Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

Now, buried in some of the United Nation's own confidential documents, clues can be seen that underscore the possibility of just such a Saddam-Al Qaeda link — clues leading to a locked door in this Swiss lakeside resort...

Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

Europe Will Be Islamic by the End of the Century

How quickly is Europe being Islamized? So quickly that even historian Bernard Lewis, who has continued throughout his honor-laden career to be strangely disingenuous about certain realities of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, told the German newspaper Die Welt forthrightly that “Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century.” Or maybe sooner. Consider some indicators from Scandinavia this past week: Sweden’s third-largest city, Malmo, according to the Swedish Aftonbladet, has become an outpost of the Middle East in Scandinavia: “The police now publicly admit what many Scandinavians have known for a long time: They no longer control the situation in the nations’s third largest city. It is effectively ruled by violent gangs of Muslim immigrants...

Europe Will Be Islamic by the End of the Century

Kerry campaign may have been explicitly involved in Forgeries

Hmmm. So, the Kerry campaign may have been directly involved with Rathergate, Danron, or whatever the blogosphere is calling it these days...

...The former Texas National Guard officer suspected of providing CBS News with possibly forged records on President Bush's military service called on Democratic activists to wage "war" against Republican "dirty tricks" in a series of Internet postings in which he also used phrases similar to several employed in the disputed documents. ... ...In an Aug. 21 posting, Burkett referred to a conversation with former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) about the need to counteract Republican tactics... Cleland confirmed that he had a two- or three-minute conversation by cell phone with a Texan named Burkett in mid-August while he was on a car ride. He remembers Burkett saying that he had "valuable" information about Bush, and asking what he should with it. "I told him to contact the [Kerry] campaign," Cleland said...

Kerry campaign may have been explicitly involved in Forgeries

ABC Steps on CBS' Throat

Just when a woozy CBS was trying to teeter back up during an eight-count, ABC News comes along and rabbit-punches Dan Rather. The last remaining tendril, the last tiny shred, the final thread in the cord... has snapped. CBS is toast.

ABC News has just within the last 15 minutes or so posted an exclusive report based on exclusive interview with Col. Walter Staudt, the retired former brigadier general of the Texas Air National Guard. ABC News reports that Staudt is refuting CBS News' assertions (based on those now-infamous forged documents) that Staudt pressured others in the TANG to help cover for George W. Bush during his stint in the TANG. Staudt also says Bush didn't get preferential treatment to get into the TANG, and nobody pressured him to accept Bush into the Guard...

ABC Steps on CBS' Throat

Straight out of Iraq

The real situation in Iraq, as described by a Major in Operational Headquarters in Baghdad, courtesy of Captain's Quarters:

The US media is abuzz today with the news of an intelligence report that is very negative about the prospects for Iraq’s future. CNN’s website says, “[The] National Intelligence Estimate was sent to the White House in July with a classified warning predicting the best case for Iraq was ‘tenuous stability’ and the worst case was civil war.” That report, along with the car bombings and kidnappings in Baghdad in the past couple days are being portrayed in the media as more proof of absolute chaos and the intransigence of the insurgency. From where I sit, at the Operational Headquarters in Baghdad, that just isn’t the case. Let’s lay out some background, first about the “National Intelligence Estimate.” The most glaring issue with its relevance is the fact that it was delivered to the White House in July. That means that the information that was used to derive the intelligence was gathered in the Spring – in the immediate aftermath of the April battle for Fallujah, and other events. The report doesn’t cover what has happened in July or August, let alone September. The naysayers will point to the recent battles in Najaf and draw parallels between that and what happened in Fallujah in April. They aren’t even close. The bad guys did us a HUGE favor by gathering together in one place and trying to make a stand. It allowed us to focus on them and defeat them. Make no mistake, Al Sadr’s troops were thoroughly smashed. The estimated enemy killed in action is huge. Before the battles, the residents of the city were afraid to walk the streets. Al Sadr’s enforcers would seize people and bring them to his Islamic court where sentence was passed for religious or other violations. Long before the battles people were looking for their lost loved ones who had been taken to “court” and never seen again. Now Najafians can and do walk their streets in safety. Commerce has returned and the city is being rebuilt. Iraqi security forces and US troops are welcomed and smiled upon. That city was liberated again. It was not like Fallujah – the bad guys lost and are in hiding or dead. You may not have even heard about the city of Samarra. Two weeks ago, that Sunni Triangle city was a “No-go” area for US troops. But guess what? The locals got sick of living in fear from the insurgents and foreign fighters that were there and let them know they weren’t welcome. They stopped hosting them in their houses and the mayor of the town brokered a deal with the US commander to return Iraqi government sovereignty to the city without a fight. The people saw what was on the horizon and decided they didn’t want their city looking like Fallujah in April or Najaf in August. Boom, boom, just like that two major “hot spots” cool down in rapid succession. Does that mean that those towns are completely pacified? No. What it does mean is that we are learning how to do this the right way. The US commander in Samarra saw an opportunity and took it – probably the biggest victory of his military career and nary a shot was fired in anger. Things will still happen in those cities, and you can be sure that the bad guys really want to take them back. Those achievements, more than anything else in my opinion, account for the surge in violence in recent days – especially the violence directed at Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra ordinary people stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government against the insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They are trying to instill fear once again. The worst thing we could do now is pull back and let that scum back into people’s homes and lives. So, you may hear analysts and prognosticators on CNN, ABC and the like in the next few days talking about how bleak the situation is here in Iraq, but from where I sit, it’s looking significantly better now than when I got here. The momentum is moving in our favor, and all Americans need to know that, so please, please, pass this on to those who care and will pass it on to others. It is very demoralizing for us here in uniform to read & hear such negativity in our press. It is fodder for our enemies to use against us and against the vast majority of Iraqis who want their new government to succeed. It causes the American public to start thinking about the acceptability of “cutting our losses” and pulling out, which would be devastating for Iraq for generations to come, and Muslim militants would claim a huge victory, causing us to have to continue to fight them elsewhere (remember, in war “Away” games are always preferable to “Home” games). Reports like that also cause Iraqis begin to fear that we will pull out before we finish the job, and thus less willing to openly support their interim government and US/Coalition activities. We are realizing significant progress here – not propaganda progress, but real strides are being made. It’s terrible to see our national morale, and support for what we’re doing here, jeopardized by sensationalized stories hyped by media giants whose #1 priority is advertising income followed closely by their political agenda; getting the story straight falls much further down on their priority scale, as Dan Rather and CBS News have so aptly demonstrated in the last week...

