Nice Deb Anti-War Protest Kansas City Style

Deb went out, camera in hand, and caught a few snaps of the moonbats protesting at President Bush's visit to the VFW:

In the good old days of the innerwebs, we had the Hitler Rule in online debates:  

If either party compares the other to Hitler or the Nazis, then the party making the comparison is automagically declared the loser and is banned.

Guantanamo = Auschwitz?  

Al Qaeda is the one who bakes people in ovens.

See the rest of Deb's collection here.

"OFF with their Head...lines.

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Clickie the thumbnail for the full size image.

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I wonder how long that headline / image combo lasts...

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

UPDATE: All of 15 minutes after Ace's post.

Screen caps are forever, baby.

Mudville Gazette's Dawn Patrol

Mudville Gazette's Daily Roundup of the Right Side of the Blogosphere.

This is a great feature hosted by the mother (and father) of all milblogs, Mudville Gazette.

Hoo ah.

IRAQ'S RE-LIBERATION | By RALPH PETERS

Must Read Op/Ed in the New York Post

The general recognizes that political progress at the top in Iraq may lag as an indicator, but local initiatives look like the key to national success. He believes that, in this case, the politicians will eventually follow the people - who genuinely want better lives, not more bickering and butchery.

What will be the test of a worthy Iraqi government to Gen. Petraeus? "A government representative of and responsive to the people . . . at all levels."

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I have written on this topic before.

Here.

And here.

And again, here.

This message resonates. It should be abundantly clear: This is the story that needs to be told next month when Congress gets its report on progress in Iraq. It needs to be told not because it sounds good. It needs to be told not because it deflects attention from a miserable failure in the "top-down" model of political reconciliation in Iraq. It needs to be told because this story is the truth.

Democratic central governments function when they reflect the will and consent of the governed. They cannot give that consent when they cower in fear of terrorists and militias, nor can they give their consent when their tribe wages war against the neighboring tribe or the other sect. Peace will beget reconciliation, not the other way around.

What's That Scent?

Blowback.


mmmm, What a sweet aroma it is.

Last year, following the bombing of the al-Askirya Mosque in Samarra and the wave of sectarian bloodshed that followed, it became hip to be anti-war. The left hitched their wagon to that mule and rode it right into razor thin majorities in the House and Senate. Upon taking office, the first words out of their mouths were: "This war is lost."

With party leadership buttoned securely in the pocket of the moonbat bloggers, Democrats mounted a furiously futile assault on President Bush's Iraq policy, scheduling vote after useless vote on non-binding resolutions and unconstitutional appropriations bills. Centrist Democrats, not eager to anger the voters that the left duped into electing them, kinda sorta went along. President Bush held his ground, gleefully vetoed the unconstitutional incarnation of H.R. 2206, and forced the Democrats to cave.

Undaunted by their defeat, Democrats vowed to return in the fall with a renewed vigor to force troop withdrawals and ultimately end the conflict in Iraq as a defeat they could hang on Bush. That defeat, as their grand scheme called for, would then be used to consolidate gains in Congress and sweep a Democrat into the White House in 2008.

But a funny thing happened on the way to that defeat. The Armed Forces of the United States maintained a momentum in Iraq and made undeniably good progress in the security situation in Iraq. More importantly, the heightened security in Baghdad and other major population centers began ushering in another key process: Political reconciliation between the basic units of Arab culture and society: The Tribe.

About three weeks from now, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will testify before Congress, providing answers and comments on their input to the much anticipated progress report due from the administration. Democrats, especially centrist Democrats in swing districts and swing states, are petrified. The administration's report will show progress. The story of that progress will go in one moonbat ear and right out of the other. The hardline liberals don't care what the report says and won't be affected by anything short of a Sunni-Shi'a-Kurd Peace Treaty and the end of all hostilities. But the centrists, the ones with conservative voters watching carefully from home, do care.

The report threatens to rip party unity right down an ideological line, in what Penn State University's Matthew Woessner called a "Nightmare Scenario" for Democrats. "A nightmare scenario for any party is when the pressure, the sum total of the pressures from their constituency groups, are out of step with mainstream America. That's a prescription for electoral disaster," Woessner told Reuters in an interview yesterday. "The explosion of the success of the left-wing blogosphere has placed the Democrats under even more pressure from their left," he continued.

"The Democrats can't control the House and the Senate unless they elect centrists. And they can't elect their centrists by having a totally liberal agenda."

Ahh, blowback. There's that scent again.

The Real Lesson From The Beachamp Affair

For former President Richard Nixon, it was not the Watergate break-in that toppled his Presidency. It was the web of lies, secrecy and deceit that followed. Nixon learned the hard way that it's not the crime; it's the coverup that counts.

For former President Bill Clinton, it was not the blue dress or the act that stained it. It was the perjury, the wagon-circling and subornation of perjury that led to his historic impeachment trial and forever soiled his legacy. Mr. Clinton learned a lesson that his mother should have taught him by age 4: If you've done something wrong, fess up to it and take your medicine. If you lie about it and get caught, you'll get a dose you'll not soon forget. The mythical "father, I cannot tell a lie" anecdote about George Washington and the Cherry Tree sends a message that rings true whether the incident took place or not: Tell the truth about your missteps and you will be forgiven. Catholics, through the Sacrament of Confession, are allowed opportunities to confess their sins, do Penance and receive Absolution. Our society's fabric is woven with the thread of truth because the ability to trust and believe one another is so important to the social contract.

Journalists enjoy no immunity to the terms of that contract. We expect journalists to tell us the truth when reporting straight news stories, acknowledge bias in opinion pieces, correct errors when they are discovered and rid themselves of those whose only intent is to deceive. Hence the storm of criticism of The New Republic over the alleged "Baghdad Diarist" stories, written by PVT Scott Beachamp. As soon as the factual basis for the anecdotes disintegrated, TNR should have printed a retraction and ceased any further relationships with PVT Beauchamp.

Instead, TNR Editor Franklin Foer donned the ideological blinders and circled the wagons. As The Weekly Standard, Confederate Yankee, Ace of Spades HQ and Little Green Footballs peeled away the last husks of credibility from the anecdotes, it became clear to all but the staunchest defenders of TNR that a serious fraud had been perpetrated against the publication.

Thirty-three years ago this month, Senator Barry Goldwater led a group of courageous GOP lawmakers to a meeting at the White House. There, Senator Goldwater famously informed Nixon that the votes to convict were there and that he must either resign or be forced from office.

While the Beauchamp affair is in no fashion as earthshaking as the resignation of the President of the United States, one has to ponder the gravity of a news media that has become more interested in protecting its image than it is in finding the truth. Very recently, scandals associated with faulty reporting and outright deceipt have been hung on The Associated Press and Agence France Presse. AP has published factually decrepit stories on civilian casualties and ammunition shortages. AFP has been caught three times in photographic journalism deceipt. As with the TNR "Baghdad Diarist" affair, it took extraordinary journalism on the part of the bloggers to root out the truth. While no single blogger can compete with an army of stringers, researchers, reporters and fact-checkers, the blogging community as a whole most certainly can.

It most certainly will, too. The mainstream media must be put on notice: We expect you to fess up and take your medicine when you've screwed up. Your sins will be forgiven, but only after an appropriate penance. If you lie to us though, and try to conceal your wrongdoing, and there will be HELL TO PAY.

Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR’s Reputation and Incredibly Fluctuating Membership Roll

Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR’s Reputation and Incredibly Fluctuating Membership Roll

Amazingly, CAIR cites a pair of Washington Times articles from June 11 and 13 of this year. CAIR bitterly denounced those articles when they were published.

This is a perfect example of Fitzgerald's contention that educating Infidels--as the two Times' articles did brilliantly--makes Muslims angry.

Fitzgerald: Work to educate Infidels

Jihad Watch: Fitzgerald: Work to educate Infidels

"I believe the only way is to expose the Muslims to different cultures, different thoughts, different belief systems," said Dr Sultan, who is completing her first book, The Escaped Prisoner: When Allah is a Monster. -- from this article

Here is one of those details: those who are in a position to do so must work first to educate Infidels, so that a sufficient number of them in positions of power clearly understand the texts, tenets, attitudes, atmospherics of Islam. They must also be brought to understand why it is that efforts at appeasement and "integration" of Muslims into societies whose basic principles are flatly contradicted by Islam will fail.

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I could not agree more. The west lives in a state of complete ignorance of Islam. In many cases, the ignorance is rivaled only by it stubbornness. It is up to western civilization to defend itself, and a successful defense against religious barbarism can only be mounted if we know who and what we are up against.

