Squiggler

Meth Bust yields classified Los Alamos documents

This story is so disturbing on so many levels. Who are these people, how did they get classified information, and what were they planning to do with it? A meth dealer in a trailer house? And why is the crime only a misdemeanor?

Classified Los Alamos Documents Found in Meth Bust

Wednesday, October   25, 2006

 

WASHINGTON —  Authorities in northern New Mexico have stumbled onto what appears to be classified information from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory while arresting a man suspected of domestic violence and dealing methamphetamine from his mobile home.

Sgt. Chuck Ney of the Los Alamos Police Department said the information was discovered during a search last Friday of the man's records for evidence of his drug business.

Police alerted the FBI to the secret documents, which agents traced back to a woman linked to the drug dealer, officials said. The woman is a contract employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The official would not describe the documents except to say that they appeared to contain classified material and were stored on a computer file.

FBI special agent Bill Elwell in Albuquerque confirmed that a search warrant was executed on Friday night, but he refused to discuss details.

"We do have an investigation with regard to the matter, but our standard is we do not discuss pending investigations," Elwell said.

A lab spokesman declined to comment.

Los Alamos has a history of high-profile security problems in the past decade, with the most notable the case of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was charged with 59 counts of mishandling sensitive information. After he pleaded guilty in 2000 to mishandling computer files, the other charges were dismissed, he was freed after nine months in solitary confinement, and a federal judge apologized for the government's treatment of him.    

In 2004, the lab was essentially shut down after an inventory showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were missing. A year later the lab concluded that it was just a mistake and the disks never existed.

But the incident highlighted sloppy inventory control and security failures at the nuclear weapons lab. And the Energy Department began moving toward a five-year program to create a so-called diskless environment at Los Alamos to prevent any classified material being carried outside the lab.

Even though Los Alamos is now under new management, Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight said the lab has not done much to clean up its act.

"Los Alamos has always seemed to be rewarded for its screw-ups," Brian said. "We're waiting with baited breath to see if anything has changed."

The idea that police found classified documents at a home where a drug sting was being conducted is disturbing, she said.

"The problem is when you actually have those materials that are supposed to be protected inside the lab and you find them outside the lab in the hands of criminals — that should worry everybody," Brian said.

The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque were "evaluating the information obtained as a result of the search warrant," Elwell said.

The federal charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.

Mad at George Bush? Get even, give away our intelligence secrets - Updates and link roundup

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!

Or so says Ombudsman Bryan Calame at the New York Times. Michelle Malkin calls it "Un. Freaking. Believable!" It really is, isn't it? The arrogance is mindboggling. What the heck are you talking about Sara?

Remember the Swift Program used to monitor and follow the money of terrorists? Remember when the New York Times splashed the details of that program across its front page? Remember how the White House and the intelligence gurus begged the New York Times not to reveal the program? Remember how they even brought in the big gun democrats from the 9/11 Commission to plead with the NYT not to run the story? And who could forget Secretary Snow's angry letter to the Times? Remember? I thought you might.

So here is ombudsman Bryan Calame in a blurb buried in the Times today regarding the banking data surveillance program:

Since the job of public editor requires me to probe and question the published work and wisdom of Times journalists, there’s a special responsibility for me to acknowledge my own flawed assessments.

My July 2 column strongly supported The Times’s decision to publish its June 23 article on a once-secret banking-data surveillance program. After pondering for several months, I have decided I was off base. There were reasons to publish the controversial article, but they were slightly outweighed by two factors to which I gave too little emphasis. While it’s a close call now, as it was then, I don’t think the article should have been published.

Those two factors are really what bring me to this corrective commentary: the apparent legality of the program in the United States, and the absence of any evidence that anyone’s private data had actually been misused. I had mentioned both as being part of “the most substantial argument against running the story,” but that reference was relegated to the bottom of my column.

The source of the data, as my column noted, was the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift. That Belgium-based consortium said it had honored administrative subpoenas from the American government because it has a subsidiary in this country.

I haven’t found any evidence in the intervening months that the surveillance program was illegal under United States laws. Although data-protection authorities in Europe have complained that the formerly secret program violated their rules on privacy, there have been no Times reports of legal action being taken.

...The lack of appropriate oversight — to catch any abuses in the absence of media attention — was a key reason I originally supported publication. I think, however, that I gave it too much weight.

And here is the clincher, the admission that this was all over an editor(s) at the New York Times being pissed off and getting even:

What kept me from seeing these matters more clearly earlier in what admittedly was a close call? I fear I allowed the vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration to trigger my instinctive affinity for the underdog and enduring faith in a free press — two traits that I warned readers about in my first column.

Frankly, I do not know what to say about this, I find it so shocking. It sounds so high school. So petty. So disgusting. So, so, so infuriating! Screw the American public, screw our brave men and women at war with the terrorists, screw our allies and the citizens of other countries put at risk, screw everyone as long as the NYT feeds its BDS. I pray to God they find the way to prosecute these guys and throw their vicious, reckless, arrogant butts in prison for the rest of their miserable lives and let them find out what a good screwing is all about.

Related:

Times Public Editor - SWIFT Disclosure Was Wrong Tom Maguire sums up in three words: "Toothpaste meet tube." And from a comment:

If we're going to hope that this apologia is a 'sign', let's hope that it's a preemptive move on Commissar Calame's part to distance himself from those he believes will soon be undergoing trial for the NSC disclosures.

The thought of Keller, Sulzberger, Risen and Lichtblau wandering aimlessly around the exercise yard at Leavenworth always cheers me up.

I keep wondering of the staff dismissal on the House committee might be a precursor to something similiar happening wrt the Senate intelligence committee. Maybe accompanied by a reading of the Rockefeller memo on national TV...

Posted by: Rick Ballard | October 22, 2006 at 11:48 AM

Spot on Rick. This sums up my feeling perfectly.

NYT's Calame: Oops.  Our Bad:  (Ed Morrissey)

Reading his effort here, Calame makes it clear that the publication of this story amounted to either incompetence or malice; no other explanation works. The Times knew that no laws had been broken, nor did they ever find any evidence that program officials abused the information gathered. The Times used mutually exclusive arguments to answer their critics after its publication; on one hand, they trumpeted the program as a secret that could lead to abuse (which they never found), and on the other they argued that everyone knew about it, including the terrorists. It took Calame almost four months to discover this rather transparent contradiction.

Byron Calame Should Resign, so says Patterico:

Simply put, Byron Calame overlooked obvious facts, and defended his paper in a knee-jerk fashion, simply because his paper had been viciously attacked by the government.

A public editor who cannot objectively evaluate his paper’s behavior in the face of criticism — from any source — should not be the public editor.

I aggree 100%.

NYT Buffoon Chokes Out "Apology" - "Mama, He Called Me A Bad Name...." (Bill Quick)

Oh, horse manure. You let your ingrained hatred of everything not nakedly leftist - including the Bush administration - govern your thoughts and actions, as do almost all employees of the New York Times.

...

You people are pathetic. Worse, you are Fifth Columnists, and apparently too stupid to even understand what you are.

Traitorous is what they are. This was no insignificant revelation. It hurt us badly with our allies and intelligence agencies worldwide. It hampers our ability to track the terrorists. It is one of many leaks that have damaged the United States and the Bush Administration's ability to fight the terrorists. It is unforgiveable.

Glenn Reynolds: "So the New York Times damaged national security by tipping terrorists off to the existence and nature of a legal program that was not being abused. Remember that the next time they declare their own fitness to be trusted with national security decisions."

Newsbusters wonders:

Amazing. Of course, one has to wonder how much press – if any – Calame’s new position will get, especially sixteen days before an election. Certainly, it seems safe to assume that the drive-by media aren't going to want to give a lot of publicity to the fact that the New York Times own ombudsman now thinks it was wrong for that paper to reveal what ended up being a legal surveillance program.

Oh, I think this will get play. The blogosphere, as you can see already, is in gear. The old days of being able to bury such a stunning mea culpa at the bottom of an article and depend on the mainstream to ignore it are over. People like me, who never read the NYT, are now instantly aware of their perfidity. I expect to see Rush and Fox all over this story come morning, as well they should be. I expect to see the blogosphere explode later today when the football games and the NASCAR race are over. Stay tuned for updates here.

UPDATE:

Hmmmm. Dan Riehl doesn't agree with Patterico and thinks this mea culpa is all about helping Hillary in '08. His reasoning seems to be that it is definitely not to Hillary's benefit to have the looney left, in the persons of Nancy Pelosi and a Dem. led House, in charge for the next two years. Maybe. I think that sitting Grand Jury investigating press leaks, i.e., NSA Surveillance program, may be exerting more influence, but it is an interesting take on the mea culpa of Calame.

Unlike Patterico, I wouldn't want Calame to resign. Why throw out an Editor when you have him on record publicly acknowledging the mistake and that the NY Times doesn't like George Bush? I'd prefer having him right where he is.

NSA - Ny Times preparing for the worse? I've been waiting to see what Mac has to say and he doesn't disappoint. GMTA and all that:

Well there is a reason for this sudden reversal of position.   It’s actually quite simple.

While the grand jury investigation is still on-going, and information scarce, the fact is that there should be cause for nervousness at the Times.

Ace gets down to the nitty gritty with this zinger question: "Where do we go to get our reputation national security back?"

Sister Toldjah is another blogger who doesn't agree with Patterico about a Calame resignation:

Most noteably, they need to revisit their policies that suggest it’s ok to reveal sensitive information in a time of war to the public. The NYT simply does not know how to balance the public’s “right to know” with the government’s obligation to protect the American people.

Eugene Volokh:

It is a little odd to see the New York Times as the underdog, even with respect to the Administration (especially the mid-2006 Bush Administration, which was hardly at the peak of its power).

Ya' think?

But independently of that, could readers please point me to the Administration statements that the editor seems to be referring to as "vicious criticism[s]"? I would genuinely like to be informed about this, since it might provide a better referent for what "vicious" means in political discourse (for instance, for deciding whether particular New York Times columns critical of the Administration are themselves "vicious criticism[s]").

