Sunday Funnies

More at Flopping Aces

Marine Vet's Patriotism Under Attack by HOA

58 year old disabled Vietnam vet, Frank Larison, is under fire from the Dallas Home Owner's Association. The president of the HOA sent him a letter asking him to remove 7 Marine Corps decals from his vehicle, stating that advertisement is not allowed. The reporter, James Rose, points out that if this is the case, just about every car in the neighborhood is in violation as the news camera captures examples of other cars making a multitude of statements, including an Obama '08 bumpersticker. Yet it's the patriotic Marine decals that have drawn fire from the HOA.

Yup...supporting the Armed Forces and expressing patriotism is a "no-no" advertisement that violates HOA rules...but sporting an Obama '08 bumpersticker gets the free pass.

This is an Outrage!

Obama Justice Department drops charges against Black Panthers' voter intimidation.

And when it was a GOP Latino nominee, with a compelling background....

Estrada's nomination for a federal judgeship set off alarm bells among Democrats. There is a group of left-leaning organizations -- People for the American Way, NARAL, the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the NAACP, and others -- that work closely with Senate Democrats to promote Democratic judicial nominations and kill Republican ones. They were particularly concerned about Estrada.

In November, 2001, representatives of those groups met with Democratic Senate staff. One of those staffers then wrote a memo to Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, informing Durbin that the groups wanted to stall Bush nominees, particularly three they had identified as good targets. "They also identified Miguel Estrada as especially dangerous," the staffer added, "because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment. They want to hold Estrada off as long as possible."

It was precisely the fact that Estrada was Hispanic that made Democrats and their activist allies want to kill his nomination. They were determined to deny a Republican White House credit, political and otherwise, for putting a first-rate Hispanic nominee on the bench.

3 Reent Posts of Mine on FA

Choosing the least bad option

When transparency kills

Broadcasting our playbook to the enemy

President Obama More Dangerous than Viagra!

Careful what you search for...

Child Soldiers

Somali Islamist insurgent fighters are seen at one of the bases vacated by Ethiopian troops in the capital Mogadishu. Ethiopian soldiers supporting Somalia's Western-backed interim government quit their main bases in Mogadishu on Tuesday, witnesses said, prompting celebrations among many residents.
Str-Reuters

By way of CJ:

It’s one thing to accidentally kill a child in the exchange of gunfire, but to actually have one in your sights and to pull the trigger is not something I think any Soldier is prepared for. They don’t train us to have to kill kids, but that’s the position the terrorists are putting us in. This story just really broke my heart.

The US military said on Saturday its soldiers shot dead a 12-year-old boy who tried to attack a joint American and Iraqi patrol with a grenade in the tense northern city of Mosul.

“Coalition forces fired on two of three individuals positively identified as involved in the attack, killing one, who they later discovered was a 12-year-old boy,” Master Sergeant Michael Wetzel told AFP.

“We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, but undoubtedly placing the children in harm’s way,” he said, following Thursday’s shooting.

Read the rest HERE.

Foreign Policy has an interesting article on "Child Soldiers":

In Afghanistan, a 14-year-old was responsible for the first killing of a NATO soldier -- likely just one of the estimated 8,000 child soldiers who do or have worked as part of the Taliban's forces.