One thing the JihadWatch post does not touch on (but should have, IMO) is that ordinary Muslims are victims of zealotry and hatred. All of the Infidel suffering at the hands of Islamic violence notwithstanding, it must be accepted that Muslims have suffered even more. Most Muslims live in a state of abject poverty, and it's because of Islamic fundamentalism. Most Muslims live under repressive, Islamist regimes. Most Muslims live in fear of their Imams and governments because in Islam, religion and government are one and the same.

Everyone owes to to themselves to at least understand that every Muslim is called to Jihad. Every single one of them.

Question for the New York Times: Who Saw the War?

In the August 19 Editorial, The War as We Saw It, The New York Times publishes the viewpoints of seven soldiers from the 82nd Airborne. Their outlook is as grim as their apparent dedication to duty is strong.

However, I can't find this group of soldiers anywhere on the innernets. Maybe these guys really are soldiers with the 82nd and have elected to keep a low profile out here in cyberspace (unlike the Baghdad Fabulist, Scott Beauchamp). Maybe the NYT, anticipating that right-leaning bloggers might do a little fact-checking and investigate who these soldiers might be, warned the authors to get their heads down in advance of the inevitable scrutiny.

My weak google skills have turned up two matches to the names of the authors. The first is SGT Wesley D. Smith, who military.com says could be a 52 Bravo (Mechanic). The other is Edward Sandmeier, who turns up in old news reports (circa 2003) as a mortuary services specialist. Granted, career paths change and soldiers' original MOS are rarely the same they're discharged with.

It just seems odd to me that of the seven, none turn up as combat troops on military.com and only two actually google out to be soldiers at all.

Michael J. Totten: How to Spy in Iraq

Michael J. Totten: How to Spy in Iraq

This was typical of the Arab world, but also a bit odd. They think he’s a spy? What did they think we were doing there in their house? This was an intelligence gathering operation. It was, more or less, spying. The only difference is that the soldiers were up front about it, even though (and this is not contradictory) no one said anything about intelligence gathering yet. Nobody had to. Everyone knew what was up. The United States military has better things to do in Iraq than socialize just for the sake of socializing.

Read the full post here.

UPDATE: Foxnews.com has picked up Totten's story in its Iraq Journal. That segment has also featured Michael Yon. Give some props to Foxnews, y'all. They claim an "exclusive," and for MSM, their claim is accurate. You don't think you'd see this on the Dhimmi News Network, do ya?

Lancet's Boil

The American Spectator: Lancet's Boil


Michael Fumento writes about a paper from David Kane, a fellow at Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Kane is essentially a stats geek. What he's done is conducted a statistical analysis of the Lancet medical journal's 2004 study, which concluded that U.S. military operations caused at least 100,000 deaths in Iraq.

Kane's conclusion: Upon inclusion of data the Lancet ignored out of political convenience, the confidence limits associated with the estimate are so wide that the lower limit is negative (which means there is a small chance that the invasion saved lives or... resurrected dead Iraqis).

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

And geeks who get it right.

Confederate Yankee Nails Associated Press

Misfire: AP's Bogus Ammo Shortage Story

Absolute MUST READ STORY. Confederate Yankee takes the AP apart over a very badly researched piece explaining how combat operations and training associated with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in a stateside shortage of ammunition.

"According to two spokesmen for the world's largest ammunition manufacturer, which runs the military's ammunition manufacturing plant and separately, is a major supplier of law enforcement ammunition, it is a massive and unexpected increase in law enforcement ammunition demand that is causing delays in law enforcement ammunition delays, not the war.

Go read this.

Counterterrorism Blog: An Unexpected Guest

Counterterrorism Blog: An Unexpected Guest

An Unexpected Guest
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

A visitor stopped by the Gaza office of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) in December 1999. It was Dallas Morning News reporter Steve McGonigle, who was reporting about alleged links between the Richardson, Tex.-based charity and Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government four years earlier.

McGonigle testified about that trip on Monday in the material support trial of the HLF and five of its officials. HLF officials did not know he was coming to Gaza, McGonigle said, and telephone calls between HLF officials in Gaza and Texas that prosecutors played seem to confirm that. McGonigle didn’t realize it, but his unannounced visit created a bit of a stir.

McGonigle wanted to meet families helped by HLF charities. The men on the phone calls, including HLF Chief Executive Shukri Abu Bakr, agreed not to take him to families of prisoners or martyrs.

McGonigle had already interviewed two Hamas founders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Mahmud al-Zahar, who told McGonigle they knew nothing about HLF. “I was skeptical of what [Yassin] was telling me,” he testified.

Earlier, an outburst from defendant Ghassan Elashi triggered a warning from U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish. Elashi began yelling loudly just after the court recessed for a morning break.

Read the full post here.

Pay close attention to this trial.

MNF-Iraq - Coalition forces kill three, detain others in raids on al-Qaeda in Iraq

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Coalition forces kill three, detain others in raids on al-Qaeda in Iraq


BAGHDAD — Coalition forces here over the past two days killed three terrorists and detained 28 suspects while putting pressure on terrorists facilitating the movement of al-Qaeda senior leaders.

South of Bayji, local Iraqis alerted ground forces to several suspected terrorists tied to the individual targeted in a Coalition operation. The ground forces captured the targeted individual and detained five more suspects believed to work for a local al-Qaeda leader. Coalition forces also found a cache of weapons and military-style assault vests with the suspects.

"We're on the offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq and the foreign terrorists that help them," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman. "We will continue to hunt down terrorist leaders and those who take part in the planning and execution of their vicious attacks against innocent Iraqis."

In a pre-dawn raid north of Baghdad, Coalition forces captured a weapons distributor and “special groups” leader responsible for the storage and distribution of Iranian weapons. The suspected weapons facilitator has traveled to and from Iran numerous times and is responsible for smuggling and distributing explosively-formed penetrators to groups operating throughout the Baghdad area, U.S. officials said. He is also believed to have had ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force.

"Coalition troops continue to kill and capture terrorists who bring Iranian weapons, especially EFPs, into Iraq," said Garver. "We will continue to pursue these networks that provide these weapons to those who intend to kill Coalition forces, Iraqi Security Forces and innocent Iraqis."

OneWorld: IVAW to Promote Mutiny

OneWorld: IVAW to Promote Mutiny

One of the great luxuries we have in the United States is the liberty to disagree with our government and speak openly about our grievances.   Promoting mutiny is not within the moral or ethical boundaries of that liberty, regardless of how strongly you feel about a particular policy or government activity with which you disagree.

If we are to survive as a free society, we must adhere to the rule of law. Mutiny is the complete rejection of the rule of law and the defiance of lawful authority.

I am thankful for the service of the members of IVAW. I am ashamed that former servicemen and women would encourage such behavior.

This is moonbattiness at its ugliest.

Warning to West on 'evil of Islam' | The Australian

Warning to West on 'evil of Islam' | The Australian

THE West was still underestimating the evil of Islam, an influential Muslim thinker has warned, insisting that Australia and the US have been duped into believing there is a difference between the religion's moderate and radical interpretations.

On a two-week "under the radar" visit to Australia, Syrian-born Wafa Sultan secretly met both sides of federal politics and Jewish community leaders, warning them that all Muslims needed to be closely monitored in the West.

In an interview with The Australian, Dr Sultan -- who shot to recognition last year following an interview on al-Jazeera television in which she attacked Islam and the prophet Mohammed -- said Muslims were "brainwashed" from an early age to believe Western values were evil and that the world would one day come under the control of Sharia law.

The US-based psychiatrist -- who has two fatwas (religious rulings) issued against her to be killed -- warned that Muslims would continue to exploit freedom of speech in the West to spread their "hate" and attack their adopted countries, until the Western mind grasped the magnitude of the Islamic threat.

"You're fighting someone who is willing to die," Dr Sultan told The Australian in an Arabic and English interview. "So you have to understand this mentality and find ways to face it. (As a Muslim) your mission on this earth is to fight for Islam and to kill or to be killed. You're here for only a short life and once you kill a kafir, or a non-believer, soon you're going to be united with your God."

Dr Sultan, who was brought to Australia by a group called Multi-Net comprised of Jews and Christians, met senior politicians, including Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard.

Private security was hired for Dr Sultan, who left Australia yesterday, and state police authorities were also made aware of her movements in the country.

The organisers of her visit asked the media to not publish anything about her stay until she had left the country because of security-related concerns. Dr Sultan said Islam was a "political ideology" that was wrongly perceived to have a moderate and hardline following.

"That's why the West has to monitor the majority of Muslims because you don't know when they're ready to be activated. Because they share the same basic belief, that's the problem," said the 50-year-old, who was last year featured in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Dr Sultan, who was raised on Alawite Islamic beliefs before she renounced her religion, began to question Islam after she witnessed her university teacher get gunned down by Muslim hardliners in Syria in 1979.

