Via Memeorandum I found this post written by Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

Last week our little and peaceful family was struck by the tragic loss of one of its members in a savage criminal act of assassination. The member we lost was my sister’s husband who lived with their two little children in our house.
He was a brilliant young doctor with a whole future awaiting him, the couple were the top graduates in their branch of specialty. They had to travel abroad to get their degrees and the war started while they were there but months after Saddam fallen they decided to come back to help rebuild the country and serve their people.
We welcomed them with all love and care, we would sit and talk everyday about our hopes and dreams for a better future for the new generation and for their two little children. We realized that time is needed before they could have a secure and prosperous life and we were satisfied with the little we could make because we believed in the future.

He was not affiliated with any political party or movement and spent all his time working at the hospital or studying at home and he was dreaming of building a medical center for his specialty to serve the poor who cannot afford going to expensive private clinics.
We didn’t know or anticipate that cruel times were waiting for a chance to assassinate the dream and kill the future.

It was the day he was celebrating the opening of a foundation that was going to offer essential services to the poor but the criminals were waiting for him to end his life with their evil bullets and to stab our family deep in the heart.

Grief and pain is killing me everyday as I hold my dear nephews, my sister is shocked beyond words while my parents are dead worried about the rest of us.
We are trying hard to close the wound, summon our patience and protect those still alive while we look forward to the future that we hope can bring peace for us.

The terrorists and criminals are targeting all elements of life and they target anyone who wants to do something good for this country…They think by assassinating one of us they could deter us from going forward but will never succeed, they can delay us for years but we will never go back and abandon our dream.
We have vowed to follow the steps of our true martyrs and we will raise the new generation to continue the march, these children of today are the hope and the future.

What a difference between those who work to preserve life and those who work to end it…it’s terrorism and crime and there are no other words to describe these acts.
They will keep trying to steal life from us and we will keep fighting back and we will keep exposing them but not with bullets and swords, we never carried arms and we will never do because we are not afraid and because we are not weak unlike those cowards who know no language but that of treason.
April will always be there to remind us of the sacrifice and remind us of the dream we fight for.

My God keep safe the Iraqis and their friends who stand with them in their noble cause, peace and prosperity may seem far away but we will get there and I hope our sacrifices be a bridge to a better world.

If you’d like to express your condolences to Mohammed at ITM, here’s his email address: itmblog@gmail.com

My prayers go out to him and his family.

Good. Via NKU’s Northerner site:

The Northern Kentucky University professor responsible for dismantling an anti-abortion display April 12 has stopped talking to the media and has been placed on administrative leave.

Dr. Sally Jacobsen returned The Northerner’s calls Tuesday evening and said she has been advised by her attorney not to grant any more interviews. She directed further inquiries to her attorney, Margo Grubbs of Grubbs Law Firm in Covington, Ky.

However, in an e-mail dated April 18, Jacobsen wrote to students whom she invited to join the demonstration. “I want to do everything I can to keep any of you from being specifically named,” she said. “And I am very sorry I got you involved in this.”

Jacobsen also apologized in a television interview. She expressed her regret for including students and voiced her concern for the welfare of those students.

In an online report released Thursday evening, The Northerner reported Jacobsen, along with approximately 10 students from her Studies of Contemporary British Literature class, removed 400 white crosses from the hill in front of the Fine Arts Building. Those involved knocked the crosses over before throwing them in trash cans around the plaza.

Jacobsen urged students to spread the crosses around the plaza to “make it harder” to get them back.

Stay tuned ….

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• Unhinged professors and teachers link roundup
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Via AP:

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush’s administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff and could lead to a change in the Cabinet.

Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president boarded a helicopter at the start a trip to Alabama, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercefully with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.”

Bush said McClellan had “a challenging assignment.”

“I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity,” the president said. “It’s going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days.”

Also, in an ongoing shakeup of the president’s staff, longtime confidant and adviser Karl Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Just over a year ago, Rove was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy coordination. That new portfolio came on top of his title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Bush.

But now, the job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan, now the White House’s deputy budget director, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet made the announcement.

