Michelle Malkin

March 15, 2010

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children

JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)

Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT

March 12, 2010

Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth

JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)

Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades

March 11, 2010

Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread

JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash

Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing

March 10, 2010

Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In

JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)

Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded

Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.

March 9, 2010

Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure

JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)

David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral

March 8, 2010

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?

JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)

Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion

March 5, 2010

Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied

JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)

Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause

March 4, 2010

Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?

JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative

March 3, 2010

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: NEVER!!!

JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub

March 2, 2010

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there

Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?

March 1, 2010

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Lender responsibility

JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)

Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute

Feb. 26, 2010

Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring

JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)

Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost

Feb. 25, 2010

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense

JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)

Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives

Feb. 24, 2010

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’

Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack

Feb. 23, 2010

Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!

JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)

Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes

Feb. 22, 2010

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?

JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)

Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk

Feb. 19, 2010

Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?

JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)

Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State

Feb. 18, 2010

Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?

JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)

Everything's Relative By Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel : The altruist in hell

Feb. 17, 2010

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Entitlement Vs. Charity

JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)

Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah

Feb. 16, 2010

Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet

JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)

Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief

Feb. 15, 2010

Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews

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Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review Sept. 11, 2009 / 22 Elul 5769

How Obama Cronyism Threatens Rail Security

By Michelle Malkin

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | New Delhi. Mumbai. Chechnya. Madrid. London. The question isn't whether America will suffer a jihadi attack on our passenger rail lines, but when. So, why has President Obama neutered the nation's most highly trained post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism rail security team?

All signs point to business-as-usual cronyism and pandering to power-grabbing union bosses.

Amtrak's Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations (OSSSO) grew out of a counterterrorism and intelligence unit developed by the Bush administration in the wake of global jihadi attacks on mass transit systems. The office was staffed with Special Forces veterans, law enforcement officers, railroad specialists, other military personnel and experts who collectively possessed hundreds of years of experience fighting on the front lines against terrorism. Each member underwent at least 800 hours of rail security-related training, including advanced marksmanship, close quarters combat and protective security exercises.

OSSSO's mobile prevention teams acted as "force multipliers" working with local, state and federal authorities across the country to detect, deter and defend against criminal and terrorist attacks on mass transit. They conducted hundreds of show-of-force, uniformed and rail marshal rides.

OSSSO also provided security services for President Bush, the pope, the 2008 Democrat and Republican conventions, then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign events and then-Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden's Amtrak whistle-stop tours. The counterterrorism unit's push to conduct random passenger and baggage screening earned predictable criticism from civil liberties absolutists, but also garnered bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill. Even Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas hailed the rail security team's work last year.

"Let me congratulate them for being aware" of the threat to rail passengers, the chairman of a House homeland security subcommittee on transportation security told USA Today in July 2008. "(But) this has to be the new standard for Amtrak."

How will Congress react to the news that this high standard has been obliterated?

According to multiple government sources who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, OSSSO's East Coast and West Coast teams have not worked in a counterterrorism capacity since the summer. Their long arms were put under lock and key after the abrupt departures of Amtrak Vice President for Security Strategy and Special Operations Bill Rooney and Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold.

Weiderhold played an instrumental role in creating OSSSO's predecessor at Amtrak, the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU). He tapped Rooney to oversee the office. But Rooney was quietly given the "thank you for your service" heave-ho in May, and Weiderhold was unexpectedly "retired" a few weeks later — just as the government-subsidized rail service faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes.

As I reported in June, Weiderhold had blown the whistle on intrusion of Amtrak's Law Department into his financial audits and probes. A damning 94-page report from an outside legal firm concluded that the "independence and effectiveness" of the Amtrak inspector general's office were "being substantially impaired" by the Law Department — which happens to be headed by Eleanor Acheson, a close pal of Vice President Biden.

Biden, in turn, is tight with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the powerful union that represents the Amtrak Police Department. According to OSSSO sources, the APD brass have been aggrieved over the non-unionized counterterrorism unit's existence from its inception.

A West Coast OSSSO team member told me that union leaders blocked police credentialing efforts by his office for more than a year. An East Coast OSSSO team member told me that the FOP recently filed a grievance against one of its counterterrorism officers for assisting a train conductor who asked for help in ejecting a ticketless passenger.

Unlike the highly specialized officers at OSSSO, APD officers possess minimal counterterrorism training. Past studies show alarmingly low pass rates among APD patrolmen who have attended basic special operations classes, according to government sources. The Amtrak FOP continues to squabble over turf with the rival Teamsters union — its leaders can't even agree on minimal physical fitness standards for its members, which have yet to be implemented.

Nevertheless, OSSSO is now under the command and control of the APD — and federal stimulus funding specifically earmarked for the counterterrorism unit has now been absorbed by the police department.

Amtrak did not respond to my questions about OSSSO by my column deadline Thursday afternoon.

Al-Qaida operatives have repeatedly plotted to wreak havoc on our mass transit systems. And they will try, try again. American jihadi Bryant Neal Vinas recently gave the feds details about a plot to blow up a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in New York's Penn Station. As America marks the Sept. 11 anniversary and the "never forget" mantra echoes, an OSSSO team member told me, "There is no room for internal protectionism, vested interests of unions or asset-manipulating bureaucracies where the safety of our national passenger railroad is concerned." Does anyone else in Washington agree?

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