Antiwar.com Blog

From my Monday morning column, written on Sunday:

“At this dramatic turning point, bin Laden reappears with a half-hour long tape, the transcript of which can be found here, and there is something very odd about it, in that it reads like a political polemic that might have been written by an American.”

From the London Telegraph, posted pretty much simultaneously:

“A Californian heavy metal fan, who converted to Islam and became the first American to be charged with treason in half a century, has been fingered as the author of Osama bin Laden’s latest video lecture – which left the terror chief sounding like an anti-globalisation protester….

“American spy chiefs were quick to name Adam Gadahn, the head of al-Qaeda’s English language media operations, as the author of large sections of bin Laden’s broadcast.

“Last October, the 28-year-old ‘loner’ became the first American charged with treason since 1952, for appearing in a succession of al-Qaeda videos under the guise of ‘Azzam The American,’ in which he condemned globalisation and made American cultural references.”

For more on the curious case of Senor Gadahn, go here, here, and here.

The conventional wisdom is that Mike Huckabee is a Real Nice Guy, and his soft-spoken manner gives superficial credence to this assertion, and yet, like so much of the press corps groupthink that evolves over the course of a presidential campaign, it is a lot of malarkey: aside from his demagogic appeal to naked emotion over logic and facts in his contretemps with Ron Paul at the New Hampshire debate, Huckabee apparently leaves the dirtier smears to his local accomplices, according to the Nashua, New Hampshire Telegraph:

 “‘That guy (Paul) is the most un-American person in this country as far as I’m concerned,’’ said Hudson Republican Sen. Robert Clegg, a big Huckabee backer.”

Au contraire, Senor Clegg, methinks you are the rightful bearer of that title: the Most Un-American Person in This Country Award is yours hands down.

This kind of crap has got to stop: there will be a discussion of the war, and the foreign policy of this country, not only in the general election but in the primaries, too, and if that is “un-American” by comrade Clegg’s standards, then that’s just too damned bad, now, isn’t it? To call Ron Paul “un-American” because he opposes the Iraq war, and invokes a long Republican tradition of anti-interventionism in opposing our crazed foreign policy, is typical of the red-state fascist drivel that passes for Republicanism these days — but, you’ll notice, it isn’t working. No one believes that the Good Doctor, a man who swears by the Constitution and is arguably the most conservative member of Congress, is an anti-American subversive — not even, I’d be willing to bet, Gov. Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee is said to be a Real Nice Guy, at least that’s what the national press corps is telling us, and so now he faces a crucial test in the Nice-ness department: he ought to disavow Glegg’s mean-spirited smear, and acknowledge that Rep. Paul is as patriotic in his dissent as he, Huckabee, is sincere in his insistence that we must stay the course.

How about it, Governor? Or is the nice-ness angle just another of the Huckster‘s scams, like the “fair tax“?

Oh, and here’s Senator Clegg’s contact information, just in case you want to give him a piece of your mind:

Senate Office:
Statehouse
107 N. Main St., Room 124
Concord, N.H. 03301
(603) 271-8630
robert.clegg@leg.state.nh.us

Home:
39 Trigate Road
Hudson, N.H. 03051-5120
(603) 880-6193

And tell him Justin Raimondo sent you ….

UPDATE: And it isn’t like Clegg, New Hamsphire Senate majority leader, is just another rank-and-file Huckabee supporter: he traveled with Huckabee throughout Iowa, and has acted as a spokesman for the campaign. Clegg smearing Paul as “un-American” is like Huckabee saying the same thing.

According to The Drudge Report, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will appear exclusively on FOX News Channel on Monday at 9pm EDT for a one hour live interview with Brit Hume, following their testimony to Congress.

Prepare for the propaganda blitz…

Sometimes it seems like it. As the Webmaster for Antiwar.com, I get many critical letters every day. I get at least one letter from someone claiming to be a US soldier or veteran who seems to have the same philosophy as bin Laden: “If you don’t agree with us, we will kill you.”

The majority of them contain numerous misspellings and grammatical errors.

This morning I received this note from Maj. J. McCaffery, USMC. I am including the name and email address he gave since he listed it for publication.

Anti-war? Do yall seriously against all military action? I was in Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq and I can tell you right now its damn hippies like you who give us a bad name. If I had it my way id take my company straight into your heaquarters and put a end to your damn lies. You have no idea about the good that we do in those countries. All you do is sit your fat ass in a cubicle and read far left bullshit and pass it on a fact. We help more people in those nations than is getting reported. THE US IS NOT THE BAD GUYS. If you hate America so much, please do us all a favor and get the hell out.

~ Maj. J McCaffery USMC

It is such a shame. Many Americans seem willing to adopt the principles of the terrorist enemies: the violent destruction of those who don’t agree with them.

But I will close on a positive note. I received another email yesterday (I am withholding the name in this case, so as not to jeopardize him with the military):

I am an Army officer and a veteran. I am also a Libertarian who supports an isolationist approach to foreign policy. I am leaving the military soon because I am not willing to put my life on the line anymore for this current war. I love your website and agree with your cause. Good luck getting your message out to the world.
~ First Lt. xxxxx

The prestigious Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., has invited Ron Paul to make a keynote policy address on September 11.

This is a very significant event, showing that Paul’s views are being taken seriously by elements of the political and educational establishment.

The event is open to the public, but you must RSVP (see below).

“A Traditional Non-Intervention Foreign Policy”
11 a.m. to Noon – Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Building
Ron Paul, Republican congressman and 2008 presidential candidate, will discuss this topic.
For more information and to RSVP, contact cpfr@jhu.edu or 202.587.3237.
Media who want to cover this event should register with Felisa Neuringer Klubes in the SAIS Communications Office at 202.663.5626 or fklubes@jhu.edu.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_09_07_porter.mp3]

Historian and investigative reporter Gareth Porter discusses Iran’s need for civilian nuclear power, why U.S. belligerence is the most important factor in determining whether they will eventually seek nuclear weapons technology, how the gaining of atomic weapons encouraged caution in Chinese foreign policy in the 1960’s, the fact that the Ayatollahs are no less rational than the Cheney Cabal, Cheney’s pressure on Clinton to lift sanctions against Iran in the 1990’s, the corrupting influence of power on man’s reasoning abilities, Cheney’s impossible demand that Iran prove a negative, IAEA Director ElBaradei’s attempt to take the issue back from the UN Security Council by convincing the Iranians to answer the few remaining questions about their program, the election of reformer Rafsanjani to be chairman of the Council of Experts, the bogus accusations that the government of Iran is supplying the new and improved EFP land mines in Iraq, Cheney’s plot to use them as a casus belli, the possibility that General Casey had refused to go along with the February debut of this round of lies, the traditional split between the Sadr and Hakim factions and their relative states of allegiance to Iran.

MP3 here. (46:30)

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and foreign policy analyst. He is also a Foreign Policy In Focus scholar. His book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, is published in May 2005 by University of California Press.