The mother of three, who migrated to the US in 1989, said the West needed to hold Muslims and their leaders more accountable for the atrocities performed in the name of Islam if they wanted to win the war on terror.

But while she considered the prophet Mohammed "evil" and said the Koran needed to be destroyed because it advocated violence against non-believers, Dr Sultan struggled to articulate her vision for Muslims, whom she said she was trying to liberate from the shackles of their beliefs.

"I believe the only way is to expose the Muslims to different cultures, different thoughts, different belief systems," said Dr Sultan, who is completing her first book, The Escaped Prisoner: When Allah is a Monster.

"Muslims have been hostages of their own belief systems for 1400 years. There is no way we can keep the Koran."

Pakistan frees Alleged Al-Qaeda Computer Expert

International Herald Tribune

Five gets you eight he holds a press conference and accuses the CIA of torturing him.

Naeem Noor Khan provided intel that led authorities to a Tanzanian who was believed to be one of the conspirators involved in the 1998 African Embassy Bombings. Khan was accused of providing computer and technical support to Al Qaeda, sending encoded emails to operatives believed to be planning attacks in the United States, Britain and Africa.

Twelve days after his arrest, Pakistani authorities pounced in the city of Gujrat on Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted for a alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

PEJ Study: Media Coverage of Iraq Drops Off

Another major change in the period from April through June of 2007 was that press coverage of the war in Iraq declined markedly. Together the three major storylines of the war—the policy debate, events on the ground, and the impact on the U.S. homefront—filled 15% of the total newshole in the quarter, a drop of roughly a third from the first three months of the year, when it filled 22%.

That decrease resulted largely from a decline in coverage of the Washington-based policy debate, which fell 42% from the first to second quarter, once the Democrats failed to impose timetables in legislation funding of the war.

Campaign for President Takes Center Stage in Coverage: Quarterly Report on the News | Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ)

Well, isn't that something. Since we didn't win the debate, we are taking our ball and going home. The Global War on Terror is the defining foreign policy event of our time. The 2008 Presidential Election is more than 14 months away, and our guys are in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Phillipines and the Horn of Africa, combatting terrorism. But since liberals lost the debate over Iraq policy, the media has decided to shift its focus to the Presidential Election, which is what the whole debate over Iraq was all about, anyway--getting a Democrat in the White House.

Do the mass media even know how they are being used by both the Jihadists and their allies in Washington? No one is that dense on purpose, are they?

The War as We Saw It - New York Times Op/Ed

The War as We Saw It - New York Times Op/Ed

By BUDDHIKA JAYAMAHA, WESLEY D. SMITH, JEREMY ROEBUCK, OMAR MORA, EDWARD SANDMEIER, YANCE T. GRAY and JEREMY A. MURPHY
Published: August 19, 2007

VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)

Read the full item.

Blackfive's GRIM takes on the task of addressing the main thrust of the soldiers' views, and does it like a brother is supposed to: Reasonable gentlemen can disagree.

My view is that rightly see that political reform cannot come before peace, but seem to miss how new Army Doctrine (Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency) is being applied in Iraq. While I hold these gentlemen in the highest regard for their service, I get a very strong sense that they either have not fully digested General Petraeus' approach to this conflict, or that they disagree with it.

It is worth noting that not everyone in the Army thinks it should be engaged in conducting a major COIN. At least not with combat brigades lacking the extensive training necessary to conduct the operation as described in Army doctrine.

I would contrast the viewpoints of these soldiers with that of LTC Fred Johnson, who Michael Yon has interviewed during his embed in Iraq. Johnson seems to embody the type of soldier Petraeus had in mind as FM 3-24 took shape. The gentlemen writing in the New York Times don't seem to be.

Al Qaeda's Travel Agent, by Joe Lieberman

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq--but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus.

Thanks to Gen. David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, and the strength and skill of the American soldiers fighting there, al Qaeda in Iraq is now being routed from its former strongholds in Anbar and Diyala provinces. Many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, meanwhile, are uniting with us against al Qaeda, alienated by the barbarism and brutality of their erstwhile allies.

As Gen. Petraeus recently said of al Qaeda in Iraq: "We have them off plan."

But defeating al Qaeda in Iraq requires not only that we continue pressing the offensive against its leadership and infrastructure inside the country. We must also aggressively target its links to "global" al Qaeda and close off the routes its foreign fighters are using to get into Iraq.

Recently declassified American intelligence reveals just how much al Qaeda in Iraq is dependent for its survival on the support it receives from the broader, global al Qaeda network, and how most of that support flows into Iraq through one country--Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq is sustained by a transnational network of facilitators and human smugglers, who replenish its supply of suicide bombers--approximately 60 to 80 Islamist extremists, recruited every month from across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and sent to meet their al Qaeda handlers in Syria, from where they are taken to Iraq to blow themselves up to kill countless others.

Pajamas Media: How The New Republic Got Suckered

Pajamas Media: How The New Republic Got Suckered

When Pajamas Media heard the authenticity questions surrounding the “Baghdad Diarist” articles by Scott Thomas Beauchamp in The New Republic, we asked our Washington Editor Richard Miniter to look into how the respected opinion magazine could once again be the locus of such a scandal.

Miniter spoke with several people involved in the extraordinary story, including the whistle-blower and a German woman who was Beauchamp’s fiancée until just before he married, of all people, Miniter discovered, a fact-checker at The New Republic. That fiancée said of her former boyfriend, the soldier/reporter: “He hates the army. The only reason he joined was because he wanted to have more experience to write about.”

Pajamas Media says they welcome a response from The New Republic. I won't be holding my breath.

Hillary Clinton in Penis Scandal

Hillary Clinton in Penis Scandal:

A storm has broken over the campaign of Hillary Clinton for US President when it emerged last night that Mrs. Clinton does not have a penis. A college friend who is now working for the Republican Party revealed the shocking news.

"A group of us were on a hiking trip back in ‘68 and we were up in the hills chatting " explained Kurt Billingsworthski. "Hillary joked that it is OK for us guys to get ‘caught short’, we can stand behind a tree, but you know squatting in long grass isn’t fun if you're not sure what is in there."

Mr Billingsworthski had largely forgotten about the whole incident, until it became clear that Mrs Clinton was to run for election to President.

"Well I felt I just had to come forward and let the people know," he said. "President is such an important job. I know that this is 21st century America, so you know, we have to make sure all types of people get their chance. But this is such a major deformity for any man running for President."

Hillary Clinton has not commented on the matter, but the flames of controversy were further fanned upon news that Hillary was the parent of a child with a similar affliction. There has also been further speculation that Mrs Clinton may also have been born without testes.

"You see, this is it, you are either with penis or without. The American way of life will be threatened if we let people without a penis into a position of power," said Kurt. "All American Presidents have had a penis, just like all the people they represent. It is clear that the record of George W. Bush owes a lot to testes."

Supporters have argued that Mrs Clinton may in fact simply be a woman, a condition said to affect over half of US society. They add that rather than being ostracised people such as Hillary should be welcomed into the mainstream to add their diversity to the richness of American politics.

"That is the kind of unchristian, un-American talk that we are fighting everyday in this war on terror!" screamed Mr Billingsworthski. "These heathen people want to destroy our way of life – they want to ruin our Eden once more by giving a woman power. As a good Republican I know that, as sure as the earth is 6,000 years old, politics should only be conducted with a penis."

FOXNews.com: Hijacker Received Al Qaeda Training

FOXNews.com: Hijacker Received Al Qaeda Training

ANKARA, Turkey — One of the hijackers of a Turkish plane received training at an Al Qaeda camp and wanted to be flown to Iran so he could eventually join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Monday, citing police.

Authorities didn't say at which Al Qaeda camp 33-year-old hijacker Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, an Egyptian of Palestinian origin, received training.

Police said Talikh, along with Mehmet Resat Ozlu of Turkey, wielded a fake bomb and claimed Al Qaeda ties when hijacking the plane early Saturday after it took off from northern Cyprus. The pair held passengers and crew hostage for more than four hours before surrendering peacefully at the Turkish Mediterranean resort Antalya, where the plane had been diverted after taking off.

Dozens of Turks have joined Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or Iraq, police have said. Suicide bombers linked to Al Qaea hit Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people in attacks that targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank. In February, a court sentenced seven people to life in prison for the bombings.

The two hijackers had met in northern Cyprus a year ago and were living together at the same house for a month, police said. Ozlu was registered at the literature department of a university in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, Anatolia said.

