OpinionJournal on useful idiots including ex-CIA Robert Baer and Sy Hersch:
For example, what did the former CIA agent Robert Baer mean in Time magazine, when he wrote that the Lebanese government should “know better” than to believe that Fatah al-Islam is a Syrian creation, because “at the end of the day Fatah Islam is the Syrian regime’s mortal enemy”? Mr. Baer’s point was that a Lebanese civil war might undermine Syrian stability, but also that Sunni Islamists oppose the minority Alawite Syrian regime. He reminded us that “the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood used northern Lebanon as a rear base to seize the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.”
It is Mr. Baer who should know better. Syria has fueled a sectarian war in neighboring Iraq by funneling Sunni al Qaeda fighters into the country, without worrying about what this might mean for its own stability. Syria’s vulnerabilities have not prevented it from hosting Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. And Syria’s anxieties notwithstanding, throughout its years in Lebanon it developed ties with many Sunni Islamist groups and recently welcomed to Damascus a prominent Lebanese Islamist it has co-opted, Fathi Yakan.
The point is that Syria will have no qualms about provoking sectarian discord in Lebanon to ward away the menace of the Hariri tribunal.
Fatah Al Islam’s “9/11 in Lebanon” attack would have destroyed a large hotel in Beirut with four simultaneous truck bombs, blown up embassies on both sides of the city, and collapsed a tunnel.
Syria’s involvement in this particular plan is unclear at this point, but will no doubt be investigated, especially since this entire crisis coincides precisely with the timing of the Chapter 7 UN Tribunal.
Syria threatened to set Lebanon and the region on fire if the tribunal was enacted.
Meanwhile, Iranian weapons shipments to Iraq increasing.
ABCNews.com: ‘Murtha Ties Foiled JFK Plot to U.S. in Iraq’
And whereas this round-up is far, far from comprehensive, it would be fatally defective without a mention of Gleen.
OOPS! Almost forgot this Canadian moron echo for the Gorebacle.
Meanwhile, the great military blogger Bill Roggio reports on the latest developments in Iraq in the Weekly Standard. Lots of interesting developmentsâ€â€we are obviously getting better intelligence from the Iraqi citizenry, since we’re rounding up terrorists by the scoreâ€â€and you will want to read it all. I just want to flag one paragraph. It will not surprise regular readers of this blog, but it ought to be memorized by all of our leaders:
…Coalition forces captured a “liaison to al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders, who assists in the movement of information and documents from al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership in Baghdad to al-Qaeda senior leaders in Iran.†Al Qaeda leaders such as Saif al Adel and Said bin Laden, Osama’s son, are being sheltered in Iran along with an estimated 100 al Qaeda senior operatives.
So al Qaeda in Iraq’s headquarters are in Tehran. Can we stop talking about “insurgency†yet?
Judith Apter Klinghoffer
THE INFORMATION BATTLE OVER IRAN
A conference in Luxemburg revealed how little experts know about the Iranian program, how little they feel like doing anything real to stop it and how expensive the ongoing debate is in term of nuclear knowledge proliferation to rogue regimes. A Financial Times report tried to present a calming scenario:
However, the (IAEA) report shows that while Iran’s program has made rapid progress during the year so far, the pace may have slackened over the past month.
Tehran’s current objective is to use 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. In theory, 3,000 centrifuges could produce enough nuclear material for a bomb within a year – although the likelihood of breakdowns means it would take significantly longer in practice.
Not so, responded John Bolton in a letter to the editor published today in the paper. Time is shorter than you assume:
Sir, Your report, “Iran moves ahead with nuclear program” (May 24) contained the following sentence: “Iran has also declared that it has enriched uranium to a level of 4.8 per cent – enough to serve as nuclear fuel, but far short of the levels of about 90 per cent needed for atomic weapons.”
The plain implication of the sentence is that Iran has a long way to go before it creates the highly enriched uranium (HEU) it needs for weapons purposes – all the way from roughly 5 per cent (low enriched uranium or LEU) to HEU’s 90 per cent.This implication is false. Enriching a given quantity of natural uranium by centrifuges to LEU levels of the U235 isotope in fact consumes approximately 70 per cent of the work and time required to reach HEU concentrations of the isotope. Thus, Iran is not “far short” of HEU levels; it is more than two-thirds of the way there for each kilogram of uranium feedstock it enriches. Your readers should not be misled on this point.
But misleading the public is MSM’s goal for only a misled public will not force a punch drunk president to act.
Just last week, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, in an interview on CNN talked about a terrorist act by Iran in which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and their proxy forces disguised as American soldiers, driving American vehicles and speaking English raided a government compound in Karbala, killed one U.S. soldier at the scene and captured four others who were later slain. “We know they had built a mock facility in Iran and, in fact, it helped conduct the training and planning over there before they came back and executed that here in Iraq” Caldwell said.
But beggars can’t be choosers. Negotiating with mullahs mean negotiating with those who are directly involved in commissioning the murder of the Iraqi citizens and the American solders. This was the case on the Memorial Day, when the American Ambassador in Iraq met the Iranian envoy whose office is reportedly the headquarter for commanding Iran’s proxy forces in Iraq . What a way to observe Memorial Day!
