This was nice to read: There have been estimates as high as 1 million civilians killed by Saddam, though most agree on the 300,000 to 400,000 range, making my comparison to 20,000 civilian dead in this war pathetically wrong. But the old bat had little choice, given that she was the laughing stock of the … Continue reading “Molly Ivins eats crow”
This was nice to read:
There have been estimates as high as 1 million civilians killed by Saddam, though most agree on the 300,000 to 400,000 range, making my comparison to 20,000 civilian dead in this war pathetically wrong.
But the old bat had little choice, given that she was the laughing stock of the Western world after claiming that the man she calls “shrub” had killed more Iraqis than Galloway’s (and probably Joe Wilson’s) former employer.
George Galloway is Saddam’s man in England. It turns out that the terror bombers frequented a youth center where he was idolized: The centre receives funding from the British government and the European Union, as well as charitable funds, and as such is officially secular and non-political. But in practice, it was neither. On its … Continue reading “British terror bombers tied to Galloway”
George Galloway is Saddam’s man in England. It turns out that the terror bombers frequented a youth center where he was idolized:
The centre receives funding from the British government and the European Union, as well as charitable funds, and as such is officially secular and non-political. But in practice, it was neither. On its walls were posters from the Respect Party, an extremist pro-Islamic party founded by MP George Galloway, that showed Israeli soldiers pointing rifles at Palestinian children. When some workers complained about these, they were harassed by other staffers.
The hostile, politicized mood at the centre stands in stark contrast to the descriptions of the young bombers made by their relatives and neighbours yesterday.
I wonder if we have youth centers in the US with posters of Joe Wilson on display. If we do, it’s certainly a red flag for terror.
HT Daily Pundit.
Volokhtician Jim Lindgren has some good questions for Lyin’ Joe: Here it would be good to ask Wilson whether he thought that by lying about what he found in Niger and what he told the CIA and how he was selected, he was gambling with his wife’s safety. How could he be sure that people … Continue reading “Questions for Lyin’ Joe Wilson”
Volokhtician Jim Lindgren has some good questions for Lyin’ Joe:
Here it would be good to ask Wilson whether he thought that by lying about what he found in Niger and what he told the CIA and how he was selected, he was gambling with his wife’s safety. How could he be sure that people would know that Plame was a covert agent, or that there was a law against revealing her identity? Perhaps someone might have reasonably believed that they were correcting misimpressions that Wilson himself had created. Did Wilson realize that he had put the Administration in something analogous to a Catch-22?: Wilson can lie about how he was hired but the Administration can’t correct his lie without outing his wife. Did Wilson consciously decide to gamble with his wife’s safety by lying in a way that would be hard for the Administration to correct?
Will the lapdog imperialist media ask them? I doubt it.
This piece by Howard Fineman on The Plame Game provides some vital background on Lyin’ Joe Wilson and his wife’s cronies in the CIA: Behind the scenes or openly, at war or at peace, the United States has been debating what to do in, with and about Iraq for more than 20 years. We always … Continue reading “Why Joe Wilson was a bad choice”
This piece by Howard Fineman on The Plame Game provides some vital background on Lyin’ Joe Wilson and his wife’s cronies in the CIA:
Behind the scenes or openly, at war or at peace, the United States has been debating what to do in, with and about Iraq for more than 20 years. We always have been of two minds. One faction, led by the CIA and State Department, favored using secular forces in Iraq—Saddam Hussein and his Baathists—as a counterweight to even more radical elements, from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Shiite ayatollahs in Iran to the Palestinian terrorists in the Levant. The other faction, including Dick Cheney and the “neo-cons,” has long held a different view: that, with their huge oil reserves and lust for power (and dreams of recreating Baghdad’s ancient role in the Arab world), the Baathists had to be permanently weakened and isolated, if not destroyed. This group cheered when, more than 20 years ago in a secret airstrike, the Israelis destroyed a nuclear reactor Saddam had been trying to build, a reactor that could have given him the ultimate WMD.
The “we-can-use Saddam” faction held the upper hand right up to the moment he invaded Kuwait a decade ago. Until then, the administration of Bush One (with its close CIA ties) had been hoping to talk sense with Saddam. Indeed, the last American to speak to Saddam before the war was none other than Joe Wilson, who was the State Department charge’ d’affaires in Baghdad. Fluent in French, with years of experience in Africa, he remained behind in Iraq after the United States withdrew its ambassador, and won high marks for bravery and steadfastness, supervising the protection of Americans there at the start of the first Gulf War. But, as a diplomat, he didn’t want the Americans to “march all the way to Baghdad.” Cheney, always a careful bureaucrat, publicly supported the decision. Wilson was for repelling a tyrant who grabbed land, but not for regime change by force.
Perhaps Fitzgerald is investigating whether Wilson was an agent of Saddam, given their close ties.
