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Friday, June 30, 2006
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| The Jihadi Exporters |
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Egypt imports over two billion dollars in US aid annually but apparently has exported the bulk of the foreign jihadists in Iraq. Syria’s the number two exporter and, despite repeated US warnings going back to 2003, remains the “main passageway for suicide bombers in Iraq.” From the Gulf Times: The US military said yesterday that it has several hundred foreign fighters in custody in Iraq and that most of them come from Egypt, followed by Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. ![]()
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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| Rudy's Opportunity |
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If Rudy Giuliani does run for president, here’s a target he should pound away on -- the media’s role (led by the New York Times) in undermining the War on Terror -- and a line he should repeat over and over again on the stump – America isn't perfect but we do a hell of a lot of good in the world. There’s plenty to work with on both counts. Republicans would be extremely receptive to such a Reaganite message, and given his background he’s (along with Sen. McCain) just the person to deliver it. They hate the arrogance of the media in publishing the details of top-secret programs for our enemies to read, and I bet would look quite favorably on a candidate who passionately took on the anti-Americanism of the Left. So far, no presumptive presidential candidate has fully tapped into this sentiment. Rudy should consider doing so.
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| Courtesy of The New York Times |
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From the International Herald Tribune: BRUSSELS Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium has asked the Justice Ministry to investigate whether a banking consortium here broke the law when it aided the U.S. government's anti-terrorism activities by providing it with confidential information about international money transfers. Heather MacDonald and Gabriel Schoenfeld explain the recklessness of the New York Times here and here.
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Sunday, June 25, 2006
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| Superhero |
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Tyler Drumheller, former head of the CIA's European ops, is on a roll. He will soon have a book out on what he witnessed in the run-up to the Iraq War. And judging from the fawning pre-release press it’s a very good bet that his book will soon be quoted ad nauseam by Frank Rich, the editors of the New York Times, Howard Dean, the House and Senate Democratic leadership, and the rest of the anti-Bush ideologues. In late April, a 60 Minutes segment focused on Drumheller’s role in getting Naji Sabri, Iraq’s ex-foreign minister’s, to spill the beans on Saddam’s nuclear program prior to the war. But Drumheller and the producers of 60 Minutes failed to inform viewers, for example, that Sabri also said that biological research was ongoing despite Saddam’s denials and that Saddam has dispersed chemical weapons to loyal tribes (see April 24 60 Minutes of Distortion post here.) Today, the Washington Post gives Drumheller front-page coverage on his role in the Iraqi mobile biological labs controversy. Again, like 60 Minutes, he’s the hero – an image I’m sure his book won’t contradict.
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Friday, June 23, 2006
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| A "Tent City" and the GOP |
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Today's Wall Street Journal has an insightful editorial on the House Republicans’ assault on what is really the president’s immigration plan – a plan that Mayor Giuliani believes strengthens our national security. “The Kennedy bill” is how some House members refer to the Senate bill. But I don’t remember all those House Republicans who voted for the “No Child Left Behind Act” refer to that legislation as “the Kennedy bill.” He, of course, was a primary Senate backer of the act. The Journal editors argue that the House enforcement-only position is bad policy and bad politics. They write: Even if all of this somehow works this election year, the long term damage to the GOP could be considerable. Pete Wilson demonized illegal aliens to win re-election as California Governor in 1994, but at the price of alienating Latino voters for a decade. The smarter Republicans--President Bush, Karl Rove, Senator John McCain, Colorado Governor Bill Owens and Florida Governor Jeb Bush--understand that the GOP can't sustain its majority without a larger share of the Hispanic vote. Making Mr. Tancredo the spokesman on this issue is a surefire way to make Hispanics into permanent Democrats. All this brings me to the comments of Don Goldwater, who is seeking the GOP nod to run against Arizona governor Napolitano. His recent remarks, covered in a local paper, concerning his illegal immigration plan are now being picked-up in the Hispanic media and likely soon by national media outlets. From the Arizona Republic:
Goldwater promised to put undocumented workers in a “tent city” at the border. “It’s my intention to take illegals and put them down at the border in a tent city and use them as labor to build the fence and clean up the desert they are tearing up,” said Goldwater, who didn’t offer any specifics for his plans that some construe as unconstitutional. Republican leaders should roundly and categorically denounce his plan before it unfairly tars the party of Reagan. They may also want to take a second look at the immigration proposal put forth by conservative Mike Pence of Indiana, who, as the Journal notes, offers Republicans “a way out of their political mess.” ![]()
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| Sandy Berger: "Who Knows About This?" |
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If you can get your hands on a copy of today's Wall Street Journal, I highly recommend reading former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s piece on the Clinton administration’s handling of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. The Clinton folks, particularly Secretary Albright and VP Gore, don’t mention Khobar or any of this in their regular excoriations of the Bush administration.
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| Arming the Butchers of Darfur |
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Beijing's been no help on North Korea, coddles Iran and showers the dictatorship in Khartoum with arms that end up in the hands of the killers in Darfur. No doubt China has been a good place to do business but, so far, there’s little evidence that it has changed the character of the regime for the better. The long-term bet is that it will. Let’s hope.
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
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| Bush Official: Iran Behind Killing of Americans in Iraq |
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David Satterfield, senior advisor to Secretary Rice on Iraq, made news in an interview with the Al-Hayat daily. According to Satterfield, Syria remains a “main passageway for suicide bombers in Iraq” and Iran and its proxy Hizbullah have been behind some roadside bombing attacks in Iraq. Iran is involved in a certain behavior in Iraq, that to a certain extent involves Hizbullah which is actively taking part in acts of violence that are causing the deaths of Iraqi, American, British [soldiers] as well as other members of the coalition forces…. No doubt Damascus and Tehran have also been keeping an eye on the troop withdrawal debate going on in the U.S. Senate.