Face to face with child soldiers in battle, Western military forces are often befuddled as to what to do. Should they engage, retreat, surrender, or attempt to disarm? The U.S. Army's war manual, for example, offers no guidance on rules of engagement. The British Army only recognized the problem after one of its patrols was captured by child RUF soldiers in Sierra Leone, having been hesitant to attack the under-15-year-olds. Britain later used pyrotechnics and loud explosions in that conflict to induce panic among the ill-trained youngsters, many of whom would simply run away.

~~~

The biggest challenge of all in ending child soldiering lies in the types of conflicts that employ the young. Children tend to be recruited in brutal, long-running civil wars, the kind that simmer for years or even decades. Unfortunately, these wars constitute the main form of armed conflict today. Until they stop, the recruitment of children never will.

From Inside Gitmo:

There are many articles and reports documenting the use of child soldierssome as young as just six years oldin Afghanistan and Iraq. Some selections covering this problem during the early days of the war in Afghanistan include Hannah Beech Farkhar, The Child Soldiers, Time, November 4, 2001; Rachel Stohl, Children on the Front Line: Child Soldiers in Afghanistan, Center for Defense Information, October 15, 2001; and David Rohde, 12 Year Olds Take Up Arms Against Taliban, New York Times, October 2, 2001. More recent articles of interest on this subject include Monte Morin, Taliban Recruiting Afghan Children for Suicide Bombings, Stars and Stripes, June 27, 2007; Marc Perelman, A New, Younger Jihadi Threat Emerges, Christian Science Monitor, December 28, 2007; Nick Owens, Child Soldiers Trained by the Taliban to Kill British Soldiers, Mirror.co.uk, February 8, 2008; and Juvenile Detainees Gain Second Chance through Dar Al-Hikmah from the Operation Iraqi Freedom Official Website of the Multi-National Force Iraq, August 17, 2007. Videos of child soldiers, including six-year-old Juma Gul, who had been tricked by the Taliban into wearing a suicide vest and instructed to throw himself at U.S. soldiers, can be found by typing child soldiers Taliban into the search box at YouTube.com.

Also read: Gitmo detainee supposedly 12 years old when captured and held for 6 years.

A Memorial Tradition Comes to an End

In the Age of Obama.

It's a tough life being a wannabe-martyr

Read why.

Remember Him with Laughter

Photo by Scott Varley, for the Daily Breeze

"He told us ... `I don't want you to remember me in tears,"' his mother, Gail Johnson-Roth, told about 250 mourners at his funeral at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood. "`I want you to remember me with laughter."'
-from the Daily Breeze, two years ago

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood.

Not long after arriving, as I was walking through the cemetery, a particular gravesite stood out because it was embraced by flowers and balloons. I guessed it was a recent soldier who had died. Walking over to it, I recognized the name of who I stumbled upon: Daniel Patrick Cagle. I had put together a post when he was buried two years ago, moved by the above photo. It had caught my attention on the front page of a local paper (Torrance, actually; but still part of the greater LA area), The Daily Breeze, as I was waiting in a diner.

Here are a few photos I took yesterday:








I do hope and pray that Cagle's family and friends can remember him with laughter amidst the tears.

I don't know if I'll put more photos up. Z also visited the LA National Cemetery and has posted photos.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

The Campaigner-in-Chief’s Memorial Day Speech

Another side-swipe at the Bush Administration.

"Earn this. Earn it."

The rest of this short post over at Flopping Aces

Memorial Day Weekend

"God must have a special place for soldiers"

Go check out what I mean.

I hastily pieced together this video from mostly DoD photos:



Although Memorial Day honors all those who have fallen in service to this country, the video's content focuses on the current war on terror Overseas Contingency Operations. I wanted to convey the heartache and sacrifice as well as the pride felt by those military families, left behind by a son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, a cousin, a mother, a father, a grandparent, a friend who dared put on a military uniform to defend you, me, and our own friends and family.

I intentionally juxtapositioned the poignancy of families left behind...their own children and wives...while going off to help other people's children and wives in a foreign land; of American lives lost, but also showing what those lives have gained for us and for the world.

Soldiers are heroes, plain and simple, answering a call that is greater than self.

I don't believe our military should ever be used for anything other than to serve in our own national security interests. The necessity of removing Saddam from power through war may be debatable; but what I am moved by in photos such as the ones in the video, is the selfless professionalism of the American soldier helping a budding democracy to flourish; the simple kindness of the American warrior toward Iraqi children. And for this, we are hated around the world; our muscular foreign policy and military interventionism roundly criticized; our previous president blamed for supposedly hurting our image abroad.

It is the nobility of the American soldier who is the best ambassador to other nations; who exemplifies our values and traditions. It is the American soldier who represents the best and brightest our country has to offer.

This post will be updated with my cross-post at Flopping Aces, later.

Please make note that over in the sidebar, you will find my Memorial Day videos for the previous 2 years. Please use them as you see fit.

Sunday Funnies

Click

Politician Death Match: Cheney vs. Obama

May 21: President Obama's shadow is cast on the Constitution as he delivers an address on national security, terrorism, and the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison at the National Archives in Washington.
Charles Dharapak-AP



They start speaking in less than an hour.

Found this at Shadow Government:

Jack Goldsmith's spot-on piece in the New Republic. It's a must-read:

Former Vice President Cheney says that President Obama's reversal of Bush-era terrorism policies endangers American security. The Obama administration, he charges, has "moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe for nearly eight years from a follow-on terrorist attack like 9/11." Many people think Cheney is scare-mongering and owes President Obama his support or at least his silence. But there is a different problem with Cheney's criticisms: his premise that the Obama administration has reversed Bush-era policies is largely wrong. The truth is closer to the opposite: The new administration has copied most of the Bush program, has expanded some of it, and has narrowed only a bit. Almost all of the Obama changes have been at the level of packaging, argumentation, symbol, and rhetoric. This does not mean that the Obama changes are unimportant. Packaging, argumentation, symbol, and rhetoric, it turns out, are vitally important to the legitimacy of terrorism policies.

Stupidity Persists: Jesse Ventura on The View

How many households tune into The View? Apparently around 4.42 million for the 18-34 group. How many blog-readers click onto FA discussion threads? 300? A thousand?

Can you understand why stupidity persists on American daytime tv and how that affects public attitudes, knowledge and opinions?

Huffington Post:
Read more »

Opposition to Bush was Largely Opposition to the "R" Next to His Name

As livid as we all are over radical changes we perceive from the current crop of Democrats in office, led by The One, we should also have a smirk on our faces as we watch liberal ideologues and activists over the fact that President Obama- not presidential campaigner Obama- is finding himself reinstituting, surpassing, and keeping in place some of the same policies for which Dubbya was roundly criticized for. The Presidency is larger than the Obamessiah, and the reality is dawning that some Bush policies liberals scaremongered about were rooted in pragmatism and reality.

1. Obama is still prosecuting the war on terror, albeit by a kinder, gentler pc name.

2. He had to scrap his campaign promise to withdraw a brigade a month from Iraq and is basically riding out the success of the Bush surge success 2007-8 and the signing of SOFA under Bush. Really, the McCain plan, the Obama plan, and the Bush plan toward Iraq at this point....not a lot of difference.

3. His Executive Order on closing Guantanamo? Easier said than done. The EO was symbolic window dressing to placate the base and world opinion; to make it appear as if the Administration was moving swiftly toward radical change from Bush era policies, while essentially doing nothing. He vowed to close Gitmo with no plan in place; and now he's finding himself coming full circle right back to where Bush left off. It's ironic that one of the criticisms of the Bush Administration was that they were holding detainees without charge or trial; yet it was exactly what the Bush Administration was trying to do through military tribunals. President Obama suspends those, basically prolonging the "suspension of habeas corpus" Bush was criticized over. And now....hmmm....those military commissions are looking better and better. Senator Webb has also come around to "the dark side". Campaigning out of partisan politics is one thing; governing from an informed position for the good of the nation, quite another. And as Mataharley comments:

Ah yes… a new day, and a fresh, more reasonable attitude. Like day and night. And perhaps, if they’d lay aside their partisan agenda for awhile, they may figure out this is why Bush ultimately didn’t close it when he very much would have liked to have that option as far back as 2006.

4. His Executive Order on harsh interrogations. Basically, it revoked Bush's 2007 EO that basically said the same thing as the one that replaced it, regarding torture. Another symbolic gesture that only has meaning in the court of world opinion.

5. CodePink is not happy with the escalation of a troop surge for Afghanistan. Not making CodePink happy is a good thing....because it means there may actually be a chance to bring about peace and stability in the world.

Why should the anti-war left be so shocked, anyway? Democratic leadership kept shreiking about how "the real war is in Afghanistan".

6. Rendition programs. Happened under Clinton, was disparaged under Bush, continues under Obama.

7. State secret rights. Presidential candidate Obama

did forcefully oppose the Bush administration's use of the "state secrets" privilege to get cases thrown out of civil court. According to the Obama/Biden campaign web site:

Secrecy Dominates Government Actions: The Bush administration has ignored public disclosure rules and has invoked a legal tool known as the "state secrets" privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court.

But now, to the dismay of civil liberties groups, President Obama is using the "state secrets" defense to make the case that the United States government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying and can never be sued for surveillance that might violate federal privacy statutes.

That's what happened on April 2, when President Obama's lawyers invoked Bush's radical theory of executive power to argue for the dismissal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans.

8. Wiretaps....channeling Cheney, they're still heeeeeere:

"President Obama promised the American people a new era of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil liberties," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston in the release. "But with the Obama Justice Department continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans, and insisting that the much-publicized warrantless wiretapping program is still a 'secret' that cannot be reviewed by the courts, it feels like deja vu all over again."

9. "Torture" memos. Opened up a whole can of worms against Democrats' political interests, didn't it?

