Month: February 2011

Via Matt Drudge, the Times of London reports:

“Saudi Arabia has threatened to prop up President Mubarak if the White House tries to force a swift change of regime in Egypt. In a testy personal telephone call on January 29, King Abdullah told President Obama not to humiliate Mr Mubarak and warned that he would step in to bankroll Egypt if the US withdrew its aid programme, worth $1.5 billion annually.”

This is a “threat”? Sounds more like they’re offering to do us a favor. Well then, that settles it — the Saudis want to take Mubarak off our hands and are willing to foot the bill. Why don’t we take them up on their offer?

Now if only we could get someone to unload the Israelis on, that would save us another $3 billion annually.

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 9th, 2011:

The Wall Street Journal: Kenneth M. Pollack, director of the Saban center at the Brookings Institution, opines, “Could al Qaeda Hijack Egypt’s Revolution?” and observes, “the Iranian regime is also gleeful about the collapse of Mr. Mubarak, one of America’s most important Arab allies and one of Tehran’s most passionate enemies.” He continues, “Iran’s mullahs often see opportunity in chaos and violence, believing that anything that disrupts the region’s American-backed status quo works to their advantage,” and concludes, “All of this gives Iran and al Qaeda common interests that may drive them toward tacit cooperation—with the goal of fomenting a modern Bolshevik Revolution.”

Tablet Magazine: Hudson Institute visiting fellow Lee Smith argues that the Muslim Brotherhood is still a radicalizing force in Egypt and calls Yussuf al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood preacher who exiled himself from Egypt in 1961, a “prospective Khomeini.” Qaradawi, who hosts the show “Shariah and Life” on Al Jazeera, “has cultivated among some American analysts a reputation for moderation with his fatwas, permitting masturbation and condemning Sept. 11 (while supporting suicide bombers in Israel),” says Smith. Smith goes on to argue, “While the parallels between Iran in 1979 and Egypt in 2011 can be overdrawn, it is foolish to pretend that they are not there,” and warns, “To the Iranians, Qaradawi is perhaps not the ideal voice of Sunni Islamism, but insofar as he rises and the Americans suffer, Tehran will make its accommodations.”

Los Angeles Times: Jonah Goldberg writes a column on “The real realism in Israel” in which he argues against linkage and supports the view that the current unrest in Egypt has nothing to do with Israel. Goldberg, who is at the Herzliya Conference, on a trip underwritten by the Emergency Committee for Israel, says that proponents who see an Israeli-Palestinian peace process as a key U.S. foreign policy goal, such as Gen. James Jones, are detached from reality. “Such thinking falls somewhere between wild exaggeration and dangerous nonsense,” says Goldberg. He goes on to argue, “As we’ve recently been reminded, Israel is the only truly democratic regime in the region, and therefore the most stable. But, we are told, if we were only more conciliatory to corrupt dictatorial regimes and more sympathetic to the ‘Arab street,’ the region would be more stable. (Ironically, this is very close to Israel’s own position, no doubt because it will take any peace it can get.)”

I see Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, is whining that he did not drop Zeyad, an Iraqi blogger whose cousin was murdered by US soldiers in Iraq — as I wrote in today’s column – and that

“Actually, I played a big role in drawing attention to what happened to Zeyad’s cousin, and continued to link to him regularly for years afterward until he came to the States, as a simple search for “Zeyad” in my archives will reveal. I actually hadn’t realized he was back in Iraq and blogging again. I haven’t paid enough attention to what’s going on in Iraq lately, but over the past couple of years I’ve been preoccupied with disasters closer to home, alas.

“Anyway, if Justin has any decency, he’ll retract and apologize. I’m not holding my breath, though.:

Okay, let’s take a look at the archives. Hmmmm…. Here what is Glenn had to say about poor Zeyad and the fate of his cousin – drowned by sadistic US troops in occupied Iraq – and I quote:

“July 02, 2004

“THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE: For quite a few months now I’ve been harping on a story of U.S. troop misconduct originally broken by Iraqi blogger Zeyad. (Most recent roundup, with links to earlier accounts, here; original post here). And now we see something is happening:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army has charged four soldiers, three of them with manslaughter, over the drowning of an Iraqi prisoner while a new report criticized U.S. military detention policies, officials said on Friday.