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| Gasp |
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Unilateralism, preemption, a hostile world reaction -- the good folks at the American Prospect must be gasping for air after reading this piece from President Clinton’s two top defense officials. Merits aside, it sure caught me by surprise and makes me wonder if Secretary Perry has had second thoughts on the 1994 deal his administration cut with the North Koreans.
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| A Profile in Courage |
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From the Hartford Courant: A somber Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman stood alone on the Democratic side of the Senate Wednesday and broke with his colleagues on the Iraq war, announcing he would oppose today two Democratic-authored blueprints for pulling American troops out of Iraq. A while back, Sen. Lieberman headed up the Democratic Leadership Council, a group formed in part to combat the party’s leftward drift on national security. I have searched the DLC web site to find out whether they support or oppose the primary withdrawal amendment sponsored by Democratic Senator Carl Levin. I found nothing except for a call for a "real debate on Iraq." But that debate is happening now on the Senate floor and the DLC is MIA. But at least one former DLCer isn’t ducking.
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
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| McCain: Dem Iraq Plans "A Significant Step on the Road to Disaster...Empower the Insurgency" |
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Sen. McCain argued on the Senate floor today that Democratic troop withdrawal plans would only strengthen the insurgency and allow Zawahiri to achieve his top priority to “expel the Americans” from Iraq. Democratic plans would also repeat the mistakes we made in pre-9/11 Afghanistan, where we abandoned that nation to the Taliban and al Qaeda. McCain also dismissed so-called “strategic redeployment” plans pushed by folks like Howard Dean as “nonsense” and added that American policy should be “win the war,” not run for exits. Some highlights from Sen. McCain’s speech: The amendment we are debating now states the sense of Congress that the President should begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq this year, and that he should submit to Congress a plan with dates for this redeployment. Such a move would be, I believe, a significant step on the road to disaster….
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| Crackpot U |
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The U.S government murdered thousands of its own citizens on September 11, 2001. That theory has been circulating among an assortment of America haters, Jew haters, paranoids … and a few professors at U.S. universities. An upcoming cover story in The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at a group called “Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which includes about 50 professors – more in the humanities than in the sciences – from institutions like Clemson University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin.” The co-chair of the group, Steven E. Jones, is from, of all places, Brigham Young University and has been roundly denounced by his colleagues at the Utah campus. Jones and the others believe preplanted explosives took down the World Trade Centers. Why? In order to “manipulate Americans” into supporting policies, as the conspiracy thinking goes, that seek world domination through the barrel of a gun and to fatten the profits of the oil companies and weapons manufactures. Another “scholar,” David Ray Griffin, wrote the book, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, “exposing to the American people and the world the truth about 9/11.” A blurb on the book’s jacket reads: The most persuasive argument I have seen for further investigation on the Bush administration’s relationship to that historic and troubling event. The blurb’s author isn’t some obscure academic. It’s Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, best-selling author and frequent speaker at American universities across the country. The good news is that unlike Zinn most other academics in the U.S. believe “Scholars for 9/11 Truth” are just a bunch of crackpots.
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| Swan Dive |
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The Kerry magic lives on. From today's New York Times: In drawing up a schedule for the Wednesday session, the Democratic leadership has arranged for its plan to be debated first, pushing Mr. Kerry and his proposal into the evening, too late for the nightly television news, to starve it of some attention.
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| Aussie Defense Build-up |
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Australia has been a very good friend of the United States. They remain steadfast in Iraq and Afghanistan, work closely with our military in the Pacific region, and have led the coalition trying to bring security and stability to East Timor. The government of Prime Minister John Howard has also been engaged in a defense build-up that will continue into the next decade. Now only if some of our friends in Europe would see the light. From Reuters: Australia has updated plans to spend more than 51 billion Australian dollars ($38 billion) to build up its military in a move Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said on June 20 would match defense capabilities with potential threats.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
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| Deanesia |
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Howard Dean had a lot to say last night on Hardball. He wants to abandon Iraq’s elected government under the guise of “redeployment” and believes the president “created a situation where terrorists now are in Iraq, where they were not before.” He does have a point -- sort of. According to Richard Clarke, by the end of 2000 “perhaps over 10,000 terrorists” had trained in al Qaeda camps inside Afghanistan before dispersing to "probably between 5o-60 counties.” So there may be some who left their post-camp location to enter Iraq following the coalition invasion in March 2003. But we also apparently know that two who trained in those camps, Zarqawi and his alleged successor al-Masri, were in Iraq in 2002. From the June 10, 2006 Washington Post: After the U.S.-led multinational attack that overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Zarqawi appeared on a U.S. list of most-wanted al-Qaeda terrorists still at large in early 2002. Intelligence officials said that at some time during the summer of that year, Zarqawi spent two months in Baghdad, where he received medical treatment for an undisclosed problem with his leg. From General Tommy Franks’ memoir, American Soldier: One known terrorist, a Jordanian-born Palestinian named Abu Musab Zarqawi who had joined al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- where he specialized in developing chemical and biological weapons -- was now confirmed to operate from one of the camps in Iraq. Badly wounded fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, Zarqawi had received medical treatment in Baghdad before setting up with Ansar al Islam. And evidence suggested that he had been joined there by other al Qaeda leaders, who had been ushered through Baghdad and given safe passage into northern Iraq by Iraqi security forces....[p. 332] And while many al Qaeda leaders had been killed [in Afghanistan], others had sought sanctuary in Iraq. [p. 403] From the June 9, 2006 New York Times: Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, an aide to the top American commander here, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., told reporters at a briefing that United States commanders had identified the man most likely to take over as Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, an Egyptian militant who uses the nom de guerre Abu al-Masri. General Caldwell said Mr. Masri had been in Iraq since 2002, and had played a major role in organizing suicide bombings around Baghdad. Gen. Caldwell also noted that al-Masri arrived in Iraq before Zarqawi. All this must have slipped Chairman Dean’s mind.