Powerline also questions the "vicious" characterization and comes up with this:

I was struck by Calame's reference to the administration's "vicious criticism" of the Times. Not having any recollection of any such "vicious criticism," I searched the paper's archives to find out what Calame had in mind. There was only one article that could have included "vicious crititicism" between the date when the Times published the leak and the date when Calame defended the publication. Here it is.

The article is titled, " Bush Condemns Report on Sifting Of Bank Records." Here are all of the quotes by administration sources that Calame could have characterized as "vicious":

"Congress was briefed," Mr. Bush said. "And what we did was fully authorized under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America."

"Some in the press, in particular The New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs," the vice president said, adding that the program provides "valuable intelligence" and has been "successful in helping break up terrorist plots."

"Traditionally in this country in a time of war, members of the press have acknowledged that the commander in chief, in the exercise of his powers, sometimes has to do things secretly in order to protect the public," Mr. [Tony] Snow said. ''This is a highly unusual departure."

"If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money,'' the president said. ''And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

And because The Squiggler considers herself to be a public service (I must be, I don't get paid, although I do blog for change), the following is provided for the benefit of the definitionally challenged, i.e. the Nutroots, Kos Kiddies, Bryan Calame, Pinch Sulhzberger, Bill Keller, et al:

vi-cious, adj. 1. addicted to or characterized by vice. 2. given to evil. 3. spiteful or malicious. 4. savage or ferocious. 5. unpleasantly severe.

None of these describe what I would have to say or do to them if I was Queen for the Day.

The Anchoress says it all in the title of her post “I hated Bush so much I couldn’t do my job…”   but what the heck, let's expand just a bit, because we like the way she thinks:

Vicious criticism? Oh, you mean like when President Bush said “these sorts of leaks destroy programs that are saving lives?” Oh, my…that’s vicious. It’s not like Bush called the Times a name…it’s not like Bush took a tone with the Times that came anywhere near the tone the Times editors routinely take over him or his administration. “Waaaaahhhh…I didn’t like how Bush was, so I didn’t do my job! Wahhhh.”

Clearly if you can’t do your job because you can’t put your wounded pride aside, then you shouldn’t be in that job. An ombudsman is supposed to look at a story and judge the rightness of it, without passion or prejudice. Calame has demonstrated he cannot do this, at least not in a timely manner…or above the fold. I give him credit for admitting it, but now that he has seen that he cannot detach his feelings from his work, he should resign.

Lorrie Byrd gives the bottom line and I wish she wasn't quite so accurate, but alas, this is the way it is:

This is so typical of the way the left operates -- page one stories about all the evils of the Bush administration, then when facts prove otherwise, if we are lucky, we get a buried admission months later, after the accusations and allegations have been accepted as conventional wisdom. It is predictable, but effective.

And at the end of the day, LGF puts the nail in the coffin: "He does not deal with the bigger issue—that revealing secret government programs that protect us from terrorists just might negatively affect the security of America." Their "emtpty suit" title made me laugh.

Richard Armitage: Feldman has the goods - A MUST READ!

Clarice Feldman, in a dynamite article at American Thinker, reveals all on Richard Armitage and it isn't pretty. Here is the intro to her article, please read it all. The question I have is why did Richard Armitage and Marc Grossman want so much for us to fail in Iraq that they were willing to commit acts that border on treasonous?

Richard Armitage and the Quiet Death of Liberty TV

October 17th, 2006

All his usual formalities of perfidy were observed with scrupulous technique.    -Winston Churchill on Hitler’s Invasion of Russia

Washington offers numerous opportunities for high officials bent on undermining the Will of Congress, as well as the Chief Executive and his explicit, lawful directives. Richard Armitage, as we now know, ignored an express Presidential Directive in the Plame investigation when he failed to notify the White House that he was the source of the leak to Bob Novak.

But that was not the first time Mr. Armitage has disregarded the President’s explicit orders.

Rumors abounded for years that he and Secretary of State Colin Powell regularly undermined the Administration and its plans in countless other ways respecting Iraq. Most of those claims are not capable of proof because they consisted of anonymous information supplied to reporters and others. But one case breaks that mold: the killing of Liberty TV.

Legislation was passed funding Liberty TV, a channel to be aimed at Iraqi and other Arab audiences. The President signed the budget authorizing it to start spending the Treasury’s funds. The political branches of government had spoken. Yet Liberty TV  never saw the light of day.

I have offered the Department of State an opportunity to explain why the appropriated funds for this program were never spent and have received no reply. Relying on a GAO report, documents, contemporary news accounts and interviews, I have reconstructed what happened.

...

Despite Congressional support, adequate appropriations and the support of two Presidents, the program was never fully funded, and the record shows that the principal reason for this was the animus of Richard Armitage to the INC and the ease with which the bureaucratic apparatus was jiggered to thwart Congressional and Presidential will.

Killing the Program

Continue reading here ...

al-Qaeda: On to the White House!

But, but, they're just freedom fighters, protestors ... so say the Sheehanista Code Pink/Jack Murtha crowd. Wake up people! Forget the stupid sex scandals. Do not ignore the warnings.

Top Qaeda leader urges fighters to hit White House

DUBAI (Reuters) - A man believed to be a top al Qaeda militant who escaped from a U.S. jail near Kabul was shown in a new videotape broadcast on Tuesday exhorting followers in Afghanistan to fight on until they attack the White House.

"Allah will not be pleased until we reach the rooftop of the White House," Abu Yahya al-Libi was shown telling fighters in the tape aired by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.

The channel said the tape was one-hour long, showing footage of Libi urging fighters to train hard and even to try to acquire nuclear technology.

"You have to get well prepared by starting with exercise, and then you have to learn how to use technology until you are capable of nuclear weapons," he said.

Continue Reading Here

Is Zawahiri a democrat?

"Why don't you tell them how many million citizens of America and its allies you intend to kill in search of the imaginary victory and in breathless pursuit of the mirage towards which you are driving your people's sons in order [to] increase your profits?"

Sure sounds like the Democrat's talking points we hear every day from Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean.

To see Zawahiri whine and complain and attack our President, see the video at Hot Air.

President Bush's answer was in his speech this morning:

"The stakes in this war are high and so are the stakes this November. Americans face a choice between two parties with different attitudes on this War on Terror," he told an audience in Birmingham at a Republican fundraiser for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.

"Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on the American homeland in history, the Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing. The party of FDR, the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run," Bush said.

Gateway Pundit writes: Zawahiri sounds so Michael Moorish... It's spooky!

Patterns of Islamic terror

Strategy Page has a comprehensive piece they first published in October 2004 that shows the pattern of Islamic terrorism beginning with the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968. The following list needs to be brought up to date, but it is so comprehensive and puts the lie to the left's talking points that our involvement in Iraq is what has turned otherwise peace loving Muslim extremists into vicious terrorists bent on killing Americans that I think it worth posting. One look at the list from 1968-2004 is all you need.

Could it be that the Deaniacs that make up so much of the far looney left and the most vocal of the anti-Bush, anti-war crowd either weren't yet born or were so young, they have no knowledge of the history of terror? Afterall this is the same group that when polled, have many who think that Gettysburg was the last battle of the Revolutionary War. In any event, I know that the reminder was helpful to me in remembering some of the attacks that at the time were such big news but have faded from memory with time.

Patterns of Islamic Terror
by James Dunnigan
October 28, 2004

Most Notable Islamic Terror Attacks

1968
June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert Kennedy murdered by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, in Los Angeles, which causes further terrorist attacks, as Arab terrorist groups demanded his release.

1969
Feb. 18 - Boeing 707 attacked at Zurich, Switzerland, killing the pilot and 3 passengers.
Aug. 29 - TWA 707 hijacked from Rome to Damascus, released with only wounded.
Nov. 27- El Al office in Athens, Greece attacked. Innocent bystanders killed.

1970
Feb. 21 - Swiss airliner blown up over Switzerland, killing all 47 people on board.

Feb. 23 - PLO terrorists open fire on a busload of Christian pilgrims killing 1 and wounding 2 Americans.
April 21- Bomb explodes aboard a Philippines airliner. All 36 aboard are killed.

Sept. 6 - "Skyjack Sunday" in Jordan. 3 planes (TWA, Swissair, Pan Am) en route to the U.S. hijacked, 400+ hostages, planes blown up in Jordan, Governments agreed to PFLP's demands, released terrorists from jails and hostages released.

Sept. 14 - The PFLP hijacked TWA flight to Ammon, 4 Americans injured.

1971
Nov. 28 - Jordanian prime minister Tal killed by terrorists at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.
Dec. - Jordanian ambassador to London, England is shot by hit squad.

1972
Jan. 26 - Bomb explodes on a Yugoslav plane killing all but one passenger.

May 30 - Ben Gurion Airport, Israel attack killed 26, and wounded 78 U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico.
Sept. 5 - Palestinian terrorists seize 11 athletes in the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, 9 hostages and 5 terrorists killed, plus David Berger from Cleveland.

1973
March 2 - Khartoum, Sudan. Cleo Noel, Jr., U.S. ambassador, and George C. Moore, U.S. diplomat, were held hostage and then killed by terrorists at the U.S. Embassy.

Aug. 5 - Suicide squad attacks Athens airport, Greece, killing 3 civilians and injuring 55.

Dec. 17 - Bomb explodes at Pan Am office at Rome, Italy killing 32 and injuring 50+. The terrorists take 7 Italian policemen hostage and hijack an aircraft to Athens, Greece, killing one of them.

1974
March 1 - Diplomats taken hostage from Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, 2 that are killed are American's.

April 11 - Kiryat Shmona Massacre at an apartment building killing 18 people, 9 were children.

Sept. 8 - Athens, Greece. TWA Flight 841 exploded from bomb in cargo hold, all 88 passengers killed, including 32-year-old Steven Lowe, an American citizen.

Nov. 23 - British DC-10 hijacked at Dubai, UAE, flown to Tunisia where a German passenger was killed.

