State Dept. report indicates other problemsSep 14th, 2007 - 17:33:26

www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6921752,00.html

'In a separate report, the State Department concluded Friday that religious freedom has sharply deteriorated in Iraq over the past year. The department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom found violence is not confined to the well-known rivalry between Sunni and Shia Muslims, with worshippers of all faiths targeted for attacks.'

(The troop count is also open to question, as the support personnel tied to the surge are apparently remaining)

'Four more combat brigades would pull out of Iraq as currently scheduled by July. This could reverse the buildup of 21,500 extra combat troops that Bush ordered to Iraq in January. But the White House has given sketchy accounts of the math and refused to provide specific numbers of how far troop levels would drop by next summer. This year's escalation boosted U.S. troop strength to 168,000, the highest level of the war, from about 130,000.'

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Sheik's assasination and the ramificationsSep 14th, 2007 - 17:39:19

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2962054.ece

(excerpt from long article)

Last week George Bush flew into Iraq to meet Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, leader of Anbar province. This week General David Petraeus told the US Congress how Anbar was a model for Iraq. Yesterday Abu Risha was assassinated by bombers in Anbar.

On Monday General Petraeus told the US Congress that Anbar province was 'a model of what happens when local leaders and citizens decide to oppose al-Qa'ida and reject its Taliban-like ideology'.

But yesterday's assassination underlines that Iraqis in Anbar and elsewhere who closely ally themselves with the US are in danger of being killed. 'It shows al-Qa'ida in Iraq remains a very dangerous and barbaric enemy,' General Petraeus said in reaction to the killing. But Abu Risha might equally have been killed by the many non al-Qa'ida insurgent groups in Anbar who saw him as betraying them.

Abu Risha, 37, usually stayed inside a heavily fortified compound containing several houses where he lived with his extended family. A US tank guards the entrance to the compound, which is opposite the largest US base in Ramadi. Surprisingly, he is said to have recently reduced the number of his bodyguards because of improved security situation in Anbar, although he ought to have known that as leader of the anti al-Qai'da Anbar Salvation Council he was bound to be a target for assassins.

Abu Risha's death underlines the degree to which the White House and General Petraeus have cherry-picked evidence to prove that it is possible to turn the tide in Iraq. They have, for instance, given the impression that some Sunni tribal leaders turning against al-Qa'ida in Anbar and parts of Diyala and Baghdad is a turning point in the war.

In reality al-Qa'ida is only a small part of the insurgency, with its fighters numbering only 1,300 as against 103,000 in the other insurgent organisations according to one specialist on the insurgency. Al-Qa'ida has largely concentrated on horrific and cruel bomb attacks on Shia civilians and policemen and has targeted the US military only as secondary target.

The mass of the insurgents belong to groups that are nationalist and Islamic militants who have primarily fought the US occupation. They were never likely to sit back while the US declared victory in their main bastion in Anbar province.

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A weakened bin Laden; an Iraq as decisive frontSep 15th, 2007 - 03:01:28

''Why have the Democrats failed to stop this war?''
-Osama Bin Laden

A weakened bin Laden; an Iraq as decisive front
Previous goals and grievances were much more expansive.
By Jonathan Last
For The Inquirer

Osama bin Laden's latest tapes are instructive and, in their own way, encouraging.

Not to mention funny. Bin Laden has been leaning on left-wing tropes for a long time. Back in the late '90s, for instance, he subscribed to the progressive urban myth that U.S. sanctions had killed 600,000 Iraqi children. (The sanctions were the province of the United Nations, not the United States. Whatever. You can't wage a jihad without breaking a few eggs.)

But his latest video goes careening past normal leftist agitprop and into outer space. He says that John F. Kennedy was killed by corporate bigwigs who wanted to stop him from ending the Vietnam War. (It was Kennedy who escalated Vietnam into a serious conflict.) Bin Laden also embellishes familiar antiwar slogans, saying America should say no 'to spilling red blood for black oil.' He rails against globalization. He takes after Hollywood for misrepresenting Islam - you know, with all of those nasty, jingoistic anti-Muslim movies it has been churning out since 2001.

Bin Laden also hops on the global-warming bandwagon. 'The life of all mankind is in danger' because of climate change, he warns. Environmentalists must be thrilled to have him on their side. Whom would you be more embarrassed to count as a supporter, bin Laden or Whitley Strieber, the climate-change alarmist who has made a career writing about his alien abduction(s)? Just asking.

It's not totally fair to hold people responsible for their fans, but if I were Noam Chomsky or Michael Scheuer, the two writers bin Laden points to as wise Western intellectuals, I might take a couple weeks off to rethink, say, my entire world view.

The Democratic Party has a slightly larger version of this bin Laden problem: He seems to view Democrats as allies who aren't quite holding up their end of the bargain. Bin Laden wants America out of Iraq. Democrats want America out of Iraq. Bin Laden says that in the 2006 midterm elections, Democrats were elected to force a U.S. retreat, but 'haven't made a move worth mentioning.'

'Why,' he asks petulantly, 'have the Democrats failed to stop this war?'

From the Democratic point of view, it can't be good to have America's Numero Uno Evildoer moaning over how the Democratic National Committee has let him down. People might get the idea that the DNC's goals overlap a wee bit too much with al-Qaeda's. Shouldn't Democrats be crafting policies that make bin Laden curse Nancy Pelosi's rotten, infidel soul? Sure would make me feel a lot more comfortable voting for them.

But all of that's just icing: For those worried that the war on terror has been prosecuted, shall we say, sub-optimally, the new tape suggests that Osama bin Laden is now operating from a position of weakness.

To understand the change, you have to go back to bin Laden's two fatwas declaring war on America. His goals and grievances back then were much more expansive.