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| No Footprint |
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In some areas of Iraq, too heavy a footprint hasn’t been the problem. The lack of one has, but that may be changing in the wake of the president’s recent Camp David meeting. From AP: Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by a U.S. gunship pushed into an insurgent-infested section of eastern Ramadi, expanding their campaign to bolster their presence in one of Iraq’s most violent cities…. This lack of a footprint has been a recurring theme. From a May 30, 2006 Washington Post piece: ...Marine officers on the ground have been open for more than a year now about needing more troops in Anbar, whose Sunni population, remoteness and comparative lawlessness have made it a stronghold for the insurgency. Anbar borders Syria, a conduit for some of the weapons, money and fighters.From the April 26, 2006 Stars and Strips: U.S. troops entered Mukhisa and the adjacent town of Abu Kharma on Sunday after hearing that the region is home to foreign fighters, members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group and financiers behind roadside bomb and mortar attacks, said Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, battalion commander.... Nearly two years ago from the New York Times: After the battle here in September [2004] the military left behind fewer than 500 troops to patrol a region twice the size of Connecticut. With so few troops and the local police force in shambles, insurgents came back and turned Tal Afar, a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people, into a way station for the trafficking of arms and insurgent fighters from nearby Syria -- and a ghost town of terrorized residents afraid to open their stores, walk the streets or send their children to school.
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Monday, June 19, 2006
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| (Update) Security & America's "Global Image" |
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(Robert Kagan weighs in on the Pew poll in today's Washington Post and notes: "No one should lightly dismiss the current hostility toward the United States. International legitimacy matters. It is important in itself, and it affects others' willingness to work with us. But neither should we be paralyzed by the unavoidable resentments that our power creates. If we refrained from action out of fear that others around the world would be angry with us, then we would never act. And count on it: They'd blame us for that, too.") Posted on June 16, 2006: On Wednesday, the New York Times ran a front-page headline, “Global Image Of the U.S. Is Worsening,” based on the latest Pew poll of international attitudes toward the U.S. Of the 14 nations polled, only Russia and Pakistan view the U.S. more favorably today than they did in 1999/2000. Among the Islamic nations, favorable opinion of the US dropped sharply following our invasion of Afghanistan and accelerated downward following the ouster of Saddam. But even favorable opinion in non-Islamic nations (save France and Russia) slid downward after Afghanistan before plummeting post-Iraq. Thus, on balance and taking Pew’s numbers at face value, America was viewed more favorably prior to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But did our higher favorable ratings necessarily translate into more security? Did it discourage al Qaeda from setting up terror training camps where up to 10,000 may have passed through, including Zarqawi and his successor in Iraq, al-Masri? Did it matter to the terrorists who met in Kuala Lumpur in 2000 to plot the September 11 attacks or those who struck our barracks in Dhahran, our embassies in Africa and the USS Cole? Do you think the world’s favorable opinion of the US would have cratered if we had launched a massive attack on those camps in Afghanistan prior to September 11? So while we should always work to enhance our image abroad, there will be times when our national security policies don’t poll well in the world. Post-September 11 is one of those.
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| American Justice |
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Secretary Rice to the Southern Baptist Convention last week: And when necessary, we are bringing justice to the terrorists. (Applause.) This is the fate that our troops delivered last week to the terrorist Zarqawi and now he will never harm, he will never murder, he will never terrorize innocent people again. (Applause.) That is what America stands for.
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| Clinton also Worried about a Subway Attack |
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Yesterday's revelation of a terrorist plot to release poison gas in a NYC subway brings to mind the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack in Tokyo -- an attack that might have killed tens of thousands if the gas had been more effectively disbursed. In fact, Clinton officials would cite the attack in explaining why Saddam Hussein must be disarmed. On November 15, 1997, for example, President Clinton told an audience that Americans should not view the current crisis with Iraq [at the time the administration was preparing the nation for possible military action] as a “replay” of the Gulf War in 1991. Instead, he told people to think about it in terms of the innocent Japanese people that died in the subway when the sarin gas was released [by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo in 1995]; and how important it is for every responsible government in the world to do everything that can possibly be done not to let big stores of chemical or biological weapons fall into the wrong hands, not to let irresponsible people develop the capacity to put them in warheads on missiles or put them in briefcases that could be exploded in small rooms. And I say this not to frighten you. The same month Time magazine ran a piece, "America the Vulnerable," that stated: officials in Washington are deeply worried about what some of them call "strategic crime." By that they mean the merging of the output from a government’s arsenals, like Saddam’s biological weapons, with a group of semi-independent terrorists, like radical Islamist groups, who might slip such bioweapons into the U.S. and use them. We still don't know what intelligence these officials based their "deep worry" on or whether that intelligence made its way into any of the president’s daily intelligence briefs.
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| Pathetic |
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From the Hotline's Blog: June 19, 2006 Gore Won't Back Lieberman...Won't Oppose Him, Either, But... I’m not surprised the former vice president is sticking it to his running mate. Gore’s been spending lots of time with the same folks seeking Lieberman's ouster. He has even pushed the “Bush lied” on Iraq wmd nonsense even though he told an audience in San Francisco in September 2002 that Saddam had “stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.” Sounds like the perfect 2008 candidate for the Democrats to rally around.
