Back in the day when I was a young college lad, I had the opportunity to visit with a friend who resided in Pennsylvania.....at Villanova University to be precise.
We had the usual fun one would expect to occur at such a seat of "higher learning", and ventured down to Philadelphia for some evening pub crawling...
Late upon the evening in question, my buddy led us down to the Liberty Bell Museum, where you could observe the Liberty Bell, 24 hours a day, as it was in a building that featured a large glass window, illuminated brightly for late night Bell Observers like ourselves.....
In the state of mind we were in at the time, he showed us the Liberty Bell, and then pressed a button on the wall next to the outside window....in a second or two, an automated voice started speaking from the small speaker mounted on the wall extoling, " THIS IS THE LIBERTY BELL..."
At this point, my buddy and his local pals yelled out at the top of their voices,
" NO SHIT ! ", and then proceeded to laugh themselves silly....
They apparently developed this "ritual" over a number of excursions to the site late at night....
From that day on, any " No Shit " issue became a " Liberty Bell" as this was the inside joke and a politer way of stating the obvious....
And here we arrive at the latest info put out by the present Administration that qualifies for a large " LIBERTY BELL" response....
Especially since Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and they represent a clear & present danger to all the world if these idiots get them....
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Report: Al-Qaida in Pakistan gravest threat to US
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 5, 4:56 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday that al-Qaida's core membership in Pakistan, along with affiliates in Africa and Yemen, poses the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States and its interests abroad.
In its annual report on global terrorism, the
The report for 2009 also said the terrorist network remains "actively engaged in operational plotting" of attacks against U.S. and Western targets around the world.
As in previous years, the report identified Iran as the most active "state sponsor of terrorism" and said its backing of militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia played a highly destabilizing role in those regions. The report also left unchanged "state sponsor" designations for Cuba,
It also found that an increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan triggered a spike in the number of civilians killed or wounded there last year, pushing South Asia past the
On al-Qaida in Pakistan, the report said the group is "the most formidable terrorist organization" targeting the U.S. homeland and "has proven to be an adaptable and resilient terrorist group whose desire to attack the United States and
It said the organization was "was actively engaged in operational plotting against the United States and continued recruiting, training, and deploying operatives, including individuals from
Although the Pakistani government has taken some steps to rein in the group, al-Qaida's losses have been at least "partially offset" by partnerships, shared connections and objectives with groups such as the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Somalia-based al-Shabab, the report said.
The State Department noted with concern that al-Qaida, particularly in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, appeared to be attracting growing numbers of radicalized Americans to its cause. Underscoring that concern, the Justice Department on Thursday announced indictments against a number of U.S. citizens for supporting al-Shabab.
"The assumption that Americans have some special immunity to al-Qaida's ideology (has been) dispelled," said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator.
In 2009, five Americans were arrested on terrorism charges in Pakistan, while the Yemeni group was held responsible for the attempted Dec. 25 bombing of a U.S. jetliner as it landed in Detroit, he noted.
U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a spiritual leader believed to be in Yemen, had links with both the failed bombing and the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
Awlaki "has catalyzed a pool of potential recruits that others have failed to reach,"
"We should make no mistake about the nature of Awlaki. This is not just an ideologue but someone at the heart of a group plotting terrorist acts against Americans."
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