By Debbie Schlussel
For many years, I’ve been repeatedly writing about how Yasser Arafat personally ordered the murders of two U.S. Diplomats in Khartoum Sudan in 1973–U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel and Charge D’Affaires George Curtis Moore. I even talked about it on, of all places, the Howard Stern Show, right after 9/11.
At the time of the murders, Moore was the highest ranking Black man in the U.S. Foreign Service. This was in the days before Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice ruled the roost at State and had it easy. But when they found the bodies of the two–Noel, who was White, and Moore, who was Black–they were so badly tortured and beaten, that authorities could not tell which was the Black man and which was the White man. Dental records had to be used to identify them.

NSA Analyst James J. Welsh Intercepted Arafat Plot to Murder Americans
Even though we’ve known for years who ordered this–our government had bugging devices and recordings of Arafat personally ordering their murders–the State Department would never admit this, preferring, instead, to protect Arafat and shield him from indictment for murder by the U.S. government, something that should have happened while Arafat was alive.
Yesterday, the New York Sun Blog, It Shines For All, reported that the State Department finally admitted to Arafat’s personal involvement in these senseless murders of Americans serving their country overseas. Here are the official, de-classified documents.
But not only did I know about it years before, in 2002, James J. Welsh, the National Security Agency’s Palestinian communications analyst from 1970-74 (who heard the tapes and first intercepted Arafat’s murder plans), contacted me to confirm that I was right. Fluent in Arabic and Chinese, he was a Navy First Class (CTI1) assigned to the National Security Agency.
The following are his e-mails to me and his statement to Members of Congress (while Arafat was still alive), which, sadly, went ignored. Republican U.S. Senator John Kyl, for instance, told Welsh he wasn’t interested because “we all know Arafat is a bad guy.” Sadly, also, the NSA and State Department knew ahead of time of Arafat’s plan to murder the Diplomats, but someone “downgraded” the threat and it only arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan after Noel and Moore were murdered.
I’ve removed his e-mail and snail-mail addresses to protect his privacy:

—James Welsh wrote:
From: James Welsh
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: Arafat and Khartoum
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 06:58:53 -0800
Dear Ms. Schlussel,
I just read your column today on Congressman Issa. I note your comments on Arafat’s part in the Khartoum affair. I would like to thank you for your mentioning the murders of these two men. I wish every columnist in our country and all members of Congress would keep that particular crime in mind when discussing Arafat and the peace process.
When the Khartoum situation was happening, Arafat was alternately telling the press how he was trying to get the hostages released and then, when he would return to the Fatah Headquarters building, he would instruct the hostage takers on the next step in the demand process. You see I am the James Welsh who was the National Security Agency’s Palestinian communications analyst from 1970-74.
For the past year and a half I have been trying to educate Congress and the American public that Arafat is not just an Israeli problem. America has an isue to settle with this man also. The peace at any
price Arabists in the State Department have been resisting, with everything they have, any release of the evidence that NSA and CIA taped during that crisis in Khartoum. The true facts of this ugly story have been deliberately withheld from the American public for “reasons of state”.
Yes, it is a 29 year old story but there is no statute of limitations on murder. Someday the evidence will be released and those who denied the American people this knowledge for so many years will have some explaining to do. Had Arafat been exposed in 1973 (as he should have) he would never have been able to achieve the power that he has attained today. Sad to say, his continued presence in the world’s political theatre is to some degree due to our own government’s policies.
Well, I will end this and again thank you for keeping this issue before the public.
James Welsh