Prof. Kazem Kazerounian
University of Connecticut
And regarding this moron, I haven’t noticed any hysteria, like global climocaust fearmongering, Trutherism, anti-Zionist paranoia, or the suggestion that Israel’s destruction is imminent, the holding hostage of US citizens on trumped up espionage charges, or the simultaneous explosions of a hotel and embassies (which ones, I wonder?) in Beirut.
I get the feeling the Syrians view themselves as being in control when they’re riding the tiger, primarily because they’re free to bludgeon the tiger to death when they want. As a Third-World dictatorial shit-hole, they’re immune to any real consequences to simply massacring anyone who acts up.
geez, Dan
So many asshats, so little time. Gotta love the koskiddies who can, on one hand dimiss and ridicule the plot on JFK Airport, yet seriously, seriously I tell you, promote the notion that Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin will be commanding an armed right wing coup d’ete when Dems take the Presidency in ‘08.
And a truer definition of “torture” is watching St Amanda tongue bathe GiGi… bad faith argument being their shared aphrodisiac.
Darleen–
Cool! Don’t tell me Ingraham’s going to sit this out!
Reading all of the links made me very depressed.
Thanks Dan.
We ignore the Iranian threat at our peril. How long do we ignore the obvious fact that while we may not be at war with Iran, Iran is at war with us. Will it take a second holocaust to make this nation wake up? That’s what Iran has been saying for years now and I believe them. But then, what’s a few million more of those pesky Jews gone anyway, eh? That shitty little country desrves it.
We get scant help from the Europeans and our enemy’s most potent weapon is the majority of our own MSM and the cohorts of progressives and Bush haters who think that the United States is the greatest evil on earth.
Too bad these people along with Canada’s former ambassador can’t spend some quality time in Iranian prisons, maybe then GITMO wouldn’t look so bad. Maybe then they might realize how a real theocratic government behaves.
Murtha is cynically playing to the moon-bat left as is the democratic party leadership in what has to be the most cynical and craven posturing since, since well, the democratic party in 1864. The hardest act he Murtha and his ilk will have is containing their glee should an attack be successful.
As for Sy Hersh, he’s been wrong so many times now that his stories seem more like wishful thinking.
It is indeed sad since these are very serious times and we need to show a united resolve as never before, but instead have a sizable group within our own country actively or tacitly pulling for our defeat. Should it come about (god forbid) that too will be Bush’s fault.
Ofcourse, some hi-school sophomore troll-bait will be around any minute now to lob a few de rigueur insults tell everyone that America is the real enemy.
Thanks Dan. Thanks for making my day. I’m going back outside, I have a fence to finish building and then I’m going to pour myself a stiff one.
Oh… and before I forget, Dan
I signed up to the Edwards campaign so I could get the free bumpersticker and be on the email list.
It sure is entertaining…from the 5/23 email
Then there’s the faux folksy “send us money” one from Breck Boys mama, Bobbie, “for my boy’s birthday”
It’s not for John, it’s for the pie.
A foiled plot? I thought Lee Harvey Oswald hit his target.
Oh no, we’ve been found out! Now Silky will expose the ugly truth about Osama being a Rove operative and AQ just the Tallahassee Pachyderm Club in last week’s bedsheets!
Pecan pie? There’s a perfectly good recipe on the label of Karo syrup. That’s a lot cheaper than $6.10 and the prospect of an Edwards presidency.
She had to find a use for all those nuts he’s collected, Rob.
Darleen–that’s just precious. I think it deserves its own post.
Done, Dan
Gave me a chance to post the full emails, including the homey little pic that was in Bobbie’s email of youngster John and the secret pecan pie.
Hmmm… sounds like a Dahl book..
Hey man, anybody who takes the LA-LA Times seriously obviously doesn’t have both oars in the water, y’know?
There’s a reason that asshat McKenna is a former ambassador. That reason is readily apparent from reading just a bit of his ramblings. The US a theocratic state? He must be talking about that other US, where church attendance is mandatory, homosexuals are executed, and women are not allowed to be seen in public unless in the company of their husband. What a fucking idiot.
Good God, that Pandagon post is a work of art. If Amanda could physically twist and gyrate like she does in print she would wtfpwn Olympic gymnastics.
Well, can you blame them? I mean, after the bloodbath that followed last November’s election tore the country asunder…Oh, nevermind.
Well, at least she doesn’t put scare quotes around the word terrorists. Almost admirable.
But then, she heads into classic moonbat territory, talking about how the MSM is too conservative and making an interesting claim for a vagina warrior:
Not exactly news? What kind of feminist can she possibly be when she’s brushing that off so lightly? I guess only Wingnuts object to state-sponsored rape, so who cares?
Reading that in light of the series of threads of at Tim Blair’s site about feminine genital mutilation and the “feminist” non-response to it, I’m reminded just how little the feminists actually care about women.
They care only care about womyn.
I promise to preview in the future.
Wah.
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