10. Thomas Ricks thinks Obama got rolled over by the military into making the decision not to release the detainee photos. The ACLU and Glenn Greenwald feel a sense of betrayal. Niiiiice.

From Greenwald (You HAVE to read the whole thing!):

here is the first paragraph of this New York Times article this morning by David Sanger, summing everything up:

President Obama’s decisions this week to retain important elements of the Bush-era system for trying terrorism suspects and to block the release of pictures showing abuse of American-held prisoners abroad are the most graphic examples yet of how he has backtracked, in substantial if often nuanced ways, from the approach to national security that he preached as a candidate, and even from his first days in the Oval Office.

Here's how the NYT describes the article on its front page:

The opening paragraph of this Washington Post article today says much the same thing:

As a candidate for president, Barack Obama offered himself as a clear alternative to Bush-era anti-terrorism policies. Governing has proven muddier.

Both articles quote the hardest-core Bush supporters as heaping praise on Obama for what he has done in the area of "national security," terrorism and civil liberties ("Pete Wehner, a member of Karl Rove’s staff in the Bush White House [and a current National Review writer] applauded several of Mr. Obama’s decisions this week"). Indeed, all week long, and even before that, the greatest enthusiasm for Obama's decisions on so-called "terrorism policies" and civil liberties (with some important exceptions) has been found in the pages of The Weekly Standard and National Review.

Can anyone deny what the NYT and Post are pointing out today? This is what happened this week alone in the realm of Obama's approach to "national security" and civil liberties:

Monday - Obama administration's letter to Britian threatening to cut off intelligence-sharing if British courts reveal the details of how we tortured British resident Binyam Mohamed;

Tuesday - Promoted to military commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChyrstal, who was deeply involved in some of the worst abuses of the Bush era;

Wednesday - Announced he was reversing himself and would try to conceal photographic evidence showing widespread detainee abuse -- despite the rulings from two separate courts (four federal judges unanimously) that the law compels their disclosure;

Friday - Unveiled his plan to preserve a modified system of military commissions for trying Guantanamo detainees, rather than using our extant-judicial processes for doing so.

It's not the fault of civil libertarians that Obama did all of those things, just in this week alone. These are the very policies -- along with things like the claimed power to abduct and imprison people indefinitely with no charges of any kind and the use of the "state secrets privilege" to deny torture and spying victims a day in court -- that caused such extreme anger and criticisms toward the Bush presidency.

What would it say about a person who spent the last seven years vehemently criticizing those policies to suddenly decide that the same policies were perfectly fine or not particularly bothersome when Obama adopts them? How could that be justified? What should one say about a person who vehemently objected to X when Bush did it, but then suddenly found ways to defend or mitigate X when Obama does it? Just re-read that first paragraph from the NYT article today. What should a rational person say in response to what it describes?

Of course, one area where President Obama is behaving even more like Bush than Bush, is in the area of spending. Fiscal conservatives have been consistent, criticizing Bush over uncontrolled spending, alongside liberal opponents. Now that it's a big government Democrat in the Oval Office, with the exception of blue dog Democrats and pragmatists, where's the outcry from the left?

At least one side has been consistent.

Sunday Funnies

More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces

Enhanced, Coercive Pelosification

Game on! Oh, it's on!

I can't believe Pelosi is taking on the Agency that takes down foreign governments. She's double-downed, digging herself into a deeper hole, getting herself Krauthammered.

Dana Milbank's account:

Nancy Pelosi is a woman of many talents. Yesterday, she performed the delicate art of backtracking while walking sideways.

The speaker of the House had just read a statement accusing the CIA of lying and was trying to beat a hasty retreat from her news conference before reporters could point out contradictions between her current position and her previous statements.

"Thank you!" an aide called out to signal an end to the session. Pelosi walked, sideways, away from the lectern and, still sidling in a sort of crab walk, was halfway to the door when a yell from CNN's Dana Bash, rising above the rest of the shouting, froze her in the aisle.

"Madam Speaker!" the correspondent called out. "I think there's one other question that I would like to ask, if that's okay."

"Sure, okay," Pelosi said, in a way that indicated it was not okay. Pelosi had no choice but to sidle back to the lectern.

Over the next few minutes of shouted questions -- "They lied to you? Were you justified? When were you first told? Did you protest? Why didn't you tell us?" -- the speaker attempted the crab-walk retreat again, returned to the lectern again and then finally skittered out of the room.

Karl Rove:

If Mrs. Pelosi considers the enhanced interrogation techniques to be torture, didn't she have a responsibility to complain at the time, introduce legislation to end the practices, or attempt to deny funding for the CIA's use of them? If she knew what was going on and did nothing, does that make her an accessory to a crime of torture, as many Democrats are calling enhanced interrogation?

Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy wants an independent investigation of Bush administration officials. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers feels the Justice Department should investigate and prosecute anyone who violated laws against committing torture. Are these and other similarly minded Democrats willing to have Mrs. Pelosi thrown into their stew of torture conspirators as an accomplice?

It is clear that after the 9/11 attacks Mrs. Pelosi was briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques and the valuable information they produced. She not only agreed with what was being done, she apparently pressed the CIA to do more.

But when political winds shifted, Mrs. Pelosi seems to have decided to use enhanced interrogation as an issue to attack Republicans. It is disgraceful that Democrats who discovered their outrage years after the fact are now braying for disbarment of the government lawyers who justified EITs and the prosecution of Bush administration officials who authorized them. Mrs. Pelosi is hip-deep in dangerous waters, and they are rapidly rising.

Recent stuff on Flopping Aces

Reality sets in as Obama ponders “indefinite detention” of Gitmo detainees

Partial List of Thwarted Al Queda Attacks

ABC, CBS and NBC Ignore Pelosi’s Torture Hypocrisy

Nancy Pelosi was an accomplice to ‘torture.’

Dems Try Desperately To Cut and Run From “Torture” Debate

Obama Decides Against Releasing Detainee Photos - Video

“Torture” Worked

Obama Backs Down on Release of Detainee “Abuse” Photos

Pelosi About To Be Investigated Over The Interrogation Methods Used On Those Responsible For 9/11

Outstanding comments by Mataharley comment #30:

What you need to be reading is the Iraqi Perspectives Reports, of which there are five volumes. You can find links to all five volumes either at the FAS site, or at Scribd

Volume 1 examines the relationships between the regime of Saddam Hussein and terrorism in its local, regional, and global context. Volumes 2 through 4 contain the English translations and detailed summaries of the original Iraqi documents cited in Volume 1. Volume 5 contains additional background and supporting documents.

I’ll post few excerpts that should catch your interest. But I suggest a full read of all of Vol 1, and consult the translated exhibits in the remaining volumes as you desire. These are based on the Harmony and ISG documents of the Saddam regime archives captured in 2003, but took years to get even these few translated. There are still volumes and hundreds of thousands of documents still not translated and released to the public.

What you will need to remember is that al Zawahiri was, from 1993 and on, the grand pooo-bah of EIJ (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) prior before he merged that group with Bin Laden’s AQ a few years later. Zawahiri’s relationship with OBL did not magically begin with the 2001 merger.

Two other memoranda in this folder are from Saddam through his Presidential Secretary to a member of the Revolutionary Council and to the IIS Director, respectively.

• In the first, from January 1993, and coinciding with the start of the US humanitarian intervention in Somalia, the Presidential Secretary informed the council member of Saddam’s decision to “form a group to start hunting Americans present on Arab soil; especially Somalia.”

Let’s see…. Saddam’s regime decided to form a group to hunt Americans in Somalia in 1993… which you may remember as Black Hawk Down. From the Lawrence Wright series of articles I linked above in the 2001 merger sentence: Also found in the New Yorker

In June of 2001, two terrorist organizations, Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, formally merged into one. The name of the new entity—Qaeda al-Jihad—reflects the long and interdependent history of these two groups. Although Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, has become the public face of Islamic terrorism, the members of Islamic Jihad and its guiding figure, Ayman al-Zawahiri, have provided the backbone of the larger organization’s leadership. According to officials in the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., Zawahiri has been responsible for much of the planning of the terrorist operations against the United States, from the assault on American soldiers in Somalia in 1993, and the bombings of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998 and of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000, to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th.

And just who was it that did the training of the Somalia troops that assaulted our US troops in Somalia? Bin Laden.

Let’s see… Saddam uses Zawahiri and other jihad/AQ related groups for more than a decade before OIF (that’s at least 1993, and when Zawahiri was the head of EIJ), and the Saddam regime forms group to “hunt Americans” in Somalia in 1993. Zawahiri has been responsible for the assault on the Black Hawk down soldiers, and Bin Laden trains the troops that murder our troops.

What could be the connection?

A. Managing Relationships

Iraq was a long-standing supporter of international terrorism. The existence of a memorandum (Extract 10) from the lIS to Saddam, written a decade before OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, provides detailed evidence of that support. Several of the organizations listed in this memorandum were designated as international terrorist organizations by the US Department of State.

[Mata Musing: the "list" includes many named jihad groups, but the excerpts from Extract 10 pertinent is:]

We list herein the organizations that our agency [IIS] cooperates with and have relations with various elements in many parts of the Arab world and who also have the expertise to carry out assignments indicated in the above directive [the cited directive has not been discovered yet].

……snip…….

Islamic Jihad Organization [Egyptian Islamic Jihad]
In a meeting in the Sudan we agreed to renew our relations with the Islamic Jihad Organization in Egypt. Our information on the group is as follows: It was established in 1979.
Its goal is to apply the Islamic shari’ a law and establish Islamic rule. It is considered one of the most brutal Egyptian organizations. It carried out numerous successful operations, including the assassination of Sadat.

We have previously met with the organization’s representative and we agreed on a plan to carry out commando operations against the Egyptian regime.

