Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Kerry aide: Bush ‘flat-out lied’ on Iraq

    Ummm, okay.

    According to “badly wounded Vietnam war veteran” and ousted Senator Max Cleland, President Bush led the U.S. into the Iraq war on a “pack of lies.”

    Cleland said that Bush went to war “because he concluded that his daddy was a failed president and one of the ways he failed was that he did not take out Saddam Hussein (news – web sites)” in the 1991 Gulf war. “So he (Bush junior) is Mr. Macho Man.”

    He added that Kerry, from Massachusetts, agreed with the assessment of Bush’s credibility. “About a year ago John Kerry said,’The president lied, he lied to me personally,’” said Cleland, a badly wounded Vietnam war veteran.

    The response from the Bush team was simple:

    The Bush campaign issued a statement denouncing Cleland’s “rage-filled rant” and accusing Kerry of playing politics with national security, while White House spokesman Scott McClellan shrugged off the Democrats’ attacks.

    “I would remind you that the president’s opponent looked at that same intelligence and made the same decision to support the use the force to remove that regime from power,” McClellan said. “I know he’s all over the map since that time.”

    So much bitterness on the left side of the aisle these days. Check that, Cleland no longer sits left of the aisle.

    By the way, I have yet to find any specifics from Cleland as to what the president’s “lies” were.

  • How a Serial Liar Suckered Dems and the Media

    Doffing the CVC to little green footballs for finding this column about the lies of Joe Wilson and lgf’s possibly intriguing look at his supporters.

    The story of ex-ambassador Joe Wilson, who deliberately “sexed down” Iraq’s attempts to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger, continues to be utterly ignored by mainstream media even as source after source proves that he lied about a very serious threat to US security. Mark Steyn has the goods

  • Passengers’ Good Will Turned Soldiers’ Trip Home into a Flight of Fancy

    The Dallas Morning News is reporting a surprising display of respect for American soldiers.

    It all began with a chance encounter at an airport, a glance, an offer, a quiet chat.

    What’s your seat number, soldier?

    It’s 23-B, sir, the soldier told the businessman.

    No, son, that’s my seat. Yours is in first class.

    As more soldiers boarded, similar offers quickly came from the other first-class passengers.

    And eight soldiers heading home from Iraq for two weeks of R&R found themselves with their officers in the big seats up front instead of the center seats in coach.

    That spontaneous act of good will transformed American Airlines Flight 866, from Atlanta to Chicago, on June 29.

    “The soldiers were very, very happy, and the whole aircraft had a different feeling,” said Lorrie Gammon, one of the Dallas-based flight attendants working the trip.

    “There were 14 seats in first class, and there were 12 soldiers there. The other two first-class passengers wanted to give up their seats, too, but they couldn’t find any more soldiers.”

    Flight attendant Candi Spradlin of Conway, Ark., said she was impressed with how passengers treated the soldiers.

    “If nothing else, those soldiers got a great homecoming,” she said.

    The soldiers were so surprised they barely knew what to do, said Ms. Gammon, who lives in Frisco.

    “They were so humble and thankful – they spent the whole flight saying thank you,” she said.

    “But we should have been saying thank you to them for what they’re doing for us.”

    Almost sounds like an urban legend but, if true, this is very cool.

  • US Mounts New Military Offensive Ahead of Afghan Elections

    The U.S. is going back on the attack to help ensure Afghan elections.

    Major Jon Siepmann, a U.S. spokesman, says the new countrywide operation, dubbed “Lightning Resolve,” aims to protect civilians against militants opposed to the coming elections.

    Afghanistan is due to vote for president on October 9 and for a parliament next spring, replacing the transitional government that has ruled since a U.S.-Afghan alliance ousted the former hard-line Taleban regime in 2001.

    Remnants of the Taleban have been waging an armed struggle against the current government. They want to block the elections, which they say are meant to ensure U.S. domination over Afghanistan.

    Be democratic or die. Not quite “Don’t tread on me” but it’ll do.

  • New British Inquiry Is Showing That Saddam Did Seek Uranium in Africa

    Jack Kelly, writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, decisively argues against the idea that Bush lied about Iraqi attempts to purchase yellowcake in Africa.

    Britain’s Financial Times reported Wednesday that an official British government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq has concluded that Britain’s MI-6 was correct to conclude that Saddam Hussein’s regime had sought to buy uranium ore from Niger.

