Abu Wabu

Masked Al Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades gunmen on Tuesday publicly executed a Palestinian man and woman they suspected of having spied for Israel.
The man was shot dead in the main street of a refugee camp, with a large crowd looking on. The woman was later shot to death by her relatives in the courtyard of the West Bank’s largest hospital.
The Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, accused Jafal Abu Tzrur, 24, of having informed the IDF where to find three of its members. The three were killed by IDF troops during a raid on the Balata refugee camp near Nablus earlier this year.
Al Aksa gunmen interrogated Abu Tzrur, claimed he confessed and then dragged him into Balata’s main street. As a large crowd looked on, the gunmen threw Abu Tzrur to the ground, witnesses said. When he tried to get up, the gunmen killed him with several shots, the witnesses said.
The movement said it also killed Odad Abu Mustafa, 27, a Nablus woman. Abu Mustafa was married to one of the Aksa men slain by Israel, and was reportedly having an affair with Abu Tzrur.
Abu Mustafa, a mother of four, was shot by gunmen and male relatives on grounds that she shamed her clan. More than 15 people took part in the execution, witnesses said. It took place in the courtyard of Raffidiyeh Hospital, the West Bank’s largest.
The mob originally planned to kill her in the street but were swayed by a man who pleaded with them not to carry out the killing in the view of little children. She was then taken into the courtyard of the hospital, said Yousef Mahmoud, 18, who witnessed the killing.
“One of the gunmen said ‘where is her brother?’ and when he stepped forward they said to him ‘you know what you need to do,”’ he said. “The brother took out a gun and shot her in the head with one bullet.”
Mahmoud said the brother then emptied the entire clip into the body of his sister, while the surrounding gunmen fired into the air. He said that the woman remained silent throughout and did not resist her captors.
Neighbors of the woman said she had four children; two boys and two girls, ranging in age from 11 to three and a half.

HT: Little Green Footballs

It began in early May. Iranian President ActMadInJihad and his monsters-in-arms are experiencing domestic problems from the growing ranks of an angry population they can no longer control without violence. The best coverage is coming from Gateway Pundit.

President Bush knows full well that the collapse of the Islamist terror-sponsoring regime there would place Iran squarely in America's corner, with all that portends. I'm hoping he is doing everything possible to bring that about. A liberated Iran would put the fascist mullahs on trial for a multitude of heinous crimes and pull the financial and ideological plugs on Islamists throughout the Middle East. It also might well dry up the terror in Iraq.

Iran says it's impervious to meddling from the Great Satan. Let's just see about that.

Meanwhile, here's the latest in Islamist chic from Silent Running:



He's So Sexy.

Larry C. Johnson worked for the CIA for four years in the early eighties or so and is now a self-professed expert on worldwide spookiness. His story is well told by Byron York, but to experience the essence of the Larry-Man himself, you've got to groove on his words, so here they are, direct from Larry C. Johnson's blog NoQuarter.

Note: I've included some readers' comments, including my own, to provide context; they appear in regular type. Larry's answers appear in their original shout caps. LARRY C. JOHNSON LOVES SHOUT CAPS.

How can someone be patriotic who gives up operational secrets or defends those who do?
EXACTLY, WHICH IS WHY THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT MARY MCCARTHY DID BUT AMPLE EVIDENCE THAT GEORGE BUSH DID. CAN I SIGN YOU UP FOR THE IMPEACH BUSH CAMPAIGN?

Fact: Tenet never disapproved. Tenet went after Wilson in a July 2003 statement.
WRONG. GEORGE TENET TOLD THE WHITE HOUSE IN OCTOBER 2002 TO REMOVE ANY REFERENCE TO URANIUM IN AFRICA FROM BUSH'S SPEECH.

LOL...The big, bad CIA guy can't take other opinions so he has to ban people. How ridiculous is that? How Trite? But we believe in free speech right? Not LJ. Try doin a few searches and see what everybody else is sayin' about him. See what LJ had to say:
YOU KNOW ASSHOLE, WHOOPS, I MEAN AXEY, THE NICE THING ABOUT RUNNING MY BLOG IS THAT I DON'T HAVE TO TOLERATE TROGS LIKE YOU. YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NOT READ WHAT I WROTE NOR DO YOU KNOW MY HISTORY ON THESE MATTERS. NO PROBLEM. YOU ARE A MORON AND ARE BANNED.

The CIA has conducted a war against Bush for the last 3 years. Clarke, McCarthy, Wilson and Plame are the players thus far. There are no doubt more. there's no question that the CIA has reason to want to hurt Bush. This is on the edge of sedition.
AND YOU CAN'T SEE THE TRUTH BECAUSE YOUR HEAD IS SO FAR UP YOUR ASS.

UNCLE TOM, YOU ARE A BLOWHARD AND A JOKE. YOU ARE MAKING UP YOUR SERVICE RECORD. MY FRIENDS, WHO ARE ACTUAL WARRIORS, NEVER VOLUNTEER WHAT THEY DID OR WHAT AWARDS THEY RECEIVED. IT TOOK ME YEARS TO FIND OUT. GUYS LIKE JOE LOPEZ, SILVER STAR WITH MARINES; DICK GANNON, EX-COMMANDER FIFTH MARINES (TWO TOURS IN VIETNAM), PAUL EVANCOE, NAVY SEAL RETIRED WITH MULTIPLE AWARDS INCLUDING THE BRONZE STAR, AND LARRY DUGGAN, THE 100TH MAN WOUNDED IN VIETNAM. YOU ARE PROBABLY ONE OF THE GUYS WHO WENT TO SALVATION ARMY, BOUGHT OLD UNIFORMS, AND HAS PERSUADED HIMSELF HE WAS THE REAL DEAL. ENJOY YOUR FANTASY TOUGH GUY.

I guess the actual banning was for calling attention to his July 10, 2001 op-ed in the NY Times wherein he claimed we had nothing to fear [from terrorists]. That got me banned. The other post was deleted, the one where I questioned the VIPS calling for people such as McCarthy to do what she did.
SUE, YOU SURE ARE A BRIGHT GIRL. THANKS FOR HELPING DRIVE UP THE TRAFFIC TO MY SITE. MY ADVERTISERS DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A TROG OR A CLEAR THINKER. THE FACT THAT YOU VISIT SHOWS UP AS A NUMBER IN MY COLUMN. THANKS FOR TAKING THE BAIT SWEETHEART. SUCKER.

IF YOU WOULD ACTUALLY READ AS OPPOSED TO REPEATING REPUBLICAN TALKING POINTS YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE CIA REPEATEDLY TOLD THE PRESIDENT THAT THE CLAIMS THAT IRAQ WAS SEEKING URANIUM IN WEST AFRICA WERE BASELESS. IS THAT A DIFFICULT CONCEPT? DO YOU LACK A DICTIONARY? ROBERT JOSEPH, WHO INSERTED THAT LANGUAGE, DID SO OVER THE OBJECTION OF THE CIA. BUT, WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT FACTS?

JOE (Wilson) HAS NOT CHANGED HIS STORY AND HE HAS BEEN VINDICATED. IF YOU WOULD SIMPLY READ THE RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO, IT IDENTIFIES FIVE OTHER SOURCES BESIDES JOE THAT CORROBORATE JOE'S TESTIMONY. LIKE I SAID, YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN FACTS.

US INTEL COMMUNITY SAYS THE BRITS ARE WRONG. AND SSCI (NOT SSIC YOU BOZO) IS A SLANTED REPUBLICAN REPORT. OF COURSE, YOU BELIEVE THE BRITS OVER THE CIA. ANOTHER GREAT AMERICAN.

