Turkish army incursion into Kurdistan

According to my sources, the Turkish military has performed an incursion in force into northern Kurdistan with units backed by armored vehicles and combat aircraft. The official line from the Turkish military is that there's been no incursion in force but that units of the Turkish military may have crossed the border in `hot pursuit' of PKK rebels.

For their part, the Kurds are going along with this, for now.

"Up to this moment, there is no incursion by Turkish troops into the Iraq Kurdistan region," Fouad Hussein, the head of the office of Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, was quoted as saying by al-Reuters.

"But I don't know if the troops have entered into distant parts of the mountains, situated between Iraq and Turkey."

I think that the Turks have indeed made a limited incursion into Kurdish territory, both as a sop to domestic political opinion (new elections are due in July), the Turkish Army and to `test the waters' and see what the Kurdish and American reaction would be.

As I reported previously the Turks have a huge military buildup on the border with Kurdistan and the US has pulled out of Kurdistan in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion....except for the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, only about a hundred miles form the Tukish/Kurdish border.

It may also be that, since the US military has maintained its positions in Kirkuk while withdrawing from the rest of Kurdistan, the Turks may have decided that an invasion of Kurdistan without that rich prize may not be worth it.

Stay tuned...

UPDATE: It appears that Turkish officials now have admitted that `several thousand' of their troops have entered Iraq . That's a somewhat different story thasn the denial we were getting earlier...

How deep or sustained the `incursion' is remains to be seen. And from the photo above, it doesn't look like a mere `hot pursuit into the remote mountains', now does it?

Watcher's Council Nominations, 6/6/07

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels

Council News: We have a smokin' new member of the council,the redoubtable and readable ‘Okie’ on the Lam..be sure to give him a warm Joshua's Army welcome and check out his fine site!

OK, here's this week's Council lineup:

1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: Loyalty and Love: D-Day, 63 years later... There were three major battles in the history of the West that occurred around this time of the year in recent history - Midway,the Six-Day War and the Normandy invasion. I did not ignore the Six-Day War, especially in light of some of the deconstructionist fables written about it. But this post is about D-Day, some personal reminisces,and a tribute to some incredibly brave men by President Reagan in one of his finest speeches ever.

Most importantly, I write about the men who freed a continent,their modern day counterparts and what it says about our country today..that in spite of all our petty differences, we are still the same wonderful country, deep down. And freedom will triumph because of it.

2. Done With Mirrors; Tweedle Callimachus has a typically well written post about the break between President Bush and conservatives over the immigration bill, and points out that there is always a balancing act, in truly thinking people, between the lesser evil and the greater good:

'Always it is a two-handed act. The easy-answer people never have to do balancing acts. Both hands grip firmly the sweat-soaked handle of the sledge they use to beat on their political or class enemies. are a great many people with an ideological `take no prisoners' attitude on both sides of the aisle
(`tweedledum and tweedledee')with an axe to grind regardless...'

What I would add is simply to say that many people have had mounting doubts about President Bush for quite some time,and rightly so. There is an innate loyalty among many people to avoid scabrous criticism of the country's leader during wartime,particularly when some of the opposition prove themselves anytng but loyal to the country's basic interests inthe name of partisan politics,particularly when there are legitimate criticisms that could have been made in more legitimate ways, to the benefit of the nation.

The president's blatant, final contempt for the people that elected him as manifested during his second term is simply the straw that broke the camel's back.

3. Soccer Dad: 3 spies and six daysSoccer Dad has an absolutely wonderful piece this week in honor of the anniversary of Israel's 1967 victory about 3 Mossad legends - The amazing story of Eli Cohen,an Egyptian-born Jew who was ethnically cleansed out of his home country after 1948, came to Israel, joined the Mossad and was able to penetrate the top levels of Syrian military and political society prior to the Six-Day War; Wolfgang Lotz and his wife Waldrud,who went undercover in Egypt and obtained information on Egypt's top secret military bases: and the unnamed female Mossad agent who sweet talked an Iraqi pilot into defecting...complete with a brand spankin' new MIG 21 fighter than nobody had gotten a peek at yet.


4. The Glittering Eye : Almost One of Us This week, The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler writes a piece centered on Muslim writer Fareed Zakaria's piece `Beyond Bush' in which Zakaria, as one would expect, complains that American Muslims are not radicalized and that the `get tough' rhetoric, particularly that of GOP candidates like Giuliani , Hunter and Romney is liable to do just that. Zakaria, of course. also loves Barack Obama - now, there's a surprise!

Dave makes the cogent point that while he agrees with Zakaria in some respects, he shouldn't shouldn’t blame politicians for doing what’s politically necessary.

I would add that the recent exhaustive Pew poll on American Muslims is not the panacea Zakaria thinks it is,that over a million out of the estimated 2.3 million Muslims in America admit thinking of themselves as members of the Muslim umma first and Americans second; large percentages say that 9/11 wasn't the work of the Arabs, and that the trend is for younger Muslims to be more radical than their elders..thanks to the jihad preaching mosques and madrassahs financed by the Saudis allowed free reign here in America.

Dealing with this situation isn't mere `get tough ' tactics, but part of our national survival in our war against radical Islam. What's more, it benefits moderate Muslims ( who also get murdered by terrorist attacks) and keeps them from being tarred by the same jihadi brush.

There are some Muslims in my life I'm close to, and I don't want to be hiding them in my basement because people like Zacaria are unwilling or unable to deal with reasonable surveillance and taking personal responsibility for dealing with jihadis and wanna-be terrorists in their midst.

5. Right Wing Nut House : IT’S NOT DEAD. IT’S RESTING. Rick writes an obituary for the Republican Party. I think he's premature, given that all of the potential real leadership in the presidential race thus far is on that side of the aisle.One bad president doesn't kill off an entire party.


6. Rhymes With Right : Diplomas Denied Over Family And Friends? Greg fantasizes about being a lawyer and suing the pants off a school district that denied a student a high school diploma she'd earned because her friends and relatives cheered and exhibited `undignified behavior' at the ceremony - no joke.


7. The Colossus of Rhodey: Well, y'see, he has rights! Hube writes about the well publicized case of the infectious TB patient who left the country to get married and then was allowed back in with only a cursory check. Yikesee!

Of course, this also says something to people who insist that the enforcement provisions of the currently proposed immigration bill are going to be implemented.