~~~

Nurturing Organizational Relationships

Captured Iraqi archives reveal that Saddam was training Arab fighters (non-Iraqi) in Iraqi training camps more than a decade prior to OPERATION DESERT STORM (1991). A Saddam memorandum directed the IIS to submit a list of foreign nationals who were trained in Iraq and carried out operations during the 1991 war against the United States. 33 In response, the IIS sent a list of one-hundred names of foreign national fighters, categorized by country (Extract 11, next page).

~~~

When attacking Western interests, the competitive terror cartel came into play, particularly in the late 1990s. Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda-as long as that organization’s near-term goals supported Saddam’s longterm vision. A directive (Extract 24) from the Director for International Intelligence in the IIS to an Iraqi operative in Bahrain orders him to investigate a particular terrorist group there, The Army of Muhammad.

…….snip……..

The agent reports (Extract 25) that The Army of Muhammad is
working with Osama bin Laden.

~~~

The Saddam regime was very concerned about the internal threat posed by various Islamist movements. Crackdowns, arrests, and monitoring of Islamic radical movements were common in Iraq. However, Saddam’s security organizations and bin Laden’s terrorist network operated with similar aims, at least for the short tenn. Considerable operational overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the regional groups involved in
terrorism. Saddam provided training and motivation to revolutionary pan-Arab nationalists in the region. Osama bin Laden provided training and motivation for violent revolutionary Islamists in the region. They were recruiting within the same demographic, spouting much the same rhetoric, and promoting a common historical narrative that promised a return to a glorious past. That these movements (panArab and pan-Islamic) had many similarities and strategic parallels does not mean they saw themselves in that light. Nevertheless, these similarities created more than just the appearance of cooperation. Common interests, even without common cause, increased the aggregate terror threat.

Saddam’s interest in, and support for, non-Iraqi non-state actors was spread across a wide variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations. For years, Saddam maintained training camps for foreign “fighters” drawn from these diverse groups. In some cases, particularly for Palestinians, Saddam was also a strong financial supporter. Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda’s stated goals and objectives. 97

~~~

Saddam’s “business model” also included using terrorist events to his advantage even when he had no direct connection to them. One example is an audio file of a meeting between Saddam and his senior advisors recorded sometime in 1994. The subject was the 1993 attack against the World Trade Center in ew York; Iraq now had a suspect in custody, Abdul Rahman Yasin. 101

Saddam discusses the possibility that the attack was part of the “dirty games that the American intelligence would play if it had a bigger purpose.” 102 The participants in this meeting discuss other possible explanations, including direct or indirect involvement of either Israel or various factions in Saudi Arabia or Egypt. These alternative theories resonate with Saddam; he doubts that Abdul Rahman Yasin, convicted of being the ringleader, is capable of such an operation.