***

—– Original Message —–
From: James J Welsh
To: John_Rood@kyl.senate.gov
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 9:04 PM
Subject: Statement of James J.Welsh
Dear Member of Congress,
My name is James J.Welsh. Twenty-seven years ago I was a Signals Intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency. I was, along with another individual, responsible for the analysis of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) communications. On approximately 27 March 1973, a NSA field station informed us that it had intercepted a conversation between Yasser Arafat and Salah Khalaf, the leaders of Fatah, in Beirut and Khalil al-Wazir in Khartoum discussing preparations for an imminent operation in Khartoum.
This information was immediately passed through the chain of command at NSA and ultimately was brought to the attention of the Director, NSA (DIRNSA). A decision was made to send this message at Flash (highest) precedence to the US Embassy Khartoum via State Department, as channels required. Within three hours this was done and we all felt relieved that at least our embassy personnel in Khartoum would be safe. How wrong we were.
On the morning of March 1, 1973 I was called at home by NSA to turn on the Television and come in to work. As I saw the news my heart sank. The US Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission were being held hostage at the Saudi Arabian Embassy by members of the Black September Organization, a Palestinian terrorist group whose credits included the Munich Olympic Games Massacre.
How could this be? We sent them the warning. They would never have gone to that reception under these conditions. There was much confusion at the time and I and other analysts began to try to make sense of the chaotic happenings we were following. Finally the terrible news was revealed – the Ambassador and Chief of Mission were dead.
We eventually went home.
On Monday morning the subject in our area was obviously nothing but this topic. (Note that all knew of this tragedy but only a few knew of the warning message). Myself and my co-worker began inquiries into how this had happened. We were told that DIRNSA was at that moment
on the way to State Department with a copy of the warning with the intention of discovering why it had apparently not been heeded. At State Department,he was shocked to find out that,on the evening of its transmittal to State Department a Watch Officer, in what is now called the Investigations and Review Section, had downgraded this urgent warning message to a routine cable. It arrived two days after the murders.
Within the G7 group where we worked there was a great deal of outrage. I was particulary outraged as I had spent four years following these individuals and, at the moment of our greatest intelligence coup against them, a uninformed GS level had pooh-poohed our work and cost the lives of two US diplomats. I demanded to confront this person (a rather naive desire I must admit) and find out why she had done this. After some effort by my supervisor, a Navy Officer, I was told that the choice was mine:
Shut up or lose my clearance and get ready for Fleet Oiler duty within 48 hours. I gave in.
Over the next week, we awaited the arrival of the field intercept tapes and transcriptions. At least we would be able to gain valuable insight into this terrible affair and maybe even someday help punish those responsible. We waited. Finally I remember asking when would the tapes arrive? I was puzzled by the answer:
Oh, they’ve been looked at and there isn’t much there. !!!!!????? Wait a minute. Then, how could the field guys have given us all this detailed information that we based the warning message on and which in fact occurred two days later?
Something was not right. In addition, our folders with all our materials of the hostage crisis were never returned to us from the higher levels to which they had gone during the crisis. We in effect had nothing now of this affair.
The coverup had started. And it would last 27 years.
I should have gone to Congress 27 years ago and I do so belatedly now. I was a supporter of the Nixon Administration and to this day do believe that Mr. Nixon’s foreign policy skills were far superior to any other potential political rival at that time. However, we must all face the fact that he and his advisers were fearful of scandal. And this would have been a major one if it were to see the light of day. One could only imagine the headline in the Washington Post:
State Dept Fails to Warn Embassy, Ambassador, Assistant Dead!. No, that could not happen.
I now make the following charges:
1. That the existence of the Warning message was covered up in order to prevent embarassment to the State Department and the White House.
2. That all evidence that the warning message was based upon was collected at NSA and removed from the normal analytical departments were it would normally have been analyzed.
3. That all existing copies of cable sent belatedly to US Embassy Khartoum were collected and destroyed at US Embassy Khartoum per instructions at high level of Department of State or the White House. There would be no embarassment due to discovery of the delayed warn-
ing.
4. That for thirteen years no prosecution or political penalty could be extracted of Yasser Arafat and his subordinates due to the need to keep this warning hidden from any scrutiny. Any public ackowledgement of the existence of the tapes made before, during and after the murders would have inevitably led back to the delayed warning message. That when, in 1985 and 1986, Congress requested then Attorney General Meese to investigate the matter of Yasser Arafat’s direct complicity in these murders, the coverup was continued to protect those who had initiated it thirteen years before.
5. That subsequent administrations have, in fact, been appraised of the authenticity of Arafat’s voice on the tapes and have chosen, for political reasons, to turn a blind eye to the direct guilt of Yasser Arafat in the cold blooded murders of Cleo Noel and George Moore.
6. That not only did more than one United States intercept site copy conversations between the terrorists in Khartoum and the Fatah office in Beirut but that at least two foreign intelligence agencies did in fact copy said communications and turn them over to the United States
government at the time of the affair.
After twenty-seven years I can come to no other conclusion for the lack of interest by the government of the United States in holding Yasser Arafat at least politically liable, if not legally, than that there was a coverup due to the delayed, bungled delivery of the warning message.
In over two months of talking to actual principals in the affair, to those who have written the definitive books on the incident, to those in Congress who took testimony on this tragic event, not one, not one solitary person has acknowledged any knowledge of a warning message.
But we have a source. Those who participated with me in the writing of this message still live. You will be able to finally find the truth if you will subpeona them to come before your commitee. I will give you their names in secret.
Next I believe I know the name of the State Department Watch Officer who downgraded the message. I will supply that name to you also.
Members of Congress, it is now up to you. I have given you what I believe are the keys to unlock the puzzle of why Yasser Arafat walks the halls of the White House with impunity in spite of everyone’s belief in his personal guilt. Follow this trail and you will find the true answer.
Respectfully,
James J. Welsh

