Honestly, I am still in shock. I was sitting beside my attorney, focused on how I would answer the questions that were coming. Gonen ben Itzhak, my dear friend and former Shin Bet handler, had flown in from Israel to testify on my behalf and waited with a security guard in the empty courtroom next door.
Judge Rico Bartolomei was entering into the record all the documents and motions that had been introduced since my last hearing, getting everybody on the same page before we started.
That done, he called for Gonen.
That’s when DHS senior attorney Kerri Calcador dropped the bombshell. The Department of Homeland Security, she said, no longer opposes the asylum petition of Mosab Hassan Yousef.
No one in the courtroom could get hold of what had just happened. Not me, not the judge, not my attorney. We were prepared for several hours of testimony and defense. But 15 minutes after we walked into the courtroom, it was over.
There was nothing left to do. Judge Bartolomei granted me political asylum, pending a routine background check, rose and left the courtroom. Then the security guards efficiently led all of us out of the courtroom, down the halls, through the razor-wired fences and out into the parking lot, where a crowd of well-wishers applauded and cheered and network cameras rolled.
As we drove home through San Diego, we thanked God for his grace and for all those he used to make this happen.
For countless people around the world who prayed for me.
For FOX News, which is a lot more than just a conservative voice. Over the past year and a half, I have come to know and respect the professionals at FOX who have become much more to me than reporters, producers and camera crews. They are good people who had the courage to cover a story that others rejected and/or did not understand. Special thanks to chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt.
For U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), who circulated a letter through the House of Representatives that was co-sponsored by 21 other congressmen, asking DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to give “full consideration . . . to Mr. Yousef’s views and conduct in recent years, particularly his cooperation with Shin Bet at significant risk to his own safety and life.” Signatories include Representatives Frank Wolf (VA), Trent Franks (AZ), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Bill Posey (FL), Kenny Marchant (TX), John Kline (MN), John Shadegg (AZ), Joe Wilson (SC), Daniel Lungren (CA), John Boozman (AK), Michele Bachmann (MN), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Bill Shuster (PA), Joseph Pitts (PA), Lynn Jenkins (KS), Rob Bishop (UT), Jeff Fortenberry (NE), Dan Rohrabacher (CA), Robert Aderholt (AL), Mike Pence (IN) and Aaron Schock (IL).
For Tzachi Hanegbi, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of The Knesset (Israeli Parliament), MK Einat Wilf and other committee members for their very kind letter thanking me for my “actions to strengthen the security of Israeli citizens and Palestinian residents from 1998 to 2007.”
For the wisdom and integrity of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
I am especially grateful to Sarah Stern, president of the Endowment for Middle Eastern Truth. Today’s blessings would not have happened without her and this amazing organization.
Archive for the ‘Lawsuitery’ Category
Binks' Special Report
FRESH UPDATE– meeting with municipal bullies is ‘disappointing’.. looks like it’s time to get even more busy on this, folks 28.08.AD2010
UPDATE– Forget elections and party politics: go after bureaucrats.. Shaidle & Levant on the matter
Evil Bureaucratical Lawfare
~ ITEM: Jaworski Family News Blog
~ ITEM: A press release Peter Jaworski put together
~ ITEM: What price liberty? Up to $50K
~ ITEM: Kevin Libin: Bureaucratic ‘bullies’ foil annual libertarian retreat
~ ITEM: National Post editorial board: Save the Liberty Summer Seminar
~ ITEM: Oshawa This Week: Pro-freedom group runs up against Clarington property rights rules
~ ITEM: Toronto Sun: Bureaucracy stomps on liberty seminar, by Brian Lilley
~ ITEM: ReasonMag– Hit & Run: Sorry, But Our Zoning Regulations Forbid You From Celebrating Your Freedom
~ I DO LOVE CANADA, but sometimes my fellow Canuckis really burn my biscuits. Read on, if you dare.
An ordinary family home.. targeted by municipal bureaucrats. Surely it must be a house of ill repute; maybe a mafia HQ; or a crack-house; possibly a terror-cell den; perhaps a Hell’s Angel hideout; a pot grow-op, perhaps? WRONG.
Worse than any of those: it’s a nest of ordinary freedom-loving immigrant Polish-Canadian libertarians who have like-minded friends over yearly to their 40 acres for BBQ, beverages, and bold chat about freedom and liberty and free speech. It’s called The Institute for Liberal Studies. Here’s actual proof of the kind of extremism, free-thinking, and mob-mentality they host:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sOfekFRzk&feature=player_embedded]
Get Barb Hall on the line! Call the exterminators! Call the Toronto PD G-20 innocent civilian harassment squad! Get the SWAT ready!