Iran Equipped with High-Tech Missiles - IRGC Commander

And threatens to "punch" U.S. "harder..."

AND is reportedly shelling areas in northeastern Iraq.




Baztab News

A senior Iranian official says Iran is equipped with modern surface-to-surface and land-to-sea missiles to counter extraterritorial threat.

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is a major power in the Middle East," Major Gen. Yahya Rahim-Safavi, the Commander of the IRGC told the state Jam-e Jam TV network.

Safavi said Iran is equipped with the state-of-the-art military technology to safeguard the nation's interests.

"Of course we have changed our military doctrine and strategies after the US-led invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan," he said according to a report by Press TV on Friday.

IRGC is equipped with 2,000km range guided surface-to-surface Ballistic missiles and surface-to-air Tor-M1 anti-missile system, said the official.

Safavi said the Iranian surface-to-sea missiles can fire any target in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and that no boat or warship can evade the missiles.

Iran has trained some 12,000,000 volunteer (Basij) forces, organized in 2500 battalions known as 'Ashura'.

Safavi also praised IRGC's Ground Force capabilities, saying the Iranian anti-tank missiles can penetrate into the Israeli Merkava and US-made Abraham tanks.

“We believe in our military might and we are concerned with the establishment of peace and stability in the Middle East,” he said.

Meanwhile, today from the Kurdish region of northeastern Iraq comes this report:

Iraqi Kurdish officials expressed deepening concern yesterday at an upsurge in fierce clashes between Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian forces in the remote border area of north-east Iraq, where Tehran has recently deployed thousands of Revolutionary Guards.

Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdistan regional government, said four days of intermittent shelling by Iranian forces had hit mountain villages high up on the Iraqi side of the border, wounding two women, destroying livestock and property, and displacing about 1,000 people from their homes. Mr Yawer said there had also been intense fighting on the Iraqi border between Iranian forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an armed Iranian Kurdish group that is stepping up its campaign for Kurdish rights against the theocratic regime in Tehran.

On Saturday the Iranian news agency Mehr said an Iranian army helicopter which crashed killing six Republican Guard members had been engaged in a military operation against PJAK. Iranian officials said the helicopter had crashed into the side of a mountain during bad weather in northern Iraq. PJAK sources said the helicopter had been destroyed after it attempted to land in a clearing mined by guerrillas. The PJAK sources claimed its guerrillas had also killed at least five other Iranian soldiers, and a local pro-regime chief, Hussein Bapir.

This is not shrill rhetoric or idle sabre rattling anymore. I have to ask if Ahmadinejad and his merry band of mullahs like having signs on their backs that say "KICK THE SHIT OUT OF ME!"

‘Little Saddam’ hunt - Times Online

‘Little Saddam’ hunt - Times Online: "Interpol has issued a “wanted” notice for Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter, who is sought by the Iraqi government for aiding insurgents. Raghad Hussein, 38, who is known as Little Saddam, is accused by Baghdad of the mass killing of Iraqis by funding terrorist groups. Her mother Sadija has also been placed on the wanted list. Raghad has been living in Jordan under the protection of King Abdullah since the American invasion in 2003. Her mother lives in Qatar. Interpol’s “red notice” requests foreign police forces to help find them and extradite them. If returned to Iraq, Raghad could face execution. The husbands of Raghad and her sister Rana were executed after they returned in 1996 from exile in Jordan, where they had fled with Iraqi military secrets."

Iranian agents training militias in Iraq: U.S. general

Iranian agents training militias in Iraq: U.S. general:

"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence reports indicate there are about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards training Shi'ite militias in how to use mortars and rockets in southern Iraq, a U.S. general said on Sunday."

"The enemy is ramping up indirect fire attacks. The enemy is more aggressive. The great concern is about the Iranian munitions he is using," Lynch told reporters in Baghdad.

"We have some members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. They are facilitating training of Shi'ite extremists. In my battle space ... we think there are about 50 members."

Fuck the denials from the "Tehran Bureau."

Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR's Legal Gambit (and another Graph)

Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR's Legal Gambit (and another Graph)

Another outstanding analysis from the Counterterrorism Blog. Aaron Mannes, from the University of Maryland, provides graphical information on the network of Hamas and its funding organizations. Insightful, keen, and a picture worth 1,000 words, +1.

UPDATE: Click the image below for the full resolution of Mannes' graph. For a patient explanation of what the graph shows, please follow the link above. Be patient, and follow the bouncing ball.

Outstanding work. Just outstanding.

The Thunder Run: Concerned Citizens: A Step Toward Self-Reliance

The Thunder Run: Concerned Citizens: A Step Toward Self-Reliance

A very nice post from someone reading the news from the same perspective of local reconciliation, without any prompting, prodding, arm twisting, bribery or cajolement from me.

Touring with Gen. Petraeus (The Fourth Rail)

Touring with Gen. Petraeus (The Fourth Rail)

Wes Morgan continues his day with Gen. Petraeus at Camp Taji, joint security stations near Husseiniyah and Tarmiyah, and his embassy offices.

Wes Morgan is a talented writer, currently embedded in Iraq at the invitation of General Petraeus. Bill Roggio publishes select dispatches from Wes from time to time at Fourth Rail.

Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Rank Propaganda From Donkey Island

Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Rank Propaganda From Donkey Island

I was working on a post about this, but Pat does it better than I ever could. "Vicious Battle?" Only if you're on the receiving end of the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment.

The Washington Post's credibility as a straight up news source comes under serious question when stories like this are taken serious enough to be published. Either they are out of touch, or they are just throwing off any further cloaks of objectivity with junk like this.

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Odierno highlights Iraqi operations

BAGHDAD — Iraqi and Coalition forces are pursuing extremist leaders in Iraq’s remote areas in coordinated “quick strikes” launched this week, the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq told Pentagon reporters Saturday.

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Odierno highlights Iraqi operations.

Has the Sunni Insurgency Been Defeated?

It may be too early for this question, but it begs to be asked nonetheless: Has the Sunni insurgency been defeated? The signs are preliminary but promising. Clearly, Al Qaeda in Iraq is no longer a serious threat to plunge Iraq into full scale civil war. They can still pull off the occasional spectacular car or truck bombing, but their ability to incite the sectarian bloodbath of 2006 has been greatly diminished by Operation Phantom Thunder and the turning of Sunni tribes against Al Qaeda.

In Balance of Terror, freelance journalist Michael Totten explains the delicate balance that is the relative peace of Baghdad today. He also describes the paradox of civilian dual alliances within the Shi'a community. Many civilians support Moqtada al-Sadr's and his Mahdi Army, which includes the violent Jaish al-Mahdi, the Shiite militia group blamed for much of that sect's insurgent and sectarian violence. But at the same time, they are openly friendly with coalition troops and Totten believes that if that friendliness were faked, someone would be shooting at Americans (and, they're not). Totten expresses some confusion over that. However, it bears noting that JAM militia groups were the ones who pledged to protect Shiite civilians from Sunni insurgent attacks and the horrors of Al Qaeda control. In the chaos of immediate post-Saddam Iraq, Shiite militias did what they said they would do. It makes sense for the Shi'a to bear some allegiance to those who fought for them. But as the Mahdi Army melted into the background for Operation Phantom Thunder, coalition troops stepped forward and took on the role of protector and guardian against Al Qaeda and Sunni militias. The same rule applies--the enemy of my enemy...

Coalition counterinsurgents are now seeing more attacks from JAM and Shiite insurgents. These dual allegiances may be sorely tested in the coming months. Iraqi Security forces, who are majority Shiite, may find themselves barrel to barrel with members of the Mahdi Army, a group many ISF and their families sympathize with. It seems, at least for now, that the counterinsurgency is about to make a turn, and the territory it is about to enter is fraught with risk.

Nouri al-Maliki is a Shiite, and has been accused of sectarian bias by his critics. He is backed by by Grand Ayatolla Ali al-Sistani, who himself has close ties to Iran. Maliki also enjoys at least tolerance by Moqtada al-Sadr. As the counterinsurgency shifts more to dealing with Shiite militias, the political friction is certain to heat things up.

Totten learns that the coalition believes al-Sadr can be "flipped." They are, at least for now, holding out for that possibility. While al-Sistani holds a deeply religious connection to Tehran, al-Sadr's connections are about money and power. He's the Shiite political equivalent of a mafia don. Alliances are not personal; they're just business.

All of this must also be seen in the context of "all politics is local." Tribal and family ties are the fabric of Arabic culture. Contrary to the belief of many westerners, those ties can transcend religion. They are al-something first, and al-something last, whether they be Sunni, Shia or Iraqi in between.

