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Global War on Terror Watch: National Intelligence Estimate
Supporters of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein take to the streets during a demonstration in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, September 22, 2006. A newspaper report that a U.S. intelligence analysis said the Iraq war gave rise to a new generation of Islamic radicals and made the overall terrorism problem worse was ‘not representative of the complete document,’ the White House said on Sunday.
AP: Democrats cite report to undermine GOP
Democrats on Sunday seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November elections.
The Democrats hoped the report would undermine the GOP’s image as the party more capable of handling terrorism as the campaign enters its final six-week stretch.
Well. the Democrats had better dream on….
A partisan attempt to spin the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is frought with danger.
Sure enough, the White House says that the stories in the Post and the New York Times are “not representative of the complete document.” That’s very likely true, but we can’t know without reading the whole report. And in all likelihood, the reporters who passed on the leakers’ spin don’t know either.
But it’s also true the NIEs have certainly included some major blunders. The 1997 NIE, the last one before the 9/11 attacks on global terrorism, mentioned bin Laden in only three sentences as a “terrorist financier” and didn’t reference al-Qaeda at all. And of course, it was the October 2002 NIE which was a significant factor in the decision to use force against Iraq by famously asserting, “Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of UN restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade.”
Michelle Malkin debunks the entire “LEAK:”
The NYTimes and WaPo went big yesterday with news of a leaked classified National Intelligence Estimate report, which reportedly claims that the Iraq war is exacerbating Islamic terrorism.
If our intelligence agencies are laboring under the moonbat illusion that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn’t really start bubbling until the year 2003, we are really in deep, deep doo-doo. Have they not been paying attention over the last year? All it takes is a few cartoons or a dropped Koran or a defiant apostate or a Muslim woman in a bikini or a papal speech quotation to set off The Religion of Perpetual Outrage. Someone order up some copies of Legacy of Jihad and Islamic Imperialism stat.
Ed Morrissey has a good reality check, as do a few of his commenters.
And will the entire NIE ever be released?
NOPE – It is classified……
And the partisan spin by the Democrats is obvious.
Playing politics with national intelligence have the Democrats NO SHAME?
Technorati Tags: NationalIntelligenceEstimate, NIE, Democrats, GlobalWaronTerror, IraqWar
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Day By Day by Chris Muir September 25, 2006
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Iran Nuclear Watch: EU-3 May Begin Nuclear Talks Without the United States
French President Jacques Chirac (C), Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel review the troops. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the need to secure Russian energy supplies to the EU were expected to dominate a summit in an elegant chateau north of Paris between the leaders of France, Russia and Germany.
Reuters: Nuclear talks with Iran may start without U.S.
France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment program first, but Washington would not take part, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
So, Solana and Larijani will meet next week (barring Iranian cancellations again) in Brussels and then the EU-3 will met with Iran representatives.
And what makes anyone think this will yield results?
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced no direct approval to this strategy but signaled she could tolerate it, the magazine reported.
If this plan does not result in a breakthrough in the West’s years-long nuclear standoff with Iran, the six countries will have no choice but to begin debating serious sanctions of the kind Washington wants imposed on the Islamic republic, it said.
There will be NO serious sanctions from the United Nations Security Council in any case. EU-3 are as feckless as they are utterly useless in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Russia has already begun to stake out its own position in these negotiations and will put maximum pressure on the United States for concessions to Russia, if Russia is to play ball with us in the Security Council. High on their list is getting the US to back off from its newly imposed sanctions on the Russian company, Sukhoï. The US imposed a new export control ban under the 2000 Iran Non-proliferation Act against Sukhoi based on a finding that Sukhoi had engaged in providing sensitive missile and defense technology to Iran. This followed a deal signed by Moscow last year involving surface-to-air missiles for Iran reportedly worth some $750 million.
Stay tuned……
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel – Iran its “GREATEST THREATâ€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran President Ahmadinejad at the United Nations
Iran Nuclear Watch: French President Jacques Chirac Offers Iran Compromise
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel – A “FEW MONTHS†to Avoid a Nuclear Iran
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Report on Iran “DISHONEST?â€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad – “We Can Better Lead The Worldâ€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Agrees to 8 Week Delay in Uranium Enrichment
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad
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Day By Day by Chris Muir September 24, 2006
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Hugo Chavez Watch: Chavez – Bush Has Given Order to Kill Me
Graphic: Cox & Forkum: El Diablo
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez accused his American counterpart George W. Bush overnight of ordering his assassination for calling the US leader the devil during his speech at the United Nations this week.
“The devil appears very sulphurous, and a few people say that he has given the order to kill me,” Chavez said during a speech before scientists in western Venezuela.
“Many concerned friends have called me, (saying) that because I said ‘devil’ over there (at the UN), they have sentenced me to die. They will not kill me, I have much faith in life,” Mr Chavez added.
Chavez is PARANOID – like in DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR.
