help prevent terrorism.

Yet the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, was one of the 31 Democrats who voted not to protect those heroic companies from the more than 40 lawsuits pending against them. (Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York missed the votes.)

The American Civil Liberties Union, the force behind those lawsuits, outrageously called those firms "accomplices" in crimes against the Fourth Amendment.

They, Sen. Obama and all the other radicals who insist on us being unshielded from terrorism should be reminded of the first words of that fourth part of our Bill of Rights: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons" — a right that thousands of Americans lost bloodily less than 6 1/2 years ago.

Canadian Health Care (Soon to be Hillary/Obama Health Care)

Canadian Health Care
A friend in Canada sent this. Please take the time toread it.
You can then do whatever you wish....research, verify, hit delete, whatever, but please read it.
I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up here in Canada in his latest movie.
As your friend and someone who lives with the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about this great medical plan that we have in Canada.
First of all:

1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every month of $96.00 for Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great, eh. What they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that and I am not sure of the exact amount goes directly to health care our #1 expense.

2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is morelike a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough so he can tell you, "Yes indeed, you are sick." or "You need an operation." but now the challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting lists out the ying yang some as much as 2 years down the road.
3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to prescribe drugs. Have a pain here is a drug to take... not what is causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour for Government re-imbursement.

4) Many Canadians do not have a family doctor.

5) Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the emergency room waiting for tre atment.

6) Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it required that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had topay $125.00 for a splint because it is not covered under health-care-plus, we have to pay $60. for each visit for him to check it out each week.

7) Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on awaiting list and DIED before he could get treatment.

8) Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case and embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.

9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but itnever goes away. But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they don't call it a tax anymore it is now a user fee.

10) A friend needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she is a smoker they will not do it. Despite paying into the healthcare system all these years. My friend is 65 years old. Now there is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because they are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in Canada is a health care system for healthy people only. That should reduce our health care costs.

11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.

12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes, junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law to spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey player or athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figger. Where else in the world can you spend money to kill yourself but not allowed to spend money to get healthy.

13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at taxpayer expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no premiums.

14) Oh yeah, we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into thehealth care system have to pay for their needles because it is not covered but the health care system.

I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the states you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject.

Step wisely and don't make the same mistakes we have.

Recently Captured al Qaeda Iraq Documents

Al Qaeda Diary, Captured Documents Tell Story of Disillusionment, Demise and Defeat

briefing by Rear Adm. Greg Smith, Multi-National Forces-Iraq

	DoD Video Image

Monday - February 10th, 2008, Baghdad, Iraq

Press Briefing

February 10, 2008

"Today I want to talk with you about two recently captured al Qaeda Iraq documents that tell a great deal about the enemy we are facing here in Iraq. …

"On November 18th of last year, Coalition forces … killed Abu Maysara, a senior advisor to Abu Ayyoub al-Masri. Among his effects, we discovered a number of electronic storage devices – computer hard drives, thumb drives, compact discs and DVDs, along with original documents. One item seized in this operation was a 39-page typed document, undated and unsigned. …

"Overall, the document is a pessimistic assessment of al Qaeda Iraq’s long-term prospects in the al-Anbar area. The author describes the difficulties involved with trying to manage foreign fighters. He states that al Qaeda Iraq has lost popular support in the province. He recommends that al Qaeda Iraq’s remaining foreign fighters in al-Anbar be moved to other areas of Iraq, where the terrorists might have greater freedom of action. …

"He credits Iraqi and Coalition forces with having learned lessons from past mistakes … [says] ‘traitors and factions’ are taking on al Qaeda … warns his superiors that the Sunni citizens of the area are growing weary of the misfortunes and tribulations brought about by violence. … says that Sunni Anbaris are becoming more willing to join the Iraqi Security Force, and to participate in elections. … also laments the Americans have waged a quote ‘ferocious media campaign against al-Qaeda.’

"The document also describes the growing problems al Qaeda is having with its recruits and terrorist operations. …

"The author says, ‘The renegades and Americans started launching their attacks to destroy us. We lost cities, and afterwards villages, and the desert became a dangerous refuge. We got away from people and found ourselves in a wasteland desert.’ ….

"Let me now turn to a second al Qaeda Iraq document found near Balad late last year. On Nov. 3, while conducting raids south of Balad, Coalition Force soldiers captured a diary kept by an al Qaeda operative named Abu Tariq. …

"Abu Tariq’s diary provides clear and compelling evidence that Iraq’s volunteer citizen groups are making their country safer by weakening al Qaeda and restricting the terrorists’ freedom of movement. His diary shows that al Qaeda regards these volunteer citizen groups as a grave threat, and that the terrorists are increasingly targeting them. …

"On the first page, shown here of his diary, the al Qaeda emir claimed that he once commanded almost 600 fighters, but that after ‘the tribes changed course,’ many of his fighters quit, while others joined, quote – ‘the deserters.’

"In these pages, the al Qaeda emir said that the changing turn of events reduced his strength from almost 600 fighters to just 20 or fewer terrorists. …

"Describing the Battalion of Abu-Haydar al-Ansari, the al Qaeda emir claimed that it once had 300 fighters well equipped with weapons and vehicles. He then tells that the leader of this unit deserted just before the Awakening movement was organized. After this, the unit’s strength declined to just 16 fighters, and then later only two. Of these two, the emir wrote that one was arrested and the other captured as well. The rest of the fighters joined Awakening groups."