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Sunday, June 18, 2006
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| Caveat Emptor |
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Conservative columnist George Will isn't a fan of the House-passed immigration bill. He believes it’s bad policy and bad politics. A few months back, he criticized “faux conservatives” for trying to pin the “amnesty” moniker on the Senate-passed bill. [C]onservatives should favor reducing illegality by putting illegal immigrants on a path out of society's crevices and into citizenship by paying fines and back taxes and learning English. Faux conservatives absurdly call this price tag on legal status "amnesty." Actually, it would prevent the emergence of a sullen, simmering subculture of the permanently marginalized, akin to the Arab ghettos in France. The House-passed bill, making it a felony to be in the country illegally, would make 11 million people permanently ineligible for legal status. To what end? And in today’s Washington Post Will argues that the GOP risks inflicting long-term political damage if it stumbles on immigration. So, safely assuming that the House-Senate conference fails to produce a compromise acceptable to both houses, when Congress returns to Washington after the Labor Day recess, the House may again pass essentially what it passed in December….
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Friday, June 16, 2006
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| Security & America's "Global Image" |
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On Wednesday, the New York Times ran a front-page headline, “Global Image Of the U.S. Is Worsening,” based on the latest Pew poll of international attitudes toward the U.S. Of the 14 nations polled, only Russia and Pakistan view the U.S. more favorably today than they did in 1999/2000. Among the Islamic nations, favorable opinion of the US dropped sharply following our invasion of Afghanistan and accelerated downward following the ouster of Saddam. But even favorable opinion in non-Islamic nations (save France and Russia) slid downward after Afghanistan before plummeting post-Iraq. Thus, on balance and taking Pew’s numbers at face value, America was viewed more favorably prior to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But did our higher favorable ratings necessarily translate into more security? Did it discourage al Qaeda from setting up terror training camps where up to 10,000 may have passed through, including Zarqawi and his successor in Iraq, al-Masri? Did it matter to the terrorists who met in Kuala Lumpur in 2000 to plot the September 11 attacks or those who struck our barracks in Dhahran, our embassies in Africa and the USS Cole? Do you think the world’s favorable opinion of the US would have cratered if we had launched a massive attack on those camps in Afghanistan prior to September 11? So while we should always work to enhance our image abroad, there will be times when our national security policies don’t poll well in the world. Post-September 11 is one of those.
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| 42 Democrats Defect on Iraq |
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Many of the Democrats who voted against their leadership represent districts that Nancy Pelosi could never win. A few more votes along the lines of today’s, combined with a message that a Democratic House means Speaker Pelosi, could pay dividends in some of these districts in November. For the record, three GOPers defected.
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| Failing the "Global Test" |
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The vice president had this to say yesterday on Fox News on Sen. Kerry's latest position on the Iraq War: I guess I'm not surprised at John Kerry switching his position yet again. ... He did in fact support our efforts in Iraq initially. He says he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it. Now I suppose this is sort of a complete 180-degree turn that he'd started during the last campaign. The fact of the matter is they're making the charge, Kerry is now, that somehow he was misled. He wasn't misled. He saw the same intelligence all the rest of us saw. His comment reminded me of Kerry’s lecturing of President Bush during the 2004 campaign. Kerry lavished praise on Bush’s father for putting a UN-backed coalition together to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. But he never mentioned his vote against the 1990 Senate resolution authorizing force against Saddam. Guess it didn't pass his “global test” of legitimacy.
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Thursday, June 15, 2006
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| About that "Devious Scheme" |
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Last December, some Democrats and some in the media were up in arms about a Pentagon operation that “paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq.” The Washington Post added: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the Defense Department's inspector general asking for an investigation into the program and the Lincoln Group contract. Kennedy called it "a devious scheme to place favorable propaganda in Iraqi newspapers." And Tim Russert brought the issue up on Meet the Press. Well, one nugget from the purported text of the al Qaeda document released today suggests that our wartime media operation hit its target: 3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.
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| The Americans Won't Withdraw |
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(Update: From AP: "Although the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the document was found in al-Zarqawi's hideout following a June 7 airstrike that killed him, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the document had in fact been found in a previous raid as part of an ongoing three-week operation to track al-Zarqawi. 'We can verify that this information did come off some kind of computer asset that was at a safe location,' he said. 'This was prior to the al-Zarqawi safe house.'") Iraq's national security advisor has released the purported text of a document, found in the Zarqawi safe house that was blasted by the U.S. Air Force, calling for a review of the “current bleak situation” in Iraq. In it, al Qaeda in Iraq views the continued presence of American forces as “harmful to the resistance.” As an overall picture, time has been an element in affecting negatively the forces of the occupying countries, due to the losses they sustain economically in human lives, which are increasing with time. However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance…. In other words, the fact that America hasn’t “cut and run” has dealt a blow to al Qaeda’s plans for Iraq. Why is the American presence “harmful to the resistance”? 1. By allowing the American forces to form the forces of the National Guard, to reinforce them and enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance. Because the Americans won’t exit, the document suggests trying “to entangle the American forces into another war against another country [Iran] or with another of our enemy force…” to take the pressure off the terror group. Al Qaeda’s desire to get U.S. forces out of Iraq was highlighted last July in Zawahiri’s letter to Zarqawi. “The first stage," he wrote, is to “expel the Americans from Iraq.” He also counseled Zarqawi to be prepared because, things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them. We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us, wherein our lot would be to merely resist their schemes. Those who oppose Democratic demands for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq should highlight the above during debate on the House and Senate floor and in the media. As William Kristol has noted: let’s not “give Zarqawi a victory in death that he could not achieve in life.”