The University of California signaled its intention to become a haven of mediocrity by withdrawing from the National Merit Scholarship program: UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale said some UC chancellors initially might have harbored concerns that, if they scrapped the National Merit program, they would lose out on talented students and be punished in the rankings … Continue reading “Another step toward mediocrity”
The University of California signaled its intention to become a haven of mediocrity by withdrawing from the National Merit Scholarship program:
UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale said some UC chancellors initially might have harbored concerns that, if they scrapped the National Merit program, they would lose out on talented students and be punished in the rankings published by such magazines as U.S. News & World Report. He called the decision “another move in the direction of doing what you think makes the most sense rather than be concerned about what it will mean for the rankings.”
Elaine S. Detweiler, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corp. in Evanston, Ill., dismissed speculation by Carnesale and other academics that some of the 200 other participating universities might follow UC’s path. Detweiler called the PSAT “the most equitable way” to identify academically talented students from around the country, noting that the same exam is given to students at 22,000 high schools in all 50 states.
“We regret that finalists in the extremely competitive National Merit program who may wish to attend a UC campus will no longer have the opportunity to earn a Merit Scholarship sponsored by the university and, more importantly, receive the recognition for academic excellence that accompanies a Merit Scholarship,” she said.
Other defenders of the National Merit program, including other universities that actively recruit the winners and the winning students themselves, say it remains a helpful way to identify talented candidates even if the selection process is flawed. Some have pointed out, for example, that students are less likely to have taken test preparation courses before the PSAT than before the SAT.
The message is very clear: smart kids better avoid UC.
Rove’s critics claim that Valerie Plame was a covert agent at the time he spoke to Matt Copper about her role in sending Wilson to Niger, citing a hastily-written article from Newsday in 2003 (link unknown) as the source: A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked … Continue reading “Was Plame really a covert agent?”
Rove’s critics claim that Valerie Plame was a covert agent at the time he spoke to Matt Copper about her role in sending Wilson to Niger, citing a hastily-written article from Newsday in 2003 (link unknown) as the source:
A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked “alongside” the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.
In fact, the situation is a bit more complicated. See Mark Levin in The Corner:
USA Today has it right. In the end, as a legal matter this won’t be about outting Plame. Among other things, the five year rule can’t be met. The paper reports, in part:
In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in Washington, D.C., where they married and became parents of twins.
Six years later, in July 2003, the name of the CIA officer –Valerie Plame– was revealed by columnist Robert Novak.
The column’s date is important because the law against unmasking the identities of U.S. spies says a “covert agent” must have been on an overseas assignment “within the last five years.” The assignment also must be long-term, not a short trip or temporary post, two experts on the law say. Wilson’s book makes numerous references to the couple’s life in Washington over the six years up to July 2003. “Unless she was really stationed abroad sometime after their marriage,” she wasn’t a covert agent protected by the law, says Bruce Sanford, an attorney who helped write the 1982 act that protects covert agents’ identities.
A number of other links at Tom McGuire’s say the same thing. Plame wasn’t a covert agent in the meaning of the law, just a CIA employee with an ax to grind.
With apologies to the moonbats of the left, this story shows why we need to stick around in Iraq a while longer: Baghdad — Inside the morgue at Kindi Hospital lay the remains of Amjad Kudeer. He was 13 when fragments from a suicide car bomb struck him in the head and chest Wednesday, killing … Continue reading “I don’t think it’s time to leave Iraq just yet”
With apologies to the moonbats of the left, this story shows why we need to stick around in Iraq a while longer:
Baghdad — Inside the morgue at Kindi Hospital lay the remains of Amjad Kudeer. He was 13 when fragments from a suicide car bomb struck him in the head and chest Wednesday, killing him instantly.
Outside the door to the refrigerated room, Amjad’s sobbing mother called his name over and over, as if to summon him back to life. Then she looked up and asked: “What did he do to deserve this? They are killing children. Why? Why?”
Amjad and more than a dozen other children from east Baghdad’s al-Khalij neighborhood made up the majority of the 27 people killed when a suicide bomber drove into a crowd that had gathered around U.S. soldiers who were handing out candy and small toys, police said. The attack also killed one soldier, according to the U.S. military, and wounded at least 50 people.
Rove or no Rove, there are serious things going on in the world and we need to deal with them.
Media pacifists are jumping all over Mark Yost for complaining about the biased coverage of the war in Iraq, but the good people aren’t just rolling over and taking it. Here’s an excellent defense of Yost: Anytime someone dares to call into question the motives of the media, we can count on Lovelady to come … Continue reading “Pacifist violence”
Media pacifists are jumping all over Mark Yost for complaining about the biased coverage of the war in Iraq, but the good people aren’t just rolling over and taking it. Here’s an excellent defense of Yost:
Anytime someone dares to call into question the motives of the media, we can count on Lovelady to come to the defense of the far-left extreme — anyone out there remember the Eason Jordan affair? Easongate was all the fault of the “wacko neo-fascist bloggers,” or so Lovelady would have had us believe in the dozens of posts he made in cyberspace.
I don’t doubt for one moment that President Bush and his advisers made mistakes in the run-up to the Iraq war. I do not, for one minute, believe that he purposefully lied to the American public about the need to remove Saddam Hussein from power or the importance of introducing democracy in the Middle East as a way to stem radical Islamist terrorism. I believe with all my heart that the Iraqi people are better off today and will be better off in the future because of the American intervention to remove Saddam. Just peer into the dozens of mass graves uncovered in the last couple of years and tell me you disagree with me, Steve.