But, there may be some slight payback.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro speaks at a news conference at the Venezuelan Mission to United Nations after returning from JFK International Airport in New York, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006. Maduro, accompanied by Venezuelan Ambassador to the U.N. Francisco Arias, right, and advisor and former Venezuelan foreign minister Roy Chaderton, seated left, was detained by U.S. authorities at a New York airport for more than hour Saturday as he tried to return to the South American country, President Hugo Chavez said. U.S. and U.N. officials called the incident regrettable but said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had been identified for ‘secondary screening,’ a security check that can kick in when a passenger arrives without a ticket.
Reuters: Venezuela foreign minister says was detained in US
Venezuela’s foreign minister said on Saturday that U.S. authorities detained him briefly at New York’s JFK airport in an action he called a violation of international law.
The circumstances of the detention were not clear and the U.S. Embassy in Caracas could not be reached for comment. Venezuelan television said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was stopped for an hour and a half and stripped of his travel documents.
Oh Well……
Flap supposed he looked like a DUMBASS MORON – like his boss Hugo Chavez.
Prevous:
Hugo Chavez Watch: Chavez Calls President Bush “THE DEVIL†During United Nations Speech
Technorati Tags: HugoChavez, NicolasMaduro, Venezuela
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Michael Ramirez on Pakistan President Musharraf Harboring Al Qaeda
The Weekly Standard: Pakistan Surrenders
INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS woke up on September 5 to unsettling news. The government of Pakistan, they learned, had entered into a peace agreement with the Taliban insurgency that essentially cedes authority in North Waziristan, the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Just ten days later, the blow was compounded when the government of Pakistan released a large number of jihadists from prison. Together, these events may constitute the most significant development in the global war on terror in the past year–yet the media have taken little notice.
If President Musharraf will not route out the Taliban and Al Qaeda from Waziristan, then the United States and NATO will need to do it for him.
CNN: Bush would send troops inside Pakistan to catch bin Laden
President Bush said Wednesday he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good intelligence on the fugitive al Qaeda leader’s location.
“Absolutely,” Bush said.
The president made the comments Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. (Watch Bush state his position on Iran and the war on terror — 18:06)
Although Pakistan has said it won’t allow U.S. troops to operate within its territory, “we would take the action necessary to bring him to justice.”
But Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters Wednesday at the United Nations that his government would oppose any U.S. action in its territory.
“We wouldn’t like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves,” he said.
Pakistani authorities recently signed a peace agreement with pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the country’s restive northwest after two years of clashes with the traditionally autonomous tribes that left more than 600 Pakistani troops dead. But Aziz told CNN earlier this month that top terrorist leaders like bin Laden would have “no immunity” under the agreement.
“This notion that anybody who has a record as a terrorist will get safe haven — we would not even think of doing that,” he said.
U.S. and NATO troops are now battling a Taliban resurgence in southeastern Afghanistan, and both Afghan and Pakistani officials have accused each other of not doing enough to capture pro-Taliban militants sneaking across the border.
It is unacceptable for Pakistan to harbor these terrorists.
Pakistan is either a part of the solution of world terrorism or part of the problem and be treated accordingly.
Technorati Tags: Pakistan, Musharraf, MichaelRamirez, AlQaeda, Taliban
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Al Qaeda Watch: French Intelligence Service Reports Osama Bin Laden is DEAD
The article in the l’Est Republicain quotes a French intelligence service report that Osama bin Laden has died of typhoid. France is probing how the intelligence brief the report is based on came to be leaked.
AP: France Looks Into bin Laden Death Report
The French defense ministry on Saturday called for an internal investigation of the leak of an intelligence document that raises the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan a month ago but said the report of the death remained unverified.
“The information defused this morning by the l’Est Republicain newspaper concerning the possible death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
The daily newspaper for the Lorraine region in eastern France printed what it described as a confidential document from the French foreign intelligence service DGSE citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaida terror network had died.
The contents of the document, dated Sept. 21, or Thursday, were not confirmed by French or other intelligence sources. However, the DGSE transmitted the note to President Jacques Chirac and other officials, the newspaper said.
Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie “has demanded an investigation be carried out of this leak,” a ministry statement said, adding that transmission of the confidential document could risk punishment.
Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau, clarifying the statement, said that the DGSE document exists but that its contents – that bin Laden is allegedly dead – cannot be confirmed.
Interesting but yet unconfirmed. The LEFT/Democrats are probably saying it is Karl Rove pulling the strings in the White House again.
The front page of the l’Est Republicain which published a report by the French intelligence services saying Osama bin Laden has died of typhoid. France is probing how the intelligence brief the report is based on came to be leaked.
And what does Jacques Chirac, the President of France say?
AP: Chirac: Bin Laden intel not confirmed
President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is “in no way whatsoever confirmed.”
Chirac said he was “a bit surprised” at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.
The regional newspaper l’Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaida terror network had died.
Officials from Afghanistan to Washington expressed doubts about the report.
Two American intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said Saturday that U.S. agencies have no evidence to suggest a reason to believe that bin Laden is dead or dying.