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| A Tribute |
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Stars and Strips has published a special edition entitled “Heroes: A Nation Honors Valor in the War on Terror.” The newspaper’s Patrick Dickson writes: “This publication captures but a glimpse of the deeds U.S. servicemembers have performed in distant lands. We honor all those who persevere in the cause of liberty.”
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
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| Bigger Fish to Fry |
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"Mr. President, as commander-in-chief. how did you feel when you heard the news that American forces had put an end to Zarqawi, the brutal terrorist responsible for the deaths of so many Americans?" Oh, you didn’t hear that question from a reporter at today’s press conference in the White House Rose Garden. Neither did I. In fact, the usual “why shouldn't Guantanamo be closed?” mantra was asked well before someone got around to asking about the successful strike against one of the most brutal individuals on earth – and even then the reporter couldn’t resist putting a negative spin on the question. Take a look for yourself here.
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| Governor Grovel? |
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Gov. Tom Vilsack wants to bring to Iowa the same crowd that regularly pummels the group he heads, the “centrist” Democratic Leadership Council. From the New York Times: “As successful as YearlyKos was this year, in 2007 it should be even bigger and more influential. Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa and a likely presidential candidate, is already lobbying for it to be held in Iowa -- the site of the first presidential caucuses in 2008." What’s next? An invitation to Michael Moore to join the DLC leadership team?
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| The Defeatists |
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Democrats are set to roll out their policy agenda because "if we don't define what we stand for,” said a Pelosi spokesman, “they'll define it for us.” But increasingly Democrats are defining themselves on Iraq. Senator John Kerry yesterday to a gathering of liberals at the "Take Back America" conference: It was right to dissent from a war in 1971 that was wrong and could not be won. And now, in 2006, it is both a right and an obligation for Americans to stand up to a president who is wrong today.
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| Zarqawi and the Press |
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The not-so-conservative editors of the Boston Globe must love this piece today by their own Jeff Jacoby: WHEN IRAQ'S Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last week that a US air strike had killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi reporters burst into cheers and applause. It was a heartwarming -- and to American eyes, unnatural -- show of joy. Most American journalists would think it unseemly to cheer anything said at a press conference, even the news that a sadistic mass murderer had finally met his end.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
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| Take Rove's Advice, Republicans |
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"We were absolutely right to remove him from power and we have no excuses to make for it," said Karl Rove yesterday to New Hampshire Republicans. He also suggested that Republicans should quit being punching bags for the Democrats. It’s the “cutting and running” crowd, Rove charged, who should explain their “profoundly wrong” policy that “would provide a launching pad for the terrorists to strike the United States and the West" (see here, here and here). Bravo. Sen. John Kerry, who voted for the war then turned against it, will soon be on the Senate floor arguing that his troop withdrawal plan really isn’t the equivalent of running up the white flag. But voters will know better. Republicans should follow Rove’s advice. They should make Democrats (with a few notable exceptions) squirm for wanting to keep Saddam in power and remind voters of the strategic and moral consequences of adopting the Democrats’ “cut and run” plans. Republicans should repeat William Kristol’s line: let’s not “give Zarqawi a victory in death that he could not achieve in life.”
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| Terror Resumes |
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The Defense Department has released the bios of the three who committed suicide in Gitmo: Ali Abdullah Ahmed, the Yemeni, was a mid- to high-level al Qaeda operative with links to principal al Qaeda facilitators and senior membership, according to information released by DoD. Throughout his time at Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed was noncompliant and hostile to the guard force, and he was a long-term hunger striker from late 2005 to May 2006. Ahmed had been formally recommended for continued detention in Guantanamo Bay.
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Monday, June 12, 2006
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| Soccer in Nuremberg |
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Iran's Ahmadinejad has some fans in Germany: This is the latest chapter in Berlin's difficult relations with Iran which has gained sympathy among Germany's far right. The Government banned a Holocaust denial conference last year featuring the leader of the far-right National Party (NPD) and the Iranian leadership. The NPD has also adopted the Iranian team as its World Cup favourite.About 200 members of the NPD staged a rally in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday calling for "solidarity with Iran".
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| The "Bleed Out" |
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Yesterday's New York Times reports, in paragraph 18, that the French believed Zarqawi was active in Europe before the U.S. invasion in March 2003, a point often missed in the media’s coverage of his death: …French counterterrorism officials said they found Mr. Zarqawi's handiwork in a Chechen-trained terrorist cell in the suburbs of Paris that was broken up in December 2002. Chemicals, bomb-making materials and a chemical weapons protection suit were found in the men's possession, together with elements for a remote control detonator. Beginning in paragraph two, the same piece also notes:
Contrast that number to those who trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan from the 1990s on before dispersing to dozens of other nations. Richard Clarke, a national security official in the Clinton and Bush administrations, told PBS’s Frontline the following in March 2002: I think the intelligence community, the FBI, were unanimous, certainly throughout the year 2000 into 2001, that there was in fact a very widespread Al Qaeda network around the world in probably between 50-60 countries -- that they had trained thousands, perhaps over 10,000 terrorists at the camps in Afghanistan; that we didn't really know who those people were. He continued: Question: But didn't you push for military action after the Cole? While we don’t know how many of these terrorists are now operating in Iraq or have been killed there, we do know that a large-scale terrorist “conveyor belt” was operating before the U.S. mounted a sustained and serious campaign against al Qaeda and well before coalition forces invaded Iraq. Perhaps someone will make all these points during the upcoming debate on Iraq in the House and Senate or the next time they are interviewed by Chris Matthews or Tim Russert on the Iraq "bleed out."