"Flipping" al-Sadr could be as easy as showing his followers that we have their interests in mind as liberators. It could be as difficult as undermining his support by neutralizing his militias and simply outdoing him in the humanitarian arena. This of course begs another question: With the Sunni insurgency marginalized, Al Qaeda all but defeated and the counterinsurgency turning to address Shiite militias, how do we blunt the influence of Iran?

Interesting times lie ahead.

Badgers Forward: Falluja Post-Bellum Concerns.

Badger 6 blogs on the NYT article, discussing the situation on the ground at Fallujah and the future of that city after Americans eventually leave.

Badgers Forward: Falluja Post-Bellum Concerns.

Badger 6 points out that sectarian tensions are not as much of an issue in Fallujah as in other locales. The Mayor is Sunni. The tribes are Sunni. He also gives a good "boots on the ground" perspective on an article from a publication that we have all long learned to read with a grain of salt the size of the Ziggurat.

Burkean Reflections: Suicide of Reason? Radical Islam and the West

Dr. Donald Douglas blogs:

I picked up a copy of Lee Harris' new book yesterday, The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West. I've just read the preface thus far, but I thought I'd share a blurb from the book jacket with readers. This is what John McWhorter had to say about the volume:

Once again Lee Harris throws cold water on thinking Americans' tendency to view Islamist terrorists as noble freedom fighters in the vein of black Americans during the civil rights movement or East Timorese throwing off the Indonesian yoke. Harris understands that we are faced with an ememy who seeks not reasoned negotiation but the destruction of the Western way of life, and that holding to self-critical, multi-culti pieties during this crisis will spell self-sabotage.

Read the full post here.

Dr. Douglas praises Harris as an author who refuses to buy into the anti-American rhetoric of the radical left, and who refuses to let his readers do the same. I steadfastly agree. Harris' work should be on a short list for those of us in the real world.

Muslims were here before Columbus!

You know what that means, don't ya? Once a Muslim land, always a Muslim land.

Jihad Watch.

Bush: All politics is local

I've written about this before. Here, and again, here.

Tip O'Neill, the former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, gave us the famous quote: "All politics is local."

In today's Radio Address, President George W. Bush resonates with the same message: Political reconciliation will come from the local level. It will work from the ground up, not vice versa.

Transcript (with emphasis added):

In recent months, American and Iraqi forces have struck powerful blows against al Qaeda terrorists and violent extremists in Anbar and other provinces. In recent days, our troops and Iraqi allies launched a new offensive called Phantom Strike. In this offensive, we are carrying out targeted operations against terrorists and extremists fleeing Baghdad and other key cities -- to prevent them from returning or setting up new bases of operation. The terrorists remain dangerous and brutal, as we saw this week when they massacred more than 200 innocent Yezidis, a small religious minority in northwestern Iraq. Our hearts go out to the families of those killed, and our troops are going to go after the murderers behind this horrific attack.

As we surge combat operations to capture and kill the enemy, we are also surging Provincial Reconstruction Teams to promote political and economic progress. Since January, we have doubled the number of these teams, known as PRTs. They bring together military, civilian, and diplomatic personnel to help Iraqi communities rebuild infrastructure, create jobs, and encourage reconciliation from the ground up. These teams are now deployed throughout the country, and they are helping Iraqis make political gains, especially at the local level.

In Anbar province, at this time last year, the terrorists were in control of many areas and brutalizing the local population. Then local sheikhs joined with American forces to drive the terrorists out of Ramadi and other cities. Residents began to provide critical intelligence, and tribesmen joined the Iraqi police and security forces. Today, the provincial council in Ramadi is back, and last month provincial officials re-opened parts of the war-damaged government center with the help of one of our PRTs. Thirty-five local council members were present as the chairman called the body to order for its inaugural session.

Similar scenes are taking place in other parts of Anbar. Virtually every city and town in the province now has a mayor and a functioning municipal council. The rule of law is being restored. And last month, some 40 judges held a conference in Anbar to restart major criminal trials. In the far west town of al Qaim, tribal leaders turned against the terrorists. Today, those tribal leaders head the regional mayor's office and the local police force. Our PRT leader on the ground reports that al Qaim is seeing new construction, growing commercial activity, and an increasing number of young men volunteering for the Iraqi army and police.

In other provinces, there are also signs of progress from the bottom up. In Muthanna, an overwhelmingly Shia province, the local council held a public meeting to hear from citizens on how to spend their budget and rebuild their neighborhoods. In Diyala province, the city of Baqubah re-opened six of its banks, providing residents with much-needed capital for the local economy. And in Ninewa province, local officials have established a commission to investigate corruption, with a local judge empowered to pursue charges of fraud and racketeering.

Unfortunately, political progress at the national level has not matched the pace of progress at the local level. The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections, and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues. Yet, the Iraqi parliament has passed about 60 pieces of legislation.

And despite the lack of oil revenue law on the books, oil revenue sharing is taking place. The Iraqi parliament has allocated more than $2 billion in oil revenue for the provinces. And the Shia-led government in Baghdad is sharing a significant portion of these oil revenues with Sunni provincial leaders in places like Anbar.

America will continue to urge Iraq's leaders to meet the benchmarks they have set. Yet Americans can be encouraged by the progress and reconciliation that are taking place at the local level. An American politician once observed that "all politics is local." In a democracy, over time national politics reflects local realities. And as reconciliation occurs in local communities across Iraq, it will help create the conditions for reconciliation in Baghdad as well.

Thank you for listening.

This is no fluke, and I am not the only or the first one to begin recognizing how grassroots efforts can make such a huge difference in Iraq. Michael Yon has written extensively on it. It will take time. There will be successes, failures; good days and bad. But the best system of government reflects the consent of the governed, and that, apparently, is what is being built in Iraq.

Beauty in the Dirt

Last night was beautiful.

Iraqi cities look something like others that I've seen, and the fertile stretches along the river are less impressive than green farmland back home. The desert, though- the desert is different. The sky was clear of dust and haze- we were far past the lights of the city, and the stars shone soft and brilliant. The Milky Way stretched out overhead like a band of cotton. I heard bats launch from their hiding places in the abandoned buildings, and shrill aloft on their hunt for food. Somewhere overhead and out of sight, an owl hooted and stooped for his own dinner.

Acute Politics.


Now this is a soldier who not only understands and appreciates his duty, but also knows how mighty is his pen. Compare and contrast, dear reader, with the sputum of one Scott Thomas Beauchamp, the "Baghdad Prevaricator."

Confederate Yankee: Yet Again: AFP's Photo Woes Continue

Fresh off of being caught trying to pass off unfired civilian ammunition as evidence of soldiers shooting into the home of an elderly Iraqi woman, the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has been caught once again in a photography scandal involving the U.S. military, this time misidentifying a U.S. military photo taken by a member of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan last month as one of their own.

Confederate Yankee:

Badgers Forward: This is Not An ESPN Highlight Reel

Badgers Forward: This is Not An ESPN Highlight Reel

Men like this will lead this country one day.

Be thankful and be prayerful.

The Influence Peddler: Democrats Livid that Bush is Obeying the Law

The Influence Peddler: Democrats Livid that Bush is Obeying the Law

"The Left is angry that -- according to the LA Times -- the White House will prepare the September 15 report to Congress on progress in Iraq."

Imagine that. The President will comply with the terms of HR 2206, the emergency supplemental funding bill that authorized the reports to be given next month.

I handicapped the potential winners and losers in advance of that report, but failed to note that the report will actually be given by the Administration, as required by law. The odds stay the same.

17 August SWJ Op-Ed Roundup

Article:
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/08/17-august-swj-oped-roundup/

Brave Baqouba Teacher Risks Life for Students

This is one of those stories that just must be told, but that the mainstream media will just yawn about and ignore. The bravery of the Iraqi people is one of the most underreported aspects of Operation Iraqi Freedom. -- Dave.



Thursday, 16 August 2007
By Sgt. Armando Monroig
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

BAQUBAH — She carried a bag full of what she considered to be precious cargo – precious enough for her to risk her life delivering its contents.

She made several trips across the Diyala River, armed only with a pistol and a few friends as body guards.

This woman braved the dangers of traveling in a combat zone, where coalition forces and Iraqi security forces waged war against al-Qaida terrorists who used Baqubah as a stronghold.

She couldn’t travel on the roads because of the dangers of encountering roadside bombs, or sections of the city being blocked off by military personnel conducting operations.

So, she took a different avenue of approach – she crossed the Diyala River.

“I didn’t want the students to be deprived of the rights to take the tests like all other students in the state,” said Mouna al-Umairi, the teacher who found a way to facilitate the test process.