Newspaper reports in Colorado, where the soldiers were based, said they were accused of forcing two Iraqis to jump off a bridge in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, on January 3. The men had been picked up for violating a curfew.

One of the Iraqis swam to the river bank but the other drowned, according to the reports.

“For a while it looked as if there might be a coverup. I’m glad that turned out not to be the case. I don’t know whether this case would have come to the attention of the authorities without Zeyad’s blog, but I certainly think that it’s helped to keep the pressure on. So far, Zeyad hasn’t posted anything about it on his blog, but I imagine that he will.

“UPDATE: Read this.”

Yes, “something” was happening, alright, and it was precisely a cover-up, but Glenn never acknowledged that. His “spin” was revealed in the last link, which takes us to something called “The Mudville Gazette,” wherein Mr. Mud avers:

“Must note, however, the linked Reuters piece alternates paragraphs of this story with bits of a report on mistreatment of prisoniers at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and elsewhere. Not really the same story, except that both involve Soldiers …”

But of course it is the same story: the brutality and outright evil of the US military occupation. And as for Glenn’s hailing this incident as an example of how there will be no cover-up, check out what he has to say when the verdict comes in, six months or so later:

“January 08, 2005

“HERE’S AN UPDATE in the case involving Zeyad’s cousin:

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — An Army sergeant took the stand and tearfully apologized to his family, commanding officers and subordinates Saturday, a day after being convicted of aggravated assault for ordering his soldiers to throw Iraqis into the Tigris River.

“If I had to go back, I would definitely do something different on those days,” Army Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Perkins said, wiping away tears.

Perkins, 33, was convicted Friday of two counts of aggravated assault, a charge of assault consummated by battery and a charge of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the alleged drowning of one of the men. . . .

Perkins and another soldier were accused of ordering soldiers to push the two Iraqis into the river in Samarra in January 2004. Prosecutors say Zaidoun Hassoun, 19, drowned and his cousin, Marwan Hassoun, climbed out the river.

Marwan Hassoun testified that he tried to save his cousin by grabbing his hand, but the powerful current swept Zaidoun away. Marwan said the body was found in the river nearly two weeks later.

“I don’t know whether this verdict is just or not, but at least the matter wasn’t swept under the rug. Directory of earlier posts on this subject here.

UPDATE: The story I link above has been updated, and says that the sentence is 6 months, which seems to me to be very light.”

So these thugs are essentially let off, with only one being charged with “aggravated assault” – and acquitted of manslaughter – and we are told by Reynolds “I don’t know whether this verdict is just or not.” In his view it could be “just,” but he’s no sure, or, perhaps, he’d rather not say. After hearing the sentence, though – six months for a senseless murder – he opines that it “seems” to him to be “very light.” Oh, and don’t forget: there was no cover-up!

And that’s the last we ever heard on Instapundit of Zeyad’s murdered cousin, and Zeyad, for that matter, a blogger who was formerly held up as an example of a “pro-American” (i.e. pro-invasion) Iraqi, and abruptly dropped not only by Senor Reynolds, but also the “war-bloggers” who did all the cheerleading for the “war on Islamo-fascism” in the early days of the invasion. We, of course, did not drop Zeyad, but pursued the matter a bit more vigorously than Zeyad’s former friends here, and followed Zeyad’s acerbic observations on the invasion he had once wholeheartedly supported here.

“I haven’t paid enough attention to what’s going on in Iraq lately,” avers Glenn, “but over the past couple of years I’ve been preoccupied with disasters closer to home, alas.” Of course he hasn’t paid attention: if he did, he’d have to admit that the war he wanted, agitated for, and hailed as a great triumph was in reality a monstrous crime.

“DO NOT TRUST CONTENT FROM JUSTIN RAIMONDO” – That’s the headline the clueless Instapundit gives to his whining, complete with the all-caps. Well you can hit that all-caps button all you want, Glenn baby, but it won’t do you any good.

 If anybody ought to be in retraction mode, it’s The Instapudit, whose insta-moral judgements reveal a lack of any moral sense. He ought to retract not only his stupid attack on me, but also his support for the Iraq war, which installed a repressive regime in Iraq of the very sort Reynolds and his ilk supposedly abhor. But, as he would say, I’m not holding my breath.