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| ''Last, Best Chance to Get This Right'' |
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This is how a senior White House official characterized the stakes involved in the Iraq discussions the president is having at Camp David today and tomorrow. Last week, Ambassador Khalilzad acknowledged that the security situation in Baghdad has deteriorated the last few months. And retired General Barry McCaffrey calls the city the “central battlefield of the insurgency.” With Zarqawi dead, the conventional wisdom of the media is that the Camp David meeting will end with word that US troop levels will be drawdown, as General Casey suggested yesterday. But don’t be surprised if just the opposite happens – at least in the short term and perhaps only in the western approaches to Baghdad. The president may be drawing on the lessons advanced in Eliot Cohen’s "Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime," a book on his summer reading list a few years back.
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Saturday, June 10, 2006
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| Place Your Bets |
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Who will be the first Democrat to call for an investigation of this claim?
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| The Lesson of Zarqawi |
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In the wake of his death, we should remember that the insurgency deepened and Zarqawi thrived primarily because we had deployed too few troops, argues Reuel Marc Gerecht in the current Weekly Standard. He also warns, “we nor the Iraqis are going to find salvation through good intelligence and smart bombs” alone. The dimensions of Zarqawi's possible success are thus enormous--greater than what bin Laden accomplished on September 11. Zarqawi was the right man, with the right tactics, at the right moment. In all probability, he would not have mattered if the United States had actually occupied the Sunni Triangle after the deposing of Saddam Hussein, thereby giving the fallen Sunni Arab community a chance to breathe before they became sentimentally and physically enmeshed by the homegrown insurgency and imported holy war.
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Friday, June 09, 2006
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| Seize the Moment, Mr. President |
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The Bush administration may not have a more opportune time to decisively swing the war against the insurgents. Zarqawi is dead, and Iraq’s new defense and interior ministers are in place. The Wall Street Journal weighs in that “now’s the time to secure Baghdad,” and the editors of the National Review show common cause with Sen. McCain on Iraq. They write: If Maliki, in these conditions, says he needs, say, another 20,000 U.S. troops to finally secure Baghdad, Bush shouldn’t hesitate. In other words, do what it takes to win. Only someone in total denial wouldn't recognize that the current strategy for securing the Baghdad area isn’t getting the job done, as Reuel Marc Gerecht, Frederick Kagan, and others have noted. Above all, we must not "give Zarqawi a victory in death that he could not achieve in life."
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| Ploughshares into Swords? |
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From today's New York Times: On Thursday night, Israeli planes attacked a training camp of the Popular Resistance Committees in an old Israeli settlement west of Rafah, killing four people and wounding seven.
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| "Expel the Americans from Iraq" |
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This is the top priority of al Qaeda in Iraq. “The first stage,” Zawahiri wrote last July in his strategy letter to Zarqawi, is to “expel the Americans from Iraq.” He also counseled Zarqawi to be prepared because “things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them. We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us, wherein our lot would be to merely resist their schemes.” With word from leaders Boehner and Frist that troop withdrawal bills pushed by Democrats may soon be debated, Republicans should welcome the discussion. They should aggressively point out to the American people the strategic and moral consequences of adopting the Dean-Murtha-Pelosi-Kerry plan for Iraq.
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| Missing a "Key Event" in Zarqawi's Life |
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According to the New York Times, the fact that Zarqawi dropped out of high school and that the U.S. raised the bounty on his head to $25 million are "key events" in his life. But his arrival in Iraq and his stay in Baghdad prior to the March 2003 invasion, with the approval and perhaps assistance of the Iraqi regime, are not. General Tommy Franks evidently believed it was enough of a “key event” to note in his memoir American Soldier: One known terrorist, a Jordanian-born Palestinian named Abu Musab Zarqawi who had joined al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- where he specialized in developing chemical and biological weapons -- was now confirmed to operate from one of the camps in Iraq. Badly wounded fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, Zarqawi had received medical treatment in Baghdad before setting up with Ansar al Islam. And evidence suggested that he had been joined there by other al Qaeda leaders, who had been ushered through Baghdad and given safe passage into northern Iraq by Iraqi security forces....[p. 332] And while many al Qaeda leaders had been killed [in Afghanistan], others had sought sanctuary in Iraq. [p. 403]
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Thursday, June 08, 2006
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| USS Cole Deploys to Persian Gulf Again |
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On the heels of the good news of Zarqawi’s death, the AP reports that the USS Cole has left its port in Norfolk, Virginia and is bound for the Persian Gulf region – the first such deployment since al Qaeda terrorists hit it on October 12, 2000. With former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other Clinton folks ratcheting up their criticism of the Bush administration, this may be a good time to revisit Reuel Marc Gerecht’s October 30, 2000 piece, “G-Men, East of Suez,” on the Cole bombing. He noted: More important, the FBI's methods reveal, again, the strategic vacuum at the heart of the Clinton administration's counterterrorist policies. Trying to arrest and prosecute terrorists--treating terrorism as crime--actually endangers American power overseas. Traditional realpolitik and gunboat diplomacy--the only meaningful responses to terrorists who kill Americans--gets cast aside in favor of far-off prosecutions that may well do more damage to America than terrorism….