~~~

In the years between the two Gulf Wars, UN sanctions reduced Saddam’s ability to shape regional and world events, steadily draining his military, economic, and military powers. The rise of Islamist fundamentalism in the region gave Saddam the opportunity to make terrorism, one of the few tools remaining in Saddam’s “coercion” toolbox, not only cost effective but a formal instrument of state power. Saddam nurtured this capability with an infrastructure supporting (1) his own particular brand of state terrorism against internal and external threats, (2) the state sponsorship of suicide operations, and (3) organizational relationships and “outreach programs” for terrorist groups. Evidence that was uncovered and analyzed attests to the existence of a terrorist capability and a willingness to use it until the day Saddam was forced to flee Baghdad by Coalition forces.

Read the reports and the translated documents, and recognize this is only a small piece of the puzzle that still has yet to be revealed… providing this admin or any future admin puts resources towards this segment of history.

But what we have undeniable knowledge is that Saddam’s relationship with AQ affiliated jihad movements goes back long before OIF, and that his declared intents to “hunt Americans” in 1993 happens to coincide with Americans hunted by those who were connected to both Zawahiri and Bin Laden.

You may think only AQ is the enemy. But the more you read, the more you will understand the tenacled and complex relationships to different jihad groups, and their relationship to regimes such as Saddam’s as an unofficial state weapon.

and Scott comment #31:

Ryan, I sent you the Excel spreadsheet I have which has the links/sources for the following, but…this is what I’ve got for 1993. Hope this helps. If anyone else wants my timeline (1974-2005), lemme know.
-Scott

1/1/93 Evidence of Iraq’s involvement in terrorist attacks on the United States may have been available long before 9-11. Ramsi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack in the parking garage, first came to America on an Iraqi passport. Phone records showed calls by Yousef to Baghdad.

1/1/93 Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM to use its own aircraft in Iraq. Iraq begins incursions into the de-militarised zone with Kuwait, and increases its military activity in the no-fly zones. The U.N. Security Council states that Iraq’s actions were an “unacceptable and material” breach of Resolution 687 and warns Iraq of “serious consequences.” Shortly thereafter, the United States, UK, and France launch air raids on southern Iraq.

circa 1/1/93 Sometime in early 1993, Bin Laden sent Mohammed Atef to Mogadishu, Somalia to train people how to bring down helicopters with RPG’s as was done by the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan when they fought the Soviets.

circa 1/1/93 [throughout the 1990's] Bin Laden met at least eight times with officers of Iraq’s Special Security Organization, a secret police agency run by Saddam’s son Qusay, and met with officials from Saddam’s mukhabarat, its external intelligence service, according to intelligence made public by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was speaking before the United Nations Security Council on February 6, 2003.

1/1/93 References to procurement of false passports from Iraq and offers of safe haven previously have surfaced in CIA source reporting considered reliable. Intelligence reports to date have maintained that Iraqi support for al Qaeda usually involved providing training, obtaining passports, and offers of refuge. This report adds to that list by including weapons and money. This assistance would make sense in the aftermath of 9-11.

circa 1/1/93 1993—al-Qaeda acquires a private plane and sends a pilot to Airman Flight School in Oklahoma in the first instance of Osama bin Laden’s interest in aviation. Link

circa 1/1/93 1993— MOUSSAOUI starts to attend classes at a London trade school, South Bank University.

circa 1/1/93 Osama bin Laden had dealings with Iraqi Intelligence as early as 1993 in Somalia. During that period, various militant Islamic groups, to include bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence and military operatives, were in Somalia to organize, train and mobilize radical factions within the Somali populace. (NOTE: Bin Laden claimed this, and it wasn’t until late in the Clinton Administration that it was proven. Mohammed Atef-then AQ’s military commander and #3 man-went to Somalia and trained warlords in the techniques developed in Afghanistan for bringing down helicopters with RPG’s. The result was in fact that the now infamous Black Hawk Down battle came from Somalis trained by Al Queda…exactly as Bin Laden claimed.)

1/1/93 War in Bosnia continues, as “ethnic cleansing” spreads. NATO threatens airstrikes to defend “safe areas” created to protect Muslims.

circa 1/1/93 A senior defector, one of Saddam’s former intelligence chiefs in Europe, says Saddam sent his agents to Afghanistan sometime in the mid-1990s to provide training to al-Qaida members on document forgery.

circa 1/1/93 We know members of both organizations met repeatedly and have met at least eight times at very senior levels since the early 1990s. In 1996, a foreign security service tells us that bin Laden met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Khartoum and later met the director of the Iraqi intelligence service.

circa 1/1/93 Egypt and Sudan at loggerheads over territorial rights to Halaib, prompted by Sudan granting oil exploration concession. Each accuses the other of harbouring opposition elements.

circa 1/1/93 Iraqi MiG-23 aircraft that fled to Iran in the Gulf War have allegedly been refitted by Iran for use by the Sudanese air force against the SPLA in South Sudan. Lt-Gen Abdel Rahman Said, former army deputy chief of staff and now leading the Sudanese opposition Armed Forces Legitimate Command, says Baghdad was a party to the deal, and that the MiGs - ‘the only type of Iraqi plane that Sudan can maintain’ would go back to Iraq after an unspecified period. He claims Iran has delivered “between 60 and 90 tanks” to Khartoum, as well as long-range howitzers, ammunition and lorries.

1/1/93 In 1993, Iraq sent additional chemical weapons to Sudan, this time through Iran.