1975
Jan. 19 - Arab terrorists attack Orly airport, Paris, France, seizing 10 hostages from a bathroom. French provided the terrorists with a plane to fly them to safety in Baghdad, Iraq.

Sept. 30 - Hungarian airplane explodes killing all 64 persons on board.

Dec. 21 - Carlos "The Jackal" holds 11 oil ministers and 59 civilians hostage during the OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria. Flew to Algeria, got $300,000,000 in ransom money, Carlos and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists escape.

1976
Jan. 1 - 82 innocent travelers are killed aboard a Lebanese plane.

June 27 - Air France airliner hijacked, forced to fly to Uganda. Some 258 passengers and crew are held hostage. 3 passengers killed. July 4th, Israeli commandos rescue the remaining hostages.

Aug. 11 - Terrorists attack Istanbul airport, Turkey, killing 4 civilians (1 from U.S.) and injuring 20.

Dec. 4 - Terrorists occupied the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, 1 official killed.

Dec. 14 - Passenger train hijacked and passengers were kept hostage, 3 were killed.

1977
Jan. 1 - F.E. Melov U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, and Robert O.Waring, the U.S. economic counselor, kidnapped and later killed in Beirut.

Oct. 13 - Palestinian terrorists hijack a Lufthansa Flight 181 Boeing 737 and order it to fly around a number of Middle East destinations for four days, pilot is killed by the terrorists, 90 hostages rescued.

1978
March 11 - Gail Rubin, niece of U.S. Senator Ribicoff, among 38 people shot to death by terrorists on a beach near Tel Aviv.

June 2 - A bomb kills 2 people at the CHOGM meeting in Sydney Australia.

1979
July 29 - Terrorist bombs two railway stations in Madrid, kills 7.

Nov. 4 - Terrorists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 American diplomats hostage. 13 freed, but the remaining 53 were held until their release on January 20, 1981 - 444 days - at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan.

1980
April 30 - Terrorists took over the Iranian Embassy in London, holding 26 hostages, 2 of whom died on May 5th after being tortured. Much of the embassy was destroyed by fire.

1981
April 19 - 13 people killed, 177 injured in a terrorist attack in Davao Philippines.

May 13 - Pope John Paul II seriously wounded in assassination attempt in Rome, Italy, by terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca.

Oct. 6 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat machine gunned dead by Islamic Jihad in Cairo for working for peace. 7 others killed, 28 wounded. The assassins are later executed.

1982
Beginning of the 8 years of terrorism in Lebanon.

July 19 - David Dodge, President of the American University in Beirut kidnapped, spends one year in captivity.

Aug. 19 - Two American citizens, Anne Van Zanten and Grace Cutler, were killed along with 6 others when the PLO bombed a Kosher restaurant in Paris, France.

Sept. 14 - Lebanon's President Gemayel and 26 others assassinated by a massive car bomb in Beirut.

1983
Mar. 16 - 5 Marines wounded in hand grenade attack on Beirut International Airport.

April 18 - CIA's Middle East Director, and 83 others are killed, 120 injured in truck bomb on the US Embassy in Lebanon.

Sept. 29 - Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, explodes killing all 166 aboard.

Oct. 23 - Simultaneous suicide truck bombs in Lebanon: 1st crashed into lobby of US Marine Corps Headquarters, 241 Marines dead, 82 seriously injured - and 2nd was French compounds killing 58 paratroopers.

Dec. 12 - US Embassy in Kuwait targeted to destroy the building with a truck bomb, attack foiled by guards and the device killed 5 people and injured 80.

1984
Jan. 18 - Malcolm Kerr, President of the American University of Beirut, was killed by two Hizballah gunmen.

Mar. 8 - Rev. Weir and wife kidnapped in Lebanon and held for 16 months.

Mar. 9 - Car bomb kills 80 (22 Americans) and wounds more than 200 civilians when it drove past the checkpoint at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar.

Mar. 16 - Hizballah kidnapped, tortured and killed William Buckley, an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

Apr. 12 - Hizballah bombed restaurant adjacent to US Air Force base in Torregon Spain, 18 servicemen killed and 83 Americans wounded.

Sept. 20- US embassy in the Beirut is bombed - 2 servicemen and 23 employees are killed, 21 Americans injured including the U.S. and British Ambassadors. 50+ Lebanese were injured.

Dec. 4 - Terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airlines Flight 221 and demanded the release from Kuwaiti jails of some members, serving sentences for attacks on French and American targets. 2 Americans murdered.

1985
March 16 - US journalist Terry Anderson kidnapped in Lebanon, finally released in Dec. 1991 - 6 years later.

April 5 - Bomb explodes outside Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut killing 80 people.

April 12 - Bombing of U.S. soldier's favorite restaurant in Madrid, killing 18 and injuring 82.

June 14 - TWA Boeing 727 Flight 847 hijacked en route to Rome, 8 crew and 145 passengers were held for 17 days, U.S. Navy diver was murdered. After being flown twice to Algiers, the hostages were released after the US pressured to release 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

Sept. 30 - Four Soviet diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon, 1 killed but other three released unharmed after a relative of the terrorist leader's was kidnapped and killed by the Soviet KGB.

Oct. 7 - Terrorists seize the Italian cruise liner, Achille Lauro, during a cruise in the Mediterranean, taking more than 700 people hostage for 3 days. Disabled U.S. citizen, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered in front of other hostages by throwing him in the ocean, before the Egyptian Government offered the terrorists safe haven in return for the hostages' freedom.

Nov. 23 - 98 passengers and crew of an Egyptair Flight 648 are held hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Malta. 5 passengers shot, 2 died, later 57 additional passengers killed when the terrorists set off explosives in the aircraft.

Dec. 27 - Suicide grenade and gun attacks in passenger terminals at Rome and Vienna, Italy airports results in 16 people being killed plus 5 Americans and more than 100 civilians injured.

1986
March 30-April 2nd - A bomb exploded on a TWA flight 840 from Rome as it approached Athens airport. The attack killed 4 U.S. citizens who were sucked through a hole made by the blast, 1 infant, and 9 injured, although the plane safely landed.

April 6 - An explosion at the "La Belle" nightclub in Berlin, U.S. soldiers' hang-out, was bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230 people, including 79 U.S. soldiers.

Sept. 5 - Pan Am Boeing 747 Flight 73 en route to Frankfurt and on to New York hijacked by Palestinian terrorists, with 379 passengers, including 89 Americans, 22 hostages killed, 127 wounded.

Sept. 9 - Hezballah kidnapped Frank Reed, President of American University in Beirut, and held for 44 months, and Joseph Cicippio, and Edward Tracy who were each held for 5 years.

Sept. 17 - A 10-month series of terrorist bomb attacks in France begins. One bomb in Paris kills 5 and injures 52.

1987
A car bomb exploded outside the back gate of the U.S. Embassy in Rome and rockets were fired at the compound from across the street. One passerby was injured in the attacks.

1988
Feb. 5 - US Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Higgens, Chief of the U.N. Truce Force kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah.

March 16 - 4000+ Kurdish civilian bodies found after Saddam Hussein ordered nerve gas attack (weapon of mass destruction) in northern Iraq, after they revolted against his rule from Baghdad. 1.5 million relocated, 200,000 disappeared.

April 5 - 122 held hostage after a Kuwaiti Boeing 747 was hijacked and diverted to Iran, then Cyprus. Kuwait refused requests by hijackers to release 17 convicted terrorists. After 15 days the hijackers were granted asylum in Algeria and released their hostages.

June 26 - US Naval Attaché killed in Athens, Greece.

Dec. 21 - Pan Am Flight 103 - Boeing 747 from London to New York, blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb. All 259 passengers and 11 on the ground were killed, including 35 Syracuse University students and many U.S. military personnel.

1989
June 12 - A bomb exploded aboard an unoccupied boat used by U.S. consular staff.

Sept. 19 - 171 passengers killed when French UTA flight 772 explodes in mid-air over Niger.

October 11 - Izmir, Turkey. A bomb went off outside a U.S. military PX.

1990
Feb. - Attack of tour bus in Egypt killing 11.

1991
Feb. 7 - Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, U.S. civilian contractor shot as he was getting into his car.

Oct. 28 - Ankara, Turkey. Victor Marwick, an American soldier serving at the Turkish-American base, Tuslog, was killed and his wife wounded in a car bomb attack.

Oct. 28 - Two car bombings killed a U.S. Air Force Sergeant and severely wounded an Egyptian diplomat in Istanbul.

Nov. 8 - Bomb destroyed part of the American University in Beirut, killing 1 and wounding 12.

1992
March 17 - Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, destroyed by bomb killing 29, injuring 60.

Hotel in Yemen bombed and U.S. servicemen killed, Operation Restore Hope.

1993
Jan. 25, Virginia, U.S.A. A Pakistani terrorist opened fire with AK-47 on CIA employees standing outside the building. Two agents, Frank Darling and Bennett Lansing, were killed and 3 others wounded.

Feb. 26 - World Trade Center in New York badly damaged by a massive bomb by Islamic terrorists. The van bomb was planted in an underground garage and left 6 people dead and 1042 injured and almost ½ billion dollars in damage.

Feb. 26 - A bomb exploded inside a café in downtown Cairo killing 3, 18 wounded, 2 U.S. citizens.

July 5 - In 8 separate incidents, 19 Western tourists traveling in southeastern Turkey were kidnapped, including U.S. citizen Starger, after weeks in captivity, they were released.

Oct - Killing of U. S. soldiers in Somalia.

1994
July 18 - 86 civilians killed and 300 wounded in bomb attack on Jewish social centre in Buneos Aires, Argentina.

July 26 - Israeli Embassy in London is car-bombed, wounding 20.
Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked to crash the plane in Paris but didn't succeed.

A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman.

1995
Jan. 22 - Islamic Jihad militants blow themselves up amid a group of soldiers near Netanya, killing 21. Operation Bojinka is discovered on a laptop in a Manila, Philippines apartment, in which Osama bin Laden was planning to blow up 12 planes as they flew to the U.S., plus kill the Pope.