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| McCain Slams "Those Who Want to Cut and Run" from Iraq |
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In a Fox News interview today, Sen. McCain said that the elimination of Zarqawi is a “rebuke to those who want to cut and run” from Iraq. The “those” Sen. McCain may be referring to could be Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry (whose withdrawal plan McCain characterized as “a major step on the road to disaster” a while back) and other senior Democrats who have been pushing their plans for “strategic redeployment” and “withdrawal timetables.” Last December, Dean said: the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong"; we need to "bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately” and all other troops within two years; and “we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion.” Dean’s words must have been music to the ears of bin Ladin deputy al-Zawahiri who wrote a letter last summer to Zarqawi hoping for a rapid exit of U.S. forces from Iraq. No doubt some Democrats will use Zarqawi’s demise to push harder for rapid U.S. troop withdrawal or, in the words of Sen. McCain, “cut and run.” And what do you know, Sen. Kerry just put out a statement for -- you guessed it -- troop withdrawal: With the end of al-Zarqawi and the confirmation of the final vital cabinet ministries in Iraq’s new government, it’s another sign that it’s time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq, bring the factions together, end the insurgency, and run their own country. Our troops have done their job in Iraq, and they’ve done it valiantly. It’s time to work with the new Iraqi government to bring our combat troops home by the end of this year. Can't wait to hear Howard Dean's take on Zarqawi's departure.
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| Al Qaeda's Pre-War Ties to Iraq |
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Zarqawi and other al Qaeda terrorists had connections to Iraq before coalition forces invaded in March 2003. As the co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, Governor Thomas Kean, stated, "there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." Or consider this, from the memoir of the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, General Tommy Franks, American Soldier: One known terrorist, a Jordanian-born Palestinian named Abu Musab Zarqawi who had joined al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- where he specialized in developing chemical and biological weapons -- was now confirmed to operate from one of the camps in Iraq. Badly wounded fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, Zarqawi had received medical treatment in Baghdad before setting up with Ansar al Islam. And evidence suggested that he had been joined there by other al Qaeda leaders, who had been ushered through Baghdad and given safe passage into northern Iraq by Iraqi security forces....[p. 332] And while many al Qaeda leaders had been killed [in Afghanistan], others had sought sanctuary in Iraq. [p. 403] According to the September 11 report: With the Sudanese regime acting as intermediary, Bin Laden himself met with senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995. Bin Laden is said to have asked for space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but there is no evidence that Iraq responded to this request... [but] the ensuing years saw additional efforts to establish connections. (p.61) In addition, a June 25, 2004 New York Times article, "Iraqis, Seeking Foes of Saudis, Contacted bin Laden, File Says," reported on the contents of a mid-1990s Iraqi intelligence document believed to be authentic. According to the article, bin Laden "had some reservations about being labeled an Iraqi operative." And there are many more examples. To be continued…
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| Good versus Evil |
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The DLC's Marshall Wittmann nails it: Evil has suffered a setback. This is a moment of clarity for civilization. Zarqawi was a moral monster who sought to destroy everything that humane people cherish. And his death is a reminder about the nature of this war.
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Wednesday, June 07, 2006
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| UNdiplomatic, Time for a Bolton Confirmation Vote |
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Kofi Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, takes a swing at the "U.S. heartland,” and UN Ambassador Bolton fires back. It’s too bad. Brown had made an effort to reach out to UN skeptics in the U.S., holding luncheons, etc. and acknowledging that the UN needed major structural reform. His remarks may make the liberals at the Center for American Progress all tingly inside but they will further harm the UN’s reputation among conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill and “heartland” Americans. Considering how much good America does in the world – a truly outrageous statement to make if one only read and believed what’s on some of the lefty blogs -- Mr. Brown really blew it on this one. PS: Senate Republicans should make Democrats squirm and seek a confirmation vote on the recessed-appointed Bolton as soon as possible.
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| The Exploiter |
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No Democrat has been more effective in leading the charge against the Iraq War than Michigan’s Carl Levin. From his perch on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Armed Services Committee, Levin has exploited every opportunity to turn Americans against the war. And his task has been made easier by the Bush administration’s weak performance in countering the spin put out by Levin and his friends in the media. On this score, I’m still hoping Secretary Rumsfeld, who swiftly and effectively counterattacked his uniformed critics a short time ago, will hold a press conference or give a speech forcefully challenging at length the following statements constantly by made anti-war critics like Levin: 1) Saddam Hussein wasn't a threat. With the Armed Services Committee set to hold hearings on Haditha, look for Levin to use what happened there as an indictment of the entire war. Here’s what he said yesterday on National Public Radio: A separate probe into the actual killings, is being carried out by the Navy's Criminal Investigative Service. Carl Levin, who's the top Democrat on the Armed Services panel, said those investigations need to be wrapped up soon. Forget due process, Levin is chomping at the bit for hearings. By his calculus, the more “public support for the war” diminishes the better chance his policy of “withdrawal timetables” will prevail. It’d be nice if someone on the Committee stood up to Levin’s charade but I’m not holding my breath.
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| Swing and a Miss |
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Democrats swung for the fences in the Calf. 50 race but came up empty. The media would have pumped a Donkey victory for days. That said, I’m not sure how to interpret Bilbray’s narrow win. He overcame the Duke Cunningham corruption albatross by emphasizing the need for tough border enforcement. But he did so in a majority Republican district and against an opponent who committed the cardinal sin of politics -- making a major gaffe in the closing days of the campaign. In the end, Bilbray ran a better campaign, which means Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), the party's top strategist for taking back the House, shouldn’t get too cocky about the prospects of a Speaker Pelosi – for now at least.
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006
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| Zarqawi's Enemies List |
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Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq apparently adds Hizbullah to his long list of enemies -- Shiites, Jews, various Sunnis, Americans, the West, etc. -- in his latest radio tirade. Securitywatchtower.com has more here.