    If so, this gives the lie to the charge that “Bush lied!” when he said in his 2003 State of the Union address: “The British government has learned that Saddam recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

    I like how Mr. Kelly quickly gets to the key point: the keystone of the “Bush lied” campaign is gone. It didn’t vanish — it never existed.

    The “Bush lied!” charge hung on two slender reeds. The first is that the only “evidence” the CIA had at the time of an Iraq-Niger-yellowcake connection was a fairly obvious forgery obtained through Italian sources. The second was the “investigation” conducted in early 2002 by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson on behalf of the CIA.

    Wilson spent less than two weeks in Niger. In his July 2003 New York Times op-ed about the investigation, in which he described his methodology as “drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country’s uranium business.” The people he talked to told him that Niger hadn’t sold uranium to Iraq. Wilson’s op-ed accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence — and ignoring his report on Niger — to justify a war on Iraq.

    There were two problems with Wilson’s investigation. The first is that the people to whom Wilson was talking might not have been telling him the truth. The second is that to say that Niger did not sell uranium to Iraq is not the same as saying Iraq did not try to buy yellowcake ore from Niger.

    In fact, Wilson himself has confirmed that Iraq did indeed try to buy uranium from Niger.

    Game, set, match.

  • Terrorism Chatter and the Election

    Democratic National Convention, Republican National Convention, November election, polling places, shopping malls, blah, blah, blah.

    I hope nobody has forgotten the most obvious, visible and probably easiest target: the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens. Not that the others aren’t potential, though personally I would suspect the Dem brewfest will be safe in Boston.

  • Muslim Cleric’s Visit Ignites Complaints in Britain

    VOA is reporting that a visiting Islamic cleric is causing a stir across the pond for his previous defense of Palestinian suicide bombings.

    One prominent Jewish member of Parliament, Louise Ellman, said there is plenty of evidence against the cleric.

    “Dr. Qaradawi is on record supporting mass murder through suicide bombings,” she said. “That means killing young children at pizza parlors, it means folk singers on Tel Aviv beach being blown up, it means people at religious festivals being blown up. And he is inciting mass murder.”

    Mr. al-Qaradawi’s defenders in Britain say his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict represent mainstream opinion among most Muslims. They also point out that he condemned the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001, as well as the bombings in Madrid last March.

    The Muslim Association of Britain, which is sponsoring his visit, said he was delivering a sermon Friday at London’s Central Mosque that emphasizes the responsibility of Muslims to be active and law-abiding participants in Britain’s democracy.

    I’m torn as to whether this guy should just be expelled or whether he should be grabbed, handed over to the Israelis and forced to spend the rest of his life in pizzarias and discos until he renounces terrorism.

    I find it interesting that he denounce the 9/11 and Madrid bombings. I do wonder, though, if these denunciations were voiced in Arabic to his fellow Egyptians.

  • An Analysis of al-Sadr’s Uprising

    A tip of the CVC to USS Clueless for this look at al-Sadr’s uprising in Iraq and an interesting tie-in to Michael Moore.

    The military response to his uprising ultimately has to be considered a victory by the only standard that really counts: achievement of political goals. al-Sadr hoped to inspire a general uprising and to prevent us from transferring power to an Iraqi government. We hoped to avoid a general uprising, and to transfer power to said government on schedule, without the transfer being seen as us cutting and running.

    Whose hopes were fulfilled?

    You have to keep your eyes on the true goal, and you have to be willing to be patient. Sometimes slow-and-steady wins the race, even though it looks as if you are falling behind at the beginning.

  • AP: Iraq Insurgency Larger Than Thought

    U.S. military officials are saying the size of the insurgency in Iraq is possibly much larger than previously thought, reports the Associated Press.

    Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 — an estimate reflected in the insurgency’s continued strength after U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.

    4K KIA (killed in April). I haven’t seen that figure anywhere else. Actually, I haven’t seen much at all on the numbers of bad guys whacked.

  • Ridge Warns of Election Terror Plot

    The AP is report that al Queda hopes to disrupt the Presidential election with terror.

    A steady stream of intelligence, including nuggets from militant-linked Web sites, indicates al-Qaida wants to attack the United States to disrupt the upcoming elections, federal officials said Thursday.

    I’d just like to insert a special, heart-felt thanks to the invertebrates of Spain who have encouraged this.

    Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the Bush administration based a decision to bolster security on credible reports about al-Qaida’s plans, coupled with the pre-election terror attack in Spain earlier this year and recent arrests in England, Jordan and Italy.

    “This is sobering information about those who wish to do us harm,” Ridge said. “But every day we strengthen the security of our nation.”