8. The Six Day War in real time: Bookworm Room MS. Bookworm writes an excellent piece countering the revisionism and outright lies circulating in the dinosaur media in the wake of the 40th anniversary of Israel's heroic victory in the 1967 Six-day War. She uses the classic 1967 wrap of the war by Life magazine..and also reveals how little has changed in the attitude of the Arabs or the so-called `international community'.

Indeed, as she says,if there was no Israel the Arabs would have had to invent one.


9. Cheat Seeking Missiles: Smelt Stink Laer puts another nail in the coffin of the Church of Radical Environmentalism. This time the target is one Kieran Suckling, the founder of what Laer characterizes as an environmental litigation mill, the Center for Biological Diversity.

The aptly named Suckling likes minnows, doesn't like people or their livelihoods and likes the idea of shutting down water supplies to populated areas via litigation because it might disturb the fish.

Laer attacks this simpleton with both barrels, and has some interesting things to say about water supplies to urban areas.

10. Big Lizards: “Salvation ala Mode” Dafydd Ab Hugh writes on what he sees as success in Iraq as the locals in places like Anbar begin opposing al-Qaeda and counter insurgency tactics take hold.

I certainly hope he's right.

One problem, of course is that the party in control of Congress has a major investment in seeing that Iraq is a failure...and the clock's ticking.

11.The Education Wonks: Middle School Teacher Sues Students!
Man bites dog, and EdWonk has the story...in this case, it's a math teacher who claims that a killer teddy bear's portrayal in a student film defamed him.

12.LA Times Jumps the Shark on Global Warming at ‘Okie’ on the Lam In his debut post, Okie has a funny slapdown at what he aptly refers to as `our local catbox liner' (LOL!)for supporting the stoo-pid notion of a `carbon tax'! It would hardly be believable, but then this is the LA... Times...

That's this week's lineup..enjoy

Loyalty and Love: D-Day, 63 years later...

June 6th is the 63rd anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, which began the process of freeing Europe from Fascism. Given the times we live in, it has particular relevance today, as the members of the WWII generation fade into the sunset.

My uncle was one of the brave men who landed on Omaha beach that day. He never spoke about it much. I can only imagine what it was like to see the gates on the LST drop and have to run through the waves to the beach, straight into the face of enemy fire every inch of the way.

About a dozen or so years ago, a few days after another June 6th, I ran into a grizzled but still erect old man and his friend at the bar of a local country club, where I was waiting for a lunch companion to show up. We got to chatting, the way people do in bars, and I found out from his friend that he had been one of the army rangers who performed a feat that seems superhuman to me every time I think of it..scaling the sheer cliffs of the Pointe Du Hoc, under intense enemy fire and taking out the artillery, machine guns and pill boxes at the top of the cliffs. These incredibly brave men performed this task..at a cost of a casualty rate of about 60%.

Fortunately, my lunch date was late, so I had time to hear a first hand account from him of what that had been like. I've never forgotten it...or the matter-of-fact way in which he related it.

In 1984, President Reagan traveled to Point Du Hoc, which is now a military cemetery dedicated to those who fell at Normandy. He spoke to a group of veterans and others who had traveled to be there on the 40th anniversary of the battle, and he had a few things to say to them:

".... This place, Pointe du Hoc, in itself was moving and majestic. I stood there on that windswept point with the ocean behind me. Before me were the boys who forty years before had fought their way up from the ocean. Some rested under the white crosses and Stars of David that stretched out across the landscape. Others sat right in front of me. They looked like elderly businessmen, yet these were the kids who climbed the cliffs.

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.

Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.

And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor." {...}

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-day; their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: "Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do." Also, that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies. {...}

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. {...}

We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we're with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

Strengthened by their courage and heartened by their value [valor] and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all."


To me, it was one of President Reagan's finest speeches, and his words are as true today as they were in 1984. I miss his humor, his leadership, his faith and his optimism more than I can say. We are worse off for his absence.

There is this, however. When I look at the faces of the men in our military today, I see the same qualities I noticed in the faces in the photographs from 60 years ago, the faces of the men who saved us from Hitler. I see the same determination, the same courage and faith, and the same loyalty and love.

It is living proof etched in their faces that, deep down at the core, we are the same country we were then.

And being familiar with our country's history, I know that we have never failed to find leadership in the darkest of times. We have done so in the past and we will do so again in the future.

And knowing that, I am more convinced than ever that the West will indeed stand, and freedom will triumph, just as it did 63 years ago.

More on the `67 War...

For those of you interested, I've linked up to a few of the better articles on the `67 War


First, here's a link to Time Magazine's original wrap up from June, 1967 entitled, `The Quickest War' (hattip, Soccer Dad)
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,843937,00.html

Let's be kind and say that Time's objectivity and journalistic standards have umm-`evolved' since then. Perhaps `devolved' is the better term.

From Ralph Peters, we have SIX-DAY WAR, 40 YEARS ON . Like me, Colonel Peters is more than a little irked at the current revisionism going on.

The Heritage Foundation's Ariel Cohen has `Lessons of the Six-Day War' in the Washington Times.

And from Carl in Jerusalem, Israel Matzav: Six Day War results still 'good for the Jews'

Enjoy yourselves...

Scooter Libby jailed..while Sandy Berger walks free

By now, many of you know that Scott `Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has been sentenced to thirty months in prison, a $250,000 fine and two years' probation after his release after being found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury in March over the investigation into the Valerie Plame case.

Libby remains free pending a hearing scheduled for next week on his appeal.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino, told reporters that Bush "felt terrible for the family, especially for his wife and kids."

Cheney issued a statement saying he was "deeply saddened by this tragedy."

"I relied on him heavily in my capacity as secretary of defense and as vice president," it said. "The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."

The sentence itself was interesting, particularly since Fitzgerald never proved the leak was a crime.

"No one was ever charged. Nobody ever pleaded guilty," attorney William Jeffress said. "The government did not establish the existence of an offense." Not that Libby was actually charged with leaking Plame's identity. And neither were the two initial sources of the leak — Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and White House political adviser Karl Rove.

It's interesting to compare Libby's sentence, in an instance where the `crime' was the alleged impeding of an investigation with the sentence meted out to ex-National Security Advisor Sandy Berger for stealing classified documents out of government archives and destroying them, in the wake of the 9/11 Commission investigation - a mere $50,000 fine, no jail time or even probation and loss of his security clearance for two years.

Perhaps the fact that Berger actually destroyed the incriminating evidence as opposed to merely making misstatements during the course of an exhaustive, federally funded fishing expedition had something to do with it. In Libby's case, the evidence was on tape and he never got the chance to trash it.

Will President Bush pardon Libby? I wouldn't bet on it.