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| D-Day Remembered |
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On June 6, 1944, Carey Lee Javis of Virginia hit Omaha Beach in the fist wave of the Normandy Invasion. Today, he tells the story of that day in his local newspaper. Mr. Javis is an American hero.
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| Senator Bayh Should Also Listen to U.S. Marine Ippoliti |
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Indiana Senator Evan Bayh has been running around Iowa lately in his quixotic quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. It won't happen, but his consultants will get richer for his efforts. During his travels, Bayh's been getting an earful from anti-war Democrats. He voted for the war and, unlike John Kerry and John Edwards, Bayh hasn't caved in to the Left's surrender plan for Iraq -- otherwise known as immediate strategic redeployment. But the other day Bayh changed his tune a bit. From MSNBC: At a living room event in Sioux City on Saturday night, former Woodbury County chairman Al Sturgeon told Bayh that rank-and-file Democrats still feel “outrage over this incredible debacle in Iraq.” Calling it “the biggest political and military blunder of my lifetime,” Sturgeon said to Bayh, “I’d like you to explain your vote on the war and why you gave the president a blank check to get us into this disaster.” Bayh calmly answered that “I wouldn’t cast the same vote today as I did then.” He noted that “the French believed that (there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), the Germans believed that, the Russians believed that, everybody believed he [Saddam Hussein] had weapons of mass destruction.” Bayh said if the Iraqi factions “get their political act together — and we will know this in the next six to eight weeks… if they can form a government… then there’s something to work with there.” If not, then “we’re out.” To be fair, Bayh isn't an Al Sturgeon Democrat. He hasn't parroted the "Bush lied us into war" nonsense, he's rejected calls from John Kerry and others for withdrawal timetables, and he has generally followed a centrist course in the U.S. Senate. And while Bayh should listen to the Al Sturgeon Democrats, he should also give a hearing to U.S. Marine Anthony Ippoliti, who, as Andrew Sullivan has noted on his blog, wrote a letter to his local paper on the "cut and run" talk. Ippoliti noted: In Fallujah, the people watch Al Jazeerah. However, they also watch CNN. A lot of them fear that the United States will soon cut and run. The people of Iraq see when our country is divided. When they see rallies to "Bring The Troops Home," they see that as a sign that we will end our efforts prematurely.
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Monday, June 05, 2006
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| Iraq, Iran and the Begin Doctrine |
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Did the Osirak bombing in 1981 impede or accelerate Saddam's nuclear weapons program? Gerald Steinberg, director of the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University, weighs in on this question and the relevance of the Begin Doctrine -- which asserts "the fundamental need to prevent any of Israel's enemies from obtaining nuclear weapons." GIVEN THE complexities and unpredictability of international relations, the expectation that the consequences of strategic decisions can be mapped out in detail is illusory. History is not deterministic - the changes set off by one major act, such as the destruction of the Osirak reactor in 1981 - set off additional responses in all directions.
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| Riding the Anti-Chavez Wave |
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First, voters in Colombia re-elected their pro-American President, Alvaro Uribe, to a second term. Yesterday, Peruvian voters elected a president who explicitly ran as the anti-Hugo Chavez candidate. Chavez had injected himself into Peruvian politics by calling on voters to reject now President-elect Garcia at the ballot box. Garcia attributed his victory, according to the AP, to voters who "defeated the efforts by Mr Hugo Chavez to incorporate us in his strategy of expansion of the militarist and retrograde model he wants to implant in South America." And soon Mexican voters may elect a president who has sprinted ahead in the polls by portraying his opponent as a Hugo Chavez wannabe. Given the political thumping Chavez has received the last two weeks, he's probably ready for a nice vacation with his pal in Havana.
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| An Overseas Connection? |
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Today's Edmonton Journal reports "several of the young men allegedly went from being typical Muslim adherents to radicalized extremists in little more than a year." The men frequented two Toronto area mosques and at least one opposed Canada's role in Afghanistan. It's also been reported that Canadian intelligence had these mosques under surveillance for some time and presumably has recordings/transcripts of what was being said inside. Did any of the sermons encourage radicalism? What about the literature distributed? If so, do the mosques receive any foreign funding? What about the terror suspects? In addition, contrary to what Richard Clarke told ABC News yesterday (hat tip: Weekly Standard contributor Dan Darling), the plotters may have connections that extend well beyond the Canadian border. According to the Los Angeles Times, The senior U.S. law enforcement official said authorities are combing through evidence seized during raids in Canada this weekend to look for possible connections between the 17 suspects arrested Friday and at least 18 other Islamist militants who have been arrested in locations including the United States, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Britain, Denmark and Sweden.
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Sunday, June 04, 2006
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| Aircraft Carrier for Terrorists? |
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Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman wrote the following Weekly Standard piece before Canadian officials revealed the recent terrorist plot. Most worrisome, Beichman notes, is how well terrorists may have blended into Canadian culture. Is Canada Next? Time to look at the northern border.
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| Canada-U.S. Terror Link? |
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From Reuters: Some members of a group of Canadians arrested on terror-related offenses may have been in contact with two U.S. suspects now in custody who were based in Georgia, the FBI said on Saturday.
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Friday, June 02, 2006
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| Democrats Against Jimmy Carter |
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The National Jewish Democratic Council responds to the former president's "deeply disappointing attack on Israel."
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| Carlos the Jackal "A Good Friend" |
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| Well Said |
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Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council is spot on with his comments on Haditha. The media must also provide a sense of proportion. While the press will readily and properly condemn the improper or criminal actions of a few American soldiers, they too infrequently tell the stories of the heroism and altruism of our troops. This is particularly true of this war....
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