By Debbie Schlussel
Yesterday, we brought you the press’ sob story over the Lackawanna Six Al-Qaeda terrorists. Their likely pro-jihad families are sad that their terrorist relatives were transferred to an Indiana prison, and they’ll now have to travel to visit them.
Today, it’s Osama Awadallah’s turn for the tears. And this time it’s AP that’s doing the crying.
Awadallah, a Jordanian Palestinian, was friends with 9/11 hijackers Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Midhar. And he lied to the FBI about knowing them.
Instead of going to prison and then being deported, this chutzpahdik Muslim friend of terrorists who murdered 3,000 Americans is suing us AND seeking U.S. citizenship (his father already has attained that).
And don’t worry. Our sorry joke of a government–and its Citizenship and Immigration Services–will give Awadallah that citizenship.

Then & Now, Fat & Happy FoH (Friend of Hijackers) Osama Awadallah
AP tells us that before 9/11, “he had never even gotten a parking ticket.” BFD. Mohammed Atta and most of the hijackers could say the same thing. It’s a distinction without a difference, as most of the fertilizer in this article is.
More of the BS:

In spite of his experience, he is moving ahead with long-held plans to apply for U.S. citizenship. He graduated with honors last spring from San Diego State University, is looking for a computer technician job and is studying for graduate school entrance exams.
“I want to move on from this, find my lucky girl and just be like every other American,” he said recently at a restaurant in this San Diego suburb.
An observant Muslim, he politely declined to shake hands with a female reporter. He began with brusque questions about why he was being interviewed, but quickly relaxed in conversation.
“I watch what I say, who I’m talking to these days,” he said. “The real effect is in trusting people.”

Un-fricking-believable. He’s not trusting us? Uh, shouldn’t the “real effect” be us not trusting him?!

Awadallah grew up in Jordan while his father and three older brothers came to San Diego to start a courier business. In 1999, he joined his father by then a naturalized U.S. citizen as a legal resident.

A courier business? Muslims never use those to transport cash for terrorist operations, do they?

On Sept. 21, the FBI picked him up for questioning because agents found his phone number on a piece of paper in a car registered to Al-Hazmi. . . .
Awadallah says, he was flown to New York, placed in solitary confinement with no access to his family or his lawyer, repeatedly strip-searched and subjected to bruising physical force by guards.
“Suddenly all these fingers were pointing at me, people were telling me I was responsible for 4,000 deaths,” Awadallah said. “That I cannot forget. It’s impossible for anyone to imagine how that feels.”

How that feels?! How about how it feels to be on a plane and slam your life into oblivion while hitting a skyscraper? How about how it feels to have your throat slit because you were a flight attendant or captain of a plane? How it feels to be on the 80th floor of a building and get crushed by the floor on top of you and bleed to death? Or have your body slammed out of a building, as you uncontrollably fall many stories below? Or how it feels to know you lost one or both of your parents because others did these things to them?

Taken before the grand jury in shackles, Awadallah said he had met al-Hazmi in San Diego but denied knowing al-Mihdhar until prosecutors confronted him with an assignment notebook for his English class in which he had written both men’s names.
Prosecutors charged him with two counts of perjury, alleging he had withheld potentially critical information about the hijackers. Defense attorneys said he had simply been confused, that he was tired, disoriented and struggling to understand legal terms in English.

Puh-leeze? Can’t understand English? He seems to be able to understand it quite well in conversing with sympathetic AP reporter, Allison Hoffman.