March 8 - Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan.

April 9 - Islamic Jihad suicide bomber attacks military convoy in Gaza, killing 7 soldiers and an American tourist.

May 5 - Five foreign oil workers murdered by Islamic GIA terrorists in Algeria.

June 26 - Assassination attempt made against Egyptian President Honsi Mubarak by Islamic radicals who ambushed his motorcade.

July 4 - Six tourists, including two U.S. citizens taken hostage in Kashmir, India. Terrorists demanded the release of Muslim militants held in Indian prisons. On Aug. 13 the decapitated body of the Norwegian hostage was found with a note stating that the other hostages also would be killed if the group's demands were not met. They were not and all other hostages were killed in 1996 by the terrorists.

July 25 - Islamic terrorists explode bomb in metro station in Paris, France, killing 7 people and injuring 84.

Nov. 13 - Car bomb exploded at US Army Office of the Program Manager for Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization, in Saudi Arabia, killing seven, five of them U.S. citizens, and wounding nearly a hundred.

Nov. 19 - Islamic radicals plant bomb in Egyptian embassy in Pakistan killing 17.

Dec. 11 - 15 concurrent car bombings in Algiers kill 15 civilians and over 200 injured.

1996
Feb. 11 - Terrorists explode car bomb in Algiers killing 17. The following month, 2 more killed in another bomb and 10 are killed in a train ambush in western Algeria.

Feb. 25 - A suicide bomber blew up a commuter bus in Jerusalem, killing 26, including 3 U.S. citizens, and injuring 80 others, among them another two U.S. citizens.

April 19 - Eighteen Greek tourists were gunned down near the historic Pyramids in Egypt by Islamic terrorists aiming to destroy the country's tourist industry.

May - Osama bin Laden unites the Islamic Fundamentalists worldwide in their Jihad against Jews and Western Gentiles, such as al-Qaeda, Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, Hamas, Mujahideen, using the Taliban's organization to help fund the operations.

June 25 - Terrorists explode a truck bomb next to a USAF Khobar Towers housing facility at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and 515 injured including 240 U.S. personnel.
Islamic terrorists attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing 71 people, most of them vacationers.

Aug. 26 - Sudan Airways A310 Airbus airliner hijacked en route to Jordan and diverted to England. British authorities negotiate with hijackers who release all the 13 crew and 180 passengers unharmed.

Dec. 3 - A bomb exploded aboard a Paris subway train, killing four and injuring 86 persons, including a U.S. citizen.
A terrorist opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the US, Argentina, Switzerland and France before turning the gun on himself.

Dec. 23 - A car bomb in the Algerian capital, Algiers, kills three and injures 70 people in cafe near the port. Again a week later, a car bomb kills 28 people and injures 35 people. 3rd car bomb in the past two weeks, killing additional 13 people and injuring more than 250.

1997
Jan. 2 - Major cities worldwide and U.S. get letter bombs with Egyptian postmarks at newspaper bureaus in DC, New York, London, Riyadh, S.A., and Leavenworth, KN. Experts defused all but the 1 in London, injuring 2.

Jan. 7 to 21st - Islamic terrorist rampage during these 14 days with car bombs and beheadings in Algiers, total of 238 dead, 139 wounded.

Feb. 23 - Palestinian gunman opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State building in New York, killing 1 and wounding over a dozen visitors before turning the gun on himself.

March 7 - Two killed in bus bomb attack in Beijing, China.
April - Terrorists behead innocent civilians this whole month with a total of 272 murdered and over 100 injured. Knives, axes and chainsaws were used and many of the bodies were burned while still alive.

Sept. 18- 9 German tourists killed when Muslims fire bombed bus in Cairo, Egypt.

Nov. 12 - 2 Terrorists shot to death 4 U.S. auditors of a Texas petroleum company and their driver at a Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan.

Nov. 17 - 58 western tourists killed and 30 injured in gun attack at historic monuments in southern Egypt. 6 of the Islamic terrorists are killed in shoot out with police.

1998
Jan. 15 - U.S. Embassy bombing in Peru.
Published February 23, 1998 - Statement signed by many Islamic Jihad Leaders from most Muslim countries, first by Sheikh Osamah Bin-Ladin: "...In compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can, in any country in which it is possible... We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded, to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. Unless you go forth, Allah will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place."

Aug. 7 - Simultaneous bombs in US Embassies in Kenya, and Tanzania, heavily damaged by massive attacks. In the Nairobi attack 292 people were killed, including 12 Americans, and 5,000 injured. 10 people were killed and 86 injured in Tanzania incident for a total of 302 dead, 5086 injured within an hour.

Aug. 25 - 3 people killed and 25 injured in bomb attack on Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dec. 28 - 16 Western tourists kidnapped, 12 Britons, 2 U.S. citizens, and 2 Australians on the main road to Aden, Yemen. Four victims were killed during a rescue attempt the next day.

1999
Aug. 31 to Sept. 22nd - Russian apartment bombings kill almost 300 and injured 100.

Oct. 31 - EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the U.S. coast of Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board, including 100 Americans.

Nov. 12 - Six rockets were fired at the U.S. and U.N. offices in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Dec. - Millennium terror plots foiled as customs agents arrest a man smuggling in explosives. Plan to attack Los Angeles airport and other sites intercepted by CIA. Also Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb US tourists in Jordan, pick up 28 suspects.
Indian Airlines Flight 814, en route to Delhi, India is hijacked, 1 passenger is killed. After negotiations with the Taliban, the hostages are released.

2000
The last of the 2000 millennium attack plots fails, as the boat meant to bomb USS The Sullivans sinks.

Oct. 12 - A suicide boat exploded next to the U.S.S. Cole (guided-missile destroyer), blowing a hole 40 feet in diameter, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39.

2001
Feb. 5 - A bomb blast in Moscow's Byelorusskaya subway station injures 15 people.

March 28 - Bombing at bus stop in Yemen. U.S. citizens injured including a 15 year old boy from NY.

Aug. 9 - Bombing at Sbarro's pizzeria, killed 15 and wounded over 90, 2 of which were U.S. citizens.

Sept. 11 - 4 U.S. jetliners hijacked and forced to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon like missiles, and 1 crashed in Pennsylvania on the way to the Capital Building in D.C. In all, 266 people perished in the four planes, 2602 people were killed on the ground, plus 343 firefighters, and 184 people at the Pentagon. Almost 5000 injured, 500 rescue workers now have respiratory ailments. 7 buildings collapsed in NY and 23 damaged, plus 4 subway stations.
Paris embassy terrorist attack plot foiled

Oct. 27 - Darya Khanah bombed

Dec. 13 - Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.

Dec. - Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb.

2002
Jan. 27 - A Palestinian woman triggered a massive explosion in Jerusalem killing 1 Israeli and injuring more than 150, including American Mark Sokolow, his wife, and both teenage daughters. Sokolow had survived the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center, escaping from his law office on the 38th floor of the South Tower before it collapsed.

Feb. 16 - Bombing in Karnei Shomron, in a group of teenage girls from the U.S. 2 killed, 4 wounded. Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled March 24 - 20 people die and 93 injured in 3 bomb attacks on Russian towns near the border of Chechnya.

April - Explosion at most historic synagogue in Tunisia left 21 dead, most are German tourists.

May 9 - A bomb exploded in Dagestan kills 42 people and injures 130 during Victory Day festivities.
French oil tanker Limburg bombing off Yemen
Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl

Oct. 12 - Bali car bombing of holidaymakers in a nightclub kills 202 Australian citizens.
Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines

Oct. 19 - Car bomb explodes at McDonald's restaurant in Moscow, killing 1 person and wounding 5.

Oct. 23 - Moscow theater hostage crisis begins; 120 hostages and 40 terrorists killed in rescue 3 days later.

Nov. - Kenyan hotel suicide bombing kills 16 safari tourists.
Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait

2003
May 10- Suicide bombers killed 36 (10 U.S. citizens), at housing compounds for westerners in Riyadh, S.A. Many wounded.
May 12 - attack outside U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12.

May 14 - 16 die in a suicide bombing at a religious festival in southeastern Chechnya.

May - 4 bombs killed 33 tourists (8 U.S. citizens) in Casablanca, Morocco.
July 5 - 15 people die and 40 are injured in bomb attacks at a rock festival in Moscow.

Aug. 1 - An explosion at the Russian hospital in North Ossetia kills 50 people and injures 76.

Aug. - Suicide car bomb killed 12 and injured over 150 at Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sept. 3- A bomb on a passenger train in southern Russia kills 7 people and injures 90.

Oct. 15 - Bombing of US diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip: 3 U.S. citizens killed.

Nov. - Explosions rocked a Riyadh, S.A. housing compound, killing 17.

Nov. - Truck bombs detonated at London bank and British consulate in Istanbul kills 26, injures 22.

Dec. 5 - Suicide bombers kill 46 people in an attack on a train in southern Russia.

Dec. 9 - A blast in the center of Moscow kills 6 people and wounds at least 11.

Bombings of United States expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160.

Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets were "Western and Jewish".
Istanbul Bombings: Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey

2004
109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq Feb. 6 - Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.

Feb. 27 - Superferry 14 is bombed in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf, killing 116.

March 11 - 10 Simultaneous bombings of busiest rush hour commuter trains in Madrid, Spain kills 202 people and injures more than 1,400.

April 21 - Bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5.

May 29 - Al-Khobar massacres--Islamic terrorists kill 22 people and one American at an oil compound in Saudi Arabia.

June 8, 2004  Robert Jacobs, a US defense contractor employee is assassinated at his home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

June 11 - Terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson, Jr. in Riyadh.

Aug. 24 - Russian airplane bombings kill 90.

August 31 A blast near a subway station entrance in northern Moscow, caused by a suicide bomber, kills 10 people and injures 33.
Sept. 1 - 3 Beslan school hostage crisis in North Ossetia, Russia results in over 330 dead.

Sept. 9 - Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia was bombed, killing 9 people.

Oct. 7 - 3 car bombs explode in the Sinai Peninsula hotel, killing 32 and wounding 114, most of them tourists.