Here once and for all is confirmation that Joe Wilson claimed, and continues to claim, that VP Cheney sent him to Niger:"Wilson is now at the center of a major political maelstrom involving the White House, the C.I.A. and the second gulf war in Iraq. In 2002, at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney, Wilson was assigned by the C.I.A. to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger for the purpose of advancing his nuclear program."
I took that quote directly from Joe Wilson's online bio at http://www.greatertalent.com/biography.php?id=258
The bio then says, "When his (Wilson's) investigation turned up nothing, Wilson reported back to officials in Washington that there was no basis for the claims."
We have long known these are patent lies, the purpose of which was to a) cover up the fact that Valerie Plame Wilson was responsible for sending her husband to Niger b) attempt to legitimize a story fabricated by a cabal of CIA employees, including Larry Johnson, Mary McCarthy and numerous others, in co-ordination with the Kerry campaign, for the purpose of undermining the Bush administration in hopes of propelling John Kerry to the White House in 2004.
Does that sound about right, Larry?
YOU NITWIT. I WILL SAY THIS ONCE AND IF YOU PERSIST IN BEING STUPID WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO PARTICIPATE ON THIS BLOG.HERE IS WHAT THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPORT STATES: EVENT ONE--13 February 2002. During his CIA morning brief, Vice President Cheney asks the CIA to find out the truth about an item in the Defense Intelligence Agency's National Military Joint Intelligence Center Executive Highlight (Vo. 028-02) that analyzed a recent CIA intelligence report and concluded that, “Iraq is probably searching abroad for natural uranium to assist in its nuclear weapons program”. No judgment was offered about the credibility of the reporting. (Senate Intelligence Committee Report [SICR], page 38)HERE IS WHAT JOE WILSON WROTE IN HIS OP ED:"In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report." (NY Times, July 6, 2003)JOE WILSONS NEVER SAID WHAT YOU CLAIM HE SAID. LIKE I SAID, SHAPE UP AND BE RESPONSIBLE OR GET LOST.
Posted by: Yr. Fthfl. Svnt. Thursday, 27 April 2006 at 19:40

ABU. YOU DO NOT GET TO POST LIES ON MY BLOG. VALERIE WAS UNDERCOVER, AS WAS I. WHETHER YOU CHOOSE TO BELIEVE IT IS NO CONCERN OF MIND. TAKE YOUR LIES ELSEWHERE. YOU WILL BE DELETED.
Posted by: Yr. Fthfl. Svnt. Friday, 28 April 2006 at 16:17

FROM LARRY JOHNSON (NOTE, THE USE OF CAPS IS SIMPLY A DEVICE TO HIGHLIGHT THAT THE FOLLOWING IS MY RESPONSE TO THIS CHUCKLEHEAD, ABU).ABU, JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO INSIST THAT THE SUN RISES IN THE WEST DOES NOT MAKE IT SO. I WILL NOT SUBJECT FOLKS WHO READ THIS BLOG TO MINDLESS CRAP. IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH YOUR STATEMENT, "Plame twice nominated. . ." IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DEFAME HER OR JOE. I HAVE WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY ON THIS POINT BUT WILL REPEAT KEY FACTS. VALERIE'S BOSS AT THE CIA ASKED HER TO WRITE THE MEMO. VALERIE DID NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO SEND JOE OR ANYONE ELSE ON A TRIP TO NIGER. HER BOSSES WERE REACTING TO A REQUEST THAT CAME FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE AND WAS COMMUNICATED TO CPD BY THE DAILY BRIEFERS.
FOR YOU TO INSIST THAT VALERIE KNEW ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE THAT GEORGE BUSH WAS GOING TO MAKE THE CLAIM IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS THAT "IRAQ WAS TRYING TO BUY URANIUM IN WEST AFRICA" AND, BECAUSE OF HER FORESIGHT, SENT HER HUSBAND TO NIGER TO "NOT" GATHER EVIDENCE SO THEY COULD EMBARRASS BUSH AND HELP JOHN KERRY IS DELUSIONAL.
FINALLY, VALERIE WAS A NON-OFFICIAL COVER OFFICER UNTIL THE DAY HER NAME APPEARED IN THE NOVAK ARTICLE IDENTIFYING HER AS A CIA OFFICER. WHETHER YOU ACCEPT THESE FACTS OR NOT IS OF NO IMPORT TO ME. THESE ARE FACTS AND YOU DO NOT GET THE LUXURY OF PLAYING ALICE IN WONDERLAND HERE. UP IS NOT DOWN. BLACK IS NOT WHITE.
Posted by: Yr. Fthfl. Svnt. Saturday, 29 April 2006 at 03:26

FROM LARRY JOHNSON:ABU, REFUTING YOU IS NOT A PROBLEM. IT IS A WASTE OF TIME BECAUSE, AS I HAVE ALREADY POINTED OUT, VALERIE PLAME WAS UNDERCOVER. DESPITE THAT FACT YOU CONTINUE TO INSIST, WITHOUT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE, THAT SHE WAS SOMEHOW AN OVERT EMPLOYEE. YOU ARE FREE TO POST YOUR BULLSHIT ON YOUR ON BLOG. YOU CALL ME A COWARD BUT THEN START WHINING BECAUSE I REFER TO YOU AS DELUSIONAL AND A CHUCKLEHEAD. I'LL LEAVE IT TO OTHERS TO DRAW THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS. PERSONALLY I WOULD RATHER HAVE A FACE TO FACE MEETING WITH YOU TO DISCUSS THE ISSUE OF MY COWARDICE. I SUSPECT THAT IS SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO ENTERTAIN.
AS FAR AS YOUR DRAMATIC REVELATIONS GO (WHICH CAME FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW) THEY ARE MISLEADING GARBAGE:
...
ABU, WRONG AGAIN BUTT MUNCH. IN FACT, WE NOW KNOW THAT TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT RECEIVED INFORMATION FROM THE NIO FOR AFRICA WHO INFORMED THEM THAT THE CLAIM ABOUT IRAQ TRYING TO ACQUIRE URANIUM WAS BASELESS. WHAT IS IT ABOUT BASELESS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
...
SEE ABOVE. THERE WAS NO ATTEMPT TO BUY URANIUM. IT IS NOT JUST THE WORD OF JOE WILSON. IT ALSO IS THE WORD OF THE US AMBASSADOR TO NIGER, THE DEPUTY COMMANDER OF U.S. EUCOM, AND THE CIA.
...
I HAVE ANSWERED THIS REPEATEDLY. BULLSHIT. THE MEMO VALERIE WROTE WAS IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST FROM HER BOSS. HER BOSS MADE THE DECISION TO SEND JOE AND HER BOSS CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO ASK JOE TO DO THE TRIP.SO, ABU. YOU ARE NOW BANNED FROM THIS SITE. I WILL DELETE EVERY PIECE OF LYING CRAP THAT YOU TRY TO PUT HERE. WE'RE DONE.
Posted by: YFS Saturday, 29 April 2006 at 16:30

CNN's perfidy (there's no way it's just sheer cluelessness) just keeps going further and further off the scale. Iraq The Model corrects them once again. HT: Tanker

Thomas Joscelyn recounts a scum-sucking terror-apologist's appearance with Castro on Cuban television.

Bill Roggio's excellent writing now appears at The Counterterrorism Blog. Today's entry: A Shocking Memorial Day Weekend.

Strata-Sphere is very busy:
Did CIA Ally With Al Qaeda During Clinton Years?
Media Impeaching Itself As Case Implodes

Mary Katherine Ham shows how the Washington Post quoted Brig. Gen. David H. Brahms completely out of context in its story on the Haditha incident. As usual with the MSM's ongoing war against the Bush White House and the American military, the Post's angle is quite removed from reality.

Winds Of Change brings us Winds Of War. This edition's Top Topics:
A rough month for the Taliban - with more to come. Praise Allah!
Pakistan to recognize Taliban admin in Waziristan - a trojan horse?
Sudanese military and Islamist militias violate Darfur peace deal - really? Islamofascists are usually so trustworthy.
Abu Musab al-Suri now in American hands - right where he belongs .