In December 2001 he was released on $500,000 bail [DS: Which idiot judge gave him bail?] and returned to San Diego, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet. His friends at school and at his mosque avoided him.
“They thought if they walked with me they’d get in trouble, and there were other people who even thought I was working for the government,” he said.
His case finally went to trial last April, ending in a mistrial after a lone juror held out against conviction. In November, a second jury found him not guilty.

Jurors on lone from the O.J. trial. And by the way, the other reason he got away with it is that numbskull Judge Shira Scheindlin (new President of the Stupid Judges and the Terrorists Who Love Them Club) ruled testimony by Osama Awadallah to a grand jury about the hijackers could not be used because the government had abused the material witness statute–a law allowing witnesses to be detained–in arresting him, something AP reporteratrix Allison Hoffman mysteriously fails to mention. Make no mistake, this guy had close ties to the hijackers and likely knew what they were about to do.

Awadallah has sued the government, alleging he was wrongly detained and mistreated by guards. . . .
“I’m happy for myself because of the verdict [DS: Bin Laden is happy for you, too], but I think I should fight for my rights,” Awadallah said. “My whole life has been affected.”

His whole life has been affected?! Again, see comments above about the 3,000 and their surviving family members. Then, tell me whose “whole life has been affected.”
That this guy is still here, walking free, suing us, and will likely become an American citizen, too boot, tells us all we need to know. And everything we already knew.
America, we are doomed. And allowing this guy to trample all over us, we are our own worst enemy.

By Debbie Schlussel
G-d works in mysterious ways.
Remember Maggie Gyllenhaal, the hideous movie star who said America is to blame for 9/11 and deserved it?:

Because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way.

Well, her holiday vacation went up in flames, literally. She and brother Jake Gyllenhaal were burned out of their vacation at Northern California’s Manka’s Inverness Lodge when a fire started there, early Wednesday Morning, after a tree fell and hit a water heater. Call that “Brokeback Burned Vacation.”

Strange Love: Gyllenhaal Sibs’ Weirdness Rivals Angelina Jolie & Bro
I feel sorry for the lodge’s co-owner, Daniel DeLong. But silly reporters feel more sorry for the Gyllenhaal brats, who had “to brave the wind and cold.”
So sad, too bad.
. . . Because I think Maggie Gyllenhaal has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way.

By Debbie Schlussel
Merry Something from the loony Islamic (redundant?) Republic of Iran.
Today’s Wall Street Journal “Washington Wire” reports that this was the greeting on Iran’s U.N. mission Holiday card, this year:

All humans are members of one frame;
Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain;
The other limbs cannot at rest remain.

Lovely. A Merry Something to you, too, Ahmadi-Nazi-jad.

By Debbie Schlussel
Two more Islamist prank callers from Dearbornistan called me today. From my Caller ID:
1) 3:45 p.m.: Barakat, Ali 313-205-7364
From Dearbornistan, he’s a proud graduate of Hezbollah High a/k/a Fordson High School, the only majority Muslim public high school in the U.S. (for now). The kids mostly support Hezbollah and HAMAS. And the principal, Imad Fadlallah, is a relative of Hezbollah spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Ali Barakat, by the way, is a close friend of Ahmad I. Al-Halabi, the Syrian former U.S. Air Force man who took classified documents off the base unauthorized and pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a plea deal.
Another hang up, no message.
2) 6:15 p.m.: Maraachli, Mark 313-999-2418
Another message of:

Shut the Hell Up!

And his voice sounded strangely identical to that of the identical message I got on Christmas Day from Ibrahim Chami.
Do you guys really want a criminal record? You think I’m gonna just sit by? Here’s some news: harassment and stalking of this kind are against the law. And I will pursue criminal complaints against you.
**** UPDATE: “Religion of Peace,” my ass. Three more phone calls from this/these idiot(s):
* 6:49 p.m., Caller ID: Maraachli, Mark 313-999-2418
Message:

The name is Goose, not Mark, a’right?

(Clearly, he’s reading my website. Good info for prosecutors, since it’s now evident he’s trying to intimidate me from writing here, which won’t work, Mark/Goose/Mohammed/Whatever your name is (and we WILL find out).)
* 6:58 p.m., Caller ID: Unknown Name 415-656-1073
Message:

Shut the Hell Up!