A view Jihadis from an intelligence insider ...

During a discussion about the released NIE report at Just One Minute, Dale of Atlanta posted a very long comment detailing his experiences with Middle Eastern intelligence. Dale spent years as part of the military intelligence community. I asked his permission to repost the comment here for all to read and he graciously gave his permission. So here it is in its entirety. The meat of it is quite informative with some eye openers as well.

************************

Originally Posted by: Dale in Atlanta | September 27, 2006 at 11:12 AM

Sara: I, and many of my IC "friends", have advocated dismantling the CIA for over a decade; but no one will listen....!

Gary:  I've been a Cowboy fan for 35 years (I'm not from Atlanta!); and TO has/is/will ruin my team!  Thanks!

All: Rick Moran over at Rightwingnuthouse, threw the NIE open to "discusion" last night; I was up until 2am, giving him my "thoughts"; here it is for you all!

Sorry, no time to clean up the spelling/grammar!

Rick: so much to say, so little time; it’s late and I have to go to bed soon, have a day job, but I’ll see what I can bang out real quick!

Leak: Politically motivated? Ah, yes; it’s so patentedly obvious; it’s really not open for discussion. President is not going to change any minds among the Leftists by Declassifying it anyhow, they made up their minds the day he was elected; he declassified it for his supporters; they’re the only ones he can reach anyhow.

PS: it’s appearing on Leftist Blogs now, that this has been Declassed, and it isn’t “bad” enough, that there is “another” NIE out there, being “sat” on by the President, that is solely focused on Iraq, and it’s ALL bad!

I strongly suspect that this is wishful thinking by Leftist Blogs and the Leftist press; my guess is that they’re getting vibes thru their rumormills, about the Classified Intel Report leaked by the WashPost & NYT two weeks ago, about the Al Anbar Province, written by that Marine Corps Intel Colonel (who’s a friend of mine, by the way…). Though it IS possible there is another NIE about Iraq sitting out there, I highly suspect I’m correct. IF there was a totally negative NIE about Iraq out there floating about the Intelligence Community, the anti-Bush/Rumsfield factions in the Pentagon would’ve already leaked it to the MSM, like they’ve done with this NIE, in an attempt to damage the President before the mid-term elections. Anyway, time will tell if I’m correct, or just swinging in the wind!

For the question of whether the Iraq War is causing an increase in Global Jihad, I have a rhetorical question:

a)Were we in Iraq, when 3000 people were killed in PA, VA, and NYC on 9/11?
b)Were we in Iraq, when the USS Cole was bombed, and 16 US Sailors murdered, and we were just lucky that the whole ship didn’t sink, killing hundreds?
c)Were we in Iraq, when the two AmEmbassies in East Africa were bombed, killing hundreds of innocent locals, and some 50 Americans?
d)Were we in Iraq, when the Khobar Towers were bombed in Saudi Arabia, killing scores there?
e)Were we in Iraq, when the attack on the WTC in 93 was initiated, and killed 6 and wounded people? Something that’s mentioned about that attack is that IF it had been successful, and that fact that it wasn’t was just an accident; but Ramzi Yousef’s plan was to topple the one tower, into the other, and bring them both down! IF that attack had been successful, it’s possible as many as 20,000 people would’ve been killed! Think about that! Were we in Iraq then?
f)Were we in Iraq when the same people planned the Bojinak airliner plot over in the Philippines, which if successful, would’ve killed as many as 3000+ people, in 1995?
g)Were we in Iraq, when Al Qaeda planned, and carried off the attack against our Peace Keepers in Somalia in 1993?
h)Please note, American troops, acting as Peace Keepers in Lebanon in 1983 and Somalia in 1993 were attacked and murdered.
i)Please also note, that America, protecting Muslim populations in Bosnia, in 1996 and in Kuwait in 1991, still was not good enough for the Jihadis, and we were still attacked and mudered, shortly after each event; so even protecting Muslims, from themselves, and their enemies, hasn’t been enough, to stop the Jihadis from attacking us and killing us!

Anyway Rick, if you can ask all the Leftists who oppose the Iraq War, and spout the meme that the Iraq War has CAUSED Jihadism, if you can ask them those questions, I’d be happy to listen to their answers!

Does a terrorist success breed more jihadists? Such as 9/11, etc.
I don’t know if anyone has ever done any in-depth analysis on this, and if so, it would be hard to quantify/put numbers on it!

But, it only makes logical sense, that the answer is Yes! Military recruitment in the US goes up, during/after “successful” Wars, such as the Gulf War, and also when we’re attacked, like 9/11. Those are historical facts; so it only makes sense, that that applies to them. I can’t imagine, under any scenario, which the Inverse is true; that Terrorist “success” causes the number of Jihadis to go down!

Remember, they declared war on us, not vice versa, and they view this as a War that will last decades, if not longer, whereas we are too stupid to realize that yet; so I doubt that any success has a negative impact on their recruiting!
As for this part of the NIE:

Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement:

1. Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness;
2. Iraq Jihad
3. The slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and
4. A pervasive Anti-US sentiment among most Muslims all of which jihadists exploit.

I would personally, based upon 30+ years experience in the Middle East, and as a Marine Intel Officer and Analyst/Specialist on Islamic Fundamentalism, the correct order of these is:

1. A pervasive Anti-US sentiment among most Muslims all of which jihadists exploit.
2. Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness;
3. The slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and
4. Iraq Jihad

Iraq is an excuse, given to them mainly by the Western Leftists, who they view as kindred spirits, and whose talking points they not only study, but use back at us, in propaganda audios/videos from Bin Laden/Zawahiri, and formerly Zarqawi, and now the new mouthpiece, the American Jihadi, Adnan Ghadan
When I first started traveling throughout the Middle East, in the last 1970’s, the Anti-Americanism was already there; the core issue was US support for the State of Israel, which in their view, the ONLY reason it exists, then, and today, is because of US economic and military support, and the support of the US Jewish community; which according to THEM, controls the US Government, the US Media, the US Banking Industry, Hollywood, etc.

Let me make this absolutely clear: THEY FIRMLY BELIEVE THIS! This is a firm as “truth” to them, as death and taxes are to us!

Anyway, the anti-Americanism was already there, and every single setback, every single act, every single event, is viewed as being manipulated, or caused to happen, by the US, via it’s Jewish masters! Again, in this respect, they’re a lot like the Looney Left in this country, and Europe, with the anti-Semitism!
Don’t forget, this goes at least back to WWII; the Arabs, specifically countries like Egypt, and people like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, WHOLEHEARTEDLY thru their lot in with Nazi Germany and the Italian Fascists!

The Grand Mufti went to Germany, to help plan the Holocaust, which they now deny, in an irony of all ironies! From Tunisia, to Egypt, to Syria, to Iraq, to Palestine, Nazi Germany was the flavor of the day! The Grand Mufti helped form a Division of Muslim troops in the Balkans, to fight under the Nazi flag!

After WWII, it was short step from supporting Fascism, to alliances with the Soviet Union for Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria, and post-Kaddafi, Libya!

From there, it is a short segue into Point #2; I really, in my entire career in the Middle East, never heard of such a thing as a “moderate” Imam on a Friday morning. Politically Correct Westerners will pooh-pooh this, and Muslims practicing TAQIYYAH will deny it; but for centuries, the pulpits of the Imams have been used to Islamicize, and preach Jihad, to generations of Muslims.

I presciently wrote about this very issue, 16 years ago, attempting to warn the Intel Community about the threat of increasing Jihadism, post the Gulf War.
Imams preach the glory days of Islam, from the pulpit, and a weekly basis on Friday mornings; the Glory that was the worldwide Islamic Caliphate, from the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain, to the sub-tropical jungles of West Africa, to the shores of Zanzibar in East Africa, to the Caucus Mountains in Central Asia, to the archipelago of the Philippine Islands!

The bygone Golden Empires of Al Andalus and the Alhambra in Granada, the Ottoman Caliphate, the blue city of Bukhara, the wonders of the Mughal Empire in India, and the Taj Mahal, to the conversion of the Hagia Sophia chuch into a Mosque in Istanbul, are events in Islamic history, that are inculcated into EVERY Muslim child, from the time they can read/write/attend Mosque!

Coupled with the inherent sense of superiority within Islam itself; the one “true” religion; the only true monotheistic religion; the only “revealed” religion; the only religion whose Holy Book has been unaltered, and unadulterated by Man, etc., and you have a “people”, Muslims, who arrogantly believe that THEY are the chosen ones, their religion proves it, but the past 700 years of History, since the Reconqista in Spain in 1492, has been TOTALLY against them!

They cannot, for the life of them, rationally rectify this painfully obvious dichotomy, and it has psychologically impacted an entire religion of people, and their behavior, for 700 years!

Point #3 is a “strawman” argument, thrown in there to satisfy the “PC” crowd with in the Intelligence Community!

Right thinking Muslims, don’t even believe in Democracy; not like we do in the West, anyhow. Al Qaeda itself makes that clear! Democracy is contrary to the teaching of Islam; the ONLY Democracy you will have, within a Sharia-controlled society, is what Allah gives you! End of story!

And with a Insha’allah (God Wills it), Bokra (Tomorrow), Ma’alesh (Never mind) mindset (IBM it is referred to by Westerners in the “know”); especially among Sunnis, who completely believe in Allah’s Will, and predestination (they passed a law in the Jordanian Parliament a decade ago, outlawing spare tires in Automobiles, because to carry one, was thwarting the will of Allah!!), and you can see, that social, economic, and political reform is a chimera for Muslims; if Allah wanted them to have it, they would have it!

That’s how the Jihadis are callously and capriciously able to exploit scores of homicide bombers (Shaheed, i.e. “martys”); they don’t tell them, if you kill Americans/Apostates, we’ll pay you $10,000; they tell them your life is shit on this earth, and the ONLY chance you have for a better one, is kill yourself in the service of Jihad, and go to heaven, and have all the Houris (virgins) and Ghalims (prebubescent boys) and water and alcohol you can handle!