The DGSE transmitted the document, dated Sept. 21 or Thursday, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said.
“This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed,” Chirac said Saturday when asked about the document. “I have no comment.”
Look for an audio recording of Bin Laden within hours.
Might this be an operation to find UBL and/or Dr. Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri or other Al Qaeda operatives?
Doubtful
But, will Al Qaeda respond?
Stay tuned…….
Al Qaeda Flag
Blogosphere:
Time is reporting that bin Laden may be very sick with a “serious water-borne illness,” from “credible Saudi sources:”
Fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, believed to be on the run in rugged terrain in the Afghan-Pakistani border region since the September 11 attacks five years ago, has become seriously ill and may have already died, a Saudi source tells TIME, echoing earlier reports in the French media.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that Saudi officials have received multiple credible reports over the last several weeks that Bin Laden has been suffering from a water-borne illness. The source believes that there is a “high probability” that Bin Laden has already died from the disease, but stressed that Saudi officials have thus far received no concrete evidence of Bin Laden’s death.
“This is not a rumor,” says the source. “He is very ill. He got a water-related sickness and it could be terminal. There are a lot of serious facts about things that have actually happened. There is a lot to it. But we don’t have any concrete information to say that he is dead.”
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta today! First, bin Laden is reportedly dead. Or dying. Or whatever. In any event, I don’t believe it. But it’s the kind of rumor I dig. Thanks to everyone that e-mailed it to me. The way I read the report, though, was not that bin Laden is dead, but that he is very sick. (knock on wood either way)
But a much bigger story is that the leader of Ansar al Sunnah, Muntasir al-Jibouri, has been captured! This is big news. And unlike the bin Laden ‘news’, this one seems likely to be true.
We should be shouting for joy that the leader of Ansar al Sunnah has been captured. This should just as big as when we got Zarqawi. It is that important.
Ansar al Sunnah’s organizational structure is not as well know as al Qaeda’s. It appears, though, that al-Jibouri’s voice can be heard on at least two hostage murder videos-and probably many many more (thanks to Mike for the reminder). Like Zarqawi, al Jibouri is said to have personally murdered many of Ansar al Sunna’s victims.
For awhile, Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the terrorist bastards at Ansar al Sunna appeared to be in a pissing match over who could behead the most civilians. Just this month the group posted a gruesome video of the beheading of 3 Iraqis.
Who are Ansar al Sunna, you say? I don’t blame you for not knowing, I blame the ignorant press. And the Democrats. The press because they speak of insurgents in Iraq, and not terrorists. And the Democrats because they speak as if any one who is not formally within al Qaeda is not a terrorist. Eg., Saddam did not support terrorists because there was no link to al Qaeda. Idiots.
Ansar al Sunnah is the second worst terrorist organization in Iraq. They are probably made up of the remnants of Ansar al Islam, and mostly operate in Iraq’s North. They are also Kurds. Occasional they pull off an operation in Kurdistan, but the Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters, secularists) have effectively wiped them out. The Kurds know what to do with Islamist terrorists. They kill them.
Previous:
Global War on Terror Watch: Operation Mountain Fury
The Ryskind Sketchbook: High Threshold
Al Qaeda Watch: Syrian Guards Protect United States Embassy in Damascus from Al Qaeda Attack
Al Qaeda Watch: Terrorist Attack at United States Embassy in Damascus, Syria
Technorati Tags: AlQaeda, OsamaBinLaden, France, JacquesChirac
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Day By Day by Chris Muir September 23, 2006
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Bill Clinton Watch: Unhinged Clinton Says He Tried
Graphic courtesy of SlagleRock
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: ‘At least I tried. That’s the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed’…
This rant reminds Flap of another Bill Clinton tirade about That Woman:
No?The fact is Bill Clinton while President was more concerned about Monica Lewinsky’s DNA (Clinton Sperm) stained blue dress than he was Osama Bin Laden.
Why else was he so incensed to stop the airing of The Path to 9/11?
Bill Clinton is a PATHETIC JERK who happened to be one of the WORST Presidents ever and NOW he makes excuses.
And The Horse You Rode In On, Chief: Video of Osama bin Ladin caught in a Predator’s camera.
The Predator was not armed, as most are now. But there was always the chance to arrange a quick missile attack.
Too bad Clinton wasn’t in any legal jeopardy when this footage was taken (the Fall of 2000). Had he been in legal trouble, who knows, he might have actually have given the code to fire on bin Ladin and saved 3000 people.
I guess the real lesson of the nineties is that we didn’t impeach Clinton frequently enough.
Blogosphere:
- Alarming News
- The Wide Awake Cafe » Bill Clinton Wants a “T†for Tried
- The Political Pit Bull
- Sister Toldjah » Legacy time: Bubba’s fired up over claims his admin didn’t do enough to catch OBL
- Michelle Malkin
- Stop The ACLU
Technorati Tags: BillClinton, OsamabinLaden, MonicaLewinsky, ThePathto9/11
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Day By Day by Chris Muir September 22, 2006