Maybe just before he leaves the White House, unless he's forced to leave prematurely himself. I put the odds on Bush lasting his full term at no better than 60/40.

Demonizing victory: The `67 War revisited

The Arab-Israeli War of 1967 hits its 40 year anniversary this month...and the knives are already out for Israel.

If you're the `Zionist Entity', winning a war for survival is even more of a problem than than losing one, according to the deconstructionist fables making the rounds.

Deconstructionism, by the way, means that if the facts don't fit the political agenda, you're free to come up with new facts that do.

The dinosaur media is redolent of retrospectives on the `67 war with titles like `Endless occupation', `Endless War', `The Unending struggle', `The price Of Victory' and `The Victory that Wasn't'.

Most of these accounts are rife with factual errors, and ignore what actually happened.

Fortunately, my memory, as well as the memory and accounts of contemporaries who participated in the war is unimpaired, and the factual record still exists, no matter the attempts to pave it over.

I dislike reiterating history, but it appears to be necessary.

It's frequently forgotten that the pre-1967 lines between Israel and the Arab states surrounding it were never formal borders, for the simple reason that the Arabs never accepted Israel's existence in the first place. They were merely the front lines of a war the Arabs still regarded as ongoing.

In the Sinai, the border between Egypt and Israel was policed by a UN peacekeeping force, the legacy of the 1956 war in which Israel decimated the much larger and better equipped Egyptian army and advanced to the Suez Canal in less than 100 hours.

The Israelis pulled back out of Sinai when they were given security guarantees by the UN, and told that the UN would police the border, keep the Straits of Tiran, Israel's outlet to the Red Sea open and prevent future raids and aggression by the Egyptians.

After the debacle of 1956, Egypt's Gamel Abdul Nasser rebuilt his military courtesy of his Soviet allies, who began shipping Egypt the most modern armaments they had available, including the latest MIG fighters and tanks. This was coordinated with Egypt's ally Syria, also a recipient of Soviet largess.

Both Nasser and Hafez Assad, the father of Syria's present Thug-In-Chief put together a massive military buildup on Israel's borders, and made bellicose speeches openly threatening Israel with annihilation. Nasser then formed military pact with Jordan, who also began building up forces on Israel's borders....all of nine miles wide at the narrow `neck' bordering Jordan.

On May 16th, 1967 Nasser demanded that the UN peace keepers leave the Sinai. They did so within 24 hours without bothering to inform the Israelis, and the Egyptian forces moved in, exposing Israel to attack from the south.

Nasser then closed the Straits of Tiran in the Gulf of Aqaba, thus blockading Israel's only Red Sea port, Eilat.

Blockading another country's port is normally seen as an act of war - unless you're Israel, in which case you're supposed to consider it merely a bit of diplomatic nastiness.

Egypt's Nasser, backed by Arab states (Syria, Lebanon, Iraq l-r), kicking Israel out of the Gulf of Aqaba. (al-Jafrida, May, 1967)

Faced with massive hostile military buildups on its borders, its outlet to the Red Sea blockaded, and the UN doing absolutely nothing about it, the Israelis were hit with another last minute threat to their survival - an arms embargo.

In those days, the US was not selling arms to Israel, and the Israeli air force was mainly equipped with French Mystere fighters. On the eve of war, Charles De Gaulle informed the Israelis that France was cutting off all shipments of arms and spare parts to the Israelis. In a relatively short time, this would have made the Israeli air force obsolescent.

Faced with strangulation and eventual annihilation, the Israelis chose to act. They risked the lives of every Jew in Israel on one roll of the dice, launching attacks on the Egyptian and Syrian forces massed against them. The attack was spearheaded by almost the entire 200 plane Israeli air force, attacking combined Arab air forces with a total of 900 planes. Had the initial Israeli attacks failed, had the air force been destroyed, they would have been left with all of 12 planes left to defend Israel.

That's the kind of gamble it was.

Oddly enough, the so-called `occupation' the Arabs and most of the dinosaur media is so concerned with was an accident, and entirely due to Arab aggression and miscalculation. Israel had its hands full fighting numerically superior Egypt and Syria, and begged Jordan's King Hussein to stay out of the war. But when Nasser personally told King Hussein that Egypt had annihilated Israel's air force and that the Egyptians were advancing on Tel Aviv, Hussein decided to get in on the booty. He sent Jordan's Arab legion into the fight.

Big mistake.

With all the Arab caterwauling about Jerusalem and al-Aksa, it's worth noting that if it were not for Arab aggression, the Old City of Jerusalem would still be Jew free.

Israeli troops at the Kotel, the Western Wall, 1967

The Israeli victory in 1967 was one of the most amazing in modern times. And the Arabs have spent 40 years and literally billions of dollars trying to undo it.

The consensus in the dinosaur media and among Middle East `realists' is that Middle East peace would magically return and sweetness and light would reign if Israel would only return to the ceasefire lines of June 4, 1967, which one time Israeli ambassador to the UN aptly called `the Auschwitz lines.' They make a great deal of noise about the Saudi `peace' ultimatum, which supposedly offers Israel unspecified `normal relations' in exchange for moving back to those indefensible borders and swamping what's left of Israel with millions of hostile Arab `refugees.'

These people have conveniently forgotten the lesson of buildup to the 1967 war, when Israel relied on paper security guarantees from the west and the UN that turned out to be worthless and her Arab enemies were busily preparing Israel's extinction...while the world did absolutely nothing to prevent it.

A hat tip to Soccer Dad and the Old General for pushing me to write this...

Eagle in the Snow...

Long time Joshua's Army member LouieLouie sent this my way, book review of a novel called `Eagle in the Snow' by Wallace Breem.

It looks to be an interesting historical novel about Rome's last stand as a civilization. Haven't read it,(and in any case, I don't think we're even close to where Rome was when it was overrun) but if LouieLouie recommends it...

Russia threatens US,says it will target Europe

Russia's President Putin gave a chilling warning to the US , saying that he would have his military aim its missiles at Europe if the US went ahead with its missile defense plans in Europe and Israel.

What Putin is upset at is an American plan to place an Israeli made `Green Pine'radar system in Czecholslovakia and interceptor missile systems in Poland, Czecholslovakia, and possibly Georgia, as well as the planned integration of American and Israeli missile defense systems.

The system is designed to protect the West from possible attacks by Iran or North Korea,and perhaps Pakistan if that goes Islamist.

Putin said neither Iran nor North Korea have the rockets that the system is intended to defend against and that its real target was Russia.