Here’s a prime example to use, when Leftist start the meme, like point #3 alludes too, that “poverty” causes “terrorism”, and the Muslims outrage against the US, and inspired the 9/11 plotters (despite the fact, that people like Muhammed Atta, and most of his fellow plotters, and most of the Jihadi middlemen, as well as leaders, are in fact, firmly entrenched in the Middle Eastern MIDDLE CLASS; university educated, middle class families and reputations, and homes, etc.

Anyway, here’s a piece of analysis, you’ll see now where else; name the Top 20 POOREST counties in the World:

1East Timor $ 500
2Somalia $ 500
3Sierra Leone $ 500
4Malawi $ 600
5Tanzania $ 600
6Burundi $ 600
7Congo, Republic of the $ 700
8Congo, Democratic Republic of the $ 700
9Comoros $ 700
10Eritrea $ 700
11Ethiopia $ 700
12Afghanistan $ 700
13Niger $ 800
14Yemen $ 800
15Madagascar $ 800
16Guinea-Bissau $ 800
17Zambia $ 800
18Kiribati $ 800
19Nigeria $ 900
20Mali $ 900

Now, go back, and tell me, which ones have produced Jihadis, and Homicide Bombers, and which one has citizens, that have attacked the US, and Western Europe, et. al??

I’ve pulled them out for you:
2Somalia $ 500
5Tanzania $ 600
12Afghanistan $ 700
14Yemen $ 800

What do those Four have in common, I wonder? Only one that I can think of……wait for it……ISLAM! Isn’t that interesting? How uncomfortable do you think that makes the Leftists feel???

Where are the homicide bombers from East Timor?? How about Sierra Leone? Were any of the 9/11 murderers from Madagascar? I’m sure there are people in Eritrea, who have grievances against the United States; how come they’re not blowing us up? What about Haiti, in our own backyard, the Caribbean? It’s not on this list, but we all know it’s an economic basket case? Where are the Haitian homicide bombers and plotters?

In fact, the ONLY Jihadis, to come out of our hemisphere, except for the “homegrowns” in Canada, and Johnny Taliban here, and the Malvo sniper guy, Padilla etc., have come from the two countries that have a Muslim minority community: Jamaica and Trinidad & Tabago!

So the Lefitst meme, that “poverty” (usually implied as being caused by the United States and Oil Companies) causes the Jihadies to hate and attack us, has just been totally deconstructed here!

If you know your history, and demographics, you’ll notice on that list, there are ARE some countries there, such as the Comoros, Malawi, Nigeria, etc., that DO have Muslim minority populations, or in the case of the Comoros, Muslim Majority populations!

That’s Correct! I NEVER said ALL Muslims, worldwide, in ALL countries, were Jihadis or “terrorists”! However, I will say, that EVERY “terrorist” attack, against us, since the Gulf War, EXCEPT for the Oklahoma City bombing done in 1995, WAS done by Jihadis/Muslims.

Does that make ALL Muslims “terrorist”? Again, NO! But it makes the likelihood, that the next time there is a “terrorist” attack against American/Americans somewhere, that it is/are Jihadis/Muslims who carried it out!
Again Point #4 is one that we want them to have; if it wasn’t Iraq, it would be American support for Israel; which by the way, since we WEREN’T IN IRAQ, during Somalia, WTC ’93, Bojinka Plot, Khobar, etc., are the EXACT excuses that Ramzi Yousef and his uncle, Khaled Sheikh Muhammed used! Go research their testimony, over at the “Wiki”, and you’ll see!

And, if it wasn’t US support for Israel, it would be something else. Syed Qutb, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, visited the US BEFORE Israel was founded, and decided he HATED the US, and Westerners, because we too crude, no class, to rough, too loud, too sexual, too new, to uncivilized!

They’d find any excuse, and seize it; which is something you cannot convince the apologetic Leftists, in this country, or Europe, to realize!
Finally, someone needs to explain to Americans, and the World, WHY Islam in general is the way it is, and why it is susceptible to the Jihadi mindset, and why it susceptible to Anti-Americanism/Anti-Western feelings and propaganda!
The short answer is again a Leftist meme, started decades ago by sympathetic, Leftist Historians in American & European Academia: THE CRUSADES!
That inaccurate meme has been so thoroughly deconstructed; it’s not even worth debating anymore!

If you want to see them deconstructed by a professional, here is a good place to start:
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0506/articles/madden.html

As for me, based upon my own personal observations and experiences, these are the underlying factors; we have to take into account, which you’ll probably see nowhere else.

IF you go back, and look at the crucial time period, the Reconquista in Spain, and the crucial date of 1492 when the Christian and Muslim worldwide societies really began to diverge after Christian Spain finally defeated the last Muslim Emirate in Granada, and expelled all Muslims & Jews from Spain, there are several crucial things that differentiate the two competing Religious Societies:
Western Christian Societies underwent Two Major Transformative Events: Religious Reformation and Industrial Revolutions!

The times/dates were different for every major country, but in general, those two events took place in almost every major Christian power.

For Muslim Societies, the Reconquista in 1492 was the END of their golden ages; yes, there were brief flourishes in the Mughal Empire in India, and the Ottoman Empire, as well as some Central Asian flourishes; but in general, the Muslims societies, especially those most in constant contact with the west, and in closest geographical proximity, took the Reconquista, psychologically, very hard, and began Centuries of retrenchment, regression, suppression, and Devolution!

Religiously, the Council of Nicea in the 4th century, basically “unified” Christianity for hundreds of years until Henry VIII & Reformation etc. Granted, there were “exceptions”, such as the Cathars/Albigensians, the whole Gnostic movement and the Dualists, such as the Bogomils, Manicheans, etc. But basically, the Catholic Church was pretty aggressive in stamping out dissent, and “heresies”, and until Henry VIII and Martin Luther; it was pretty mono-theocratic!

Islam, if you now anything about the history of it at all, was the exact opposite! From the day that Muhammed died, Islam was a fractured religion! With no clear successor, the first schism appeared with the Shi’ites, and the Khajirits; two groups who did not want to follow Abu Bakr, Muhammed’s uncle and elected successor!

It went downhill from there, with literally hundreds of Sunni, Sufi, and Shi’ite sects, canonical schoos, etc., vying for control of Islam, and control of the message!

In other words, Christianity was unified for centuries, Islam was not, and has not, and never will be!

Additionally, another unifying factor for Christianity was that at it’s founding, Christianity was an oppressed religion! It was the new kid on the block; competing against its Jewish progenitors, and the big guys: Egyptian Pharaonic Religion; the Greek & Roman pagan religions, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, and even splits in its own ranks (prior to Nicea). Christian converts in Roman, use to have battles in the streets with followers of Mithraism, over meeting places and followers! Historically, Christianity was actually a dicey proposition for several centuries, and struggled to just survive, let alone spread. This “toughness”, and ruthlessness, that helped it survive and grow, served it well, in its later struggles with Islam!
Islam on the other hand, came to being, really, at a time where there was a major Political and Military “vacuum” in the Middle East. The old Roman Empire had collapsed, the Byzantine Empire was weak; the Zoroastrian Empire was collapsing in Persia; Egypt was Christian, but a shadow of its former self, and most of the Middle East was devolving into city-state status!

Most people don’t realize, but in less than a hundred years from it’s founding by Muhammed in Mecca, Muslim armies had spread across the Middle East, North Africa, and out into Central Asia, Persia, India, and into Indonesia, and as far as the Philippines and East Africa!

Muslim armies crossed from Morocco, into Spain, and were at the Pyrenees, by 732AD! The growth rate was phenomenal, and too fast!

When things were going good for them, and they were expanding, or in a form of stasis, things were fine! When Muslim armies started to suffer their first defeats, and setbacks, in the 11th century, at the hands of the Mongols, THAT is what spawned the Salafiyyah movement, under Ibn Tamiyyah, that exists up until today, under Bin Laden and Al Qaeda

After the Reconquista, Christian societies came out of the so-called “dark ages”, and began a remarkable ascent, politically, religiously, economically, colonially; all of these evolving factors naturally caused the actual hold of the religion itself on society, to evolve, and weaken.

Obviously, this very weakening, those two Transformative events, Religious Reformation and Industrial Revolution, DID NOT occur at all, or only on a very limited scale/location (possibly Ataturk’s Turkey!), in Muslim Societies worldwide!

Without those two major societal transformative events, that is how today, you have a 1000+ year old Theological philosophy, Salafiyism, that believes it’s okay to cut people’s heads off, that still hold’s sway over a healthy minority of worldwide Muslim societies, and more disturbingly, a larger percentage of supporters and sympathizers worldwide!

There’s an additional Economic factor consider as well!

I once had a wise old Anthropology professor, at the American University of Cairo, ask our class, composed mostly of Egyptian students, how far they thought that Egypt/the Arab/Muslim worlds were “behind” the US?
There was some nervous laughter and glances, and then after some discussion, the Egyptian students agreed that Egypt/the Arab/Muslim worlds were about 150 years “behind” the West/America.

The professor then put this up on the board:

Islam: Ramadan: month long fast; loses also at least 5 weeks of economic productivity each year!

Anyone who knows anything about Islam, the custom of the Holy month of Fasting during Ramadan, and who has been to an Islamic country when they are actually in observance of Ramadan, will immediately know what the Professor was talking about!

They go on a 5 week holiday every year, mandated by their religion, and because they have to Fast all day, including liquids, and thus eat & sleep and fornicate at night, only, between sunset and sunrise, they lose 5 weeks per year, of Economic Productivity!

That’s amazing!

If you factor in the fact that since it’s founding, Islam has basically been around for 1400 years; and thus 5 weeks per year, you get a figure of 135 YEARS of lost economic productivity, and even cultural and societal and governmental as well, over the 1400 year course of Islamic History!

Not far off, from those Egyptian’s students “guess”, all those years ago!

********************

Note: Mali, mentioned in Dale's piece was also the base of operations for AQ Khan as he established his nuke selling network.

Bush-Karzai: What a press conference!