The Renegade Perps
Teh Binks Is Steaming
Back in mid-December ’07 I first head about the attempted silencing of Mark Steyn. Outrage ensued, this website resulted.
This new needless politically correct pestering of the Jaworski family should warn all Canadians that our freedoms exist– according to some officials and intolerant Canadians– at the whim and permission of The Authorities.
It gets even more worser.
Turns out the Jaworskis are actually immigrants to this land from violently former-Communist Poland:
“Our family escaped Poland for fear of reprisals in 1984 after my mom and dad handed out pro-democracy and pro-freedom literature from under my baby carriage,” said Peter Jaworski. “It’s ironic and upsetting that they may now be facing charges in Canada for allowing me to host an event in support of those very same principles.”
Ironic. Sputter, twitch. Dad Jaworski says:
“I will always let my son use our property for what he believes in, and for the freedom we came to Canada to find. If he wants to host a seminar to support more liberty in Canada, we’re not just happy, but proud to let him do that. That’s what you do as parents.”
How horrible and unCanadian, huh?
We’re Not Going To take It!
So, the Binks has some suggestions for freedom-loving folks everywhere (after you read the links above to get all the details correctly, and to get yourself properly worked up).
(1) Read, link, and pass on the link for their news-blog far and wide ASAP. Other blogs, talk-radio, family, e-mail, whomsoever.
(b) The Clarington municipality contact info: The municipality’s main switchboard phone number is 905-623-3379. The mayor is Jim Abernethy. The councillor is Gord Robinson. The contact webpage. Be detailed, polite, and determined: let’s get this municipal harassment stopped. Plus:
Human Resources
Municipality of Clarington
40 Temperance Street
Bowmanville, ON
L1C 3A6corporateservices@clarington.net
Fax: (905) 623-0608
Telephone Inquiries: 905-623-3379 Extension 258
Mayor Jim Abernethy
mayor@clarington.net
Patti Barrie, in charge of bylaw enforcement
pbarrie@clarington.net
(iii) Donate to support the Jaworski Legal Defence Fund. Period.
(4) Write to your Provincial representative, Member of Parliament, Prime Minister, and newspapers. The local paper is the Orono Weekly Times, P.O. Box 209. Orono, ON L0B 1M0.. oronotimes@rogers.com.
(e) If you’re in the area, call ahead & stay at the Willow Pond Bed and Breakfast. Show your support of freedom & democracy-loving newcomers and hard-working refugees to this country. Orono, Ontario, is a small village about an hour’s drive East from Toronto, between Oshawa and Peterborough. View Large Map
(vi) This is now a frontline in the freedom-war, and fighting for ordinary sensible decent Canadianism, versus the petty bureaucracy and politically incorrect Big Brother stifling the voice of liberty-loving people in this land. Do something about it. That some other local hotelier might have called the red-tape police is only a secondary cause.
‘Unapproved by the government‘? Then petty bureaucrats and pettier rules and red tape get stuffed.
Binks
Steynian 414rd
Binks Gets Results!
DHS drops deportation case against Mosab Hassan Yousef: Son of Hamas. Asylum granted
H/t via Pointe De Veille
Here’s what Mosab himself has to say:
Woohoo!
Save Mousab Yousef: A True Hero
~ ITEM: Save Mosab Yousef
~ ITEM: “With the new American administration, we seem to be sharply turning from the mish-mash of Bush suspicion and compromise, towards active cooperation with Muslim groups and individuals connected directly and indirectly with the Muslim Brotherhood“
~ ITEM: TORONTO JDL Rally in Support Of “Son of Hamas” Mousab Yousef June 29 7:30 PM
~ ITEM: GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn Leading Congressional Effort to Stop Obama Admin From Deporting Son of Hamas Founder Who Spied for Israel, Converted to Christianity
~ ITEM: Homeland Security focusing on the big threats
~ ITEM: Obama’s Islamic Envoy: Obama Dropping References to Islamic Terrorism, Jihadism has Made Him America’s “Educator-in-Chief on Islam”
~ ITEM: White House welcomes Shariah finance specialist; Obama scholar linked to ‘Ground Zero’ imam
Steynian 408nd
The long overdue charity web-project Teh Binks was working on is now complete, and Yer Fave Elf is now back on the blog-trail. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
~ B ~
O, We Mighty Masters Of Nature!
~ ITEM: Volcano’s reputation getting hotter
~ ITEM: Good and bad news about new Iceland volcano eruption
~ ITEM: Does God Hate Iceland?
~ ITEM: Cap All Volcanoes – Save the Planet!