In 1996, bin Laden was primarily concerned with getting every American out of Saudi Arabia. '[T]o push the enemy - the greatest Kufr [unbelieving ingrate] - out of [Saudi Arabia is] a prime duty. No other duty after Belief is more important,' he said.

In 1998, in his second fatwa, bin Laden was still torqued about Americans - not just in Saudi Arabia, but anywhere on the Arabian Peninsula - writing about 'the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations.' The reason the dim-witted crusaders were there, of course, was 'to serve the Jews' petty state.'

He concluded that fatwa by claiming that 'the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim . . . in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam.' Which is tricky because, technically speaking, all lands belong to Allah.

Remember, this was during the Clinton years, when bin Laden wanted, for starters: (1) all infidels banished from the Arabian Peninsula; (2) the Saudi ruling class replaced with 'true Muslims'; and (3) the Zionist Entity gone from Jerusalem. To get this, he called for a battle royal, us-against-them, end-times conflict with the forces of paganism, secularism and sin (you and me) on one side and the forces of the Prophet (peace be upon him!) on the other.

Fast-forward to last week: Bin Laden now says we can all make nice if America will just pull out of Iraq.

The other big change is in bin Laden's description of his enemies. A decade ago, it was the 'Zionist-Crusader alliance' that traced back to those grubby, rootless, cosmopolitan folks. Now, he says it's just the rich capitalists who are manipulating Americans into fighting the Muslim world. That sounds like something you say when you pick a fight at a bar before you notice the other guy's linebacker buddy. 'Hey, pal, my beef's not with you - it's with the filthy capitalist.'

Other than advertising bin Laden's weakness, his missive makes one other important point: For the bad guys, Iraq has become the definitive battle. From our perspective, the war may have been a mistake, it may have been unwise, and it may have been foolishly prosecuted. But if the bad guys now see it as the central front, then none of that matters anymore. One of the great failures of the Bush administration is that in an attempt to use the war for political gain, the president associated the fight with himself. To be pro-war, you had to be pro-Bush. To be antiwar, you had to be anti-Bush.

But presidents don't go to war, nations do. This is America's war, and as lousy a commander as President Bush has been, if Osama bin Laden thinks it's the decisive battle, then we have a duty to make sure he loses.

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What you censored from your guardian propagandaSep 15th, 2007 - 03:08:56

Mourners Vow Revenge at Sheik's Funeral


Friday September 14, 2007 11:16 PM

By DAVID RISING

BAGHDAD (AP) - Some 1,500 mourners called for revenge Friday as they buried the leader of the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, who was assassinated by a bomb after meeting with President Bush earlier this month.

An al-Qaida front in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Adbul-Sattar Abu Risha, 37, and three companions. A statement posted on the Internet by the Islamic State of Iraq called Abu Risha ``one of the dogs of Bush'' and described Thursday's killing as a ``heroic operation that took over a month to prepare.''

The statement could not be independently verified, but it appeared on Web sites commonly used by the insurgents. Al-Qaida earlier killed four of Abu Risha's brothers and six other relatives for working with the U.S. military.

``We will take our revenge,'' the mourners chanted. ``We will continue the march of Abu Risha.''

The sheik was buried one year to the day after he organized Sunni Arab clans into an alliance to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from sanctuaries in Anbar province where the terror movement had flourished since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the second-highest ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, and several high-ranking government officials attended the funeral, including Iraq's interior and defense ministers and National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie.

``We condemn the killing of Abu Risha, but this will not deter us from helping the people of Anbar - we will support them more than before,'' al-Rubaie declared.

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RickSep 15th, 2007 - 03:12:18

Saudi Arabia or Iran is going to gain control of Iraq, It is only a matter of when unless we stay there for a long time.
They are both salivating over the oil reserves just as much as Bush and Cheney. I am amazed that he was able to push this problem onto the next President so easily without anyone rearing up and saying hell no you need to fix this mess and quick.

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CynicSep 15th, 2007 - 11:57:58

The agenda on the table at present, is when America withdraws,' the Iraqis are allowed to keep 12%
YES TWELVE PER CENT
of their Oil revenues.
........WMD's my ass.

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CynicSep 15th, 2007 - 12:06:23

....so I suggest you all get your fingers on the keyboards and find out who gets the other 88% of the Iraq Oil?.
Interesting
.....Very Interesting.

, or as they say nowadays 'the slice of the pie'

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GI JojoSep 15th, 2007 - 14:08:50

When America momemtarily lost its will to win in the 1970's,
the anti-American defeatist-oriented democrats forced the United
States to cut n run from the former French colony in Vietnam.
As a result, commies took over Vietnam, and ever since, commie
controlled Vietmam has become a huge threat to the free world.
This is why we can not let the anti-American defeatocrats destroy
our will to win today. Total victory against the forces of evil
in the same Iraq who brought 9/11 to the US, is possible only if
we do not let liberal extremists who want us to lose get there way.
The defeatist demonrats want to destroy our will to win, and force
us out of Iraq before we kill enough enemy so we can achieve a just
and glorious victory against the evil perpetrators of 9/11.

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CynicSep 15th, 2007 - 18:37:30

AH? GI Jojo
Still got verbal diarrhea?

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realness reportSep 15th, 2007 - 19:59:24

Over the weekend, Douglas Hagmann, Director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, reported on an incident, Delta Airlines Flight 1824, involving a large group of Middle Eastern passengers, male and female, who were flying from Orlando, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia. Sources told Hagmann the passengers' bags tested positive for SEMTEX explosives at a TSA security checkpoint and were taken away by the FBI. Over the weekend, I spoke to Hagmann, as well as with one of his sources.

Just now, I had a lengthy conversation with TSA Spokesman Christopher White who confirmed the incident. Here's what White told me about Delta Airlines Flight 1824:

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