Straight out of Iraq

Kerry campaign advocates Surrender

The Kerry campaign... performing its un-American duties once again... is advocating surrender in Iraq, when we have a chance to build a Democratic Iraq and begin the viral spread of freedom in the Middle East. What does it say about the American Left when its optimal campaign scenarios involve American casualties or the beheadings of innocents?

...[L]ast week began with Richard Holbrooke, one of Kerry's top foreign policy advisers [ed: along with Madeline Albright], saying on Fox News Sunday that in Iraq we've created "a mess worse than Vietnam." "Wait a minute, Mr. Ambassador. You're telling me that you think that Iraq is worse than Vietnam?" an incredulous Chris Wallace asked. "Yes. It is strategically worse than Vietnam," Holbrooke responded. Well, if Iraq is worse than Vietnam, the only thing to do is get out. We are back in 1971, and, as Kerry memorably said then, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" You don't. So at midweek, Kerry's allies at MoveOn.org released a 30-second ad, "Quagmire." The ad accuses President Bush of having "no real plan to end the war." "It will take a new president," the narrator concludes, "to get us out." Get us out. That is in fact the real Kerry position, one might even say the real Kerry promise, with respect to Iraq...

Victory or Surrender

Kerry Slogans

From Iowahawk...

* "I will keep our enemies guessing, too." * "Projecting American strength through intricately complex nuance." * "Fear not, America, I have deigned to lead you." * "The next time America is attacked, I promise to open up a carafe of whupass." * "I have three words for George Bush--bring it on." * "I have five more words for George Bush--call off your on-bringers." * "Restoring America's seat at the global popular table." * "Some look at things as they are and say, 'Why?' Others look at things as they are not and say, 'Why not?,' and I suppose a few might look at things as they are not, and say 'why?,' and vice-versa, and so forth, and one might be tempted to look at these people looking at things and ask 'Who?,' but this would not be constructive, because the important thing to realize is that some people like to look at things, and this is precisely my point."

Al Gore or John Kerry... Which should play Gollum?

Which presidential wannabe really could play Gollum? Hugh Hewitt solicits some answers.

Saruman (as played by Mr. Kerry) is plotting the overthrow of Middle Earth. His orc minions are in a fair way to completely overwhelm the good guys by great strength disproportionate to their numbers (like the [mainstream media], the halls of academia, Hollywood). He sits in his (formerly ivory) tower, Orthanc--untouchable, scheming how he can get his hands on the Ring of Power (the presidency) before it passes forever to the Dark Lord (who might that be? Hillary Clinton?)...

Al Gore or John Kerry... Which should play Gollum?

And I'm spent

Check out ElectionQuest! You won't be sorry.