War Hero Ilario Pantano on the 911 Mega Mosque on the Burial Ground of Ground Zero

Port Authority Police and FDNY firefighters are seen here
gathered beneath this banner.

Hindu human rights activist Prasad Yalamanchi holds a sign detailing
moslem violence in Pakistan. Clockwise, a man beheaded in the street, the remains of Benazir Bhutto in the street after a suicide bomb attack, a woman disfigured by acid attack for some transgression of sharia law, refugees in a tent camp.

All photos above courtesy of El Marco.

War hero and candidate for Congress Ilario Pantano has written a brilliant piece on how a mega mosque on the burial ground at Ground Zero is another 911, in symbolism. He is another candidate we must get behind with everything like, Lt Colonel Allen West, Rick Barber, and Vijay Kumar.

They are out there, the great Americans who understand the grave threats facing America in the twenty-first century. They know who our enemies are, foreign and domestic.

Pantano is in a race that in January was considered “safely democratic”; it is now called a
50-50 toss-up.  Jim Geraghty of The National Review Online said Pantano's opponent, a seven-term Democrat and Pelosi-enabler, “would be safe in an
ordinary year.” Geraghty goes on to say that in looking hard at the North Carolina races, among
the GOP challengers to incumbent Democrats, "only Ilario Pantano stands
out."

A Mosque At Ground Zero? Forsaking Israel? What’s
Next…A Nuclear Iran?

By Ilario Pantano, on Jun
18, 2010. Also published at The Daily Caller and Military.com.

Cordoba Center sounds comfortably Latino and almost familiar in a
multi-ethnic city like New York. The names Spanish origin has a little bit of
history too: the Cordoba Mosque in Spain symbolized a gateway to Muslim conquest
of Western Europe a conquest that today is unfolding in real time. But as
disturbing as the Sharia invasion of the European Union might be, my concern is
the new $100 million mosque that will sit smugly just 600 feet from Ground Zero
in New York City.

This new Cordoba Mosque will occupy a building that was literally struck by
pieces of an exploding passenger aircraft deliberately piloted into the World
Trade Center by martyrs shouting Allahu Akbar. The suggestion that this
mysteriously funded mosque is anything other than a permanent demonstration of
Islams march on the West is nave at best.

This Cordoba Mosque is not benign. It is not about reconciliation or
understanding. It is about marking religious, ideological, and territorial
conquest. This mosque is a Martyr-Marker honoring the terrorists who less than a
decade ago killed thousands of us just two blocks away, and it must be
stopped.

I used to work in 4 World Trade Center, one of the buildings that was
destroyed on 9/11. That day, 3,000 murders and 300,000,000 nightmares marked the
scorching of our national psyche. It is almost profane to consider that the
number of innocents who perished is blessedly small compared to the devious
hopes of the plots Jihadist masterminds. Mega-mass murder on an even larger
scale was interrupted by the selfless heroism of a brave few that charged into
the inferno. Targets in our nations capitol were saved by the bravery of
ordinary citizens aboard a plane who that day did the extraordinary. Thousands
of lives were saved that September day by heroes whose sacrifices should never
be forgotten. But forgetting is something our society does shamefully well.

So is lying to ourselves.

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Denying the true intent of this new mosque at Ground Zero is the worst kind
of lie, and ignoring the symbolism of its location is a dereliction of duty.
Travel the graves at Fort Hood if you think that ignoring the truth in favor of
cultural reconciliation doesnt have consequences. Failing to be honest about the
Islamo-facist threats we face and who is behind them caused 12 people to die and
30 more to be wounded at Fort Hood late last year. Major Hassan was able to
commit his act of Jihad on a U.S. Army base because even soldiers were afraid to
do their duty. Fear of death was eclipsed by the bureaucratic stigma of being
deemed intolerant.

The Department of Homeland Security has reported that the pace and number of
attempted terror attacks against the U.S. over the past nine months has
surpassed the number of attempts during any previous one-year period. Do you
really think that this trend will slow down if we reward the bad behavior with a
Martyr-Marker?

If we allow mosques to go up like mushrooms everywhere there is a terrorist
bombing or shooting we will create a perverse incentive, not a deterrent. This
mosque at Ground Zero will serve as a big trophy and we are welcoming it? I was
deeply disappointed to learn that the local Manhattan community board and Mayor
Bloomberg were complicit in this sell-out of monumental proportions. Were they
bought out wholesale by the same folks that could mysteriously produce millions
in cash to buy a building and not leave a trace? Or were they simply bullied?

Is Mayor Bloomberg afraid that his namesake building might get turned to
match sticks if he offends the wrong crew? After all, they'll kill you for a
cartoon. Or does the threat of, say, beheading on video a la Daniel Pearl pale
in comparison to the risk of being labeled extremist by Muslim advocacy groups
or the liberal media that supports them? I can't pretend to get into the head of
the local community board, but having faced headless death threats from
jihadists myself, and the withering wrath of the liberal media, I know how
persistent these buggers can be.

The insult of the Ground Zero mosque is compounded by the use of Federal
dollars to make it possible. This is not just a local community board issue, nor
a mayoral issue. This is a national issue. Reconstruction and security costs are
being paid for by taxpayers from North Dakota to North Carolina. Ground Zero is
a national war memorial, and so long as Federal funds go to preserve, protect,
and rebuild it, a Federal voice should be heard. In 2009 alone, $475 million
dollars in DHS grants were spent on security for New York. The American people
have a say, and if there is no mechanism for Congress to outright stop the
Cordoba Mosque, then at the very least there must be an investigation into the
source of funding behind this affront so that when it is completed on September
11, 2011, the American people will know who to thank.

One thank you note can be struck early for the mosques front man:
Kuwaiti-born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, Rauf is
also the CEO of American Society for Muslim Advancement. But he's more than just
an apologist for the religion-based Sharia law, which many experts see in direct
opposition to the U.S. Constitution. Rauf is also a key member of the
Malaysia-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, reportedly the single biggest
donor to the Free Gaza Movement and its affiliated activists, which include
former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, as well
as Jodie Evans, the leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace (see
discoverthenetworks.org for information on this web of Leftist relationships).

You might recall the Free Gaza team organized the six-ship flotilla that
tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. It seems that when
Imam Rauf isnt raising money for Martyr-Markers in Manhattan, he is busy funding
international incidents to cast aspersions on Israel. By the way, did anyone
else notice how nicely that fabricated flotilla photo-op dovetailed as a cover
for Iranian nuclear activity? James Cameron couldn't have choreographed it
better. Am I the only one that notices that every time Irans nuclear
weaponization is about to be a focal point of world attention, they create a
crisis through their proxies by provoking Israel? I didn't dream the 2006
conflict with Hezbollah, did I? Just as the world prepares to get tough with
Iran, the rain of missiles begins to fall, only this time it is life preservers.

Now the world stage is focused on isolating our only democratic ally in the
Middle East, and members of the Obama administration and the Left are intent on
abandoning the Israelis just as they did months before with Poland and our
missile defenses in Europe. After 5,000 rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel,
can anyone say moral parity with a straight face? The American Left can. Today,
the cover of the snarky Economist magazine asks, What is wrong with Americas
Right? But they answered their own question by reporting that [a] gap in
sympathy for Israel has widened between Democrats and Republicans. Conservatives
still tend to back Israel through Hell and high seas. Well that's one gap I am
proud to stand on the right side of.

Go read the whole thing.