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August 2014

Posted by David Gerstman on August 21, 2014 13 Comments
Following up on an airstrike that hit the house of terror mastermind Mohammad Deif, Israel killed three Hamas commanders last night. Raed al-Attar, Mohammad Abu Shmallah and Mohammad Barhoum. While there are still conflicting accounts as to whether Deif was killed or not, including a disappearing death certificate; three of his colleagues were killed. The IDF provided background on the two primary targets, al-Attar and Abu Shmallah as well as Barhoum. 2014-08-21_121035_IDF_Shamlah_Attar
Raed Attar, who oversaw Hamas forces in Rafah, planned major infiltrations and other attacks that killed Israeli civilians. He was directly involved in the 2006 kidnapping of SFC Gilad Shalit, as well as efforts to hold him captive in Gaza. In addition to planning attacks, Attar oversaw the construction of tunnels used to attack Israel through the Sinai Peninsula. As a senior Hamas operative, his major responsibility was to smuggle weapons into Gaza and oversee efforts to train and arm terrorists.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 21, 2014 13 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Democratic challenger to Republican Tom Reed in the key NY-23 swing congressional district in upstate New York. Robertson is a "Red-to-Blue" DCCC designee, meaning that they rate her as one of the top prospects to flip a Republican seat. But the campaign has not been going well for her, with all independent analysts giving her little hope of winning. Her campaign also has been plagued by a fundraising scandal, and questions about her strong support for single-payer healthcare. But there is a new scandal brewing for Robertson, one first exposed here at Legal Insurrection: Robertson's campaign repeatedly and prominently uses old photos of Reed showing Reed to be very heavy, and emphasizing photo angles making him look obese. Those old photos, however, no longer represent what Reed looks like, since he had gastric bypass surgery in early 2013. Here's just one of many examples of how the Robertson campaign focuses on Reed's prior weight problems: Martha Robertson Video Tom Reed Come Clean 3 That's doesn't look anything like Tom Reed looks now, and makes him look heavier even than many other pre-surgery photos. Now the issue of "Fat Shaming" has broken into the mainstream upstate and national media.  Local station WETM reports:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 21, 2014 21 Comments
Earlier this month, Wendy Davis fell into the gutter with a new ad accusing current Texas Attorney General and fellow gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott of being soft on rape. Politicos on both sides of the aisle were put off by the ad, and many consultants believe that she may have actually damaged her image with undecided voters. Apparently her campaign staff realized this was a likely result of an ad that was basically an exploitative non sequitur, because this week Davis began touting her plan to end the statute of limitations on criminal sexual assault cases. Via the Dallas Morning News:
In recent weeks, she’s toured the state touting bills she pushed in the Texas Legislature that led to rape kits being tested so victims could receive justice. Last week in Dallas, she stood with Lavinia Masters and other rape survivors. According to Davis, Masters didn’t get justice because time ran out on officials seeking to close her case. “Eliminating the statute of limitations for rape will help to right that wrong by making sure that survivors like Lavinia will never again will have to forgo justice just because someone stood back and let the clock run out on their case,” Davis said. The Davis campaign pointed to several Texas rape case where the criminals got away with the crime because of the statute of limitations.
Right now in Texas, there is a ten year statute of limitations on the prosecution of felony sexual assault cases. There is no statute of limitations on the prosecution of sexual assault on a child, or in cases where DNA is recovered but no match can be found. What Davis wants to do is put felony sexual assault on the same level as crimes like murder, manslaughter, and human trafficking, the prosecution of which is not limited by statute.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 21, 2014 26 Comments
When I told you on July 16 that I was Expecting anti-Israel violence on campuses this fall, you might have thought I was needlessly worried. But I have observed over the past academic year the increasing fury and frustration of the campus BDS movement -- and that was before Gaza. So in my post I predicted:
Merely unhinged BDS on campus will be the good old days.
And it may already have come true, just as most universities are seeing students return to campus for the fall semester. Via Truth Revolt, Temple Univ. Jewish Student Punched In Face And Called ‘Kike’ In Anti-Semitic Attack:
A Jewish student on the campus of Temple University was assaulted on Wednesday afternoon and called “kike” and “baby killer” by members of the anti-Semitic student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Daniel Vessal, a Camera on Campus fellow and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, was punched in the face by a violent member of the anti-Israel organization SJP at “Templefest” which is organized for students on campus to gain new information about campus clubs a week before the start of classes. Vessal is a managing information systems major at the Fox School of Business at the university.....