1/1/93 *”American intelligence believes that Al Qaeda and Saddam reached a non-aggression agreement in 1993, and that the relationship deepened further in the mid-nineteen-nineties, when an Al Qaeda operative - a native-born Iraqi who goes by the name Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi - was dispatched by bin Laden to ask the Iraqis for help in poison-gas training. Al-Iraqi’s mission was successful, and an unknown number of trainers from an Iraqi secret-police organization called Unit 999 were dispatched to camps in Afghanistan to instruct Al Qaeda terrorists. (Training in hijacking techniques was also provided to foreign Islamist radicals inside Iraq, according to two Iraqi defectors quoted in a report in the Times in November of 2001.)” The parenthetic reference to a November 2001 NY Times article, which describes the Salman Pak terrorist training camp outside Baghdad, is notable. A ruling by a Federal Court against the Iraqi regime on behalf of two families of those who died on September 11, 2001 was based partially on that training.

circa 1/1/93 In 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) directed and pursued an attempt to assassinate, through the use of a powerful car bomb, former U.S. President George Bush and the Emir of Kuwait. Kuwaiti authorities thwarted the terrorist plot and arrested 16 suspects, led by two Iraqi nationals.

circa 1/1/93 American intelligence believes that Al Qaeda and Saddam reached a non-aggression agreement in 1993, and that the relationship deepened further in the mid-nineteen-nineties, when an Al Qaeda operative - a native-born Iraqi who goes by the name Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi - was dispatched by bin Laden to ask the Iraqis for help in poison-gas training. Al-Iraqi’s mission was successful, and an unknown number of trainers from an Iraqi secret-police organization called Unit 999 were dispatched to camps in Afghanistan to instruct Al Qaeda terrorists. (Training in hijacking techniques was also provided to foreign Islamist radicals inside Iraq, according to two Iraqi defectors quoted in a report in the Times in November of 2001.) The parenthetic reference to a November 2001 NY Times article, which describes the Salman Pak terrorist training camp outside Baghdad, is notable. A ruling by a Federal Court against the Iraqi regime on behalf of two families of those who died on September 11, 2001 was based partially on that training.”

1/8/93 UNSC presidential statement terms Iraqi restrictions of UN aircraft a material breach of RES 687

1/10/93 Iraq removes equipment from the Kuwaiti side of DMZ

1/11/93 UNSC presidential statement condemns Iraq for material breach of RES 687 in preventing UNSCOM from flying its own aircraft

1/13/93 US, UK, France conduct air raids on Iraqi anti-aircraft missile sites and radar bases in southern Iraq

1/17/93 US fires missiles at industrial complex in suburban Baghdad

1/18/93 US and UK launch air raids against radar sites in southern and northern Iraq

1/19/93 Iraq agrees to allow UNSCOM flights in Iraq.

1/21/93 An F-16 and an F-4G escorting a French Mirage reconnaissance plane over northern Iraq attack an Iraqi missile battery after the site’s search radar began tracking them.

1/22/93 An F-4G fires two missiles at a surface-to-air-missile (SAM) site in northern Iraq.

2/1/93 February 1993 Yazdi, Turabi, and Bashir present their plans to Iranian terror experts in a meeting in Khartoum, Sudan. The Iranians approve, and the attacks are ordered to proceed.

2/3/93 Iraqi gunners fire at a U.S. aircraft on routine patrol over northern Iraq.

2/5/93 UNSC adopts RES 806 allowing UNIKOM to take direct action to prevent or redress violations in DMZ

2/26/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Ramsi Yousef (aka “Rashid the Iraqi”) flees the United States to Pakistan on a fake Pakistani passport with the name Abdul Basit (A Kuwaiti missing since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait)

2/26/93 World Trade Center bombed by Al Queda

2/26/93 The Iraqis, who had the Third World’s largest poison-gas operations prior to the Gulf War I, have perfected the technique of making hydrogen-cyanide gas, which the Nazis called Zyklon-B. In the hands of al Qaeda, this would be a fearsome weapon in an enclosed space — like a suburban mall or subway station-this same form of cyanide was found in the 1993 WTC attack residue and in the seized bomb-making storage unit. It was also found in the Euphrates River by advancing US Marines South of Baghdad in 2003

3/1/93 Spring 1993 Mohammed Farah Aidid meets with Iraqi intelligence officials in the Iraqi embassy. Baghdad promises to aid him in his fight against the Americans with the explicit intent of turning Somalia into another Vietnam for the Americans.

3/1/93 Spring 1993 Saddam Hussein viewed the operations against the Americans in Somalia important enough to nominate his son Qusay to personally supervise them. The other elements of anti-American operations apparently didn’t support this idea. Those other elements included Bin Laden and his Afghan Arabs, the Iranian-backed Al Quds forces, the Iranian Pasadran, and the Sudanese. Iraqi intelligence reported that Saddam wanted a “Mother-of-all Battles victory in Somalia.” After these reports and after Qusay’s nomination, the Iraqi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan was expanded by the addition of several different Iraqi special intelligence services branches and special security branches. Those new additions were under the control of Sudan’s leader Hasan al-Turabi.

3/4/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Salameh is arrested for his part in the WTC bombing

3/5/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Abdul Rahman Yasin flees the United States for Iraq where he lives peacefully until his CBS interview years later.

3/31/93 The UN Security Council passed Resolution 816 authorising enforcement of the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina and extending the ban to cover flights by all fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft except those authorised by UNPROFOR. In the event of further violations, it authorised UN member states to take all necessary measures to ensure compliance. An enforcement operation, called “Deny Flight”, began on 12 April 1993. It initially involved some 50 fighter and reconnaissance aircraft (later increased to over 100) from various Alliance nations, flying from airbases in Italy and from aircraft carriers in the Adriatic. By the end of December 1994, over 47,000 sorties had been flown by fighter and supporting aircraft.

circa 4/1/93 Kuwaiti Intelligence discovers an Iraqi IIS plot to assassinate former President George Bush. [Author's note: in keeping with the tactic of a state-sponsor of terrorism, the attack was to have been carried out by terrorists not IIS operatives.]

4/9/93 Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery sites fire on Provide Comfort aircraft near the Saddam dam in northern Iraq.

4/14/1993 “Failed Iraqi plot to assassinate Bush family in Kuwait; In fact, if the intelligence George W. was given was correct, he might have lost nearly his entire immediate family, including his father, mother, wife, and two brothers. Just as he sought to avenge his father’s political loss, he would one day go after the man accused of attempting to murder his father and the rest of the family. “”After all,”" he would later comment, when speaking of the Iraqi leader at a Houston fundraiser, “”this is the guy who tried to kill my dad.”"