"We are being told the anti-missile defense system is targeted against something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you, to say the least?" an irritated Putin told foreign reporters days before he heads to Germany for a summit with President Bush and other leaders of the Group of Eight.

Of course, we could also mention that Putin and Russia have a significant investment at stake, especially in Iran. They could care less about the rest of Europe, and especially not about Israel.

And in part, Putin is entirely correct that the missile defense system is partially intended to keep Russia in check. In view of Russia's bullying tactics towards the rest of Europe,the last thing Putin wants to see is part of the old Soviet Empire with the capacity to resist Russia's imperialism and rapaciousness.

Russia is an historically imperialist and aggressive nation, and they have never gotten over the humiliation of having to give up their empire.

Putin complained that the proposed system "changes the entire configuration of international security."

"If this {the US curtailing the planned missile defense system} doesn't happen, then we disclaim responsibility for our retaliatory steps, because it is not we who are the initiators of the new arms race which is undoubtedly brewing in Europe," Putin said.

"The strategic balance in the world is being upset and in order to restore this balance without creating an anti-missile defense on our territory we will be creating a system of countering that anti-missile system, which is what we are doing now," he added.

Not only that, but our `friend' Putin said that Russia would target US bases in an interview published in Italy's Corriere della Sera on Sunday.

When he was asked whether the planned U.S. missile defense shield would compel Moscow to target its own missiles on U.S. military sites and other locations in Europe, Putin replied, "Naturally, yes."

"If the American nuclear potential grows in European territory, we have to give ourselves new targets in Europe," he was quoted as saying. "It is up to our military to define these targets."

Putin, of course is singing an old tune from the Soviet repetoire...threaten a new arms race in order to get the European communists and their fellow travelors among the `peace at any price ' crowd and the Angry left out on the streets protesting.That may not be as effective in Eastern Europe as in places like France, Britain and Italy.The Poles and Czechs and the other nations in Eastern Europe we freed know the Russians pretty well, especially what it's like to be under their thumbs.

As for Putin's threats, they are likely as empty as the old Soviet ones were. The last thing Russia can afford is a contest with the US right now.

The White House had no comment Sunday on Putin's remarks, or on Russia's upping the ante by testing a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and, as Putin claimed, of evading US missile defense systems.

Last week, Bush invited Putin to the old Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine on July 1-2.Perhaps the current occupant of the White house wants to - umm - take another look into Putin's soul, or something.Or hopefully, remind him that threatening the US is not helpful and could entail serious consequences, as the diplomats say.

This is what happens when you partially defeat an enemy and leave the basis for them to rebuild their military intact.

When George Bush Sr. inherited the victory over the Soviet Empire that Reagan engineered, he could have easily made some demands about Russia dismantling its nuclear arsenal and some of its military industrial structure in exchange for all that financial aid the Russians wanted and desperately needed.Had Bush Sr. done so, Russia wouldn't be building Iran's nukes, and they certainly wouldn't be making threatening noises towards us and the rest of Europe.

But I guess that would have been too simple.

Ahmadinejad: `Countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed .'

Ahmadinejad once again threatened Israel with destruction, this time in a speech at Teheran commemorating Army Day:

"With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine...By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future."

Note the use of the term `countdown button', as in a missile launching.

2nd Palestinian `refugee' camp explodes in Lebanon as the gunfight at Nahar al-Bared continues..

As what passes for the Lebanese army nerves itself to go into the stronghold of Fatah al Islam in the northern camp of Nahar al-Bared near Tripoli, The Palestinians and pro-Syrian fighters have opened up a new fighting front in the main southern camp Ein al-Hilweh (`Eye of the Beauty')..just as I predicted.

As in Nahar-al-Barad, the Lebanese army is facing a well armed, Syrian backed force that has been tooling up and preparing fortifications and armaments for some time. This was no `spontaneous outburst'.

Aiding the Palestinians in both locations are well armed and well trained units of Ahmed Jibril's PFLP guerillas.

The fighting broke out in Ein-al-Hilweh when the Palestinians fired a rocket-propelled-grenade at a Lebanese army checkpoint in Taamir, a residential area next to the camp. The checkpoint is one of many that keeps the Palestinian `refugees' in a virtual jail. (ed. note - just noticing - the Lebanese are among the Arabs who piss and moan about those `inhumane' Israeli checkpoints...) The RPG round wounded three Lebanese soldiers and two civilian passers-by.

The attack prompted a shootout between the troops and inhabitants of the camp.

Around midnight in the same area, gunmen again attacked army checkpoints with two rocket-propelled grenades and a hand grenade and soldiers responded with machine gun fire. security officials said. No word on casualties from the latest gun battle.

In Nahar al-Bared itself, Lebanese troops are cautiously inching into the heavily fortified camp.
They managed to destroy several Fatah al-Islam positions, but it cost them about 50 men, something the Siniora government is keeping quiet about.

As the Syrian sponsored armed revolt against the Siniora government continues to grow, there's a real possibility that it could spread to the Palestinian camps near Beirut, and even derail what little work the UN peacekeepers are doing in South Lebanon. If serious fighting breaks out that could endanger them, rest assured that the UN will pull them out quicker than a rat jumping off a sinking ship.

Keep in mind also that Hezbollah could get into this if necessary, Thus far, they've limited their assistance to arms, ammo and training.

The whole thing comes down to Syria's campaign to bring Lebanon back under its control and derail the the UN tribunal for prosecuting the assassins of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri..who include, as regular members of Joshua's Army know, high ranking officials in the Syrian government.

Like Pakistan's Musharraf, Lebanon's Siniora is another horse in the Muslim world President Bush bet on to win that looks increasingly like finishing out of the money.

Jihad Terrorism plot at JFK thwarted

A jihadi terrorist plot was uncovered today. It involved a plan by four members of the Religion of Peace blowing up a jet fuel line that services JFK Airport in New York City..and through heavily populated residential areas as it runs from Linden, New Jersey, through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.

It was described by the US attorney involved as “one of the most chilling plots imaginable.”

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable,'' Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said.

I'll say.

Four were indicted; Russell`Mohammed' Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Defreitas is the only US citizen in the bunch, an ex-native of Guyana who worked at the airport as was described by one of CNN's sources as ‘a very angry Muslim extremist.’

Abdul Kadir, a former member of the Guyana parliament is also an imam.
Along with Kareem Ibrahim, another of the four principles, he was arrested in Trinidad.

The plot was apparently ratted out by an informant to the FBI.