Rachel Maddow is using her “report” on the Republican tea caucus blocking the extension of the PATRIOT Act to replay her “interview” with Rand Paul, and rail about abortion. Rant all you want, Rachel, but people are noticing that you haven’t even mentioned the Act several minutes into your tirade.

Is this ad-libbed?

She misses, of course, the real story: which is that the libertarian wing of the GOP is defending what’s left of our civil liberties. There she is with a big Glenn Beck-like chart, explaining that there are two kinds of conservatives: libertarians and authoritarians. According to her — and me — the GOP party establishment has paid lip service to liberty, in the abstract, but in reality it has been quite the opposite. Everybody claims to be a “libertarian,” but when they get into power it’s a different story. Never mind that Democrats vote with them — they started it, according to Rachel. It’s all the Republicans’ fault.

And she still hasn’t mentioned that the Tea Party made the difference on the PATRIOT Act….

C”,mon, Rachel, you’re supposed to be reporting — and maybe even commenting on — the news.

OH WAIT — She’s finally mentioned it, over five minutes into her rant: “26 Republicans bucked their own party on this vote.” It’s “man bites dog” — Republicans voting against the Act “from the right.” And now they’re questioning Afghanistan. “What happens to American politics now?” she asks. “It’s a realignment.”

The evil smirking Thomas Frank is being brought in, at this point, so I’m changing the channel….

But as to what Rachel said about a realignment: that’s right, but it isn’t going to stop there. We’ve been doing our job here at Antiwar.com, reaching out to the Right on foreign policy and civil liberties issues, for fifteen years now, along with many others. That campaign is reaping a harvest, and the resulting cornucopia is going to astonish the country.

UPDATE: Oh,  and by the way, hours after the PATRIOT Act went down to defeat, Matt Drudge has yet to report it. Instead, we have the red-hot news that a Texas school district is having second thoughts about making the study of Arabic mandatory.

UPDATE 2: On the other side of the divide, the newly-AOL-ized Huffington Post headlines: “Beyond Left and Right: House Defeats Patriot Act Extension,” but the story doesn’t live up to its billing. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is quoted, but not a single Republican who voted “nay,” and the phrase “tea party” is nowhere to be found. Beyond left and right? Not quite.

UPDATE 3: The Washington Post got it right, for once:

“House Republicans suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday when they fell seven votes short of extending provisions of the Patriot Act, a vote that served as the first small uprising of the party’s tea-party bloc.”

This Youtube video, produced by Al Jazeera English, vivifies the nature of the government that Hillary Clinton and others are propping up.

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 8th, 2011:

The Washington Post: Jennifer Rubin blogs that, in Israel, “dissent is celebrated, not suppressed.” She bolsters this assertion by citing yesterday’s Herzliya Conference panel on Iran’s nuclear program, characterizing the panel as “arguments between those who see [Iran’s] nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel (as does the government) and those who indulge in the fantasy that this isn’t anything to worry about.”

The National Review: Hudson Institute visiting fellow and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith defends George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda,” writing that Obama is “repudiating his freedom agenda” and “threw the baby out with the bathwater.” He continues, “Rather, in its national-security approaches to Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, and the Arab states, it downplayed human rights and democracy concerns or discarded them altogether.” Feith charges, “when Iranian demonstrators bravely defied imprisonment, torture, and death to protest their government’s electoral fraud in June 2009, Obama’s frigid detachment shocked even many of his own political supporters.”

The New York Times: The America Enterprise Institute’s Michael Rubin writes on the NYT’s “Room for Debate” forum that “Egypt is not Iran,” and observes, “many current and former officials worry that any withdrawal of support for Egyptian President Mubarak will reverberate through the region much as did President Carter’s abandonment of the Shah of Iran.” Rubin argues, “The problem with Carter’s approach was not the shah’s fall, but White House dithering in its aftermath,” and advocates that the Obama administration “support establishment of a technocratic transitional government, use their soapbox to help it make the necessary legal changes to ensure a smooth election according to a set time line, and then welcome Egypt’s new democratic order.”