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, America.

I don't mind listening to droning bathos or self-absorbed whining as long as it comes from an appropriate source like, say, a twelve-year-old, and in an appropriate setting, such as a middle-school auditorium with well-marked exits. But when it comes from Fringeworld Plaything™ Cindy She-Hen, I'm out the door with a bullet.

UPDATED
Gateway Pundit: Tehran Universities Erupt in Violence Overnight!

Iran is accusing the US and its allies of provoking the violence in the country.

What a coincidence! Just like a certain Persian country does to its newly-democratized neighbor!


Michael Ledeen: Karl Vick, the mullahs' dupe at the Post.


Captain's Quarters: Hamas Shits Where It Eats

According to the Washington Times, Hamas has damaged relations with key states in the Middle East, a development that could mean difficulties in their offensive against Fatah and their desired war on Israel. Jordan and Egypt have both determined that Hamas has masterminded plots against them, and now seek to curtail their operations.

This apparently will not interfere with other Hamas plans, including their Food-for-Airplanes program, in which the Palestinians' democratically-elected government trades what could have been food, medicine, the infrastructure and other non-essential items for airplanes to be flown into Israeli skyscrapers. Meanwhile, the Old Gray Mare wants engagement with these savages.


The Australian, via Threats Watch: MI5 thwarts suicide attacks on British and US forces in Iraq.


CBS via Strata-Sphere: Taliban and Al Qaeda plan spring offensive in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Coalition forces beat them to it:

Fighting in southern Afghan mountains that involved U.S.-led coalition forces killed at least 24 militants, four Afghan soldiers and one policeman, the coalition said Wednesday. An Afghan general said up to 60 militants had died.

With more on the way to Allah every day. The Taliban and AQ want jihad; they're getting it.


Glenn Reynolds' aside on the Enron convictions:

I'll just note that I think Paul Krugman's claim that Enron would be bigger than 9/11 seems not to have come true.

Keep that streak goin', Krugs.

Brian Ross, Semi-Professional Reporter
UPDATE More on the ABC/Brian Ross credibility fiasco here and here. Remember back before the CBS/Dan Rather meltdown when we all just absent-mindedly assumed that this sort of baldfaced leftard fuckup was an anomaly?

Jimmy Olsen. Now there's a reporter.

Abu Wabu Exclusive-A Brief History Of Anti-War Idiots' Heroes
1971: John F'n Kerry lies in a fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan, heads antiwar group Vietnam Veteran-Impersonators Against The Truth.
2004: Jimmy Massey joins Marines, slaughters Iraqis in a fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan, leaves Marines, becomes lesson in ridicule.
2004: Micah Wright, Army Ranger with the Second Ranger Battalion (3rd Plt, C Co 2/75--write that down!), slaughters Panamanians in a fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan, becomes professional propaganda confiscator. Okay, for a while, at least.
2006: Jesse MacBeth hired by Wendy's, speaks truth to power in a fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan, disappears after quitting Iraq Veterans Against The Truth. Subsequently files bogus separation/discharge form on a MySpace account, adding to his legend.


Abu Wabu Bonus! Iowahawk: Phone Sex For Kosturbators(HT: LGF)


Some days you eat the bahr...

Via NRO's Media Blog, one of the most impeccably informative blog entries I have ever read.

Seixon's work connecting the dots between the VIPS, Joe Wilson, David Shuster, Jason Leopold et al is bearing robust fruit:

Truthout is whoring itself for VIPS and Wilson, with Leopold acting as a mouthpiece, William Rivers Pitt backing him up, and Richard Sale chiming in with his UPI-credibility. They’ve all been running numerous rumors and outright falsehoods fabricated by VIPS to influence public opinion and perhaps even Fitzgerald’s investigation. The Fitzgerald Niger forgeries story was invented by Vincent Cannistraro and Larry Johnson of VIPS; it was peddled to Justin Raimondo then Richard Sale and Martin Walker of UPI. Leopold carries the gig by repeating all of these stories in Truthout, while Larry Johnson conducts damage control when things get out of hand.

There can no longer be any doubt that most of these explosive and uncorroborated “news” stories are being manufactured by the tight-knit group of former intelligence officials in tandem with Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, and most likely backers in the Democratic Party. It is also probably no coincidence that David Shuster and Chris Matthews of MSNBC have carried many of the same rumors and false stories, such as the one claiming that outing Plame damaged efforts on Iran. Shuster has been hyping a Rove indictment as imminent for over a month, something only one other source has been doing: Jason Leopold.

VIPS was started to compel intelligence officials to illegally leak classified information to damage the Bush administration, and is apparently now in the business of manufacturing false news and rumor-mongering to do the same. It should come as no surprise that a group of veteran intelligence officials would have the clout to pull off such an enterprise, and that they would cut any corner necessary to fulfill their agenda.

Media Blog points out,

Referring to these VIPS guys as "former intelligence officials" and nothing more is highly deceitful. They are activists, and granting them anonymity serves no purpose other than to conceal that fact from news consumers. How often have we seen this happen in major news stories about this case?

Drip, drip, drip.

DRIP.

The Belmont Club discusses the new epoch, the attack of September 11, 2001, and how it has forced us to declare our values, to consider "will I fight this enemy?", and the left's refusal to answer that bell in favor of supporting that enemy:

One unintended effect of the September 11 attacks is that it put a defining question to different modes of American political consciousness. Until then it was possible to treat many ideologies respectable since the 1960s as harmless forms of conoclasm, posing "provocative" but fundamentally hypothetical views. But when attacks on the US homeland made it categorically necessary to answer the question: 'are you willing to fight our assailants', many sincere ideologues paused, shook their heads and said: 'No. In fact I am morally obligated to help our assailants'. When Noam Chomsky went out of his way to support Hezbollah it wasn't inexplicable, it was logical. His long articulated hypotheticals have simply become actuals.

***

Until September 11 it was possible for the more "enlightened" segments of society to regard patriotism, religion and similar sentiments with the kind of amused tolerance that one might reserve for simpletons. Nothing that a little institutionalization and spare change couldn't straighten out. The problem for the Democratic Party is that the Great Polite Silence is over. People like Chomsky and President Bush have stopped being hypothetical and become all too real. Bring it on.

I too welcome the conflict between left and right over the War on Terror because it separates the wheat from the chaff, those who want to preserve our way of life versus those who have devalued it so far that to them it doesn't seem worth defending. The towers falling in New York were no more real to them than those falling at the end of Fight Club, that is until Dubya declared war on a very real enemy and put reality on the table for all to face. Today's Bush-hating left feigns superiority and blames him for everything they can think of, but that's all they have. They don't even appreciate the threat, let alone present a solution, mistaking the momentary satisfaction of hurling an epithet for the real courage required to confront the enemy where he lives. That they leave for the truly brave.

Read it all; it's the Belmont Club.

Truthout to Change Name, Keep Format

Opinion Journal's Peter Wehner shows how easy it is to get the facts straight and stop being an anti-war idiot in "Revisionist History - Antiwar myths about Iraq, debunked":

Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations--the president misled the country in order to justify the Iraq war; his administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments; Saddam Hussein turned out to be no threat since he didn't possess weapons of mass destruction; and helping democracy take root in the Middle East was a postwar rationalization. The problem with these charges is that they are false and can be shown to be so--and yet people continue to believe, and spread, them.

It's a quick and clean teardown of the Bush-haters' boilerplate propaganda. I quibble with the author's misuse of the term "myth", because a myth by definition contains one or more universal truths and is usually a Disney property, whereas the charges Wehner debunks fall far short of that; they are simply falsehoods and lies, perpetuated by charlatans and ravenously consumed by ignorant fools.

HT: the eeeevil Hugh Hewitt, who suggests: "And then add in Ralph Peter's 'Defeating Terror.' (HT: RealClearPolitics.)"