…As the giant plane took off from Houston’s Ellington Field on April 14, the only passengers were former President Bush, his wife Barbara, their two sons Marvin and Neil, his wife Sharon, and Laura Bush. Her husband, George W. Bush, who had always avoided foreign travel, stayed home to oversee his interest in the Texas Rangers baseball team and to make preparations for his run for the governorship.”

4/18/93 An Iraqi radar site illuminates two U.S. F-4Gs flying north of the 36th parallel. The site was south of the parallel. One of the aircraft fires an AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile at the tracking radar and destroyed it.

5/27/93 UNSC adopts RES 833 reaffirming Kuwaiti border issues in RES 733; guarantees inviolability of border

circa 6/1/93 In June 1993, NATO Foreign Ministers decided to offer protective air power for the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the performance of its overall mandate. In July, NATO aircraft began flying training missions for providing such Close Air Support (CAS).

6/4/93 The U.S. conducts air strikes against Iraqi intelligence service, in retaliation for evidence linking the Iraqi government to the assassination plot against former president George Bush.

6/4/93 24 Pakistani Peacekeepers in Somalia are ambushed, shot to death, skinned, and their remains paraded through the streets by a mob. [Author's note: in 1994/95 it is revealed by the Sudanese govt that an Al Queda operative based in The Sudan, and several other Al Queda operatives including #3 man Mohammed Atef, had gone to Somalia, trained Somalis in tactics that had been learned during the fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, and had they themselves taken part in this attack.]

6/10/93 Iraq refuses to allow emplacement of UN monitoring cameras at weapons facilities

6/18/93 UNSC presidential statement terms Iraq’s refusal of cameras material breach of RES 687, warns of serious consequences

6/24/93 A wave of arrests in NYC prevents a followup attack to the 1993 WTC attack. The relationships of the conspirators in both attacks are completely intertwined. The second attack was to focus on the UN headquarters, tunnels, and bridges in NYC.

6/27/93 U.S. missile strike is launched against Baghdad on basis of “compelling evidence” that Iraq was involved in the April 1993 assassination attempt on former President Bush in Kuwait.

6/27/93 US launches cruise missile at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in retaliation for assassination plot against former President Bush [a plot that had been discovered 3-4 months earlier] [Author's note: while Clinton Administration officials deny that the retaliation strike was tied to the 6/24 wave of arrests in NYC or the 1993 WTC attack, the retaliation strike was the only US attack ever conducted against Iraq with so little warning and military preparation. It was also the only attack to be conducted completely unilaterally (without even the support of the UK), and it was the fdirst attack to draw massive international condemnation despite the claim that it was in retaliation for a terrorist attack that would often be deemed an act of war.]

6/28/93 UNSC presidential statement criticizes Iraqi statements on boundary demarcation

6/29/93 A Southern Watch F-4G fires an anti-radar missile at an anti-aircraft artillery site after the Iraqis illuminated it and another F-4G patrolling the southern no-fly zone.

7/1/93 A lengthy stand-off takes place between the Iraqi government and U.N. inspectors over Iraq’s refusal to allow inspectors to monitor two missile test sites south of Baghdad. U.N. monitors are withdrawn.

7/19/93 Iraq agrees to emplacement of monitoring cameras following Rolf Ekeus visit to Baghdad

7/29/93 In separate incidents, two U.S. Navy EA-6Bs, part of Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, fire anti-radar missiles at Iraqi SAM sites after being illuminated by the sites’ surveillance radars.

circa 8/1/93 8/93 Unsuccessful attampt by the Al-Jihad organization to assassinate Interior Minister Hassan al Alfi of Egypt.

8/4/93 Abdul Rahman is indicted for his part in the 1993 WTC bombing.

8/8/93 A U.S. HUMMV hits a land mine in a pothole in Somalia. The mine was remote detonated. 4 American MP’s were killed. [Author's note: in 1994/95 it is revealed by the Sudanese govt that an Al Queda operative based in The Sudan, and several other Al Queda operatives including #3 man Mohammed Atef, had gone to Somalia, trained Somalis in tactics that had been learned during the fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, and had they themselves taken part in this attack.]

8/19/93 Two U.S. F-16s report possible SA-3 missile launches west of Mosul and respond with cluster bombs. Two F-15s drop four laser-guided bombs on the site an hour later.

8/22/93 A bomb explodes near a U.S. Army HUMMV destroying the vehicle and seriously wounding 6 American soldiers. [Author's note: in 1994/95 it is revealed by the Sudanese govt that Al Queda operatives including #3 man Mohammed Atef, had gone to Somalia, trained Somalis in tactics that had been learned during the fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, and had they themselves taken part in this attack.]

9/1/93 Fall 1993 Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri is in Somalia acting as field commander of the “Afghan Arabs” and coordinator between those fighters, Iraqi fighters, Iranian intelligence, and the various Somali warlords….all against the US/UN forces.

9/1/93 [Fall 1993] “The Iraqis organized the heavy weapons, mainly the dual-use 23mm guns and RPG-7s, which were used primarily against the U.S. helicopters. The Iraqis were also instrumental in running the external perimeter, blocking repeated U.S.-U.N. attempts to relieve the beseiged force in the defensive perimeter. The Arab “Afghans” were in command of some of the Somali blocking forces as well. Reports conflict as to the extent of Iraqi participation in the actual fighting. A few [Iraqi] Saiqah Commando troops were definately present, giving instructions to [Somali] SIUP fighters.”

9/1/93 By the Fall of 1993, a large number of Iraqis moved into the area of the Red Sea mountain range — in Madabay in Khawr Ashraf, Port Sudan, in the region of Dalawat on the Red Sea near Hala’ib, and the city of Tawker in region of Karnakanat. The Iraqis brought into these installations high-tech equipment and computers, missiles, defense systems, anti-aircraft systems and radar systems.

9/14/93 Major General Thomas Montegomery in Somalia asks for reinforcements to create an emergency rapid reaction force in Mogadishu. The request is scaled down by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but approved.