At a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush said political opponents had disclosed only select parts of the National Intelligence Estimate, a U.S. global report on terrorism, and he decided to make the document public so "you read it for yourself." Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes," Bush said.

Did you catch the press conference this morning with President Bush and Afghani President Hamid Karzai? It was great.

At one point, Bush kind of went off about intelligence leaks and the latest leak of the April NIE. Check out the video:

Partial Transcript:

KARZAI: Thank you very much, Mr. President.

It's a great honor to be in your very beautiful country once again, especially during fall, with all the lovely leaves around.

And thank you very much for the great hospitality that you and the first lady are always giving to a guest, especially to me.

And thanks also for your visit to Afghanistan and for seeing us in our country, and for seeing from close as to who we are and how we make it to a better future.

I'm very grateful, Mr. President, to you and the American people for all that you have done for Afghanistan for the last four-and-a-half years, from roads to education to democracy to parliament to good governance effort to health and to all other good things that are happening in Afghanistan.

Mr. President, I was the day before yesterday in the Walter Reed hospital. There I met wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there also I met a woman surgeon with six boys, from 7 to 21, that she had left behind in America in order to build us a road in the mountainous part of the country in Afghanistan.

KARZAI: There's nothing more that any nation can do for another country _ to send a woman with children to Afghanistan to help. We are very grateful. I'm glad I came to know that story. And I'll be repeating it to the Afghan people once I go back to Afghanistan.

We discussed today all matters that concern the two countries: the question of the reconstruction of Afghanistan, improvement for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the equipping of the Afghan army, the training of the Afghan army, the police in Afghanistan, in all other aspects of reconstruction.

We also discussed the region around us; discussed our relations with Pakistan and the question of the joint fight that we have together against terrorism.

And I'm glad that, Mr. President, that you are, tomorrow, hosting a dinner for me and President Musharraf. And I'm sure we will come out of that meeting with a lot more to talk about to our nations in a very positive way for a better future.

Mr. President, we, the Afghan people, are grateful to you and the American people for all that you have done.

I had things in mind to speak about, and you did that. So I will stop short and let the questions come to us.

BUSH: We'll have two questions a side.

Q: Thank you, sir.

Even after hearing that one of the major conclusions of the national intelligence estimate in April was that the Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world, why have you continued to say that the Iraq war has made this country safer?

And to President Karzai, if I might: What do you think of President Musharraf's comments, that you need to get to know your own country better when you're talking about where terror threats and the Taliban threat is coming from?

BUSH: You want to start?

KARZAI: Go ahead, please.

BUSH: I, of course, read the key judgments on the NIE. I agree with their conclusion that, because of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaida, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent.

I'm not surprised the enemy is exploiting the situation in Iraq and using it as a propaganda tool to try to recruit more people to their murderous ways.

Some people have, you know, guessed what's in the report and have concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree. I think it's naive. I think it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the offense against people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe.

The terrorists fight us in Iraq for a reason; they want to try to stop a young democracy from developing, just like they're trying to fight this young democracy in Afghanistan.

And they use it as a recruitment tool because they understand the stakes. They understand what will happen to them when we defeat them in Iraq.

You know, to suggest that if we weren't in Iraq we would see a rosier scenario, with fewer extremists joining the radical movement, requires us to ignore 20 years of experience.

We weren't in Iraq when we got attacked on September the 11th. We weren't in Iraq and thousands of fighters were trained in terror camps inside your country, Mr. President. We weren't in Iraq when they first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993.

KARZAI: Yes, sir.

BUSH: We weren't in Iraq when they bombed the Cole.

KARZAI: Yes, sir.

BUSH: We weren't in Iraq when they blew up our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

My judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse, because they have ambitions. They kill in order to achieve their objectives.

You know, in the past, Osama bin Laden used Somalia as an excuse for people to join his jihadist movement.

In the past, they used the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was a convenient way to try to recruit people to their jihadist movement.

They've used all kinds of excuses.

This government is going to do whatever it takes to protect this homeland. We're not going to let their excuses stop us from staying on the offense.

The best way to protect America is to defeat these killers overseas so we do not have to face them here at home.

We're not going to let lies and propaganda by the enemy dictate how we win this war.

Now, you know what's interesting about the NIE? It was an intelligence report done last April. As I understand, the conclusions _ the evidence on the conclusions reached was stopped being gathered on February _ at the end of February.

And here we are coming down the stretch in an election campaign and it's on the front page of your newspapers. Isn't that interesting? Somebody's taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes.

I talked to John Negroponte today, the DNI. You know, I think it's a bad habit for our government to declassify every time there's a leak, because it means it's going to be hard to get good product out of our analysts. Those of you who've been around here long enough know what I'm talking about.

But once again there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign in order to create confusion in the minds of the American people.

In my judgment, that's why they leaked it.

And so we're going to _ I told the DNI to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. It will stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq; you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy.

And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible _ declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself.

And he'll do so in such a way that we'll be able to protect sources and methods of _ that our intelligence community uses.

And then everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says.

Thank you.

Q: (OFF-MIKE)

BUSH: Why _ why is declass _ what was that question?

Q: Why is that declassification not a political act?

BUSH: Because I want you to read the document so you don't speculate about what it says.

You asked me a question based upon what you thought was in the document _ or at least somebody told you was in the document. And so I think you'll be able to ask a more profound question when you get to look at it yourself ... as opposed to relying upon gossip and somebody, you know, who may or may not have seen the document trying to classify the war in Iraq one way or the other.

It's a _ just I guess it's just Washington _ isn't it? _ where, you know, we, kind of _ there's no such thing as classification anymore, hardly.

But, anyway, you all take a look at it, and then you'll get to see.

KARZAI: Ma'am...

BUSH: Why don't you ask them _ yeah, you got the two-part question.

KARZAI: Ma'am, before I go to the remarks by my brother, President Musharraf, terrorism was hurting us way before Iraq or September 11. The president mentioned some examples of it.

These extremist forces were killing people in Afghanistan and around for years, closing schools, burning mosques, killing children, uprooting vineyards with vine trees, grapes hanging on them, forcing populations to poverty and misery.

They came to America on September 11, but they were attacking you before September 11 in other parts of the world.

We are a witness in Afghanistan as to what they are and how they can hurt. You are a witness in New York.

Do you forget people jumping off the 80th floor or 70th floor when the planes hit them? Can you imagine what it will be for a man or a woman to jump off that high?

Who did that? And where are they now? And how do we fight them, how do we get rid of them, other than going after them? Should we wait for them to come and kill us again?

That's why we need more action around the world, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to get them defeated. Extremism, their allies, terrorists and the likes of them.

On the remarks of my brother, President Musharraf, Afghanistan is a country that is emerging out of so many years of war and destruction and occupation by terrorism and misery that they brought to us.

We lost almost two generations to the lack of education. And those who were educated before that are now older.

We know our problems. We have difficulties. But Afghanistan also knows where the problem is, in extremism, in madrassas preaching hatred, places by the name of madrassas preaching hatred. That's what we should do together, to stop.

The United States, as an ally, is helping both countries. And I think it is very important that we have more dedication and more intense work, with sincerity, all of us, to get rid of the problems that we have around the world.

Q: Mr. President, what is your new strategy to fight against terrorism and also to deal with narcotics in Afghanistan?

Thank you.

KARZAI: All right.

This was to me or to President Bush?

OK.

Ma'am, there is no new strategy on the fight against terrorism. We are continuing the strategy that we have. We are implementing the strategy. We are moving further in that strategy. We are getting more of them. We're trying to clean the country of these elements and the region of these elements by doing more reconstruction, by doing more search for the terrorist elements hiding around there.

So the fight against terrorism will continue the way we started it, on all...

Q: (OFF-MIKE) think it's working now the way it's going?

KARZAI: It is absolutely working.

We come across difficulties as we are moving forward, and that's bound to happen. And we get over those difficulties. We resolve them, and we go the next stage of this fight against terrorism for all the allies.

At one stage, four years ago we had a war against them to dislodge them from Afghanistan, to remove them from being the government of Afghanistan. And then there were major operations against them to arrest them or to chase them out.

And then we began to rebuild the country, to have roads, to have schools, to have health clinics, to have education, to have all other things that people need all over the world.

And now we are at a stage of bringing more stability and trying to get rid of them forever.

The desire is to do that sooner. But a desire is not always what you get. So it will take time. And we must have the patience to have the time spent on getting rid of them for good.

On narcotics, it is a problem. It is an embarrassment to Afghanistan. And I told President Bush earlier in my conversation with him we feel very much embarrassed for having narcotics growing in our country.

But again, it has come to Afghanistan because of years of our desperation and lack of hope for tomorrow.

I know Afghan families, ma'am, who destroyed their pomegranate orchards or vineyards to replace them with poppies because they did not know if they were going to have their children the next day, if they were going to be there in their own country the next day, if they were going to be having their homes standing the next day.

It has become a reality because of droughts and years of misery.

We have worked on the problem. In some areas of the country we have succeeded. In other areas of the country we have failed because of the circumstances and because of our own failures.

We have discussed that, and we will continue to be very steadfast. It is Afghanistan's problem, so Afghanistan is responsible for it and Afghanistan should act on it, with the help of our friends in the United States and the rest of the world.

Q: Former President Clinton says that your administration had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after he left office. Is that factually accurate? And how do you respond to his charges?

BUSH: You know, look, I've watched all this, you know, fingerpointing and, you know, namings of names and all that stuff.

Our objective is to secure the country.

BUSH: And we've had investigations, we had the 9/11 Commission, we had the look-back this, we've had the look-back that.

The American people need to know that we spend all our time doing everything we can to protect them.

And I'm not going to comment on, you know, other comments. But I will comment on this; that we're on the offense against an enemy who wants to do us harm, and we must have the tools necessary to protect our country.

On the one hand, if al-Qaida or al-Qaida affiliates are calling somebody in the country, we need to know why. That's why Congress needs to pass that piece of legislation.

If somebody's got information about a potential attack, we need to be able to ask that person some questions. And so Congress has got to pass the piece of legislation.

