Terrorism in Transit

Remember in July when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had a "gut feeling" about an increased terrorism risk this summer based on patterns and intelligence he wouldn't disclose?

Then this week we had two unsettling events.... first, another Osama bin Laden "boo." Although this pre-9/11 video (transcript) reads more like a U.S. history lesson and Islam conversion screed.

And, CIA Director, Gen. Michael Hayden, spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations.... at his request, decked out in his military uniform.... and defended his agency's controversial program of detaining terrorism suspects in secret jails abroad.

Then, Hayden cited the findings of the recent National Intelligence Estimate.... the one issued in July... saying that "Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction, and significant economic aftershocks." (WaPo) When pressed on this warning, he wouldn't give details.

So, just what did that NIE report say that was so upsetting to Chertoff's guts and now elicits warnings from Hayden?

The published public NIE report, "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," of July, 2007 is short. The "Key Judgments" just a terse page and a half. And, yes, it did give Hayden's warning.

And, this sobering assessment too: "... globalization trends and recent technological advances will continue to enable even small numbers of alienated people to find and connect with one another, justify and intensify their anger, and mobilize resources to attack - all without requiring a centralized terrorist organization, training camp, or leader."

Interesting. So, our government is taking extra precautions.... right?

No. Just the opposite.

Because... and this really is unbelievable.... Thursday our own Department of Transportation started allowing Mexican trucks to roll over the U.S. border, freely roaming anywhere in the U.S. No need to spell out the terrorism risks, the economic and safety pitfalls, or the unbelievable joy of the Mexican drug dealers.

Just as nothing changes the course set by the The Decider's "vision" for the Middle East (more on that in a moment).... not the cost in blood and treasure, not the outrage of the American public.... also, nothing deters Bush in his determination for open borders with Mexico and his covert push toward a North American Union.

Now, if you can stand it, this last tidbit today from the Columbia Journalism Review, called "An Iran Plan?"

CJR reported that Barnett Rubin, a New York University professor and widely-respected Afghanistan expert and fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, wrote that just before the Labor Day weekend, the Office of the Vice President had issued "instructions" to a group of right wing think tanks and media outlets, asking them to mount an anti-Iran PR offensive after Labor Day with the goal of building support for U.S. military action.

When the assistant editor, Clint Hendler, at the CJR contacted Rubin to see if any journalists had contacted him to run down the story, Rubin replied, "Let's say I have not been overwhelmed with the volume. No one has contacted me from the NYT, WP, WSJ, or FT. No wire services."

It all just doesn't make sense.... administration warnings about homeland terrorism yet opening our borders to Mexican trucking.... in over our heads in Iraq yet serious saber rattling on Iran.

Congress.... it's up to you to stop this runaway White House and their monstrous hidden agenda.

Coming Together on Iraq Divide

It's not often that this blog is on the same page on the subject of Iraq as Washington Post's conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer.

This crafter of the "Reagan Doctrine" supported the preemptive invasion of Iraq, although he kept in mind the downside, stating on the eve of the war in 2003.... "reformation and reconstruction of an alien culture are a daunting task. Risky and, yes arrogant." Indeed. Not to mention imperialistic.

In February 2004, a worried Krauthammer cautioned on the war, "it may yet fail. But we cannot afford not to try. There is not a single, remotely plausible, alternative strategy for attacking the monster behind 9/11. It's not Osama bin Laden; it is the cauldron of political oppression, religious intolerance,and social ruin in the Arab-Islamic world--- oppression transmuted and deflected by regimes with no legitimacy into virulent, murderous anti-Americanism."

All of the buzz words here, "9/11, ".... regimes with no legitimacy,".... "anti-Americanism."

So, today, it was surprising, but welcome, to read in Krauthammer's weekly column his current thinking.... "The Partitioning of Iraq."

It is worth quoting his latest turn of mind: "A weak, partitioned Iraq is not the best outcome. We had hoped for much more. Our original objective was a democratic and unified post-Hussein Iraq. But it has turned out to be a bridge too far. We tried to give the Iraqis a republic, but their leaders turned out to be, tragically, too driven by sectarian sentiment, by an absence of national identity, and by the habits of suspicion and maneuver cultivated during decades in the underground of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian state.

"All of this was exacerbated by post-invasion U.S. strategic errors.... we now have to look for the second-best outcome."

Those who opposed the war would argue that the neocons should have known the Iraqis and their culture before our "risky" and "arrogant" invasion. But, that would be to dwell on how we got into the mess we're in, as tempting as that is, and not on a way forward.

Krauthammer credits presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) along with other "thoughtful scholars and politicians" with long calling for partition. And he hopes for success of such a solution because unlike other colonial-style partitions, "The lines today are being drawn organically by self-identified communities and tribes. Which makes the new arrangement more likely to last."

We can only hope The Decider will listen to this common sense solution offered by all sides of the political spectrum.

Bush Ignores Intelligence

There he goes again.... trying falsely to link 9/11 and al-Qaeda to his war in Iraq.

Furiously beating the fear gong, "Bush Emphasizes al-Qaeda's Role in Iraq." According to The Decider, "The facts are that al-Qaeda terrorists killed Americans on 9/11, they're fighting us in Iraq and across the world, and they are plotting to kill Americans here at home again." (WaPo)

Well..... yes. Though al-Qaeda ranks fifth in the recent intelligence report listing the groups causing the turmoil in Iraq, just one percent of the fighters... first are the warring tribal factions. And, with Bush's agenda-driven policy that diverted our "war on terrorism" to Iraq, he has allowed Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda are reconstitute themselves in Pakistan

As Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) pointed out, Bush "ignored his own intelligence agencies and continued to spin a false rationale for the escalation of the war in Iraq," and, that a recent National Intelligence Estimate "contradicted what the president said today and made it clear that al-Qaeda is stronger because of our massive military presence in Iraq."