The move signals a possibly broad effort to rearrange and reinvigorate Bush’s staff by new chief of staff Joshua Bolten. Bolten moved into his position last week; Kaplan was his No. 2 person at the Office of Management and Budget.

More: Fox News radio talk show host Tony Snow has been approached by the WH as a possible replacement - heh (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Check out Rightwinged.com for many links and updates on the Snow speculation.

Update I: The Political Pit Bull takes us down McClellan memory lane with a video montage.

Update II: Via Hotline, more speculation on who will replace McClellan:

Rob Nichols, currently the pres. of the Financal Services Forum? Insiders think his appointment is unlikely, although he does know Bolten.

Dan Bartlett It would obviously be a step down, but he is arguably the best on-camera communicator the Bush White House has… and he has a good relationship with most members of the press. He’s also — obviously — very close to Bolten and Bush. He could do it for the rest of the year, groom a deputy in the meantime.

Victoria Clark — She’s close to Bolten, and, importantly, could assert herself as a peer to Rove and Bartlett. Would she take the job if her access to Bush and Bolten were guaranteed? Would the WH worry about her role as Pentagon spokeswoman during the Iraq war? Still, Clarke, asked a few weeks back about whether she’d take the job, replied: “You know, what did Sherman say? If nominated, won’t run; if elected, will not serve. Not happening.”

Dan Senor – very well liked, but some in the president’s circle believe that he enjoyed the spotlight a bit too much when he was Bremer’s press guy. The Bush White House doesn’t reward flash and sizzle, at least when manifested by aides to the president. His recent marriage to NBCer Campbell Brown is considered by some Republicans to be a “deal-breaker.”

Brian Jones — currently the RNC’s comm. dir. Considered one of the best managers in the GOP comm. business. But he’ll likely stay at the RNC. He also lacks on-camera experience.

Ron Bonjean — current comm. dir to Denny Hastert; former comm. chief for Don Evans; has crisis experience, to boot. (He worked for Trent Lott during the relevant period of Mr. Lott’s career.) Smart and talented and well-liked by the press. However, he is also not likely to leave his current job.

My personal preference would be Stephen Hayes, but then that would mean he’d 1) be too tied to the admin and 2) would mean he wouldn’t have as much time to focus on the Iraq/AQ connections.

The Whistler at the Say Anything blog has a post up about New Orleans mayoral candidate Kimberly Williamson Butler regarding the photo she has up on her official website. Apparently, it’s a photo of her at Disneyland - with the Disneyland trash can Photoshopped out.

Wonkette has more, including a related post that provides some, shall we say, ‘interesting’ info on Butler. They quoted a story from NOLA.com:

Ending one strange political saga by starting another, the clerk of New Orleans Criminal District Court, Kimberly Williamson Butler, surrendered herself to an irate criminal court judge Friday morning after a week of ignoring court orders and arrest warrants, and then walked outside the courthouse to announce her candidacy for mayor.

In comments leading up to the surprise announcement, Butler said she had “grown” over her past week in seclusion, and that her mercurial political career makes her uniquely qualified to relate to common folk, including those who have been fired and accused of breaking the law.

The charge:

Criminal District Court judges had sought Butler’s arrest after she defied a court order to transfer the authority over her office’s FEMA application and the cleanup of its flooded property room to an outside judge, appointed to take on that task by the state Supreme Court.

The kicker: she was a former ‘top official’ in Mayor Ray “choclate city” Nagin’s administration:

“When I got kicked out of City Hall, when I got fired, people told me, you know Ms. Butler, I can relate to that,” said the former top official in Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration. “Now, all of a sudden, I’ve had to stand in court, and I can identify with people that had to stand in court. All of a sudden, I can identify with people who have been falsely accused. I can identify with people who have made mistakes and had to stand before judges.”

Priceless.

Related Toldjah So posts:

• Nagin watch - Nagin plays race card in N.O. mayoral campaign
• Mayor Nagin may not get his “chocolate city” wish
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• Nagin revises “chocolate city” comment
• N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin wants a “chocolate” New Orleans

Via the AJC:

The official police report on Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s clash with a Capitol Hill police officer three weeks ago says the DeKalb County congresswoman struck the officer “in his chest with [a] closed fist.”