Posted by New Neo on August 20, 2014 119 Comments
Fox News is reporting that police officer Darren Wilson was severely beaten by Michael Brown during the confrontation that ended with Brown's death:
Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department's top brass told FoxNews.com. “The Assistant (Police) Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” said the insider. “He was beaten very severely.”... The source also said the dashboard and body cameras, which might have recorded crucial evidence, had been ordered by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, but had only recently arrived and had not yet been deployed.
Too bad about those cameras; what poor timing. The article also says that St. Louis County police, now in charge of the investigation, have refused to confirm or deny the story. They say they will present all the evidence to a grand jury when the time comes.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 20, 2014 41 Comments
Attorney General Eric Holder is meeting with law enforcement and civil rights leaders in Ferguson, Missouri today in an attempt to ease racial tensions in the St. Louis Metro area. It's unclear, however whether Holder's presence will calm the violence, or make things more difficult for local and state law enforcement:
Justice Department officials say the unusually aggressive federal intervention is justified by the continuing violence and apparent mishandling of the case by local officials, who have been criticized for displaying excessive force against protesters and moving too slowly to investigate the Aug. 9 shooting. But law enforcement officials and other experts could not recall another instance in which Washington pushed ahead with a federal civil rights case as it has in Ferguson, almost elbowing state officials out of the way.
Fortunately for America, Holder also took time out of his busy schedule to get in on a selfie: Holder has also encouraged local civil rights leaders and advocates to promote a more federal-centric approach to resolving the crisis in Ferguson.
In a sign that Holder's campaign is gaining traction in the area, a group of African American lawyers held a news conference Tuesday in front of the St. Louis County courthouse, calling on local prosecutor Robert McCulloch to recuse himself. They said the federal investigation should proceed first because McCulloch appears to be "emotionally invested in protecting law enforcement." Yet with all of Holder's determination, the reality is that state prosecutions almost always go first and that a federal civil rights case could be harder to build and win than a state case involving a charge of murder or manslaughter.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2014 8 Comments
Earlier in the day, there were tweets from reporters about a Hamas admission during a conference in Turkey that its military wing was behind the kidnap and murder of there Israeli teens: [caption id="attachment_90804" align="alignnone" width="500"](Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel) (Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel)[/caption] The Israeli website first reporting on the video is Channel 2. Israel website Hamas Official kidnap teens The Jerusalem Post now reports, In first, Hamas official takes credit for kidnap and murder of Israeli teens:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 20, 2014 23 Comments
The midterm elections in Texas are shaping up to be just as interesting as the run to 2016, and the recent indictment of Governor Rick Perry is only serving as fuel for the fire as battle lines are drawn between conservatives and progressives. The apparent weakness of the charges against Governor Perry has drawn criticism from activists and the mainstream media alike, and is leaving many Texans wondering why Democrats seem to be banking on this indictment as the key to damaging the credibility and reputation of the Republican Party. The Austin American-Statesman recently debunked a seriously misleading e-mail sent by Mo Elleithee, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, claiming that the real reason Governor Perry chose to veto funding for the ironically-dubbed "Public Integrity Unit" was to stop investigations into an $11 million CPRIT (Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas) grant to Peloton Therapeutics; Peltron has been a big donor to both Perry and current Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, and democrats in Washington smelled blood. Via the Statesman:
Elleithee’s email charges that the CPRIT investigation “was underway when the governor called for the head of that investigative unit to resign. Perry pushing Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign was a win-win. Lehmberg either resigned and he appointed her successor or he vetoed the PIU’s funding. Both would have the same effect: stopping the investigation into the CPRIT its tracks.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2014 5 Comments
We have seen how on Twitter, and on the streets of Europe and elsewhere, the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement tells us how they really feel. And how they really feel is that Israel must be destroyed. That's not, of course, what they and their compatriots as groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, tell gullible students on campuses. On campuses, they talk about ending the "occupation," but what they don't say is that they consider all of Israel (not just the "West Bank") to be occupied territory. In Oakland, BDS protesters tried to stop a ZIM line ship from unloading. ZIM is associated in the public mind with Israel, but it's only one-third owned by Israelis. J.E. Dyer at Liberty Unyielding has excellent background, Anti-Israel BDS nuttery at the port of Oakland on the people involved and the futility of the protests. And yes, there is a heavy socialist-communist element: Oakland Block the Boat socialist banner In this case, after a delay, the ship was unloaded anyway. But not before dockworkers let it be known how they felt about these protesters interfering:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2014 4 Comments
LIVE feeds added at bottom of post Mohammed Deif is the head of Hamas' military wing. Israel has made several attempt to assassinate him over the years, injuring but not killing him. The latest was last night, but Deif's fate is unknown:
Hundreds of Palestinians turned out on Wednesday for the funeral of the wife and son of the Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who were killed overnight in an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City. Hamas had urged Gazans to turn out in force for the funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp, after an attack which left at least one other Palestinian dead and injured a further 15 people. There were fears that there could be more bodies under the rubble. The fate of Deif, one of Hamas's most senior figures who has survived Israeli attempts on his life in the past, is still unknown.
Hamas asserts Deif is alive, but that lack confirmation. Hamas is trying to say it fired rockets in response to the attempt, but in reality the attempt on Deif came after Hamas broke the truce:
Israel attempted to assassinate Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas' military wing, in Gaza City on Tuesday, Hamas officials said. Israel has not officially commented on the report. Deif's wife and young child were killed in an Israeli air strike, the Hamas officials said. Hamas has not issued a statement on whether Deif was killed, and Israeli sources speculated Wednesday that he likely survived. Hamas officials said the assassination attempt represented an Israeli violation of the cease-fire, but Israel says its air strikes came in response to rockets fired from Gaza while the truce was still in effect on Tuesday.
Background on Deif, from Amos Harel at Haaretz, Who is Mohammed Deif?:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 19, 2014 72 Comments
Texas Governor Rick Perry was booked today on charges of abuse of power, but before he went in to pose for the greatest mugshot in the history of mugshots, he took the time to speak at a pickup rally organized in support of the Governor and his fight against Texas democrats. The Washington Free Beacon has the video:
I’m here today because I did the right thing. I’m going to enter this courthouse with my head held high, and not only were the actions that I took not only lawful and legal, but right. And if I had to do so, I would veto funding for the integrity unit again. You think any governor, Democrat or Republican, would expect this important unit with jurisdiction over state officials, be led by someone who lives up to the high standard of conduct and personal integrity. And this issue is far bigger than me. It is about the rule of law, about the constitution that allows not just a governor but every citizen to speak their mind free of political interference or legal intimidation. [ cheers and applause ] This indictment is nothing but an attack on the constitutional powers of the governor. There are important fundamental issues at stake, and I will not allow this attack on our system of government to stand. I’m going to fight this injustice with every fiber of my being. and we will prevail. and we’ll prevail because we’re standing for the rule of law.
After Perry was booked, he went to Sandy's ice cream, as is the Texas way. Although these charges appear to be nothing more than a political power play, Governor Perry is playing a very smart long game by both hiring an excellent legal team, and welcoming the commentary from pundits on both sides of the aisle---almost all of whom believe that the indictment is nothing more than a transparent political play.

