Month: June 2004

The definitive al-Qaeda-Iraq connection. What they won’t be mentioning:

The document states that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda [mid 1990s], and that a request from Mr. bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered. There is no further indication of collaboration. …

The Americans confirmed that they had obtained the document from the Iraqi National Congress, as part of a trove that the group gathered after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government last year. The Defense Intelligence Agency paid the Iraqi National Congress for documents and other information until recently, when the group and its leader, Ahmad Chalabi, fell out of favor in Washington. …

Members of the Pentagon task force that reviewed the document said it described no formal alliance being reached between Mr. bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence. …

Yep, it’s a real bombshell.

A reader responds to this January post with this plea regarding Romania’s (read: the European Union’s) tyrannical new adoption law:

This law is breaking the hearts of families around the world. The law is cruel to the Romanian children and loving families that wish to adopt them. Romania assassinated its dictator, Nicolae Ceaucescu, but it looks like he has been replaced by a baroness who doesn’t even live in Romania.

Continue reading “Euro Busybodies Extend Their Balkans Meddling”

Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger, shares his personal views on the June 30th “liberation” of Iraq.

The American army is building six permanent bases in Iraq, three surrounding Baghdad, one in the south, on in the east and on in the north. The three surrounding Baghdad are Al-Habbanyya, which is an old Iraq military base and airport near the artificial lake of Habbania, the second is Ar-Rasheed base in the south-east of Baghdad, and the third is At-Taji base in the north of Baghdad, which is the larges base in Iraq, it looks like a small city. The other three bases are Ali base near Nasryya, Al-Walid base northern to Falluja, and another base in Al-Mosul. These six bases are the cancer in the body of the new Iraq.
…read more

Also, check out the links on his page to his family’s and his friend’s blogs.

Col. Lounsbury whacks the idiots in the CPA, ruthlessly criticizing their utter failure from the perspective of a businessman in Baghdad trying to work with them. After reading Lounsbury’s scathing commentary, you’ll really appreciate this delicious skewering of Ari Fleischer’s brother Michael by Andrew Zajac of the Chicago Tribune. (credit to digby for spotting it.)

As long as we’re discussing ignorant neocons, don’t miss Juan Cole’s devastating exposure of neocon idiocy:

Mr. Carney, Mr. Lehman, journalist Stephen Hayes, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and all the other persons who gave a moment’s thought to the idea that these two are the same person, based on these names, have wasted precious moments of their lives and have helped kill over 800 US servicemen, over an elementary error deriving from complete ignorance of Arabic and Arab culture.

Michael Froomkin and Billmon both have good posts up about yesterday’s White House and Pentagon document dump. Froomkin concentrates on the order signed by Bush on Feb. 7, 2002, which contains what Froomkin refers to as the ” Royalist theory of Presidential power,” in point 2b: “I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time.” Also see this post on the OLC’s repudiation of it’s torture justification memo.

Billmon points out that none of the released documents cover the critical period during which most of the Iraqi torture occurred:

It also appears that neither the White House’s nor the Pentagon’s document dump extend much beyond the spring of 2003. This leaves out the critical period in the fall and winter of last year, when the Iraqi insurgency exploded into a major problem and the administration’s demands for better, more actionable intelligence jumped off the chart. According to Sy Hersh, this is when the Pentagon extended “Copper Green” – the Pentagon’s existing secret program for capturing and interrogating high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives – to Iraq.

Great line from this Seattle Times article.