Yet no one seems to be asking it
As the Israeli-Hamas conflict continues to dominate the news, your narrator has a piece up at the Washington Times that lays out the case for the case… against the Hamas leadership.
Considering that the group has killed 32 American citizens and are holding at least 10 hostage — while the group’s leadership luxuriates in Qatar, a nominal American ally — one would think the idea of indicting and extraditing Hamas’s leadership would be central to the administration’s discussions with the media and public.
One would be wrong.
The Captagon Clue
It seems that our prediction here, regarding the Hamas attackers likely being drugged on 10/7, has been borne out by subsequent reporting. The important takeaway here: the amphetamine used, Captagon, is manufactured and controlled by Shia Hezbollah. That Sunni Hamas was distributing it to their soldiers argues strongly that the overhead command for both groups — Iran — could well be coordinating. Especially when you consider someone had to pay for it.
Many don’t realize what a driving principle for events in the Middle East the Sunni/Shia divide is. Both consider the other side to be apostates. And even in the current situation, it’s not unreasonable to posit that the only reason Iran supports Hamas is to use them — as they did here — to control “the Arab street” (Sunnis are far more numerous than Shia across the region).
Perhaps the only thing Iran fears more than a strong Israel? A strong (Sunni) Saudi Arabia — which would eclipse Iran as the dominant power in the Islamic world.
Hamas is like the Sunnis’ errant, uncontrollable child. One that Iran is only too happy to feed candy and point at the neighbors.
Lewiston And The Blame Game
Much of the media has already moved on from the Lewiston shooting, now that Robert Card is dead. But in the tragedy’s aftermath, the situation up there among law enforcement is getting decidedly ugly.
First, there is this statement, reportedly from Jon Guay, a Sergeant and 24-year veteran of the Androscoggin Sheriff’s Office:
Further, it’s now becoming apparent that not only the Army, but Robert Card’s family actually informed the police that there was a chance Card “is going to snap and commit a mass shooting.”
Looks like officials in Maine are starting to realize just how ugly it’s going to get. Click here or below for perhaps the most uncomfortable 90 seconds of press conference you’ve seen since, I don’t know, KJP’s latest one.
The Governor’s starting to take some heavy incoming. She’d better stand up an investigatory committee, fast.
The Politics of Mass Murder
Naturally, President Biden’s statement following the Lewiston killings was to politicize it (not that Biden actually wrote or read it).
Undoubtedly, however, one of the results of Maine will be a renewed focus on Maine’s “yellow flag” law, and on red flag laws around the country.
The counterweight, of course, will be that the Second Amendment is right in the Bill of Rights — making it a constitutional right and very hard to overcome in our system.
But that said: The Second Amendment is not absolute. Limitations which include due process will withstand constitutional scrutiny. And we would benefit if the standards and practices for these “flag” laws were synchronized, nationally.
Republicans would be wise to embrace the process — thereby taking a talking point of the left off the table, while preserving the right-to-bear-arms for the law-abiding and mentally sound.
Republicans would also be wise to invoke an important statistic: of the firearms-related deaths that occur each year, only roughly 3% are caused by so-called “assault weapons.”
The vast majority of the rest are handguns — undoubtedly, mostly illegal handguns.
It would be easier to take the White House and the left seriously on the gun issue if they would acknowledge this simple fact — and enforce the laws we have.
Guns could be a winning issue for the right. But every time we get a Lewiston, another generation decides the Second Amendment is the problem.
Lewiston’s Outstanding Questions
Where’s the boat? As per the Coast Guard, Card’s main boat (from my understanding, a roughly 20’ “Sea-Doo” river boat) remains unaccounted for — leading to numerous theories that ended up inaccurate. Where the hell is it?
Why would the police entertain the idea that he was on the river in his missing boat, launched from the Miller Park boat ramp, if there was no empty boat trailer there? It’s a boat launch, not a marina. Boats are not moored there permanently.
How did the dogs not locate him the first day? He was a mile from the car.
What was his connection to the two locations? Is there a connection between the fact that he was losing his hearing and that he traveled to a second location that was holding “deaf night”?
Was he on medication? He appears much thinner in the video stills from the shooting than he does in the DMV photo the task force circulated. Patients taking psycho-tropic meds often complain of the side effects from the drugs, and stop taking them. One of the side effects is weight gain — cops hear this often.
Manslaughter? Or Part of the Game?
A legal debate of sorts has erupted over this play, in which hockey player Matt Petgrave appears to have lifted his leg towards the neck of opposing player Adam Johnson — resulting in Johnson’s death from a slashed neck.
(Caution: the full video is quite gruesome).
Now, all this happened during a game in a British league in London (they have hockey in England?). So it’ll be judged under English law, which is much the same as ours.
Like any sport, hockey is a game of patterns — the same approximate scenarios recur, over and over. And as someone who has been watching hockey nearly my whole life (and who played plenty): I’ve never seen a player lift his leg out like that. Ever.
To me, it looks purposeful. So: Intent to seriously injure, resulting in death. Manslaughter.
And the fact that it occurred during a hockey game is no defense. Injuries suffered during the normal course of a sporting contest are generally considered non-criminal because there is an assumption-of-risk; essentially, the players agree to the norms of the game, however rough.
But this is so outside the normal context of hockey, the assumption-of-risk goes out the window.
There is precedent for this. In 2004, Todd Bertuzzi of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks broke the neck of an opposing player, well outside the normal course of play. Bertuzzi was suspended from the league, charged in Canada with assault, and sued.
The Met should Charge Matt Petgrave, and let a jury decide.
And finally….
New Mexico authorities have announced that Alec Baldwin is finally going to be charged.
Right. And Mideast peace is just around the corner.
Why do I get the feeling a plea deal will be announced on an upcoming Friday evening… during the height of the Israeli ground offensive?
Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!
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