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz lays waste to countless idiots' Fitzmas dreams by shining journalistic light on Jason Leopold, who "broke" the "story" of the Fitzgerald indictment of Karl Rove, apparently quite some time before it happened, since as of this writing two weeks later it hasn't happened yet. Hey- that reminds me of Joseph Wilson's specialized grasp of document timelines!

The claim that President Bush's top political strategist had been indicted in the CIA leak investigation was written by a journalist who has battled drug addiction and mental illness and been convicted of grand larceny. That didn't stop more than 35 reporters -- from all the major newspapers, networks and newsmagazines -- from calling Luskin or Rove's spokesman, Mark Corallo, to check it out.

The reports appeared on the liberal Web site Truthout.org, run by Marc Ash, a former advertising man and fashion photographer in California. Jason Leopold, the author of the stories, directed inquiries to Ash, who says that "we stand by the story. We have multiple points of independent confirmation of what we originally reported. Our problem is, the prosecutor's office is under no obligation to go public."

Leopold acknowledges in a new book, "News Junkie," that he is a past liar, convicted felon and former alcoholic and cocaine addict. An earlier version of the book was canceled by publisher Rowman & Littlefield last year.

Salon retracted a 2002 piece by Leopold involving Thomas White, then secretary of the Army. The online magazine apologized, saying it had been unable to confirm the authenticity of an e-mail that Leopold attributed to White. Leopold, a onetime reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Dow Jones, accused the online magazine of being "wimpy" and caving to pressure.

Captain's Quarters:

This should serve as a cautionary tale for partisans who feel that their cause is worth more than their own credibility. Once that decision is made, neither cause nor credibility can ever be easily retrieved.

Dan Rather. Notorious Liar Joe Wilson. Jason Leopold. And now, ladies and idiots, Jesse MacBeth.

Credit to Protein Wisdom.

After almost three decades of nightmarish rule by Saddam Hussein, Iraqis have a democratically-formed constitutional government. Many problems remain, but those who were in favor of leaving Saddam in place because they despise George W. Bush can now reflect on what their solipsism would have wrought upon innocent Iraqis had they had their way: Saddam still in power, a nuclear arms race between Iraq and Iran, thousands of now dead jihadists still around to attack Western civilization, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perishing each year at the merest gesture from Saddam or his sons Uday and Kusay.

These people refer to themselves as progressives.

Never mind. Congratulations to the Iraqi people, and God bless their simple individual courage.

We're with you, even if others, driven by an irrational hatred of one man, are not.

Events converged around the subject of the Guantanamo Bay "detainee center" (a Caribbean resort for aspiring Islamofascist martyrs) today when prisoners faked a suicide attempt to draw American guards into an ambush.

The officials called Thursday's clash the most intense outbreak of violence at the jail for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since it opened in January 2002.

Six prisoners were treated for "minor injuries" and none of the U.S. guards was seriously hurt after the fight pitting 10 inmates against 10 U.S. guards, the officials said. The fight ended only after guards blasted detainees five times with a 12 gauge shotgun shooting rubber balls and used a grenade launcher that shot a blunt rubber object, officials said.

While guards were putting down the fight, detainees in nearby cells began rioting, destroying cameras used to monitor them, fans, florescent lights and other property, officials said.

I fully expect the Gitmo prisoners to attempt escape by whatever means possible, as do their captors. So when they do try, they should fully expect to get their asses kicked if not killed. And no, there are no mitigating circumstances, so I admire the Americans' restraint.

The privileges these prisoners enjoyed prior to their indiscretions are now history for them and for their colleagues, as they should be.

On the same day, grotesque irony: a UN creation dubbed the Committee Against Torture demanded today that the US close Gitmo and do whatever with the detainees. Committee Against Torture member states include Senegal, Egypt, Chile, Cypress, Equador, Russia and China, inveterate human rights violators all.

I love the ideological brinkmanship.

Updated
There is presently a debate about this National Post story by Amir Taheri. It's pretty much confirmed that the Iranian Majlis has passed a law requiring Muslims to wear an "Islamic uniform" as specified by the government. Under dispute is Taheri's assertion that non-Muslims will be required to wear some distinguishing feature such as a ribbon, specially colored to indicate the wearer's religion.

Hot Air has more on the story and the debate here and here. I especially appreciate Allah's bang-on comment, served up with appropriate sarcasm:

The important thing now is not to worry. Remember — worrying is what “fear-stricken” conservatives do. True bravery is affecting near-complete indifference to the prospect of a nuclear-armed, Holocaust-denying radical Islamic state forcing Jews to wear yellow insignia while simultaneously hosing down the front of your pants daily over NSA data mining.

This is not about the use of uniforms by a nation's military or professions. We know from history that entire nations of uniformed whatevers usually do not merit being described as "inclusive". The norm is for out-of-favor minorities, which are usually the only kind in such places, to be singled out and demonized. Hitler introduced uniformity in everything from clothing to social groups to national cultural symbolism as a prelude to the Holocaust and the smoldering ruin of Europe. It's a proven first step in stoking animosity between groups so as to marginalize, and then eliminate, one or more of them. In any case, there is only one purpose for any uniform, good or bad, and that is to visually, efficiently distinguish one from another.

Captain's Quarters:

Earlier comparisons to Adolf Hitler seem almost presciently apt at the moment. Ahmadinejad has very cleverly copied Hitler's diplomatic style in dealing with the West, and unfortunately the West has mostly copied the feckless strategy of the 1930s. Ahmadinejad has continued to escalate his demands and the West has attempted to appease him in order to buy some peace. We have not yet experienced the Munich moment, but we can be sure it's coming, and it will likely focus on the existence of Israel. Ehud Olmert would do well to recall the history of Czechoslovakia, another democracy that the West gladly sacrificed to calm Hitler and avoid confrontation while it was still possible to make it brief.

Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call, a reminder that history repeats itself and that lunacy runs in patterns. If Iran decides to impose these conditions on its religious minorities despite their long integration into Iranian society --Zoroastrianism precedes Islam in Persia, after all -- then we will have arrived at the same position as Europe in 1935. It took only three years for the Nazis to stage Krystallnacht as a ruse to excuse the roundup of Jews, the tactical tipping point for the industrialized atrocities that would follow. Ahmadinejad will not likely wait that long. For those who claim that the cosmopolitan nature and rich cultural history of the Iranians will never allow such actions to occur in the Islamic Republic, they should recall that the Germans were among the most cosmopolitan of Europeans -- until the Nazis took control.

This is no benign matter, not in a country such as Iran, for obvious reasons.

Amir Taheri's recent article on Iraq.

UPDATE
The National Post is having to step back from the story, which now appears to be a false alarm.

Several experts are casting doubt on reports that Iran had passed a law requiring the country’s Jews and other religious minorities to wear coloured badges identifying them as non-Muslims.

The Iranian embassy in Otttawa also denied the Iranian government had passed such a law. ...

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Iranian expatriates living in Canada had confirmed that the order had been passed, although it still had to be approved by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect.

Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, said in an e-mail to the Post yesterday that, “We wish to categorically reject the news item.

“These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step.”

Sam Kermanian, of the U.S.-based Iranian-American Jewish Federation, said in an interview from Los Angeles that he had contacted members of the Jewish community in Iran — including the lone Jewish member of the Iranian parliament — and they denied any such measure was in place.

Regardless of the Post's and Taheri's gaff, and it's a big one, Iran can hardly complain of victimization: their behavior on the world stage is perpetually alarming and will require the closest scrutiny for years to come, at least until the mullocracy has been torn down and their nuclear threat eliminated.

Meanwhile the Kosturbators are thinking they've uncovered yet another neo-con propaganda scheme, this time to justify attacking Iran. Charles Johnson on the yellow ribbon story:

Can’t blame the Kos Kidz for being skeptical. It is awfully hard to believe that a country whose leader calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map” would do such a thing.