What America is attempting to do in the Middle East is nothing short of revolutionary. After years of supporting regimes that were friendly to our interests but suppressed their own people, President Bush has decided that the only course of action is for America to do all it can to foster self-determination in a vital region of the world. Not American-style democracy, mind you, but true local self-determination. And each day, on the ground in Iraq, there are dozens of small steps taken toward that goal. Yes, there are missteps and miscalculations … yes, there are setbacks as today’s suicide bombing of U.S. soldiers giving candy to Iraqi CHILDREN, but the ultimate success of the mission is not in doubt in my mind because of the determination of this president.
The predictability of Steve Lovelady and the Columbia Journalism Review has become something of a joke over the course of the last few years. They’re preaching to the choir while lecturing a public that increasingly writes off both of them as useless relics.
The media can’t play the same game with Iraq they played with Vietnam because there are too many alternate routes for news to take these days, but they’re certainly trying, relics that they are.
Sepia Mutiny, a blog for second-generation Indo-Americans, is pretty anguished over the identity of the London terrorists. Here’s a bit of analysis: When I was a child my mother told me a story that her mother had told her. I can only re-tell the story as it was told to me: Once when mami was … Continue reading “My son the fanatic”
Sepia Mutiny, a blog for second-generation Indo-Americans, is pretty anguished over the identity of the London terrorists. Here’s a bit of analysis:
When I was a child my mother told me a story that her mother had told her. I can only re-tell the story as it was told to me:
Once when mami was young she was at a train station. There was a strange man there who simply looked at her and hypnotized her. The man was a Fakir. She followed him unable to control herself as he led her away. Fakir’s have magical powers. Really Abhi (I was shaking my head in disbelief). They are Muslim and they kidnap and convert you to Islam. Luckily the family got her back before she walked too far off. She didn’t remember anything that happened afterward and said she couldn’t control herself. A Fakir can just look at you and you’ll forget everything, your whole life.
Now bear in mind that my family is from Gujarat, where bigotry has persisted for generations. My mom is not a bigot but she believed (and still does) that a Fakir has mystical powers that can brainwash a normal person and get them to walk away from their life and convert to Islam (even though not all Fakirs are Muslim and the Sufi order is the least fundamental). I actually asked her to tell me this story again when I went home just last month.
Most of us know at least one person that is a “born-again” into some religion. Various things motivate these people. Many of them (like at least one of these bombers) were described as being out-of-control before their conversion (or re-discovery of their family religion). Others feel overwhelmed by the influence of the world they live in and retreat back to a basic set of instructions that they think will bring order to the chaos they feel. Some take this “order” too far by trying to impose their interpretation of that order on others. Most born-agains however are perfectly sane and choose to practice their new beliefs in private without a harmful thought toward anyone. How do we recognize in our second generation peers which path they have chosen to walk?
Commenters note that the fanaticism evinced in the terror bombings is more commonly Islamic than Hindu.
They were all second-generation Pakistani-Brits, and didn’t fit the profile that we generally associate with West-hating religious nuts. They were educated and into sports: Shehzad Tanweer, 22, was an outwardly ordinary young British man, a university graduate who studied sports science and loved cricket and football. and employed in the caring professions: Like Tanweer, Khan … Continue reading “London suicide bombers”
They were all second-generation Pakistani-Brits, and didn’t fit the profile that we generally associate with West-hating religious nuts. They were educated and into sports:
Shehzad Tanweer, 22, was an outwardly ordinary young British man, a university graduate who studied sports science and loved cricket and football.
and employed in the caring professions:
Like Tanweer, Khan seemed an unlikely suicide bomber. Friends said he was married with an eight-month-old baby girl and that he worked with disabled children in a primary school.
but very religious anyhow:
Hussain lived with his parents and neighbours said he had become “very religious” two years ago.
I would hope that their mosque is heavily investigated.
A revisionist theory is floating around to the effect that suicide terror isn’t about religion but some sort of reaction to American occupation. This is a load of bunk, of course. The USA has had troops in Germany for 60 years and the Germans haven’t sent us any suicide bombers. Let’s get real, OK?
Juan Cole, of course, said this about the terrorist bombers: “…this bombing could not have emanated from the British Muslim community.” What a genius.
But he’s changed his tune
Legislators in democratic societies who are thinking about how to respond to this problem should give serious thought to RICO-like laws that could be used to curb religious cults, which typically isolate members, indoctrinate them, manipulate them, and sometimes coerce them. Cults avoid scrutiny by harassing critics and whistleblowers, often in ways that police find it difficult to respond to. The enormous problems modern societies have had with groups like Christian Identity, the Koreishites, Aum Shinrikyo, and now al-Qaeda, suggests that current legal frameworks are inadequate to address this problem. Ex-members, victims and critics of cults need a legal basis for protection from the cults. The American Family Foundation is doing excellent work in this regard.
Cole is fundamentally correct, and I agree with his prescription completely. We can’t allow destructive cults to operate freely under “freedom of religion” protection when they’re functionally the same as organized crime. Sorry, Tom Cruise, but you’re busted.