The former dean of a women’s institute in Diyala, who is currently a provincial council member, crossed the river several times to deliver national standardized tests to elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in the greater Baqubah area during the recent testing season.

The tests are taken annually, and the results determine whether or not students pass to the next higher level of education.

The directors of the schools refused to come get the tests and supervisors of the exam districts refused to give the tests, all due to security concerns. No one else was willing to go get the tests, so she took it upon herself to get the exams.

Most of the roads were blocked to transportation. She thought the best way to move around the city would be by the river – there are no blocks on the river, she said.

“I took the initiative to be the bridge to those areas and make success of these exams,” said al-Umairi, “and so the students don’t lose their morale and don’t think they are being left behind because of the situation.”

“They had a legal right to take the test, and that’s a right of any human being to get education and continue with education,” she added.

The first hurdle she had encountered was picking up the exams. To do this al-Umairi used any means of transportation possible – boat, donkey cart, walking, car, and even an ambulance.

She was 10 minutes late at the pick-up point to receive the exams. The personnel at the test distribution point contacted the Center of Education in Baghdad. They were told not to give her the exams for being late.

So, she contacted the minister of education in Baghdad, and explained the situation. She told him the students were ready to take the exams.

“The minister of education told me, ‘Tell the director of education that you are the minister of education in Diyala and I am authorizing you to take the tests. You will be my representative in the state,’” al-Umairi said.

When she finally acquired the exams and got to the students, she was so overwhelmed with having accomplished her task that she began to cry tears of joy.

Had she not picked up and dropped off the tests, almost 1,300 students from 13 schools would have been deprived of taking the exams.

“Mouna is an outstanding individual who sees the big picture for the future of Diyala,” said Capt. Jan Rose, a nurse with Company C, 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, from Little Rock, Ark., who has worked with al-Umairi.

“She knows that education is the road out of the ways of the past. She is especially passionate about helping females. I asked her once where her desire to help people comes from and she looked at me and simply said, ‘God.’”

Mouna helped students and schools in the villages north of Baqubah in the Diyala River Valley. She said that day was a victory for her and the students.

“I would like to thank coalition forces because they recognized and appreciated my efforts,” said al-Umairi.

“It’s something that makes me happy because I brought joy and a smile back to these students. I felt that I was a mother to all these students.”

Rose said al-Umairi is one of Baqubah’s tireless leaders and a hero.

“Mouna is an elected provincial council member. She represents all of Diyala, not just Baqubah. She leads by example. The people see her out doing her work.”

Security and Justice Projects Helping Secure Iraq

By Erich Langer
Gulf Region Division

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Thirty two court facilities are complete as well as 93 fire stations with still more security and justice projects anticipated to come on line soon, according to officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division (GRD). Correctional facilities, training academies, witness protection facilities and secure document storage sites are on the way also.

These ‘brick and mortar’ projects as well as their impact on the Iraqi people were the discussion topic at a recent Iraqi media roundtable press conference featuring Government of Iraq (GoI) and U.S. government security and justice subject matter experts. Biweekly media engagements feature subject matter experts from the U.S. Embassy, GRD and other entities responsible for helping rebuild Iraq’s antiquated infrastructure.

“You can construct lots of buildings and structures but at the end of the day what truly is the significant impact on the Iraqi people?” asked U.S. Navy Cdr. Johnny Wolfe, GRD Security and Justice (S&J) Sub Sector Lead. “Well, in our fire station program, for instance, we have completed 93 of 95 new construction and rehabilitation projects. These fire stations are serving communities across Iraq and directly impacting 22.8 million people.”

During Saddam Hussein’s former regime, little attention nor financial investment was given to infrastructure maintenance or repair. According to long-time Iraqi firefighters, civil defense and fire fighting were among the lowest of the low priority government jobs. In the ‘pecking order’ of civil servants, firefighters ranked below street sweepers.

Early World Bank estimates revealed it would take nearly $60 billion to rehabilitate Iraq’s antiquated infrastructure – newer figures indicate the cost may be more than $100 billion. In GRD’s Facilities Sector, alone, World Bank estimates Iraq’s need at $11.7 billion with the U.S. tax payer contribution being $3.55 billion.

“Specifically, the S&J program includes 273 Iraq Relief Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) projects costing $506.1 million with the goal of each to further establish the rule of law and provide security to Iraq,” said Wolfe. “Two hundred and fifty seven projects are complete and 16 are in progress. The last S&J project, the Hillah Courthouse, is scheduled for completion in August 2008.”

Training academies are an essential component of GRD’s security and justice program. According to Wolfe, GRD built four training centers that are complete, operational and being administered by GoI. “Under Saddam, very little money was spent on training, fire training equipment, personal protection equipment or facility repair/upgrades,” said Wolfe.

In June, GRD completed Iraq’s new $3.5 million Iraq Fire Training Academy in the Karkh district of Baghdad. Lodging accommodates 50 cadets and 12 instructors. Office space, bathrooms and kitchen/dining areas can support at total of 100 people. The facility has several classrooms, a firefighting training tower and hose training area with storage facilities to accommodate training gear and high-tech equipment.

“The facility is the first fire training academy in Iraq. In the past, training has taken place in Jordan and at other sites outside the country,” said Wolfe. “The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate (ICDD) now has the capacity to conduct high quality training right here. The academy will reduce expenses for ICDD and facilitate training for more firefighters.”

According to Wolfe, the facility hosted its first HAZMAT training class in June and the first full firefighter training class is currently underway. Joining Wolfe on the panel were James Santelle, DoJ/DoS Legal Attaché; Wilson Myers, Rule of Law Attorney, Baghdad PRT; and Dr. Tahseen Asheikly, MoD Baghdad Security Plan spokesman. Courthouses and correction/detention facilities are also much in demand.

“To help facilitate ‘Rule of Law’, GRD has undertaken an ambitious courthouse construction program. More than 30 courthouse projects are complete and construction underway at sites in Al-Karkh, Rusafa, Basrah, Mosul and Hillah,” said James Santelle, U.S. Department State Legal Attaché. “The ultimate goal of the courthouse program is to provide Iraq with a fully functional judicial system.”

The additional capacity provided by these courthouses, witness protection safe houses, correctional/detainee facilities and secure document storage facilities was hammered home by Santelle who serves as the U.S. Embassy’s liaison to GoI Minister of Justice officials. “The added court rooms and related facilities are key components of the Iraqi judicial system and are responsible for increasing the efficiently of the judicial system. Providing safe, secure locations for Iraqi judges to administer justice is paying off,” said Santelle. “Safe houses for judges and witness protection facilities are paying dividends to help GoI quickly adjudicate cases.”

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better...

Ahmadinejad:  George W. Bush has dispatched CIA hit men to take out the Islamic Messiah!

Kamingir, an Iranian blogger living in Canada, has translated a media report quoting Ahmadinejad as saying he believes American Muslims are hot on the trail of Imam Mahdi, the legendary 12th Caliph.

If this were true, Islamists can relax.  The CIA is teh suck when it comes to assassinations.

Ahmadinejad: Islam Must Rule the World

Kabul, Afghanistan. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that rule of Islam on mankind is the only way for salvation of human beings.

"There is no truth on earth but monotheism and following tenets of Islam and there is no way for salvation of mankind but rule of Islam over mankind," said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Afghan Sunni and Shiite ulama at Iranian Embassy in Kabul.

President Ahmadinejad said nations are today distancing themselves from culture of materialism and selfishness and look for a new way for their prosperity, that is the path of Islam.

He said that the world is on verge of a great upheaval and ulama at this juncture shoulder a heavy responsibility that is introducing genuine Islam as it is.

"Nations today have no haven but religion," the Iranian president announced, cautioning Muslim nations against enemies' divisive plots.

He said, "All of us have the duty to resist the enemy by closing our ranks." He said that the Iranian nation today feels more than ever the need to stand beside the Afghan nation.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has kindly received their Afghan brothers and will continue to do so in future. Minor issues will cannot affect Iran's policies on Afghanistan," he added.

The president said Islam belongs to all generations and Muslims should get ready for global mission of Islam.

Popular Islamist Website Publishes "How-to" Guide on Kidnapping Americans

Site hosted in Texas by Realwebhost.com

The popular Islamist-jihadist forum www.alhesbah.org, hosted by RealWebHost in Texas, U.S., recently posted an anonymously written document from 2003 titled "The Excellent Summary of the Rules of the Art of Kidnapping Americans." The 60-page guide describes each stage of the kidnapping, explaining how to select the target and then how to follow him, seize him, transport him to a safe location, and hold him there, as well as how to conduct negotiations. The guide also explains how to execute the hostage should negotiations fail.