The may be a tentative al Qaeda connection, through Adnan G el Shukrijumah, one of al Qaeda's chief operatives in the western hemisphere and one of the world's most wanted Islamic terrorists.

Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia ( where else?) and carries a passport from Trinidad. He was one of the founders of Trinidad's local al-Qaeda offshoot, Jamaat al-Muslimeen in Trinidad.

Apparently two of the plotters, Kadir and Nur were part of Jamaat Al Muslimeen, which attempted to conquer the island nation in a deadly coup attempt in Trinidad back in 1990.

Here's an example of the mentality that was behind this, revealed from recorded conversations in the original criminal complaint:

“Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow … they love John F. Kennedy like he’s the man … if you hit that, this whole country will be mourning. You can kill the man twice,” Defreitas said.

In another conversation, he said:

“Even the twin towers can’t touch it...This can destroy the economy of America for some time.”

Lovely.

For those of you don't know, al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah have a number of sympathizers and cells south of our borders in Latin America. They were mostly started by Arab immigrants and Muslim converts in those countries.

I'm sure President Bush and his allies in Congress will take heart from this and hurry up with that amnesty bill. I can just imagine Zawahiri putting the word out to the sleeper cells who are already in this country illegally to hurry up and immediately file for your 601H visa the moment the bill becomes law and the door opens.

Now, who was it that `isn't doing right by America' Mr. President ?

The US pulls out of Kurdistan positions as Turks threaten invasion

The US military has pulled most of its troops out of Kurdistan in response to the heavy Turkish military buildup on the border.

80,000 Turkish troops are concentrated at Sirank, the meeting point of the Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian borders, and Turkish chief of staff Gen. Yasar Büyükanıt publicly declared that his army was ready for incursion into Kurdistan. “Turkey cannot afford an independent Kurdish state headed by Barzani on its southern border,” said Gen. Büyükanıt.

The Turks have several objectives. They fear the rise of an independent Kurdish state that could empower their own repressed Kurdish population, whom the Turks refer to as `mountain Turks' rather than Kurds. They also feel that Iraq is due to split ethnically, and want their share of the booty - namely, the oil rich city of Kirkuk, about 100 miles from the Turkish border.

Additionally, a military expedition of this kind, with the ostensible cover of `rooting out PKK terrorism' could provide an excuse for nationalist Turkish unity behind the embattled Erdogan government.

When the Turkish government began threatening a military incursion into Iraq, Kurdistan's president Massoud Barzani, sent an emissary, Safin Dizai, to Ankara with the message that the Turkish military would not be allowed into northern Iraq, and that the Kurdish Peshmerga Army would attack them if they invaded.

Sunday, May 27, US Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Islamist Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul had a sitdown, which apparently did not go well.

Immediately afterwards, Washington apparently has decided that its first priority is to avoid a military clash between US forces stationed in Kurdistan and invading Turkish troops.

As of this week, the local US commanders and Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani signed a document transferring security responsibility for the region from coalition forces to the Kurdish Peshmerga. American troops were hurriedly pulled out of the Kurdish capital of Irbil, as well as the cities of Dohuk and Suleimaniyeh. US troops still remain in position in Kirkuk.

SecDef Robert Gates and Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki also cautioned th eTurks against a military incursion into Iraq...but withthe US troops being pulled out,it remains to be seen how much force that has.

In other words, right now it looks as though the Kurds are going to be left to fend for themselves....but that the US will hold on to Kirkuk, because the Iraqi government wants the oil rich city for itself.

If the deal goes down this way, it indicates a few things - one, that the Islamist Turkish regime has moved further out of the western camp and that they are even willing to confront the Bush Administration in an attempt to hold on to power. It may also be a sign that the Bush Administration has determined that the Kurds are a `liability' to a unified Iraq and need to be bled a little.

It could very well be that a US president named Bush is about to shamelessly betray the Kurds again, our only real allies in Iraq.

For my part, I hope the Kurds beat the odds and cut the Turkish military into dogmeat if they try to invade.

And as for the current occupant of the White House..if the Turks attack the Kurds and we do nothing about it, it will be a shameful betrayal..and those chickens have a way of coming home to roost when one least expects it.

Bush: The final betrayal

There's no other way to put it...President George W. Bush has finally performed the final betrayal on the conservatives who elected him.

The president's remarks yesterday, accusing citizens concerned over the proposed illegal alien amnesty legislation of being racist, fear mongering and `not doing right by America' are even more astounding when compared with Bush's even tempered tolerance of the Angry Left, regardless of the most blatant and at times borderline treasonous assaults on the nation's war effort and foreign policy.

Apparently anyone is `not doing right by America' who looks at the this bill and realizes that the enforcement parts of it are non-existent or unworkable, that it guarantees a continuous low paid immigrant underclass and that the security provisions are suspect, particularly in light of this administration's past performance in this matter.

And that category includes longtime conservative voices like Peggy Noonan, Charles Krauthammer, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,Newt Gingrich, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck and a host of others.

Even talkshow host, columnist and author Hugh Hewitt, a long time Bush loyalist has finally hopped off the train with this one.

My own disillusion with this president goes back, perhaps, to the day after 9/11 when he assured the nation that our enemies' creed was peace, that we were in a `war on terror' (as opposed to actually identifying our actual enemies)and that we should all calm down and go shopping while the terrorists were `brought to justice'.

I gave the president a certain amount of leeway then, partly out of innate loyalty and partly because I couldn't imagine any president not taking decisive action when the country was at war. I've always felt actions speak louder than words.

And indeed they did with this president...the empty `axis of evil' rhetoric, the clumsiness, the cronyism, the so-called `Bush Doctrine the president ignored because some terrorists were more palatable than others, the out of control spending, the pass given to our `eternal friends' the Saudis to foment jihad in this country, the farcical Dubai Ports deal the president tried to ram through for his pals in the UAE and the gross mismanagement of the War on Jihad.

And of course, the open borders, the ultimate hypocrisy when we're spending billions overseas to ensure America's security.

President Bush has amply demonstrated that he could care less what any of us think, or for that matter, about what happens to his own party after he's safely out of office.

The Republican National Committee fired its 65 telephone solicitors last week without giving them the slightest notice. Allegedly, this was because of an antiquated phone system, as if the RNC couldn't afford to simply buy and install a new one.

The reality is that contributions are wa-ay down, with the RNC admitting to a 40% drop over last year. I'd say it's even money that the shortfall is even higher, and what with the president accusing the very people that have supported him through thick and thin of `not doing right by America' and having Bush flack Linda Chavez and others playing the race card, the RNC won't be getting much in the way of donations from ordinary citizens.