True, especially given the left's legendary sleuthing on matters of much greater import than a bunch of cranky totalitarian psychopathic medieval Islamofascists vowing to destroy Israel.

David Frum writes in Canada's National Post "on reasons not to negotiate directly with Iran. Iran's rejection yesterday of an EU offer to provide a nuclear reactor to meet Iran's alleged energy needs makes the point only more relevant."

Last week, the President of Iran published an 18-page letter to the President of the United States. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's epistle tells us a lot we don't especially need to know: It tells us that he believes that the Jews faked the Holocaust, and the U.S. faked 9/11; that Jesus would have supported today's Islamic extremists and that the Iranian nuclear program represents a triumph of free intellectual inquiry (never mind that the hard bits were all imported from China, via Pakistan).

What it does not tell us, however, is whether there are any terms on which the current crisis with Iran could be settled peacefully. The letter does not even address that question--or the related issues of Iran's history of global terrorism, its sheltering of senior al-Qaeda figures, and its support for the insurgents in Iraq.

...

We have to acknowledge this much now: The present Iranian government wants a nuclear bomb. It will not be coaxed into changing its mind. The question before the world now is: Can Iran be coerced by any means short of force? There's only one way to find out--and it is not by talking.

The incomparable Victor Davis Hanson mops the floor with the MSM/idiot left's whining and cowardice in this brilliantly-conceived WWII-era op-ed:

The Present Debacle
May 1, 1945 — After the debacles of February and March at Iwo Jima, and now the ongoing quagmire on Okinawa, we are asked to accept recent losses that are reaching 20,000 dead brave American soldiers and yet another 50,000 wounded in these near criminally incompetent campaigns euphemistically dubbed “island hopping.”

More "In the Eye of the Beholder"

Mark Levin: At War

I have a simple question for our media friends: Why don't you try to discover and report on the enemy's secrets rather than those of your own country? Of course, it might take more work and be more dangerous than sitting at your desk and fielding leaks from traitors working within our own government.

ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross, who, judging by his blog photograph identifies strongly with his cellphone, has the skinny on yet another government leak to the MSM:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

As they demonstrate daily, that's not all ABC News doesn't know. Brian Ross and ABC News might have conducted their own investigation rather than leave the incongruous NSA innuendo hanging in the air, but that's not part of The MSM Lifestyle™. It falls then to In From The Cold to place the story into context:

The MSM will scream long and loud about this one, but let's keep things in perspective. Under existing federal statutes, intelligence officials who divulge sensitive information to the press are likely in violation of the law. The unauthorized leak of such data results in a referral from the intelligence agency to the Justice Department, which launches a criminal probe. Federal prosecutors then have the right to gather and subpoena evidence in support of that effort, including phone records. If authorities discover a series of calls between the office phone or cell phone of an intelligence officer and Brian Ross of ABC News, well, that could certainly be relevant in identifying and prosecuting leakers.

I'm not a lawyer, but at first blush, there doesn't appear to be anything illegal about this practice, particularly if the acquisition of records followed a criminal referral to the Justice Department. The media is anxious to connect the warning to Ross as part of the NSA program, but I'm guessing that the records in question are, indeed, the result of Justice Department investigations into unauthorized leaks. That would indicate that the investigation is moving along quickly, and indictments of suspected leakers can be expected in the coming months. As for Mr. Ross (and other journalists), they might want to prepare for a grand jury appearance. I'm sure that federal prosecutors have lots of questions about those calls to their buddies in the intelligence community.

As usual, all it takes to cut through the bullshit in any MSM story is to consult public information readily available to, say, a college student researching a paper, which coincidentally describes the NSA terrorist surveillance program. But Brian Ross hasn't figured out that he is under investigation by the Feds. Legitimately. And for real.

Meanwhile, NRO's Stephen Spruiell notes:

Americans who are not members of the Pulitzer board seem to think the exposure of classified national security programs is serious business.

Spruiell repeats that a huge majority of Americans who correctly understand the NSA program support it. I would expect nothing less from grownups. MSM anti-Bush denizens who've made hay blaring classified information with which to burn George W. Bush could soon be facing both public and judicial scorn, and I'm going to want a front-row seat for that baby.

While we're at it, let's check in with one of the left's premiere idiots, Jason "Broken Clock" Leopold, who absentmindedly tugs at his pants at the merest thought of a Rove indictment:

Over the weekend, Jason Leopold at truthout.org reported that Karl Rove was going to be indicted today. If by "indicted," Leopold meant "speaking at the American Enterprise Institute," he got the story exactly right. If by "indicted" Leopold meant "charged with a criminal offense," he was wrong on a few of the details, as ByronYork noted last night.

Today, the indispensable Seixon has done some investigating and produced some interesting theories about Leopold's sources. Short answer? The "Wilsonistas": People like Larry Johnson, Ray McGovern and, of course, Joe Wilson, who have been trying to indict Rove in the press for months now. As Seixon points out, Leopold himself has been predicting Rove's imminent indictment since October.

Patrick Fitzgerald might or might not indict Karl Rove soon. But if he does, Leopold will only be right in the sense that a broken clock is right twice a day: He always says the same thing.

Read Media Blog every day-- it's an Abu Wabu Idiot-Free Zone™.

Further to the Iranian declaration of war, I notice David Frum weighed in on the same subject, pointing out a New York Sun editorial of the same date, May 11:

President Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush, widely interpreted as a peaceful overture, is in fact a declaration of war. The key sentence in the letter is the closing salutation. In an eight-page text of the letter being circulated by the Council on Foreign Relations, it is left untranslated and rendered as "Vasalam Ala Man Ataba'al hoda." What this means is "Peace only unto those who follow the true path."

It is a phrase with historical significance in Islam, for, according to Islamic tradition, in year six of the Hejira - the late 620s - the prophet Mohammad sent letters to the Byzantine emperor and the Sassanid emperor telling them to convert to the true faith of Islam or be conquered. The letters included the same phrase that President Ahmadinejad used to conclude his letter to Mr. Bush. For Mohammad, the letters were a prelude to a Muslim offensive, a war launched for the purpose of imposing Islamic rule over infidels.

Much of the rest of Ahmadinejad's letter is devoted to portraying Mr. Bush as an infidel. Given that Mr. Bush is not about to convert to Islam, what the letter presages is, if anything, an Islamic attack. So the thing to think about is what this implies for American policymakers. For one thing, no step short of converting to Islam will avert the planned attack so long as the regime in Tehran remains in power. All the "carrots" that the doves in the American foreign policy establishment want to offer - abandoning Israel, offering Iran "security guarantees" and economic and political relations - fall short of what Iran's president demands. He demands that America "follow the true path," that is, convert to Islam. Short of that, America will not receive peace from the Iranian regime.

Mr. Bush has been clear that America wishes the Iranian people well and supports them in their quest for freedom from their clerical regime. He needs to do everything he can to help the Iranian people oust the regime in Tehran before the regime has a chance to launch its offensive against America. Such an offensive by Iran would be dangerous enough with conventional weapons; we certainly don't want to permit a nation that is about to attack us to have nuclear weapons. And our president would do us all a service by telling Americans about this Iranian declaration of war. When Al Qaeda issued its February 1998 fatwa, only a few Americans recognized its significance as a declaration of war. That took until September 11, 2001. This time around, let's not miss the warning.

Power Line's Scott Johnson notes "the absurd sight of Noam Chomsky paying tribute to Hezbollah" this week and reminds us of Thomas Sowell's missive on today's useful idiots. Here's the chilling part: Sowell penned the article for the JWR in September 2000, a year and ten days before useful idiots became much more useful to the Islamofascist enemy.

In other Power Line news, the pathetic Old Gray Mare wears it bigtime. The New York Times, the titan of Old Media, has not a single journalist or editor on its hallowed roster with enough experience writing about the military to prevent them from an historical embarrassing gaff. And people are still actually paying to read this thing.