9/23/93 Sec.Def. Les Aspin vetos the request for heavy armor to be sent to Mogadishu

9/25/93 An American UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter is shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia. The crew is rescued. [Author's note: in 1994/95 it is revealed by the Sudanese govt that Al Queda operatives including #3 man Mohammed Atef, had gone to Somalia, trained Somalis in tactics that had been learned during the fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, and had they themselves taken part in this attack.]

circa 10/1/93 After the 8/22 bombing of a U.S. Army HUMMV, U.S. Army Task Force Ranger and Delta Force commandos make 6 raids trying to kill/capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. All fail publicly. [Author's note: in 1994/95 it is revealed by the Sudanese govt that Al Queda operatives including #3 man Mohammed Atef, had gone to Somalia, trained Somalis in tactics that had been learned during the fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, and had they themselves taken part in this attack.]

circa 10/1/93 Sudan is added to the U.S. State Department’s list of nations that support terrorism. [Author's note: this occurs at the same time as Sudanese intelligence officials were notifying the US of Al Queda terrorists based in Sudan and operating freely in Somalia against US forces. While there is no direct and/or public response toward Al Queda, the Sudan suffers publicly and economically as a supporter of international terrorism]

10/3/93 U.S. Task Force Ranger makes another daring daylight raid using the same tactics as the 6 earlier raids. This raid captures 22 leaders in Aidid’s organization. During the raid, a U.S. Army ranger falls from a hovering helicopter-halting the operation. While the operation is halted, two Blackhawk helicopters are shot down by Somalis with RPG’s. 18 Americans are killed. Eighty-four Americans are wounded. Two American Delta Force snipers volunteered to protect one of the downed helicopter crews until reinforcements could arrive. They were eventually overwhelmed by thousands of Somalis and killed. Their bodies mutilated and dragged through the streets. Shocking video from a French camera crew is shown around the world within hours of the debacle. One of the pilots protected by the Delta Force snipers is captured. Both Delta snipers received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Somali casualties will never be determined as the nation was in a complete state of anarchy. However, Red Crescent reports state that as many as 3000 were killed and somewhere between 5000 and 10,000 were wounded.

circa 10/3/93 “On 3 and 4 October, 1993, operatives of Al Queda particpated in the attack on U.S. military personnell serving in Somalia.”

10/20/93 President Clinton announces the withdrawl of all US troops from Somalia by 3/31/94

circa 11/1/93 11/93 - Unsuccessful attampt by the Al-Jihad organization to assassinate Prime Minister Atef Sedky of Egypt.

11/1/1993 Chalabi presents Clinton administration with war plan entitled “The End Game”

11/1/1993 In November of 1993, Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group devoted to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, presented the Clinton Administration with a detailed, four-phase war plan entitled “The End Game,” along with an urgent plea for money to finance it. “The time for the plan is now,” Chalabi wrote. “Iraq is on the verge of spontaneous combustion. It only needs a trigger to set off a chain of events that will lead to the overthrow of Saddam.” It was a message that Chalabi would repeat for the next eight years.

11/10/93 11/10/1993 John Kerry voted to cut intel spending

11/12/93 The New York Times reports that the Iraqi government forces have stepped up military pressure against Shiite villages in southern Iraq forcing thousands to flee deeper into the marshes or across the border into Iran.

11/16/93 Iraqi demonstrators cross into Kuwaiti territory protesting border demarcation

11/23/93 UNSC presidential statement terms Iraqi border violations breach of RES 687

11/26/93 Iraq accepts UN Security Council Resolution 715.

11/26/93 Iraq accepts RES 715

12/1/93 By late 1993, the regions surrounding these installations were experiencing strict security measures and 24-hour armed patrols roam around it. In some areas, such as in the Port Sudan area, shepherds and nomads were completely removed from security zones with a 60 km circumference.

12/21/93 Iraqi troops fire on a U.S. patrol near Faydah in northern Iraq. The patrol is within the security zone established on May 22, 1991. The Iraqis were over a mile away and outside the security zone. Baghdad denies Western reports of the incident as “fabricated and baseless.”

12/31/93 While the initial movements of WMD stuff were emergency measures or by- products of other considerations, Baghdad reexamined its posture by late 1993. By then, Saddam Hussein had already realized that the UN inspections were not going away, and that the US remained determined to continue the policy of containment and sanctions. Moreover, the US retaliation for the June 1993 narrowly averted an attempt on the life of former President Bush by Iraqi intelligence convinced Baghdad that there would be no reconciliation with the US in the foreseeable future. Hence, Baghdad adopted a long term strategy to endure the global pressure.

U.S. voted in to Human Rights Council

NYTimes:

UNITED NATIONS — The United States won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, joining a group that the Bush administration had pilloried.

The controversy surrounding the 47-member body, which assesses the rights records of United Nations member states, was underscored by the General Assembly’s re-electing other nations condemned by human rights organizations for abusing their own citizens. They include Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Cameroon.

“We have not been perfect ourselves,” said Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador, after the United States got 167 votes out of 192. “But we intend to lead based on the strong principled vision that the American people have about respecting human rights, supporting democracy.”

The Talibanization of Pakistan

Muslim leaders in Pakistan are uniting against it:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Mainstream Muslim religious leaders in Pakistan have formed an alliance to openly oppose the Taliban, a development that promises to give authorities broad-based support to fight militants who have imposed a reign of terror on much of the northwest.

In the past, military operations against the Taliban have evoked widespread accusations that the government was fighting Washington's war, a view reinforced by a belief that dialogue and diplomacy could rein in the Taliban's more barbarous practices.

The alliance, named the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) was formed Friday in Lahore, Pakistan's most populous city. It initiated what it called a "Save Pakistan Movement" with the goal of stopping the growing "Talibanization" of the country.

The anti-Taliban alliance consists of eight Pakistani subsects of Barelvi Islam, a tolerant branch of Sunni Islam that is prominent throughout the Indian subcontinent, especially in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.

The group says it will "unveil the real face of the Taliban before the public," such as public executions, beheadings, amputations and floggings.

Fazal Karim, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, one faction of the anti-Taliban alliance, said: "Those who called themselves Taliban in Swat are terrorists and not humans. There is no room for suicide attacks in Islam." Mr. Karim is also a member of the Pakistan's National Assembly,

White Phosphorus in Afghanistan

Posted over at Flopping Aces

Currahee!

1st Lt. Brian Brennan:



Hat tip: Flopping Aces

Sunday Funnies

More at Flopping Aces

Topless photos of President Obama Revealed!

You saw it here last, at Flopping Aces.

Sunday Funnies

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Time for a Break!

Did you know.....

....that Obama's campaign promises come with expiration dates?

“The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.”

Part of the irony is that Obama's EO and earlier request that military tribunals be halted prolongs the "being held without charge or trial" criticism that lefties have been shrieking about.