* 10:57 p.m., Caller ID: Barakat, Ali 313-205-7364
Message:

Shut the Hell Up, Fuck!

I’ve just called the police and made a report. And I left a message on the voicemail of the FBI agent working on hate crimes.

By Debbie Schlussel
Every January, my “friend,” “former” Islamic terrorist and eternal FBI award revokee Imad Hamad, and his gang of terror-supporters at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Midwest Branch hold a phony Martin Luther King, Jr. essay contest. I wrote a whole column on it: “Radical Islam Wishes You a Happy MLK Day.”
And every year, the fawning Detroit newspapers cover it. This year, the obsequiousness has begun a little early. Detroit Free Press resident Islamist Niraj Warikoo (who has also, in today’s Freep, written his second gushing article about Muslim Congressman-elect Keith Ellison in one week) writes this absurdity: “Contest Aims to Accent Minorities’ Bond.”

“Former” Islamic Terrorist Imad Hamad
Perverts the Good Name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Hamadafat Artwork by Preston Taylor Holmes/Six Meat Buffet)
The article pretends that this pan-Islamist MLK essay contest will “unite” Blacks and Arabs. One problem: Blacks aren’t allowed to participate in the contest. It’s only open to Arabs. And that’s actually a problem for ADC, since it’s a tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) entity. Such entities CANNOT discriminate on the basis of national or ethnic origin, which is exactly what this silly essay contest does. So, their rules excluding non-Arabs are actually unlawful.
Another problem: Most of these Islamists who dominate ADC privately refer to Blacks as “abeed” (slaves; singular is “abed“–slave). They mistreat them at their gas stations–Muslim Arabs gas station owners and employees in the Detroit area have kidnapped and even murdered Black customers. One was convicted of not allowing Black customers to use the bathroom (telling them it was broken; he was lying).
Hamad defended all of these actions to the Detroit news media, claiming it was overblown. Uh-huh. Murder is always “overblown” isn’t it, especially when two Yemeni employees at a gas station leer at a Black man’s 12-year-old daughter and then beat him to death with a tire iron, as happened to Kalvin Porter (a father of five).
And finally, I wonder how they can write an essay on the topic, “What Martin Luther King, Jr. Means to Me,” when Dr. King was very pro-Israel, and said this:

When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.

King said this at a 1968 Harvard appearance, rebuking a student who attacked Israel. But he was talking about exactly the kind of people who populate the ADC and now besmirch his name by using it to advance their bigoted, Islamist cause.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is turning over in his grave. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Michigan/Ohio Special Agent in Charge Brian Moskowitz a/k/a “Abu Moskowitz”, new FBI Michigan Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena, and U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III a/k/a “Abu Porno” won’t be.
They’ll be breaking bread (or is that, pita?) with the hatred spewers and terrorism-supporters of the ADC, come January. Their attendance at the ADC Martin Luther King Essay Contest Awards Banquet is a regular charade. They worship the ground on which Hamad slithers.
Again, read “Radical Islam Wishes You a Happy MLK Day.”

By Debbie Schlussel
In our contemporary world, where assorted cheating–such as plagiarizing–is rewarded, kudos to the All India Chess Federation.
They caught Umakant Sharma cheating at chess–using his cell phone Bluetooth (which he sticthed in to his hat) and communicating with accomplices outside the chess hall. He was one of the top chess players in India and the second seed in an upcoming major Indian chess tournament.
The Indian Chess Federation banned him for 10 years, The Hindu of India reports. Checkmate.

By Debbie Schlussel
Yesterday, I posted an item about Dearbornistan Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim Ibrahim Chami, and how he keeps calling me, unsolicited. On Christmas, he left me a voice-mail message, telling me to:

Shut the Hell Up!

Well, guess who just called again and hung up? From my Caller ID at 1:36 p.m., today:

Chami, Ibrahim 313-587-9347

Ibrahim, get a clue from my post, yesterday. Your calls are NOT WANTED!!!!! Stop calling me. I’ve already reported you to the FBI. And I WILL take further legal action.
Take the hint. I will not shut up. But you’d better stop calling.

By Debbie Schlussel
5 of the 6 convicted Lackawanna Six terrorists (who trained in Al-Qaeda) training camps have been moved away from their terror cell home base of upstate New York (near Buffalo) to Indiana.
Their families are whining that they’ll have to travel far to visit their jihadist relatives.
So sad, too bad. Where’s the violin when you need it?