Spazzes or retards? You decide.

Former deputy homeland security adviser and deputy assistant to the president Richard Falkenrath writes in today's WaPo:

Bureaucrats excel at finding reasons not to do something. They are most often guilty of sins of omission, not commission. A timid, ordinary executive might have concluded that it was too risky to ask U.S. telecommunications companies to provide anonymized call records voluntarily to an agency such as the NSA, dealing with foreign intelligence. If the USA Today story is correct, it appears that Mike Hayden is no timid, ordinary executive. Indeed, it appears that he is exactly the sort of man that we should have at the helm of the CIA while we are at war.

Both writer and subject are obviously law-breaking warmonger Bushbots.

Updated
Belmont Club's Wretchard presents an illustrative sampling of fascism's total lack of humanity or ethos and poses the question of the age:

It's doubtful whether either the warlords or the Islamists have much regard for the Laws of War and one wonders what exactly the "U.N.-backed transitional government" actually does. British Defense Secretary John Reid created a stir by suggesting that the Geneva Convention be updated to reflect the realities of terrorism. "The legal constraints upon us have to be set against an enemy that adheres to no constraints whatsoever." It is probably fortunate that a European has posed this question because this ball really belongs in the court of the transnationalists. Any attempts to obtain realistic rules of engagement against terrorists by a US administration will be branded as fascistic. So let's pose the question: how should one deal with combatants who have no regard for ceasefires, women, children, flags of truce, churches, mosques or the Rules of War?

Without ruth.

I'm reminded of this alternative answer from a long-ago posting at Neo-neocon:
At 12:14 PM, June 28, 2005, Anonymous said...

No, Goesh, it's not the first time for any of those things, so you think we might have learned something by now, especially about putting ourselves into situations like that in the first place. Nobody gets a free lunch, except Bush and Rumsfeld, apparently.

From my personal notes:
In other words, now that you know war is hell, don't ever go to war.

There's a term for that: suicide.

Thanks, but I'll stick with Bush and Rumsfeld.

LGF points out that Iranian president ActMadInJihad's letter to President Bush is a classic and calculated Islamic declaration of war:

Only a few blogs (and almost no mainstream media) have realized the truth about Iranian madman Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush. It was not an offer to negotiate, and it was not simply a lunatic’s rant. It was a calculated invitation to convert to Islam, a da’wa—an Islamic requirement (commanded by Mohammed) before waging war against unbelievers.

Speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ahmadinejad himself confirmed this reading today, as reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency: President says his letter to President Bush was invitation to Islam.
(Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that his letter to President George W. Bush did not concern the nuclear dossier, but rather was an invitation to Islam and the prophets culture.

He made the above remarks in reply to a reporter while attending press conference on his letter to President Bush in Jakarta in the afternoon of the third day of his stay in Jakarta. Stressing that the letter was beyond the nuclear issue, the chief executive said that in principle, the country’s nuclear case is not so significant to make him write a letter about it.

“We act according to laws and our activities are quite clear. We are rather intent on solving more fundamental global matters.”

“The letter was an invitation to monotheism and justice, which are common to all divine prophets. If the call is responded positively, there will be no more problems to be solved,” added the president.

The president said that the letter actually contained a clear message of invitation to human beliefs, adding that its response will determine the future.

Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein on the Amrikka-haters' so-called thought process:

There is some debate over Ahmadinejad’s actual mindset—some analysts believe he uses the wild-eyed fanatic routine as a bluff, and that in fact he is far more pragmatic than rapturous, while others are convinced he is a true believer who is bent on trying to bring about an end-game battle between Islam and the West. Now, the former may be true. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare ourselves for the latter.

I find it baffling that some have gone so far as to suggest that Iran poses no threat to the US whatsoever—unless, that is, the US tries to stop Iran from finishing its nuclear weapons program. Under this description, though, the international community’s fear of a nuclear armed Iran can only be assuaged by allowing Iran to become nuclear armed. Because any attempt to stop them makes them more dangerous than they otherwise would be should they, er, become nuclear armed. Which is what the international community believes will make them dangerous to begin with.

I know—the mind reels.

Meanwhile, at Ace Of Spades, Johnny Coldcuts responds to ActMadInJihad's convert-or-perish letter here. Damn, JC, put away that pickle!

Tony Snow's daily priority should be to dismantle recycled crap like this. Some idiots still don't understand that NSA phone surveillance wasn't news the first time around, and it certainly isn't now, either. Nevertheless, the usual suspects are foaming at the piehole all over again, just as they did when the matter was first hyped in December of 2005, and just as they would if another 9/11 attack took place in the absence of exactly such a program.

Power Line offers educational information for those still stuck on stupid, and PajamasMedia shares bloggers' reactions to the USA Today story.

Mark Levin asks, Where's The 4th?, and then cuts right to the heart of the problem: too many do not take this war seriously.

The NSA intercept program shouldn't be controversial. The Constitution and precedent make clear that the president, especially during war-time, can intercept enemy communications, including if those communications involve U.S. citizens within the United States. It is absurd to argue otherwise.

And now, we're supposed to be offended when the government data-mines third-party phone records. This doesn't involve eavesdropping, but merely running these millions of phone numbers and tens of millions of phone contacts through some kind of computer analysis.

This has nothing to do with the Fourth Amendment. The case law couldn't be clearer. And those who demand judicial oversight do so not because they want or hope the courts will affirm these intelligence-gathering methods, but because they oppose them and hope some activist court will kill them.

I hesitate to voice this thought, but perhaps it really will take another attack on the scale of 9/11 before the idiot left wakes up to the facts that yes, there really is a war going on and yes, there really is an implacable enemy, and no, his name isn't George W. Bush.

As I've said before, I wouldn't mind if leftist antiwar idiots could only hurt themselves. It's when their idiocy endangers me, my loved ones and my society that I have a problem with them. Opposing perfectly legal and effective signals intelligence programs in wartime is not only absurd, it is appallingly selfish and irresponsible.

Idiots have no concept of patriotism, which is exactly what makes them so dangerous in wartime.

From the Brookings Institue via All Things Conservative comes more Bad News For Idiots:

Per Capita GDP (USD) for 2005 is forecast to increase from the previous year to $1,051. In 2002 it was $802.

Increases in GDP for the next five years: 16.8, 13.6, 12.5, 7.8, and 7.2.

Actionable tips from Iraqis have increased every month this year. In January, 4,025 tips were received; February, 4,235; and March, 4,578.

On an index of political freedom for countries in the Middle East, Iraq now ranks fourth, just below Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco.

Crude oil production reached 2.14 million barrels a day (MBD) in April of this year. It had dropped to 0.3 MBD in May of 2003.

Revenues from oil export have only slightly increased from pre-war levels of $0.2 billion, to $0.62 billion in April.

Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003, production was only 500 megawatts. The goal is to reach 6,000 megawatts.

The unemployment rate in June of 2003 was 50-60%, and in April of this year it had dropped to 25-40%.

The number of U.S. military wounded has declined significantly from a high of 1,397 in November 2004 to 430 in April of this year.

Iraqi military casualties were 201 in April of 2006, after peaking at 304 in July of 2005.

As of December 2005, countries other than the U.S., plus the World Bank and IMF, have pledged almost $14 billion in reconstruction aid to Iraq.

Significant progress has also been made towards the rule of law. In May 2003 there were no trained judges, but as of October 2005 there were 351.

As of January 2006, 64% of Iraqis polled said that the country was headed in the right direction.

Also as of January 2006, 77% said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.

In May of 2003, Iraqi Security Forces were estimated at between 7,000-9,000. They numbered 250,500 in March of this year.

The breakdown of foreign terrorists by country of origin is interesting. The largest number come from Algeria, at 20%. The next two countries are Syria and Yemen, at 18% and 17%, respectively.