The “event report” — obtained Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — describes the altercation as an assault on a police officer.

The officer involved in the incident, identified as Paul McKenna, filed the report with his supervisors immediately after the incident occurred at 8:55 a.m. March 29.

The report for the first time provides specific details of what happened when McKenna tried to stop McKinney from going around a security checkpoint at a House office building.

There had previously been reports that McKinney “stabbed” the officer with a cellphone or that she slapped McKenna with an open hand.

McKinney said she was the victim of racial profiling and that the officer had touched her inappropriately when he tried to stop her.

But under pressure from House Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus, McKinney, a Democrat, apologized for the incident on the House floor last week.

McKinney’s office declined to comment on the report Tuesday, saying it involved a pending legal matter.

The report does not identify McKinney by name. It only describes her and identifies her as a suspect.

[…]

The decision as to whether McKinney will be charged remains in the hands of a grand jury in Washington.

U.S. Attorney Ken Wainstein turned the matter over to the grand jury two weeks ago. Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he met last week with McKenna and asked him to consider filing a lawsuit against McKinney.

Charge her. The sooner the better.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin, who has more links related to this story.

Related Toldjah So posts:

• McKinney apologizes
• He’s mad as heck, and he’s not gonna take it anymore!
• McKinney makes statement on altercation
• Arrest warrant in the works for McKinney?
• McKinney punches Capitol Hill police officer
• Race-baiting Democrats and the media’s complicity

Jamie Glazov at FrontPage magazine has a must-read interview posted that he did with Thomas Joscelyn on some new revelations that are emerging from the recently released intelligence documents that were discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joscelyn in the past has teamed up with the tenacious Stephen Hayes regarding the connections between Saddam and Osama. From the interview (emphasis added):

FP: Do we have any idea what is in the Iraqi Intelligence documents regarding Saddam’s ties to al Qaeda and global terrorism?

Joscelyn: Yes, we do. But first, a caveat. Since so few of the documents have been reviewed, it is difficult to say what the complete picture of Saddam’s activities will look like. We also know that a large number of documents and other pieces of media were destroyed as U.S. forces entered the country. Furthermore, the majority of the documents have not been authenticated. Great care should be exercised in analyzing these documents and we should always be wary of forgeries.

However, the Iraqi intelligence documents that have been authenticated by the U.S. intelligence community offer a startling view of Saddam’s ties to global terrorism, including al Qaeda.

One IIS document, in particular, has received significant attention. The document was apparently authored in early 1997 and summarizes a number of contacts between Iraqi Intelligence and Saudi oppositionist groups, including al Qaeda, during the mid 1990’s. The document says that in early 1995 bin Laden requested Iraqi assistance in two ways. First, bin Laden wanted Iraqi television to carry al Qaeda’s anti-Saudi propaganda. Saddam agreed. Second, bin Laden requested Iraqi assistance in performing “joint operations against the foreign forces in the land of Hijaz.” That is, bin Laden wanted Iraq’s assistance in attacking U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia.

We do not know what, exactly, came of bin Laden’s second request. But the document indicates that Saddam’s operatives “were left to develop the relationship and the cooperation between the two sides to see what other doors of cooperation and agreement open up.” Thus, it appears that both sides saw value in working with each other. It is also worth noting that in the months following bin Laden’s request, al Qaeda was tied to a series of bombings in Saudi Arabia.

The same document also indicates that Iraq was in contact with Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, the head of the Committee for Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR). The CDLR is a known al Qaeda propaganda organ based in London. The document indicates that the IIS was seeking to “establish a nucleus of Saudi opposition in Iraq” and to “use our relationship with [al-Massari] to serve our intelligence goals.” The document also notes that Iraq was attempting to arrange a visit for the al Qaeda ideologue to Baghdad. Again, we can’t be certain what came of these contacts.