You can't protect America unless we give those people on the front lines of protecting this country the tools necessary to do so within the Constitution.

And that's what the debate is here in the United States. There are some decent people who don't believe _ evidently don't believe we're at war and, therefore, shouldn't give the administration what is necessary to protect us.

And that goes back to her question: Does being on the offense mean we create terrorists?

My judgment is: The only way to defend the country is to stay on the offense. It is preposterous to think, if we were to withdraw, and hope for the best, things would turn out fine, against this enemy.

That was my point about, you know, before we were in Iraq, there was thousands being trained in Afghanistan to strike America and other places.

The only way to protect this country is to stay on the offense, is to deal with threats before they fully materialize and, in the long term, help democracy succeed, like Afghanistan and Iraq and Lebanon and a Palestinian state.

But there's a difference of opinion. It will become clear during this campaign, where people will say: Get out; leave before the job is done. And those are good, decent, patriotic people who believe that way. I just happen to believe they're absolutely wrong.

And so I'm going to continue to work to protect this country. And we'll let history judge all the different fingerpointing and all that business.

I don't have enough time to fingerpoint. I've got to stay _ I've got to do my job, which comes home everyday in the Oval Office, and that is to protect the American people from further attack.

Now there are some who say: Well, maybe it's not going to happen, you know? Well, they don't see what I see.

All I ask is that they look at that terror plot that, along with the Brits, we helped to help stop: people who were going to get on an airplane and blow up innocent lives in order to achieve political objectives.

They're out there. They're mean. And they need to be brought to justice.

And how impressive was Karzai? Very, if you ask me, and very committed. Perhaps far more committed than most of those who were in the room asking the questions.

I would remind you that the very last thing either the NYT or Democrats want is to have the April NIE declassified. It defeats their partisan political leaking purposes to have more than some out of context statements being touted as final conclusions or completed facts.

Related:

More of What You Won't Read in the NYT from In from the Cold:

Thankfully, the actual NIE is not the harbinger of disaster that the Times and WaPo would have us believe. According to members of the intel community who have seen the document, the NIE is actually fair and balanced (to coin a phrase), noting both successes and failures in the War on Terror--and identifying potential points of failure for the jihadists. The quotes printed below--taken directly from the document and provided to this blogger--provide "the other side" of the estimate, and its more balanced assessment of where we stand in the War on Terror (comments in italics are mine).

On Bill Clinton: "I felt like a mountain was coming down in front of me" ... Updated

Have you had more about Bill Clinton's meltdown, childishness and finger pointing than you can stand at this point? I have had no respect for Bill Clinton since the first time I saw him as the person tapped to introduce Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic convention. When he became a "serious" (no I never considered him serious) candidate in 1992, I could barely stand to look at the man. His arrogant smirk drives me crazy. Then I heard that he'd written that letter to get out of the draft, the one where he says "I despise the military," and that did it for me. I would have voted for anyone else but Bill Clinton at that point. That he managed to fool the people for not only one but two elections is still a mystery to me. He is a sleaze and his actions while in the White House bear me out and so do his actions since he left. As for fighting terror, the dems and Clinton still don't get it ... you can not fight worldwide terror and take out the terrorists by treating it as a domestic criminal case (1998 U.S. Grand Jury Indictment against bin Laden).

So, it you must, Hot Air has the video and Sweetness and Light has the transcript and Byron York sums up and Jonah Goldberg says: "Bill Clinton in his interview today seemed to be suggesting that conservatives uniformly opposed and denounced him when he launched his "wag the dog" strike in 1998. For the record, here's the NR editorial in response to the attacks, dated 9/14/98," also Newsday 8/21/1998, Gingrich (CNN) 8/23/1998, AP 8/21/1998. Jim Geraghty does some fact checking:

Bill Clinton, in that Fox News interview:

OK, now let’s look at all the criticisms: Black Hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew Al Qaida was a growing concern in October of ‘93.

Not a living soul in the world... except for President Clinton's own Justice Department. The U.S. Justice Department's indictment of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda's military commander, Mohammed Atef, on Nov. 4, 1998, for conspiring to kill Americans: (if you are a truthseeker, you'll read it all)

And via Drudge, here are the after interview remarks by Chris Wallace:

Following today's buzz generating conversation with Bill Clinton, Chris Wallace shared some of his post-interview thoughts with FishbowlDC:

I was delighted to get the chance to interview former President Clinton. This was the first one-on-one sitdown he's ever given "Fox News Sunday" during our 10 years on the air.

The groundrules were simple--15 minutes--to be divided evenly between questions about the Clinton Global Initiative and anything else I wanted to ask.

I intended to keep to the groundrules.  In fact--I prepared 10 questions--5 on the CGI and 5 on other issues.

I began the interview with 2 questions about Mr. Clinton's commitment to humanitarian causes. His answers were cogent and good-humored.

Then--I asked him about his Administration's record in fighting terror--fully intending to come back to CGI later (as indeed I did).

I asked what I thought was a non-confrontational question about whether he could have done more to "connect the dots and really go after al Qaeda."

I was utterly surprised by the tidal wave of details--emotion--and political attacks that followed.

The President was clearly stung by any suggestion that he had not done everything he could to get bin Laden. He attacked right-wingers--accused me of a "conservative hit job"--and even spun a theory I still don't understand that somehow Fox was trying to cover up the fact that NewsCorp. chief Rupert Murdoch was supporting his Global Initiative. I still have no idea what set him off.
Former President Clinton is a very big man. As he leaned forward--wagging his finger in my face--and then poking the notes I was holding--I felt as if a mountain was coming down in front of me.

The President said I had a smirk.  Actually--it was sheer wonder at what I was witnessing.

I tried repeatedly to adhere to the ground rules--to move the President along--and back to the CGI. But he wanted to keep talking about his record fighting terror.

When it became clear he wanted to throw out the ground rules--then I just went with the flow of the interview.

And this comment just about says everything I have to say on the subject of Bill Clinton:

Why Don't Ex-Dem Presidents Ever Go Away?!!
09-24-06 | cww

Posted on 09/24/2006 1:49:46 PM PDT by CWW

What is it with former Democrat Presidents? They are like those guys in your fraternty 20 years ago that keep trying to create the good 'ol days.

The sad thing about it is that they are dangerous because they have a sort of "government in exile" type mentality. It's almost as if they are waiting for America to beg them to come back, that we should just collectively apologize to Carter for kicking him out of office and to Clinton for impeaching him.

What's worse is that they and their sychophantic minions, e.g., Madeline Albright, Ramsey Clarke, etc., really undermine the present administration by constantly publicly second guessing and monday morning quarterbaking everything.

I mean think about it -- does anyone give a rats a$$ what President Carter has to say about foreign policy issues? This is the same guy who the Soviets duped on Afganistan, Salt II, etc., not to mention the Iran hostage crisis.

And Clinton on terrorism? Oh please spare me!!! Can anyone say World Trade attack #1, the USS Cole, Somalia, the embassy bombings.

Are they so narcissistic that they think we really care what they have to say?

Carter -- I liked you better working on Habitat for Humanity houses, and you, Clinton, when helping Tsunami victims.

President Clinton, President Carter -- you had your shot. Now please sit down and shut up!!

I highly recommend the Anchoress piece I agree with the Captain - UPDATE. Although she takes some exception to one Clinton claim, she is level-headed and actually quite generous to our former CofC. A snippet from today's update, but worth your time to go read the whole thing:

:::UPDATED:::SCROLL DOWN FOR ORIGINAL POST:::

Update: One thing that did offend me about Clinton’s statement was that “right wingers” didn’t support him, or something like that. Annoying revision of history. Ace is still angry and he puts it to rights with this NY Times story from 1998:

Congressional leaders were briefed about the planned raid Wednesday night and Thursday morning. For the most part, Republican leaders praised Clinton’s decision and urged more aggressive action against terrorism.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich expressed firm support, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, said, “Our response appears to be appropriate and just.”

Did some “right wingers” fuss? Yes. But the “head right wingers” supported the president as did the majority of conservatives.

But while the Republican leadership rallied to support the raids, some members of Congress reacted suspiciously, noting that the action followed by three days Clinton’s acknowledgment to the public and a grand jury of his relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky.

Oh, my goodness…isn’t that harsh? President Bush has never had to endure such rudeness and opposition!

Ace has more wet blankets to throw on Clinton here. I’m making a note to myself: never tick off Ace!
END UPDATE:::

Patterico's Pontifications says:

"Clinton’s charge that Wallace hasn’t asked these sorts of questions of Bush officials is false." So what else is new?

In 2004, Wallace asked almost the exact same question of Donald Rumsfeld that he asked Clinton today.

Here’s what Wallace asked Clinton today:

[H]indsight is 20 20 . . . but the question is why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?

And here is what Wallace asked Donald Rumsfeld on the March 28, 2004 episode of Fox News Sunday:

I understand this is 20/20 hindsight, it’s more than an individual manhunt. I mean — what you ended up doing in the end was going after al Qaeda where it lived. . . . pre-9/11 should you have been thinking more about that?

. . . .

What do you make of his [Richard Clarke’s] basic charge that pre-9/11 that this government, the Bush administration largely ignored the threat from al Qaeda?

. . . .

Mr. Secretary, it sure sounds like fighting terrorism was not a top priority.

Be sure to check out Gateway Pundit's great link roundup from around the blogosphere. We especially like this quote, but take a look at all the links:

More from Dr. Sanity... "In spite of all the self-serving BS delivered up in his interview with Chris Wallace, there is no indication that Osama ever felt the need to hide himself when Clinton was US President."
-As evidenced by the above 1998 video!
Hat Tip Larwyn

John McCain wants to shut this down ...

The next time you hear anyone say that harsh interrogation techniques don't yield results, think of this report.

Via Hot Air:

Bombshell: ABC independently confirms success of CIA “torture” tactics

Hard decision time for St. John of Tucson.  Choose carefully, Senator.

Please note that the clip has been slightly edited for time/bandwidth purposes.