The number of foreign terrorists fighting in Iraq was estimated at between 300 and 500 in January 2004. That number increased in April of this year, to between 700 and 2,000.
From May 2003 and April 2006, between 1,000 and 3,000 anti-Iraqi forces have been killed each month.

The letter from Iran's president Ahmadinejad to President Bush is a face-rub, a raw provocation intended by the mullahs to impress home Iranians by tweaking Bush's nose. I hope the Iranians continue with that tactic.

NRO's Clifford May:

Two points:
1) He’s picked up this meme from the left: "Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied to."
2) In case you don’t yet understand that he hates us for what we believe: "Liberalism and Western-style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems."

I have no interest in having to read "The Rise And Fall Of The Islamist Reich." The U.S. is going to have to deal with Ahmadinejad because he is daring her in the face of the world and the U.N. is useless. The Iranians know this; I wonder why they so want to provoke American wrath.

SeeDubya at JYB:

That’s it, then: Submission to monotheism versus tolerance, liberal values, and everything America ought to stand for. Go grab a leftist, slap him, and show him this letter.

Done.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Iraq's successful formation of a new cabinet.

Hugh Hewitt observes:

Celebrations to follow in the MSM? A democratically-elected, multi-ethnic, multi-sect unity government in place and in power where three years and three months ago there was a brutal dicatator with malignant ambitions and crazy sons, supported by a corrupt U.N. program --progress or not?

MORE ON WILSON/LIBBY [Byron York]
This afternoon CNN reported the news, published earlier in The Corner, that Lewis Libby's defense lawyers say they will produce five witnesses who will testify under oath that former ambassador Joseph Wilson told them that his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, worked for the CIA, a job status that, allegedly, was classified. CNN also reported a response from Joseph Wilson:

BLITZER: And John, producer, Stephanie Katube (sp), just got a statement from Ambassador Joe Wilson. Let me read it to you and to our viewers. "The last I heard," Wilson says, "this is case is about allegations Mr. Libby lied, perjured himself before the FBI, special prosecutor and grand jury and obstructed justice. None of those charges of which he's been indicted has anything to do with me."

Wilson goes on to say, "Furthermore, the government in the person of the special prosecutor in his court filings has made it clear it believes several White House officials were engaged in a campaign to, quote, `discredit, punish and seek revenge' on me. It would appear that campaign is ongoing."

What seems notable about Wilson's statement, if CNN read it in full, is that it does not address the issue of whether or not he told people that his wife worked for the CIA.
Posted at 6:58 PM

Ace On the Exquisite Decadence of Self-Loathing:

When someone's trying to kill you, you don't have the luxury of exploring whether or not your would-be killer feels justified in his efforts at murder, or has legitimate grievances against the US or Israel, or whether there are "root causes" which mitigate his evil. You either defend yourself or die.

If I am a "chickenhawk" because I am not physically fighting in Iraq, in a war I support, what is someone against the war who does not go to Iraq to fight against the Coalition?

Moussaoui should have faced a military tribunal and been given the death penalty, but then Jamie Gorelick's Wall shouldn't have prevented the FBI from catching him in time. Life in prison 24/7/365/6 lifetimes doesn't do it for me. And sorry, being portrayed as an abuse victim doesn't excuse conspiring to murder en masse. There are no mitigating factors for Islamofascist animals.

Chickenhawk Alert: Warren Bell has a letter to the left: Dear Soft Thinkers

Thomas Joscelyn on The Media's New Favorite Moonbat, Ray McGovern. And McGovern's friend Larry Johnson is a howler, too. Gateway Pundit has lots that will make babies clap and adults cringe.

More from Thomas Joscelyn:
Joe Wilson's 60 Minutes
Another media outlet falls to the Plame storyline without so much as a whimper.

[I]f Wilson and his wife were so concerned about her cover, and possibly the cover of other agents, being blown, then why did he publish an editorial in the New York Times discussing a classified intelligence-gathering mission he went on? Why did he then go on to make many media appearances peddling his own fictional version of his mission? Did Wilson think that foreign intelligence services would not do a little background work on him, his family, and all of their ostensible connections? Ed Bradley was not interested in answering any of these questions.

That's why Ed Bradley works for CBS.

Goss Out, General Hayden In? Kosturbators rev it up.

Mark Levin: Another drunken Kennedy, or another Rush?

Power Line: How Italian communists collaborated with Iranians to murder Italian troops in Nassiryah in A Sick Story. As usual, Gateway Pundit has more. Despicable, the left's stock in trade. No conscience, no shame.

Crown Publishing To Further Out Liar Plame.

More down the road.

American Future's Marc Shulman introduces us to a voice of honor calling from Islam in Meet A Moderate Muslim,

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a senior journalist, columnist, author and editor of Blitz, Bangladesh's largest tabloid weekly newspaper. He was arrested on November 29, 2003, when he was about to leave for Israel to attend a symposium organized by the Hebrew Writers Association. Subsequently, the Bangladesh government brought sedition charges against him, saying he was a spy for Israeli intelligence agency. He was released from prison on April 30, 2005. While no longer incarcerated, the sedition charge still hangs over him, despite appeals from the international community, including members of the US Congress. Choudhury received PENUSA's Freedom to Write Award in 2005. This month, he will be given the Moral Courage Award by the American Jewish Committee.

The following are excerpts from his "Saying No to Jihad":

According to the allegations, my crime is: I am a living contradiction to today's phenomenon in the Muslim world, a Zionist, a defender of Israel and a devout, practicing Muslim living in the second largest Muslim country in the world.

[ . . . ]

Fundamentalists are men who emulate the looks and actions of the Prophet Mohammed. Yet, they give the Prophet and Islam a very bad name, as they perpetuate and even add to the western perception that Islam was won by force or the sword. By this I mean by the sword and not by conversion. Yet these self-righteous and arrogant men claim to be speaking in the name of Allah and act like the Prophet.

They try to squash any positive action of peace by not only squashing but trying to kill all those who oppose them, making their vision that of a totalitarian theocracy that will allow no free exchange of ideas, the development of thinking such as ijtihad or even speech. The golden age of Islam was built on this ebullition of ideas that made it prosper and which gave so much to the world, such as algebra, alchemy; they even kept and preserved philosophy. Under such forces it will lead the Islamic world into the Dark ages which were similar to the European Dark Ages and the Middle Ages instead of the Renaissance and the other periods where discovery, science and even technology was invented.

[ . . . ]

Like most Muslims, I've been victimized by a socially supported information flow; one that taught me to look the other way when facts seem to contradict the politically-mandated and politically-correct weltanschauung that we are supposed to adopt. I was taught that much of the world is in essence my enemy, and that Israel and the Jewish people are the embodiment of evil. And I was taught to distrust—even though we all admired—Americans.

And that is the case because the enemies of freedom have wormed their way into most social institutions in the Muslim world—the press, the media, governments, and schools. I have seen this in my own nation—a nation of good people, who seek nothing other than the things all of us want in life. These enemies of freedom seek to control my people by controlling our access to information and our contact with those who offer a different point of view.

[ . . . ]

I salute those brave Muslim brothers and sisters who have the courage
to say: "No!" to hate; "No!" to Holocaust-denial; "No!" to jihad; "No!" to the demonization of Israel, the United States, and the Jews [emphasis in the original].

Joseph Campbell described the monomythical Hero's Journey thus:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boon on his fellow man.

That is exactly the road Mr. Choudhury is taking, and it's a damned rough one, but I expect he will find his power. That's a booming voice.

NewsMax reports via Able Danger Blog that Clinton National Security players are going after Curt Weldon, whose work exposing the Able Danger fiasco apparently sticks in their craw:

Clinton NSC Team Targets Weldon
From News Max:

High-ranking members of Bill Clinton's national security team have joined together to defeat Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon's House re-election bid this November - in what looks like retaliation for Weldon's efforts in exposing the Clinton administration's Able Danger scandal.