Just recently, however, al-Massari confirmed that Saddam had joined forces with al Qaeda prior to the war. Al-Massari says that Saddam established contact with the “Arab Afghans” who fled Afghanistan to northern Iraq in 2001 and that he funded their relocation to Iraq under the condition that they would not seek to undermine his regime. Upon their arrival, these al Qaeda terrorists were put in contact with Iraqi army personnel, who armed and funded them.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip: All Things Beautiful

Related Toldjah So posts:

• Even more documents show Saddam targeted US interests
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• Post war Afghanistan and Iraq documents to be released
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• The Syria/Iraq WMD connection
• Saddam’s #2 air force official: WMDs were moved to Syria
• Confirmed: Iraq was a terrorist training center
• Pentagon briefing docs on Iraq/AQ connection from 2002
• Where did the WMDs go?
• Show Hayes the documents!
• Pre-war Iraq and Syria: closer than we thought
• AQ/SH connections: Must read
• More evidence of OBL/Hussein connections
• Iraq and Al Qaeda: More connections
• No terrorism in Iraq before the war?

The movie about United Airlines Flight 93, scheduled to be released on April 28th, has stirred up the debate on whether or not it’s “too soon” for a big screen release of a movie about 9-11.

A theater in New York City even pulled the trailer for the movie (titled “United 93″) after some moviegoers found it ‘too upsetting’:

“I don’t think people are ready for this,” theater manager Kevin Adjodha said.

“One lady was crying,” Adjodha told Newsweek. “She was saying that we shouldn’t have played the trailer. That this was wrong.”

While I can understand the trailer touching a raw nerve, and would understand why some family members of the 9-11 terrorist attacks would be sensitive about it, the question I have for the rest of the country is “will there ever be a right time?”

My opinion on that is that now is that every day is the right time to remember and focus on the story of Flight 93, and the overall scope of what happened on 9-11. Unfortunately, I think too many people have forgotten or have shoved in the back of their minds what happened that day - some because it’s too painful to think about and others because life has just ‘gone on.’ We need to be reminded often of the painful lessons of that day so we don’t forget for one second what’s at stake in the war on terror.

The movie sounds like one that Hollywood finally got right, because some of the family members of the victims of the United Flight 93 terrorist hijack attack have come out in support of the film:

But Peggy Beamer, whose son Todd Beamer died on United flight 93, said that while she found the movie difficult to watch, it was an important story to tell.

“I think the timing is very good,” she said on Tuesday at a New York press event for the Universal Pictures film. “If it had been one or two years after September 11, it would have been much too difficult.”

Gordon Felt, who lost his brother Edward, said the movie studio had promised to donate 10 percent of box office takings from the opening weekend to a fund to create a memorial for those who died on that flight.

“I don’t think they’re profiteering on our story,” he said, adding that the business of movie companies was to make money.

The producers spent hours talking to the families to produce research the actors used to improvise scenes on the plane during the hijack.

Ms. Underestimated has a write up and video of David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer, Felt, and “United 93″ producer Lloyd Levin - all of them were on Hannity and Colmes earlier this evening:

David Beamer and Gordon Felt both talk about how grateful the families were that Mr. Levin and the entire production crew of “United 93″ included the families of those on the flight, and said (unlike some Americans) this film NEEDS to be seen! They gave it their wholehearted blessing. Even Alan said he had seen it the night before, saying it was very “compelling.” You could tell, too, that Alan also was moved by what he saw. He said “there were some moments that you couldn’t even look at the screen.”

You can view the video by scrolling down that page.

Also, via WIStv:

It is, perhaps, too real for some, but not for all. Alice Hoagland, for instance, says, “It’s about time.”

Hoagland’s son Mark Bingham was a passenger on Flight 93, “Our family lives September 11th every day of our lives. It’s never going to be too soon for us to see September 11th portrayed on the big screen.”

Amen.

Watch the trailer of the movie by clicking here.

I’ll be seeing it.

Related Toldjah So posts:

• Misty eyes
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• Flight 93 Memorial update
• “The Flight That Fought Back”
• Remembering 9-11-01