The following are the details:

The guide begins by enumerating goals that a kidnapping can achieve, including the release of prisoners, extraction of information from the hostage, weakening the enemy's morale and creating deterrence, raising international awareness of conflicts in which the kidnappers' organization is involved, blackmailing the enemy for money, and generating anti-government sentiment in the hostage's country of origin.

In the section dealing with selecting a target, the guide recommends choosing someone of importance to the enemy (such as a high-ranking military officer or a prominent businessman). However, he should not be a physically strong person who can put up significant resistance. In order to ensure that the operation goes smoothly, it is recommended that he be knocked out with tranquilizers.

As for the kidnappers, the guide states that they should be devout and in good physical condition. In addition, they must be familiar with the locale, and must be able to disguise themselves and to blend in with their surroundings. The guide gives various scenarios and explains how to deal with them - for example, what to do if the target enters a building or turns around suddenly while being followed. The guide states that, ideally, the kidnapping should be carried out at night, and in an isolated spot.

Next, the guide explains how to transport the hostage to the hideout. It recommends using a vehicle of a type that is common in the locale, and that it be prepared by removing the handle on the inside of the door where the hostage will sit. As for the hideout itself, it must be a large apartment with several exits, and the hostage must be kept in a windowless room. The apartment must not be on a road where there are checkpoints.

The last section of the guide deals with the demands stage, and states that after stipulating their demands and setting a deadline, the kidnappers must conduct negotiations using a mobile phone registered under a false name, or else a pay phone (a different one for each call). The guide also explains that if it becomes necessary to execute the hostage, this is best done by hanging or poisoning rather than by shooting. This is because soldiers regard death by shooting as an honorable death, and because shooting leaves considerable bloodstains at the scene.

Watch your Six O'Clock.

The "Petraeus/Crocker" Report: Handicapping the Winners and the Losers

Oh, this much anticipated report. What will they say? Will progress be the word of the day? Or, more of the same? If I were a gambling man (and I am), I'd lay some odds that some folks will come out of next month's report on progress in Iraq as winners, and some will come out losers. Here are the odds of various outcomes and what could be at stake:


David Petraeus: Winner. No matter what his report actually says, this man comes out looking like a shoo in for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. At age 56, he's even a likely candidate for 2012 if he wants a shot at the Big Chair. The "scholar-warrior" has done a remarkable job of soldiering and politicking in an environment that has become something of a graveyard for those who sport more than two stars on their resume. 10-to-1 Winner.

Ryan Crocker: Tossup. While Crocker has done a generally good job of working the Washington-to-Baghdad connection, the sense is that he has not done quite the job of fostering reconciliation among Iraq's sectarian divides. But frankly, he's been given a more difficult job than Petraeus. While Petraeus need only conduct a counterinsurgency as a military leader, Crocker has had the difficult task of attempting to help forge political reconciliation at a national level, something that few have ever asked of an Ambassador. 7-to-6 Winner.

Nouri al-Maliki: Loser. Make no mistake about it--this man is just a placeholder. When the last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq, Maliki is unlikely to be the Prime Minister. Sunni Arabs see him as a deeply biased sectarian leader. The Kurds tolerate him, but just barely. He has shown favoritism to Shi'a sects in ways that have still not been published. He's an honestly brave man, as his life and the lives of his family are on the line daily. But he is just not suited for the tasks he's been given, and rather than letting a true unity government coalesce around him, he has managed to alienate everyone. He told the American press that the surge stopped the Iraqi civil war. That civil war was one he would have been complicit in allowing. He is no statesman. He is just a placeholder and even a glowing report by Petraeus cannot save him. 8-to-3 Loser.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: Loser. "This war is lost." pfff. Not even close. 12-to-1 Loser.

Nancy Pelosi: Loser. Standing side-by-side with Harry Reid was one thing. Traveling to Syria to meet with an unrepentant human rights abuser was another. Holding vote after vote to let left wing Democrats show their moonbattiness was almost too much. Scratch that. It was too much. 10-to-1 Loser.

President George W. Bush: Winner. Steadfast in his support of underlings, even to a fault. Bush will keep trying to find the right people for the right job no matter how withering criticism of his previous choices, some of which have been somewhat embarrassing. Sanchez and Abu Ghraib. Casey and the refusal to fight a counterinsurgency with counterinsurgents. Bush has always trusted the men who worked for him to tell him the truth, and finally he has found one who tells the real truth: That Iraq is a dangerous place and calls for a serious effort to address the real issues. Grant saved Lincoln. Will Petraeus' appointment save Bush? Sometimes you swing at two pitches before making resonant contact. Regardless of how Petraeus comes out of next month's testimony, Bush appears to be a good bet to come out looking better than anyone expected. If Iraq actually emerges from this as a stable democracy, some coins will be minted with his likeness. 5-to-1 Winner.

Hillary Clinton: Slight Loser. She has so far deflected criticism of her initial support of the war. But the onslaught of the left against it has cost her dearly. As a result, she's flip-flopped worse than a green ling on a center console in the Gulf of Mexico. Her "I will end the war" canard during late 2006 and early 2007 and anti-surge rhetoric has cast her as someone who can't be trusted to do anything more than stick her finger in the wind to test the breeze. 7-to-5 Loser.

Barack Obama: Loser. As someone who has never waivered from his anti-war stance, having such a respected General come to the Senate and explain how well things are going in Iraq--and just how wrong Obama has been--is an unmitigated disaster. He has already shown considerable naivete in his statements on a willingness to meet anyone, anywhere, anytime and then coming this close to threatening an ally who is hanging onto power by a thread. Even if Petraeus' report is a middling thing, Obama comes out on life support. 8-to-1 Loser.

John Edwards: Loser. Ok, the $400 haircut joke aside, the man was for it, then against it, and then for it again, then against it again. He's a trial lawyer so no one expects the truth out of him to begin with. But his comments about the Global War on Terror being a bumper sticker slogan resonated with exactly 20% of the electorate. He can't come out of anything other than a disastrous report looking good. He just can't. 10-to-1 Loser.

Blue Dog Democrats: Slight Winner. While nominally moderate but generally supporting the military, this group of middle roaders has been sorely tested the last seven months. Sorely. Their party affiliations have led them against their principled beliefs, and some have waivered. As a whole, they will probably come out Ok. A few of them could see serious problems if Petraeus' report is even better than expected. My gut sense is that these people mainly have their fingers on the pulses of their constituents. They should come out no worse for the wear. 9-to-7 Winner.

Snowe, Hagel, Warner, Lugar, Voinovich: Losers. Though they vote Republican in organizing the Senate, they don't come across as a trustworthy bloc of support for anyone. They have called for policy changes in ways that annoy the GOP faithful but don't quite toe the Reid line. Lugar and Warner will likely be hurt the worst. They had been strong supporters of Bush's policy in Iraq and lost faith at the worst possible moment. It is always darkest just before dawn; he who loses faith at that moment suffers the worst. 8-to-5 Losers.

GOP "Top Tier" Presidential Candidates: Winners. While platitudinally voicing support for the Global War on Terror, most of the GOP candidates for President have managed to gain a modicum of separation from Bush while the counterinsurgency devised by Petraeus has run its course. Each has spoken glowingly about our men and women in uniform. Each has pledged support for maintaining an offensive strategy in the conduct of the effort. Whether by political mastery or sheer dumb luck, they've had enough separation from the current administration to let them voice support while not getting too close. The exception is John McCain who, while badly damaged by his stance on the doomed immigration bill and occasional criticisms of Bush's overall policy in Iraq, has remained one of the President's staunchest war allies on the Hill. An overwhelmingly positive report could allow McCain to jump start his campaign and compete seriously next winter and spring. Guiliani's support for the war is unquestionable. Romney's ramblings are worrisome. Thompson's position is unbloody known. 11-to-8 Winners.

Major New Offensive Underway

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MNC-I conducts Operation Phantom Strike
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Corps-Iraq launched a major offensive, Operation Phantom Strike, on August 13 in a powerful crackdown to disrupt AQI and Shia extremist operations in Iraq. It consists of simultaneous operations throughout Iraq focused on pursuing remaining AQI terrorists and Iranian-supported extremist elements.

Recent Coalition offensive operations, such as Fardh Al-Qanoon and Phantom Thunder, have reduced the effectiveness of extremist groups. The operations denied AQI safe havens, disrupted extremist support zones and supply lines, captured or killed significant AQI and Shia extremist leaders, and liberated large segments of the Iraqi population from AQI. These combined operations included the coordinated and synchronized efforts of Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces, appreciably improving the lives of the Iraqi people.