Posted by New Neo on August 19, 2014 25 Comments
ISIS has released a video purporting to show the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley, who had been missing for almost two years. The video, which also threatens to do the same to a man identified as American journalist Steven Sotloff, will not be linked to on this blog. Foley had gone missing in northwest Syria in November of 2012, and Sotloff, a reporter for Time, had disappeared in mid-2013, perhaps in Libya. ISIS accompanied the video with a message that:
...U.S. President Barack Obama’s authorization of strikes against the group places the United States “upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims,” according to BNO. “Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty & safety under the Islamic caliphate, will result in the bloodshed of your people,” the ISIS person added. Foley also speaks in the video, saying: “I call on my friends, family members and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government.”
There is a longer version of Foley's statement here.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 19, 2014 27 Comments
In today's bizarre news, at least six are dead in an airstrike that took out a small arms depot and other targets. The problem is, no one really knows who is responsible. The New York Times reports:
Unidentified warplanes on Monday bombed a small arms depot and other locations in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, that are controlled by Islamist-aligned militias, suggesting that a foreign state had intervened in the escalating battle for control of the city. At least six people were killed, The Associated Press reported. The origin of the planes remained a mystery. The airstrikes were beyond the capacity of the limited Libyan Air Force, and Libyan authorities said the planes had come from a foreign state. The United States, France, Italy and Egypt all denied responsibility. “The United States was not involved whatsoever in these events,” said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. But the targets indicated the intent of the strikes. Although the month-old conflict in Tripoli is largely a contest for power between rival coalitions of cities and tribes, one side is considered to be allied with the forces of political Islam, while the other portrays itself as fighting an Islamist takeover. The strikes on Monday all hit the Islamist side.
Some renegade Libyan general claims he was responsible for the airstrikes, but as the NYT pointed out, the strikes were, "beyond the capacity of the limited Libyan Air Force." It's also not uncommon for would-be bad guys to pop up and claim violent tragedies are part of their own criminal master-mind. Reuters explains:

Posted by Andrew Branca on August 19, 2014 121 Comments
The fatal shooting of the Mike Brown by police officer Darren Wilson has raised a hue and cry about a wide variety of social issues, among them the increasingly vitriolic nature of American race relations, the astonishing militarization of the police (or, perhaps more accurately, their equipment), and the curious (to me, at least) degree to which the rioting, looting, and arson that followed the shooting was rationalized as “wrong, but understandable.” [caption id="attachment_96650" align="alignnone" width="450"]Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson[/caption]

A Too-Familiar Misinformation Cascade

This most recent high-profile shooting has also seen the deployment of a too-familiar misinformation cascade in cases where there is a real or perceived racial element.  This misinformation cascade achieves its purpose by taking what few “facts” are typically available in the immediate aftermath of such an event, and passing them through a rhetorical filter to construct two defining narrative elements:

The pure victim: An image of the victim as an innocent, nearly saint-like, young child of such tender years as to suggest that the very notion of him committing an act of malice is preposterous.

The monstrous aggressor: An image of the shooter as an angry, hateful, racist monster with a hunger for shooting young black children dead in circumstances totally absent of legal justification.

The Misinformation Cascade in the Zimmerman/Trayvon Case

In the case of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by the "White Hispanic" George Zimmerman, these dual goals were accomplished in several ways.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 19, 2014 4 Comments
Update: Looks like the fighting is on again after Hamas and/or other Gaza groups started firing rockets into Israel even before the prior truce was over. The question is, how much will it escalate? More updates and coverage in live video and Twitter feeds at bottom of post:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 19, 2014 48 Comments
The recent indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry has drawn the ridicule and ire of pundits and analysts from both sides of the aisle (even David Axelrod thinks the indictment is "sketchy,") but Team Perry isn't taking any chances when it comes to the Governor's legal defense. Perry has hand-picked his counsel from the A-list of defense lawyers. The team, led by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, seems to be in complete control of the stacked deck of evidence suggesting that not only was Perry justified in threatening to veto funding from the (now-ironically named) Public Integrity Unit, but that it would have been a scandal not to do so. Via CNN:
"Governor Perry did what anyone else would do," Buzbee said. "Anyone who sees that video" would have "lost confidence" in Lehmberg. That said, the lawyers argued that the governor had no legal obligation to offer any rationale for his veto, which they insisted was protected the basic constitutional principle of separation of powers. "This is nothing more than banana republic politics" and a "nasty attack" on the "rule of law," Buzbee insisted. And Perry's explanation of his veto, Buzbee added, was protected under the "right to free speech under the First Amendment." Birchfield called the indictment "an attempt to criminalize politics, pure and simple," while Ginsberg warned that it could "set a harmful precedent in separation of powers doctrine."
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