~ IT WAS A TIRED old circus, and the most excitement to be had was when Char-LOTTE The Wonder Elephant™ paused a kiddy-ride for a prodigious release of her bowels. Truly elephantine waterfalls and avalanche ensued.
Famous modern circuses– like the old Roman animal spectaculars– were all about showing the domination of man over nature. Dancing animals, tamed tigers, lions through hoops, all the rest: unsinkable ships.. the march of progress.. the bright sunshine of the future and all that– man has conquered!
Except we haven’t: ask Siegfried & Roy.
Kaboom. Urp.
Or ask the people of Europe right now.
The eruption of a volcano is a regular event, most often in ‘foreign’ places, or Hawaii or something. But Europe has Iceland (a bit of the spreading mid-Atlantic ridge above the waves), plus volcanoes in Italy & Greece and elsewhere, and the remnants of extinct or dormant ones all over the place.
Steynicle 405nd
Shaidle on the HRCs:
“If they fine you, don’t pay;
If they come for you, don’t go;
If they take your computer,
let them have it.. encased in
a freshly poured block of cement.
We have to stop only looking up to people,
and try being those people.”
Section 13: Radical Rock-Throwing
A Rotten LEAF
~ ITEM: LEAF SubmissionJUST Committee Section 13.pdf
~ ITEM: LEAF, is a Canadian legal organization
~ ITEM: GOOGLE: Leaf & funding
~ ITEM: www.leaf.ca
~ THE STATUS QUO-ITES are coming out fighting, in a new submission to the parliamentary Commission reviewing Section 13 of the Human Rights thing.
So now LEAF– or, The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund– is a radical busy-body group who’ve minded business in many court cases, including some notable human rights debacles.
Their latest intervention is interesting for two reasons.
(1) It’s legally pretty, with all the proper footnotes, citations, and precedent-speak which is part of our legal tradition, even when radical things are being done. The equivalent is a scholar’s paper loaded with the right terminology, bits of Greek, Latin, German, and piled high with footnotes. It’s black tail and tie, with bells on, and partly a comfortable appeal to the lawyerly sort who largely populate parliament and her committee ranks. It shows the nanny-squads are getting worried, and bringing out their big words, and clearest case.
Steynite 402rd
Happy Hanukkah– Another Jewish Plot!
~ ITEM: Hanukkah and history you can use
~ ITEM: Catching a gimel on the river
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOegH4uYe-c&feature=player_embedded&fmt=18]
A very happy Hanukkah to all our Jew-ite readers, our conspiracy of Hebe bloggers and online friends, and may all the blessings of heaven be upon you. ~
~ GLOBAL FREAKIN’ WARMING?!? It’s blowing a NorWester minus-25C wind chill here, 50kmh+ gusts.. for the second week of three. It’s February already, wood-stove working overtime. Coldest December in years. ~
Steyniac 401th
Canadian Free Speech Hero
Winner Boissoin & Whiner Lund
~ ITEM: Canadian Minister Appeals Hate Crime Sanctions
~ TO HONOUR THE RECENT victory for Stephen Boissoin against the insane and arbitrary nastiness of the Alberta HRC, and the malice of non-gay bully scumbag Darren Lund, who was cheerfully willing to throw a Christian to the modern bureaucratic lions, no matter the cost or effect on the individual so accused– here’s a link to the infamous letter. Come and get me, ya Nazis.
The process IS the punishment, as many have noted– but more than that, the punishment is the modern equivalent of Pontius Pilate’s “let him off after a good whipping”. Only militant Muslims are crass enough to actually objectify and crucify their enemies– but that we do so with words in the public forum does not reduce the damage done to reputation, job, peace of mind, family life, financial well-being, and all the rest.
Further, Stephen Boissoin is another sign of ‘The Steyn-Levant” effect.. enough noise and notoriety and bad press, and you too can (eventually) get out of the marsupial court rigamarole. That this “proves” the HRC process is peachy-keen? that’s just gravy for the bully speech-coders.
Net effect? Stephen Boissoin is both a warning and chilly example for those who might disagree with same-sex orthodoxy; his 2002 letter is now world-famous (note the resulting world-wide hate-riots and massacres of gays); his life was nearly crushed, his life bankrupted, his former work derailed. We may gather (not least from his picture) that Mr. Boissoin is a man of some character and courage and damn the torpedoes.. for this same brutalizing SEVEN+ YEAR process could ruin a weak, sick, or less determined person.
Steynian 375
Some Pigs Are More Equal
~ ITEM: Imagine the abuse that could come of this
~ NOT TRYING TO THINK THE WORST of American radicals, but something keeps nagging me on healthcare. If you’ve got political panels running health in the proposed paradise of the ObamaCare universe, what’s to stop ideologues from rationing care on the basis of votes? Or Red State/ Blue State?