In June 2005, Weldon went public with news that Clinton administration lawyers prevented the Defense Intelligence Agency's Able Danger group from blowing the whistle on two al-Qaida terrorists who would later pilot the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center.

Though the media downplayed Weldon's bombshell, a number of high ranking Clinton officials apparently haven't forgotten - and they're pouring money into the campaign of Weldon's opponent, Joe Sestak.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has given $500 to Sestak.

Disgraced former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger has given Weldon's opponent $1,000.

Disgraced ex-Clinton CIA director John Deutch gave $500.

Former Clinton Navy secretary John Dalton ponied up $500 to defeat Weldon.

Former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta - $300.

Berger's predecessor as national security adviser, Anthony Lake - $500.

Even Hillary Clinton has gotten into the act, contributing $2,500 to defeat Curt Weldon.

Actually, they forgot one more Clintonista:

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon called yesterday for Democratic opponent Joe Sestak to return $350 in campaign contributions from Mary O. McCarthy, the CIA investigator fired last week for allegedly leaking classified information to the news media.

Sestak's spokeswoman noted, in reply, that the CIA employee had not been charged with any crime and said she saw no reason for the money to be returned "at this time."

McCarthy, who worked at the National Security Council when Sestak worked there in the 1990s, donated $100 to Sestak on March 1 and $250 on March 11, according to a campaign finance report the Seventh Congressional District candidate filed with the Federal Election Commission. (Emphasis mine)

There are two basic elements in the Dems' campaign of treason: a) do anything and everything to undermine the Bush administration and the War on Terror and b) expunge the record of their malfeasance, ineptitude and treason (including stealing and destroying classified documents from the National Archives and planting moles in the CIA Inspector General's Office). The campaign against Weldon is in service to the latter.

I believe I finally understand why an anonymous commenter here is having such a hard time understanding that Joe Wilson lied about being sent to Niger "at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney"; she must read Juan Cole who, as Christopher Hitchens explains, has problems comprehending unequivocal statements.

Cole is unable to accept that Iranian whacko-from-hell Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel; perhaps he hasn't yet found that particularly parsed phrasing of "Death to Israel" that he is searching for to the exclusion of all else in the known universe. Faithful as he is to intellectual honesty, Hitchens resorts to those two old left-wing bugbears, logic and reason, to help Cole overcome his dimness on the matter:

One might have thought that, if the map-wiping charge were to have been inaccurate or unfair, Ahmadinejad would have denied it. But he presumably knew what he had said and had meant to say. In any case, he has an apologist to do what he does not choose to do for himself. But this apologist, who affects such expertise in Persian, cannot decipher the plain meaning of a celebrated statement and is, furthermore, in need of a remedial course in English.

Which pretty much describes the character flaws that would lead one to apologize for notorious liar Joe Wilson.

NRO publishes photos from FARS News Agency of yesterday's demonstrations. Not in L.A., silly-- in Iran.

Fast on the heels of Stephen Hayes' Weekly Standard article exposing details of the McCarthy-CIA-Clintonista cabal comes Thomas Joscelyn's article of the same name, The New McCarthyism.

While Hayes examines the media's omissions in their depiction of a harmless, non-partisan McCarthy, Joscelyn sets his sights on the truth behind the leaker's so-called "independent streak" and the intelligence surrounding the al-Shifa plant. It will be no surprise to adults that Clinton-era intelligence found ample co-operation between al Qaeda and Iraq.

THE MEDIA has been quick to lionize Mary McCarthy, the recently fired 61-year-old CIA analyst who allegedly leaked classified information to the Washington Post's Dana Priest. According to several recent accounts, it is not clear what information McCarthy was accused of leaking. But on Sunday, the New York Times ran a tribute to McCarthy. In it we learn from a gaggle of former intelligence officials that McCarthy is a woman of "great integrity," and "quite a good, substantive person." Larry Johnson, the former CIA analyst who told us not to worry about the threat of terrorism two years before 9/11, even tells us that she is a "sacrificial lamb."

Adulation from fellow colleagues aside, the lynchpin of the Times piece is that McCarthy has an "independent streak." She is no partisan, the Times wants you to know, and she has questioned the use of intelligence by both Democratic and Republican administrations. To demonstrate this independence, the Times piece leads with the claim that McCarthy bucked the Clinton administration in August 1998 when she objected to the destruction of a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant suspected of doubling as a front for al Qaeda's WMD efforts. The plant, named Al-Shifa, was one of two retaliatory targets chosen by the Clinton administration in the aftermath of the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

But in recounting the story of al-Shifa and Mary McCarthy's role in evaluating the intelligence surrounding the facility, the Times leaves out nearly every salient fact--including evidence that the Clinton administration used to tie Saddam's Iraq to al Qaeda.

And including the fact that McCarthy, whom the Times correctly but narrowly described as uncertain about striking the al-Shifa plant, soon joined in her colleagues' assessment and that "every top Clinton administration official who was involved in the decision to strike al -Shifa stands by that decision today."

Joscelyn's conclusions should surprise no-one with a brain. Read it all.

Power Line's Scott Johnson had this to say about the anti-Bush insurrection now being exposed by the McCarthy revelations:

The only war the Democrats really have their heart in is the war to undermine the Bush administration. Any incidental damage done to the national interest in furtherance of that war appears in their eyes to be for the greater good.

The same gang that claims to deplore collateral damage when it comes to fighting the enemy out there is wholly unconcerned about the damage they are doing right at home in executing their war against President Bush. They care nothing for the fact that in pursuing the man, they are doing great harm to the Office and to the nation.

It's just one more way the left is destroying your freedoms for your own good.

Stephen F. Hayes on what the media aren't telling the public about Mary McCarthy and her insurrectionist pals.

The CIA did not name her, but several news organizations reported that the [fired] official was Mary McCarthy, whose most recent position at the Agency was in the office of the inspector general. Two days later, when McCarthy denied disclosing classified information to reporters, she asked a former colleague, Rand Beers, to make the statement on her behalf.

It was an interesting choice. McCarthy had worked for Beers on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. They had apparently remained close, even after Beers quit his position in the new administration and became a leading critic of the counterterrorism policies of George W. Bush. Or perhaps the two had remained close because Beers quit his position to criticize the Bush administration.

Beers was the senior foreign policy adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004. In March 2004, Mary McCarthy contributed the maximum amount allowed under campaign finance laws--$2,000--to the Kerry campaign. She increased her giving as the competitive campaign drew to a close. On October 5, 2004, she gave another $5,000 to the Democratic party in Ohio, a state that many observers believed (correctly, it turned out) would decide the election. And on October 29, 2004, McCarthy gave an additional $500 to the Democratic National Committee Service Corps. Federal records show that Michael McCarthy, of the same home address, gave an additional $2,000 to the Kerry campaign and $500 to Barbara Mikulski, a Democratic senator from Maryland. In all, the McCarthy household contributed some $10,000 to Democrats during the last election cycle.

The New York Times reported McCarthy's $2,000 contribution to the Kerry campaign (but not the others), and articles sympathetic to McCarthy by the Associated Press and Newsweek at least made mention of Beers's association with the Kerry campaign. But virtually none of the other press found the facts in the preceding paragraph worth reporting.

Read it all.

And Thomas Joscelyn points out this:
Yes, She Did Leak...
From The New York Times:

A C.I.A. spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, said: "The officer was terminated for precisely the reasons we have given: unauthorized contacts with reporters and sharing classified information with reporters. There is no question whatsoever that the officer did both. The officer personally admitted doing both."

The CIA's spokeswoman says that McCarthy "personally admitted" that she had "unauthorized contacts with reporters" and shared "classified information" with them.

This flies in the face of what Ms. McCarthy's surrogates are telling their contacts in the press.

Dammit. God Dammit To Hell. But a Marine watches over her.