By Debbie Schlussel
Forget PETA–or as I like to call it PUTAh (People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals and humans). Despite the organization’s wack-job nature, it has succeeded in getting us to its main goal: Seeing and treating pets as humans.
Remember my post about the Dog Country Club biz? The amenities for the dogs were ridiculous, better than many humans get at a Holiday Inn or even the Ritz-Carlton. Well, Bloomberg reports that the “luxury pet lodging” business is thriving and expanding, ad absurdum:

PetSmart Inc.’s four-footed clients can lounge on hypoallergenic lambskin blankets, watch television and snack on lactose-free, fat-free ice cream while staying at a PetsHotel when their owners are away for the holidays.
“I’ve been inside stores that have hotels,” said Walter Todd, a money manager with Greenwood Capital, a PetSmart investor in Greenwood, South Carolina. “They are pretty impressive. You wouldn’t mind staying in one yourself.”

Dog Enjoys His Hotel Suite

PetSmart, the largest U.S. pet-store chain, with 909 stores, has set a goal of eventually opening 435 PetsHotels, a seven-fold increase from its current 62 locations. Sales at stores with lodging are 29 percent higher than those without it after the fifth year, PetSmart says, as owners pay for grooming, food or “Bad Hair Day” t-shirts when picking up or dropping off pets.
PetSmart’s revenue from services, such as grooming, training and lodging, has increased an average of 27 percent annually during the past six years, and services are twice as profitable as selling pet toys and food, said David Lenhardt, head of services for PetSmart. Same-store sales for all of PetSmart rose 4.2 percent in 2005.
“Services have been PetSmart’s saving grace,” said Todd, whose firm owned 159,900 PetSmart shares as of Sept. 30. “They’ve been pleasantly surprised by the success of the concept.”
PetSmart shares have more than doubled in the past five years, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen 23 percent. PetSmart had sales of $3.76 billion last year, when it groomed 6.5 million pets and 324,000 dogs took training classes. Annual profit growth has averaged 7 percent in the past five years.
PetsHotels notched sales of $16.7 million in 2005, double the $8.7 million, a year earlier. PetsHotels will add to overall profit in 2008 as more are built and existing hotels attract more customers, said Joan Storms, a Los Angeles-based analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, which rates PetSmart “buy” and doesn’t own the shares.
A survey last year by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found that 85 percent of pet owners call their dogs members of the family, as do 78 percent of those with cats. Eighty percent of owners buy holiday and birthday gifts for pets, it said. Nearly 50 percent of women said they relied more on their pet’s affection than they did on their spouse’s or children’s.
“We are benefiting from the trend toward the humanization of pets,” Lenhardt said. “It’s that passion for pets that makes the pet hotel work.”
PetSmart customer Jean Rask, 76, takes her two dogs — 13- year-old Trixie, a border Collie/German shepherd mix, and 12- year-old Pebbles, a Chihuahua — to a PetsHotel because she likes the care. They are also groomed during their stay.
The retired accountant’s assistant made reservations for her dogs to stay for two nights starting Christmas Eve at the PetsHotel in Whittier, California, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Los Angeles. . . .
“They have these sheepskins in their little suites and they get clean ones every day.” The hotel costs her $46 a night for both dogs.
Dog owners pay about $31 a night for a suite, a room with a window that measures 4 feet by 7 feet (1.2 meters by 2.1 meters). The suites have raised dog beds with lambskin blankets and a television. The television plays videos such as Walt Disney Co.’s “Lady and the Tramp” and “101 Dalmatians.”
Standard accommodations include cages with blankets and padded beds and cost $21 a night.
Prices include “Bone Booth” phone calls from a spot where pets can sit on an elevated cushion and chat with their vacationing owners with the help of the staff. [DS: Pets can “chat”? PetSmart employees are now fluent in “Doglish”? News to me.] About 40 percent of customers use the Bone Booth service, PetSmart said. Grooming and training services are extra, and ice cream snacks cost $3 each. . . .
“The employees know the pet’s name and the company even sends birthday cards to the pets,” said Todd. “These are the things pet owners appreciate.”

Yes, Pets Are the New People. And humans are the new beings wagged by their dogs.