After all, if merely opposing the commands of the Obamessiah gets one labelled a hate-monger, extremist, unAmerican, unChristian, etc. ad nauseam; or when more Republican GM dealers get closed over Democrat dealers; then you must be very trusting indeed to assume Rahm Emanuel, Sibelius & Co. will be untempted and impartial with health-rationing.
It’s not just a matter of being honest, it’s appearing honest, and not putting oneself in the positon to abuse power. Since the Obama regime as shown itself more than willing to flout law, custom, common-sense and decency in the desparate pursuit of utopia, I’d not put any such abuse past them.
The American system is already riven with battles for government pork and earmarks and special treatment based on politics– how would health-care rationing escape the same process? ~
Steynian 369
Aftermath: Tehran
~ ITEM: IRAN: DAY 18 of the Revolution that will not die
~ ITEM: Iran Fading From Media Attention.. Iran? That’s so June!
~ ITEM: The rise and fall of Perez Hilton
~ ITEM: Obama’s Failure of Moral Courage
~ ITEM: North Korea’s Nuclear Program Is No Joke
~ ITEM: Out of sight, Iran remains on the brink
~ SO WHILE THE AD/HD news-cycle has moved on (Teh Obama having spoken), the bodies are still piling up in in the pre-dug graves outside Tehran. Many are in hiding, others in dungeons, others being tortured and/ or paraded in front of Mullah-TV to denounce the pre-approved enemies-list of Zionists, agitators, anything and anybody else than the ones with bloody hands.
It would be all so lame and giggle-worthy, were it not for real suffering now firmly behind the clerical curtains once again– we’ve all seen too many tinpot types and their various Baghdad Bob regime mouthpieces telling us the official lies we’re not supposed to believe. Yet again, our blood-stained media has chosen to look the other way, back to bread/ circuses/ pop culture ‘essential’ news.
But it’s not back to usual: this was Twittered, and an ancient people like the Persians have very very long memories, having been around for 6000 years and more. Further– and according to the Prophet Joe Biden’s schedule– six months in, and Glorious Leader/ Messiah has indeed faced two world-scale international challenges to his largely autopilot foreign policy, and failed. A mix of mumbles, hitting false notes, a disturbing lack of real and fitting emotion, topped off with the usual pandering that has much of the world scrambling to protect itself, disinvest in the U.S., and nuke-up before the bad guys have all the toys.
Read the rest of this entry »
Steynian 368
Were We Not Amused?
~ ITEM: The King is Dead: Lefsetz on the passing of Michael Jackson
~ ITEM: The wounded soul of Michael
~ ITEM: Mothers, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Freak Shows
~ ITEM: Jonah Goldberg on the Media and Michael Jackson’s death
~ ITEM: Michael Jackson: He never had a chance; Michael Jackson is dead
~ ITEM: Sadly missing from the nightly newscast is the latest on the hundreds killed, possibly thousands detained and injured while marching for freedom in Iran
“The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
Ezekiel 18:2
Show me the amusements of a culture, and I’ll show you it’s heart. So at the heart of ancient Rome was the Circus Maximus, and later the Flavian Amphitheatre ( the Colosseum), and the life and death battles there between man and animal, law and lawbreaker, man and man, Rome and the barbarians. It was all about the blood, and the judgement of the spectators: were they amused? Who deserved life and who deserved death? So via the public spectacles, the heart of that civilization was revealed.
What about our civilization? our amusements, judgements, and mortal battles?
Steynian 353
Enemy List
~ ITEM: Hate crimes bill H.R. 1913 destroys civil liberties and Constitutional protections.
~ UPDATED– HEY KIDS! ARE you on the Obama Enemies List? Check your eligibility now! New categories are being added daily, so don’t miss out!
Fresh updates: Glenn Beck; the “tax resistance movement”; libertarians; unapproved internet news websites; Mark Steyn (Rushite, Islamophobe); the CIA; the American military; Constitution-cultists; Chrysler stock-holders; adult stem-cell researchers; the culture of life; old people; newborns; gun-owners; taxpayers.
Report to the authorities and turn yourself in now, and beat the Rush! ~
A Great Blog
~ BACK WHEN I WAS AN Intel Chief in the Anglican Wars, I ran a couple of go-to websites for the Rest Of The News on those particular current affairs. Big hits, big work, lots of excitement. We were eventually hacked offline via two Episcopal Church sources– the head office, and a Left Coast Diocese. But I digress.
If you’re watching the rise of Draconistan under Mr. Obama, one website you simply must attend to is The Real Barack Obama (RBO). Consistent, factual, hard-hitting. Bookmark it, pass the word.