Not that this bothers the current occupant of the White House in the least. After all, he won't be running for anything.

Peggy Noonan has the right of it: `.....conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.'

And as far as I'm concerned, that includes the prospective Republican candidates for president in 2008. Sarkozy won the presidency in France by running against Chirac's record and promising a change, even though he was part of Chirac's party. Anyone running for president as a Republican here will have to do the same, if they expect to win...mark my words on that.

As for President Bush, I have a feeling that he's going to find out the hard way that loyalty to principle and to the people that put him in office isn't an abstract concept.

Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary committee are in the middle of a plethora of frenzied investigations of the Bush Administration in a number of areas that are likely to bear some fruit. Don't be at all surprised if articles of impeachment are drawn up.

And as the president's poll numbers plummet into the mid 20's, don't be surprised if some of the congressmen he's throwing under the bus now are less than energetic in defending him later.

Res ipsa loqiter.

Watcher's Council results for 6/01/07

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels

Council News: There is an open seat on the Watcher's Council, and if you feel you measure up, you can apply to the Watcher here.

Thanks and a hat tip, y'all..

I'm once again gratified and honored to note that for the third week in a row, my fellow Council members chose to distinguish my humble efforts. Especially since there were some killer posts this week, to say the least.

This week's winner is:

J O S H U A P U N D I T: A cure for `anti-Zionism' in which I examine `anti-Zionism'...or, as we used to call it before it took on such a politically correct mask, Jew hatred.

I look at the reasons this kind of blatant racism continues to be so pervasive and even acceptable in some quarters, and reveal what I think is the cure for the disease.

And it's a cure that can apply to America hatred as well, even (or especially) as demonstrated by some of our fellow citizens.


In second place was Done With Mirrors: No friend left behind (update) a fine post by Callimachus in which he applauds action by Congress to give visas to some of the many Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who have helped US forces and who's lives might be in danger after we leave.


For non-Council, I'm pleased to see another Council alumnus take the prize, Dr. Sanity: STICKING TO WHAT I KNOW BEST The title of Dr. Pat's post came from an e-mail from a Muslim criticizing her examination of the misogyny inherent in Muslim culture in a previous article: `Just stick to what you know best. i.e cooking an cleaning.' ( sic)

Interesting advice for a trained and highly experienced MD and Psychiatrist!

Dr. Sanity expands on the theme in a superb post that examines the psychosexual nature of Islam and Muslim culture in fine detail. One thing she didn't mention,but I will..the key to understanding that psychosexual nature and the repression of women and female sexuality in Islam lies in the biography of Mohammed, a young but impoverished and uneducated man of 25 who married a wealthy 40 year old widow who undoubtedly made sure Mohammed knew who was paying the bills and wearing the pants during their 25 year marriage until she died, when Mohammed was 50.

Connect the dots.


In second place for non-Council was Kobayashi Maru: From the Mouths of Babes: Climate Analysis That Actually Works a fine post that uses the example of a young 15 year old high school science student's use of data that put much more experienced `climate experts' at the UN's IPCC to shame.

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!

Once again, no breakthrough in Iran/EU talks

Same old story...Iran and the EU ended a new round of talks in Madrid without a breakthrough.

Iran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani ( `How I fooled the West') and EU appeaser- in-chief foreign policy chief Javier Solana met in Madrid again, and as usual failed to make any significant progress on..well...anything.

The occasion for this particular shindig was the new IAEA report that showed that not only was Iran not obeying the previous UN deadline to end its nuclear enrichment program, but they were accelerating it and bringing more centrifuges on line...and that's just at the sites the IAEA is being allowed to see.


Larijani, who must be tired of repeating the same shtick over and over again once again repeated that Iran won't be suspending its illegal nuclear enrichment program in the least, sanctions or no sanctions.

"We have abandoned the (suspension) issue, why doesn't the media abandon this issue? The suspension issue has become a media game," Larijani said.

The two sat in an exclusive hunting estate outside Madrid for four and a half hours..which makes me believe that they simply came to enjoy a four star luncheon on the EU.

Solana, of course, claims that things are `moving forward' in what he described as a "good positive atmosphere" but was forced to admit that there were no concrete results.

Condi Rice weighed in, saying:

"It is time for Iran to change its tactics. The international community is united on what Iran should do and this is to suspend (enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel)."

Or what, Madame Secretary? The mullahs don't seem to be taking you or your boss very seriously, so far.

And I'm not as certain as you are that the so-called `international community' is all that united on the subject, Madame Secretary.

Some jobs you just can't hire out.

Iran is weak and vulnerable now, but the longer we allow this travesty to go on, the more costly it will be when the inevitable confrontation occurs between America and this fascist, genocidal jihadist regime.

If President Bush hopes to have even a shred of an historical legacy, he had better not leave this for the next president to deal with.

People are starting to talk.

A picture of appeasement

L to R- Gwen Moore, (d-WI),David Price (D - NC), Jeff Fortenberry (R - NE) and Nick Rahall (D-WV) press the flesh with the jihadis

The Egyptian government is - quite rightly, in my opinion - seething at what they call blatant U.S. hypocrisy.

Up above, we see a picture of four US congressmen meeting with politicians last Sunday associated with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the parent group of Hamas, including the Brotherhood's Mohammed Saad el-Katatni. This is just a couple of months after Democrat House Majority leader Steny Hoyer met with the same group, and a month after hijab clad House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was cavorting with Basher Assad, the fascist dictator of Syria.

"The United States says that it doesn't establish relations with a banned group, whether in Egypt or outside Egypt," said Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awaad. "The U.S. says it is meeting with the Brotherhood as Parliament members, but doesn't make the same distinction and refuses to talk with Hamas, who is heading the Palestinian government and is occupying the prime minister's seat."

Awaad is totally correct. But of course, being a citizen of a totalitarian regime, he doesn't understand the extraordinary latitude given to appeasement minded lawmakers here in America.

Perhaps they can complete their tour of the jihad network by spending some hang time with Hamas and Hezbollah - at the US taxpayer's expense, of course.

Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter on Israel...

Regular readers of JoshuaPundit already know that I feel there's a lot to like about GOP presidential candidate Duncan Hunter. He has a stellar voting record on both Israel and national defense . Recently,he contacted Charles over at lgf ( which shows he understands the new media as well!) and asked for permission to do a guest post on Israel to make his position even more clear on the subject:

" I’d like to thank Charles Johnson for giving me an opportunity to talk to his readers at Little Green Footballs about Israel.