“Coalition forces and Iraqi Security forces continue to achieve successes and pursue security throughout many areas of Iraq”, said Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq. “My intent is to continue to pressure AQI and other extremist elements throughout Iraq to reduce their capabilities.”

Operation Phantom Strike is a joint Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces operation to eliminate remaining elements of AQI and other extremist groups, preventing them from causing further terrorism and inciting sectarian violence. Additionally, it will intensify pressure on extremist networks across the entire theater.

Phantom Strike comes on the heels of Operation Phantom Thunder, the first major offensive undertaken by coalition forces after the deployment and positioning of the five new brigades of combat troops known as the surge.  Between Phantom Thunder and Phantom Strike, coalition forces undertook a series of shaping operations, designed to push insurgents into areas of the country where Phantom Strike held near complete advantage.

Unlike prior offensive engagements, U.S. commanders were quite nondescript in the locations where the operations were to take place and few details were given on which units were to be involved.

Another key difference in Phantom Strike is a new focus on Shiite insurgents, which the U.S. Commanders accuse of being linked to, trained and supplied by Iranian Quds Forces.  Shiite militants laid low during Phantom Thunder and Operation Fardh Al Qanun, only to emerge from obscurity after Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents had been neutralized.  Phantom Strike is a simultaneous operation against both sectarian groups of militias.

Iraqi People Prove Liberals are Misguided

Liberals, God bless'em, are looking in the wrong direction for political progress in Iraq. Remember, all liberals believe that good things only come when government is in charge of the political process. Look no further than our own candidates for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Every single one of them advocates some sort of Government-controlled, taxpayer-funded, "universal" healthcare system.

While grudgingly acknowledging that the surge of troops in Iraq is making military progress (they're kinda late to the game, but welcome aboard anyway), liberals and their MSM supporters bemoan the fact that little progress has been made by the Government of Iraq to pass oil sharing legislation, allow for provincial elections and permit some members of the former Ba'athist Party to return to government posts. Without this political process coming from the top down, the long term chances for success in Iraq appear doubtful.

Lo and behold, the Iraqis are proving them wrong. In this week's blogger roundtable with General Kevin Bergner in Baghdad, the General discusses some of the developments he's seen on the ground in in Iraq.

GEN. BERGNER: Well, we have seen steady developments at the local level. And if you just went back over the last four weeks and kind of walked around west and northern areas of Baghdad, you would find that in Ramadi, they completed the Ramadi Covenant, which was a tribal-led but government-of-Iraq-involved and coalition -- or security-force-involved commitment to stop the violence and to work together. In Taji, about three weeks ago the sheikhs of Taji got together. They all signed a map, put their name next to the town that they represent. In Khalis, northwest of Baghdad, a similar commitment, I think by some 16 sheikhs representing 70-some others. And then in Baqubah, we've talked before about the tribal sheikhs and the provincial government and their security forces having reached some agreements on how they're going to work together and stop the violence.

So I could take you through Baghdad, as well. We've seen similar -- similar arrangements being grouped together in Amiriyah. We see similar ones in Ghazalia. The Ghazalia volunteers are now part of this local security force that's working with Iraqi and coalition forces. And then if I took you to south of Baghdad, in General Rick Lynch's area of operations in MND-Center, I could show you different groupings of 100 here, 400 there, where different individuals from the community have stepped forward and said, we want to stop help the violence, we want to work toward some sort of accommodation.

So there is a steady development at the local level as security improves and people feel like they can step forward and take that on. So we are encouraged by that. And you know overall in Anbar what that -- how that has profoundly changed. We've talked about that several times. And that's probably the most striking example of a place which just eight or 10 months ago nobody could have foreseen the change there. So, lots of momentum.

Much of it is enabled by the tactical momentum that the surge of operations is providing. But again, much work still to do. Still some very difficult ways ahead.

GRIM: I'd like to ask a quick follow-up about that. Under Saddam and, you know, for what amounts to living memory in Iraq, Iraq has been kind of a top-down society where the central government set the tone. What you're talking about is a lot of local efforts that are going to be kind of brought to bear -- I don't want to say against central government, but on the central government. Do you think that the nature of Iraqi society is changing in this regard, that it's becoming more of a bottom-up society, a locally driven society?

GEN. BERGNER: You know, that's a very good question, it's an interesting one, because on one level, it has been a centrally governed country, without question, but in this country the tribe, the family have always been the most powerful bond that the Iraqi people have felt. And so you have kind of a duality of centrally directed but, if you ask the people who they trust and who they want to work with, it's at the family, tribal and community level. So both of those exist and both of them are very real parts of the nature of Iraqi society.

What I hope you got a sense of in my initial comments was both of those are working, and if you looked at Baqubah as a pretty vivid example, that's a place where the local tribes and security forces are coming to these kinds of arrangements. And once they've gotten to that point, the Iraqi government, the central government, is coming in to connect and figure out so how do we provide this public distribution support that you need, because, as you said, that is a centrally directed food distribution program; how do we help improve the availability of fuel, because, as you said, that is a centrally controlled fuel distribution system still. So both of those are at work here, and that's really why it's so important to get them connected because you really need -- you need that confidence at the local level being reinforced and supported. They need to know their central government is going to actually do something for them.

In this post, I relate a story from MNF-Iraq that describes a meeting in Tikrit between 18 tribal sheikhs, representing 14 of the largest tribes in Diyala Province. A similar, larger such meeting was held in Khalis. Yet another was held in Taji, which included leaders of both Shiite and Sunni groups. At each meeting, the tribal and family leaders pledged to work together. They unite against the common foe Al Qaeda and to work with the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Slowly but surely, political reconciliation is coming. But like I have explained in this space many times, it is coming from the bottom up!

These are grassroots level developments. Individually, they may not mean much. But since a major thrust of Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy is getting local leadership on board, these kinds of developments are taking place in virtually every major town and village in the country. We are the facilitators, but the people making the commitments and making the differences are the Iraqis. Over time, these developments will generate bases of support for national leaders. The national leadership, working on the knowledge that they and their counterparts are all working with the support of a growing, grassroots coalition, will try to work out those pesky oil sharing and reform issues.

No wonder liberals don't see any political progress being made. They're looking in the wrong direction.

They hate us because of our... Foreign Policy?

This notion is wrong on so many different facets.  But most of all, it fails to acknowledge that Islamists need no pretext for war other than the target's refusal to submit to the rule of Allah. That is what Islam's god and prophet command.

When Islamists slaughtered the pagans of Arabia who wouldn't submit to Allah, was that the fault of Pagan-Arabian foreign policy?

When Islamists enslaved and slaughtered the Christians and Jews of the Holy Land, was that the fault of "People of the Book" foreign policy?

When Islamists enslaved and slaughtered the Zoroastrians of ancient Persia, was that the fault of Persian foreign policy?

When Islamists enslaved and slaughtered the Christians, Jews, and animists of North Africa and Egypt, was that the fault of North African foreign policy?

When Islamists slaughtered 70-80 million Hindus in India, was that the fault of Indian foreign policy?

When Islamists subjugated and slaughtered the people of the Iberian Peninsula (it took Spain 800 years to finally defeat the Moors and take back their land), was that the fault of Iberian foreign policy?

When Islamists enslaved and slaughtered the peoples of eastern Europe (up to Vienna in the seventeenth century, but including Greeks, Armenians, Slavs, et al), was that the fault of their failed foreign policies?

When Islamists raped, enslaved, and slaughtered the people of the Great City Constantinople, was that the fault of Byzantine foreign policy?

When Islamists enslaved millions (one estimate puts it at a billion) of Europeans over the centuries, was that the fault of European foreign policy?

When, if not for Martel and Sobieski and countless other heroes, Europe would have fallen to Allah, would that have been the fault of European foreign policy also?

When Islamists enslaved and slaughtered American sailors in the earliest days of the nation, was that the fault of American foreign policy?

When Islamists enter a Sudanese village (back before Darfur was fashionable), ask a woman, "Muslim or Christian?" and then gang rapes, sexually mutilates, and leaves her to die in the street those who answer wrongly, is that the fault of Sudanese villagers' foreign policy?

When Islamists behead Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia to shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" is that the fault of schoolgirl foreign policy?

When Beslan schoolchildren and teachers are raped and slaughtered in the name of Allah, is that the fault of Russian foreign policy?

When American, English, Spanish, Australian, and Israeli civilians are targeted because their countries are defending themselves and hunting down the "misunderstanderers" of the Religion of Peace, whose fault is that?

You hope that the hordes of Allah slaughter due to something we've done because that means we might have some way to make them stop hating us. That's wishful thinking.

Islam blames its victims when they fight back.

h/t to Amillenialist.