It is the congressional Republicans supporting The Decider's stubborn pursuit of his failed policy in Iraq that is standing in the way of finding a new way to deal with the Iraq war.

The American public has made it clear, they want to end our combat participation in the war in Iraq. GOP legislators can either listen to the American people now, or hear from them in 2008!

The Schitzo Chronicles

George W. Bush has been hearing voices.... God has been whispering in his ear, telling George he's the chosen one to carry out a messianic mission.

In 2005 the BBC aired a series called "Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs." In this documentary, Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with Bush in June of 2003.... four long and bloody years ago.

Shaath: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did. And then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...." And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it." (BBC)

We all have heard Bush frame his "global war on terror" in the terms of good and evil... the "axis of evil," the "evil-doers," as he puts himself at the head of the crusade to execute what he scarily believes to be divine will.

In Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack," he recounts how Bush told him after giving the order to invade Iraq in March of 2003 that "I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will."

We all remember when Bush was asked by Woodward whether he had asked his former-president father for advice on what to do about Iraq, Bush replied that his earthly father was "the wrong father to appeal to for advice... there is a higher father that I appeal to."

So, Bush unleashed the dogs of war against Iraq... justifying his actions with lies, faulty intelligence and propaganda slogans.... firm in the belief he was on a mission from his God and in a religious fog.... God will take care of all.

Bush and his neocon cheering section were so caught up in the "vision" they didn't plan.... didn't listen to generals telling them to use more troops to secure Iraq, didn't continue pursuing the 9/11 perpetrator, al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden. ... they just kept repeating the same mantra "stay the course" and closed their minds to all other options.

So, here we are, according to the newly released National Intelligence Estimate, "On Shakier Ground,".... in more trouble than ever with an al Qaeda that "has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability by reestablishing a haven in Pakistan and reconstituting its top leadership," able "to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attacks." (WaPo)

The White House has made no serious attempt to mediate a solution through hefty diplomacy with envoys to the Middle East like Henry Kissinger, Jim Baker, George Mitchell or Richard Holbrooke.... instead Bush sends his stiletto-heeled pretender, Condi Rice, to jet around uttering inane platitudes or issuing unworkable orders from Washington.

In an attempt to focus its members on the need for a change of course, the Democratic-led Senate debated all-night last night, and into this morning, on a bill to try to force limits on Bush's ability to recklessly keep our troops in the middle of the civil war in Iraq.

Entrenched senators were not swayed by the many impassioned pleas. The outcome was predictable.... the timeline measure was blocked.... the GOP stayed firmly in Bush's camp, fingers crossed, compassion and reason firmly in check.

So our country remains in the grip of a religious fanatic, bent on his crusade regardless of the will of the people, or the consequences for all time.

Will Someone Wake Me Up?

Here's the nightmare.... al Qaeda is Sunni. Saudi Arabia is Sunni... and supposedly our friends, even though Osama bin Laden and most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi nationals.

Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's powerful Mahdi Army is a Shiite militia. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is Shiite. Iran is majority Shiite.

Shiite militia has been infiltrating Iraqi police units, and the Iraq military.

"Mahdi Army, Not Al-Qaeda, is Enemy No. 1 in Western Baghdad." It's no longer the case that the "Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is the city's most formidable, the Mahdi Army has transformed the composition of the district's neighborhoods by ruthlessly killing and driving out Sunnis...." (WaPo)

There has been an ethnic cleansing of Sunnis in the 10-square mile district of West Rashid, home to about 700,000.... the Shiites have taken over.

The Shiites already control Iraq in the east on the Iran border, and in the south.

Although the bloody toll continues to rise in attacks across Baghdad, and in the Kurdish north, we heard Maliki assert on Saturday that Iraqis were ready to take over security operations "any time" American forces choose to leave.

How?.... because the Shiite militias with Iran's help will be the ones taking over, with Maliki's blessing?

Oh sure, today we hear lots of backtracking and explaining by Maliki over his comment, and not unsurprising really, the main thrust of his clarification is a defense of al-Sadr as being good for Iraq. Is anyone in Washington listening to this?

Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in the 103 degree heat while the Iraqi government takes an August vacation. So, between now the the September report from Gen. Petraeus, nothing much will happen from Maliki's government to bring the factions together, there will be more cleansing, and the Shiites will grow even stronger.

And, the Sunni al-Qaeda.... "Pakistan Truce Appears Defunct." (WaPo) A peace deal between the Pakistani government and tribal leaders in the north where al-Qaeda is known to be regrouping is over. Last weekend, 70 mainly soldiers and police were killed after the Taliban fighters announced an all-out guerrilla war against the Parkistan army.

So, this is the effect of what Bush and Cheney have wrought with their misbegotten Middle East adventure.... they are handing Iraq to the Shiites, and thus to Iran, while al-Qaeda is gathering strength in Pakistan.... a country with nuclear weapons and a weakened President Musharraf.

It's too late for what they should have done after 9/11.... gone after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and made THAT country a bastion of freedom from terror.

What we should be doing now is strengthening our own borders and ports, and aggressively rebuilding our military.... not because Homeland Security's chief Chertoff's gut is rumbling.... but because while we're over there, the terrorists will show up here, "Big Time."