I strongly support the wall that the Israelis have built, which has greatly reduced terrorist attacks — and believe that it’s very important for the United States to help Israel improve its missile defense in order to prevent the sort of attacks that country suffered during its war with Hezbollah last year. Incidentally, I’ve been encouraging Israel to build up her missile defense since back in 1987 as well as supporting the funding of joint missile defense technology programs such as the Arrow program.

Additionally, while the United States should do what it can to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, it’s simply not possible for the Israelis to make peace with people who refuse to recognize their existence, kidnap their soldiers, and blow themselves up in crowds of Israeli civilians. So, until the Palestinians renounce terrorism and stop their attacks on the Israeli people, peace will be out of reach. Let me also add that I’ve been to Israel, have seen the importance of regions like the Golan Heights to their security, and believe that Israel should not be asked to give up any more land in order to make peace with the Palestinians.

I consider Israel to be America’s best ally in the Middle East and strongly support Israel’s survival as a free nation. So, if I become President of the United States, people who care about the fate of Israel can feel confident that they’ll have a friend in Duncan Hunter."

Coincidentally, National Review Online posted a kick-ass piece by potential GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Israel that spells out the situation in a nutshell:

Let me ask you a hypothetical question. What do you think America would do if Canadian soldiers were firing dozens of missiles every day into Buffalo, N.Y.? What do you think our response would be if Mexican troops for two years had launched daily rocket attacks on San Diego — and bragged about it?

I can tell you, our response would look nothing like Israel’s restrained and pinpoint reactions to daily missile attacks from Gaza. We would use whatever means necessary to win the war. There would likely be numerous casualties on our enemy’s side, but we would rightfully hold those who attacked us responsible.

More than 1,300 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza since Palestinians were given control two years ago. Israelis, however, have gone to incredible lengths to stop the war against them without harming Palestinian non-combatants. But make no mistake, Israel is at war. The elected Hamas government regularly repeats its official promise to destroy Israel entirely and replace it with an Islamic state. Hamas openly took credit for killing one woman and wounding dozens more last week alone.

The Palestinian strategy is to purposely target and kill Israeli civilians. Then, when Israel goes after those launching the attacks, Palestinians claim to be the victims. If Palestinian civilians aren’t hurt in the Israeli attacks, they stage injuries and deaths.

Too often, they garner sympathy and support from a gullible or anti-Semitic media in the international community.

Israelis, themselves, are often incapable of facing the damage they inflict in self-defense. Knowing this, Islamic extremists are using their own populations as human shields.

I’m beginning to wonder how much longer this vicious plot will work though. International sympathy for Palestinians has diminished as the same Islamofascist extremists have brought havoc to Madrid, Bali, Somalia, London and elsewhere. More importantly, Israelis themselves are suffering so badly, they may be on the verge of losing their sympathy for the people who have sworn to kill them.

Imagine what it would be like to live, knowing that a rocket could fall on you or your children at any minute. Half of those who live nearest to Gaza have fled their homes. Those remaining are traumatized by daily warning sirens and explosions.

The irony is that Israel has the military might to easily win the war that is being waged against them today. They haven’t used that might, in the past, out of compassion for Palestinian civilians and because it could trigger a wider regional conflict.

That balance of power is about to change, though. If Iran develops nuclear weapons, the very existence of this tiny nation of Israel will be threatened. The Iranian regime has left little doubt that it intends to see Israel “wiped off the map.” Hamas is using the same language, not coincidentally, and has announced it will begin launching missiles into Israel from the West Bank too.

If the world doesn’t act to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it must be prepared for the consequences of Israel defending itself."

Considering that Rudy Giuliani, the man who threw Yassir Arafat out of Lincoln Center and returned Saudi Prince Alaweed's blood money after 9/11 is also running as a Republican candidate, I hope that American Jews - or indeed anyone who cares about winning the War on Jihad - who's been considering voting Democrat think very carefully about who really has their interests at heart.

Could you imagine uncompromising statements like this coming from the likes of Barak Obama or Mrs. Clinton?

Divided UN Security Council finally votes to create Hariri tribunal

Well, it's taken months,but the UN Security Council finally voted to establish the Hariri tribunal to investigate and try the assassins of ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Only took `em close to two years.

Rafik Hariri was murdered, along with 22 other anti-Syrian Lebanese political figures in a bomb blast in Beirut back in February of 2005.

After a preliminary investigation by the UN's investigator Detlev Mehlis, a report was issued back in October of 2005 implicating major figures in the Syrian regime as complicit - a report which none other than Kofi Annan promptly edited to remove the names of five senior Syrian officials from the published version the report, including Syrian Thug-in-Chief Basher Assad's brother Maher and General Assef Shawqat, the president’s brother-in-law and military intelligence chief.

The other three were General Roustum Ghazali, head of special external intelligence and former Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Hassan Khalil, liaison between the various Syrian intelligence bodies, and Colonel Mohsein Hamoud, a former military intelligence officer who served in Lebanon.

Since the edited report came out, there's been a stalemate. The Lebanese government couldn't try anyone because of Hezbollah's influence...so finally President Siniora asked the UN to move forward and conduct a trial. That didn't even begin to happen until Kofi Annan was safely out of the building.

The indictment is under Chapter 7 of the UN charter,which makes it binding, rather than advisory. The tribunal would try those responsible for the murder of Hariri and at least 16 other political assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists who opposed Syria's military occupation of Lebanon.

The final vote was 15-0, with the usual pro-Islamofacist suspects abstaining - Russia, China, Qatar, South Africa, and Indonesia. They were clinging to the fiction that this was a matter for the Lebanese to determine themselves, and that this was a violation of Lebanon's `sovereignty' - even though President Siniora directly asked the Security Council to handle the matter.

If nations like Russia, China and Qatar `abstained' and didn't block the vote , the evidence on Syria's regime must be pretty conclusive.

Needless to say, the Syrian regime has said that they will not cooperate with the tribunal, and any sort of punishment - like, say, meaningful sanctions - is a remote possibility.

Nevertheless, the truth will finally come out...and that may at least vindicate Hariri and the other victims.

Watcher's Council Nominations, 5/30/07

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels



Council News: Francis at Eternity Road has decided to resign his seat on the Council to engage in other pursuits. We all wish him well in the future.

However...that means that there's a Council seat up for grabs.If you think you measure up, you can apply to the Watcher here for a unique opportunity to be part of a superb group of writers. Nudge nudge, wink wink, enough said...don't snooze on this one.


OK, here's this week's Council lineup:

1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: A cure for `anti-Zionism' Ahhh, that ol' debbil `anti-Zionism'...or, as we used to call it before it took on such a politically correct mask, Jew hatred!

Why is it so pervasive, and is there a cure? I think there is, and I reveal it here. And, by the way, it can also apply to blatant America hatred as well..even (or especially) as demonstrated by some of our fellow citizens.

2. Done With Mirrors; No friend left behind ( update) Callimachus writes about the need for special legislation to permit translators who worked for the US military to immigrate to America, because their lives are in danger.

He also writes about the Clueless Left wanting to disengage from Iraq while making no provisions for this sort of thing.

Callimachus, unfortunately, fails to address two points: First, why would these people need to flee from the wonderful democratic government we've allowed to take power in Iraq? And second, while I can see the necessity and benefit of removing a limited amount of translators and other assets, we all know that a lot of the 25,000 or more visas the Bush Administration wants to give out, almost all of them to Sunnis, will largely go to either the well connected or other questionable elements. And frankly, I don't think the US needs more Muslim immigration right now, considering how poorly the Administration has done on policing our borders and vetting immigrants to America.

3. Soccer Dad: Talking with the bad guys Soccer Dad ably fisks the idea so beloved of the Baker-Hamilton and CFR crowd - negotiating with nations that are in a defacto state of war with us,and with whom there is no hope of meaningful engagement, like Iran and Syria.

What's even worse, as Soccer Dad points out is that by treating nations like this as anything other than thugs and international pariahs, we encourage their repression of freedom loving elements within those countries.

4. The Glittering Eye: Living on $1 a Meal This week, The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler writes about an interesting experiment some members of Congress are indulging in - living on $21 worth of food stamps for one week.

Dave actually presents a shopping list and some ideas on how it could be done..

5. Right Wing Nut House: REFLECTING ON 230 YEARS OF BLOOD AND SACRIFICE Rick writes a fine screed about Memorial Day, how the world has forgotten the sacrifices America has made to keep it free and about how the Bush Administration has failed to energize the American people behind our war effort.

6. Rhymes With Right - HuffPo Writer Equates Isolated Christian Nutjob To Islamism's Global Terror Network Greg takes apart HuffPo moron Max Blumenthal's equating of Islamic terrorism with `fundamentalist Christians.'

This is actually pretty common on the Left. Some people are simply clueless until the knife is at their throats.

7. The Colossus of Rhodey: "But isn't the real issue ...?" Hube takes on the hypocrisy of the Left on issues like global warming and immigration.

I agree with him, although it's not limited to the Left..just mostly. This is part of the old Marxist technique of the dialectic, something the communists borrowed from the Church's strategy known as `apologetics'(successfully countering objections to Church doctrine in debate). In the world of academia, it is called deconstruction. Essentially, advancing the agenda is what matters for these folks - facts are whatever you have to make up to do so.

8. Mitt the Mormon:Bookworm Room Ms. Bookworm examines presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the issue of his membership in the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

I too like Mitt Romney, though I would caution Ms. Bookworm about relying on PBS for any useful data on Mormonism simply because,in general, they are hostile to all religions except Islam.

I personally don't think that he faces significant backlash because of his faith,which is grounded in decent American values ( Mormonism, after all, was a revelation designed for the American continent). I think any problems he might have has more to do with his lack of accomplishment in government and electability in general as compared with other GOP candidates.

9. Cheat Seeking Missiles: Bush Defies Warming Autocrats At G8 Laer writes on the potential conflict between President Bush and other nations at the G8 summit on global warming... and on the hysteria this has produced.

Great graphic, BTW!

10. Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Let Their Victims Come” Dafydd Ab Hugh has an interesting piece on immigration reform and refugees, especially from places like Iraq.

Using Hugh Hewitt's column on this as a jumpoff point, Daffydd voices his disagreement with the idea of a blanket moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries with significant terrorist components because (a) Those refugees are our best source of human intel about those countries and (b) there are plenty of jihadis coming from `white' European countries these days,not to mention the homegrown variety.

He's right on both counts...although, given the Bush Administration's abysmal record on border security and its tolerance for the propagation extremist Islam here at home in America, I'd say extreme caution is advised until we get our house in order. And yes, I would be more inclined to be severely restricting on Muslim immigration to the US, as opposed to, say, Christians fleeing Iraq or non-Muslims from the Balkans until that happens.


11.The Education Wonks: Memorial Day: Just Another Day Of Instruction? EdWonk takes exception to the plans of one school district to treat Memorial Day as business as usual.

That's this week's lineup..enjoy

Abbas' forces defect to Hamas in the West Bank

Fatah and its capo del tutti Mahmoud Abbasi took another hit today in the ongoing Palestinian gang war, as a sizable contingent of the al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigade jumped ship and joined up with Hamas...taking all those shiny new weapons they got from the Bush Administration with them, just like I said they would.


The new group calls itself the Martyr Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat) Brigades, and they are based in Judea and Samaria ( the West Bank) rather than in Gaza. This was a major coup for Hamas, as it shows that they have been able to deeply infiltrate Abbas' forces, to the point where they could secede and form a totally separate Hamas controlled militia.

Some sources say that as much as 40-50% of the al-Aksa Martyr's brigade are now under Hamas command. What's more the revolt has been reportedly endorsed by ex-Fatah-Tanzim terrorist leader, Marwan Barghouti, from his prison cell in Israel, where he's serving six life terms for murdering Israeli civilians in terrorist attacks.

Apparently I was also right about Jibril Rajoub , who's also reportedly endorsed the mutiny...which is why Hamas is pushing him for the new Security Chief's job in Gaza.

Hamas also now has a sizable base for attacks on Israel from Judea and Samaria to add to the attacks from Gaza, including homicide bombings in Israel's major cities.

The IDF and the Shin Bet promptly went into Judea and Samaria to try and neutralize the Fatah rebels by taking down some of the leadership. Among others, they caught Khaled Shawish , a Fatah murderer and gang boss whom Arafat hid for years in his compound in Ramallah. They also managed to get hold of Jamil Tirawi in Nablus, the son of Tawfiq Tirawi, Arafat’s right hand enforcer, who helped found the al Aqsa Brigades.

Mahmoud Abbas has already lasted almost two years longer than I said he would. It remains to be seen how long

As for Israel, they now have an opportunity to finish this nonsense once and for all, and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure that's sprung up on all sides of their country.

I hope they take it.