Playing Up the Hate

A candidate for District Attorney in Manhattan has decided that the best way to separate himself from the rest of the candidates is to pursue a gun control agenda, with an outrageous campaign.

The type of guys he hopes to keep guns from? Dick Cheney.

This is just insanity, but Richard Aborn, who hopes to replace retiring Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, thinks that this is a legitimate target and will score points with the liberals in Manhattan.

Under the headline "One candidate for district attorney has spent 30 years taking guns out of the hands of criminals," there's a large color photo of Cheney with his hands on a rifle.

"If someone happens to believe that Dick Cheney is some kind of war criminal and they like the fact that Richard Aborn is exposing Cheney for the barriers he placed in the way of keeping New Yorkers safe, then that's a happy coincidence," said Alex Navarro-McKay, an Aborn spokesman.

Cheney is a "visceral symbol of everything that progressive Democrats, Richard Aborn's base, oppose," Navarro-McKay explained.

The mailer also features a photograph of Aborn shaking hands with former President Bill Clinton and quotes the ex-president praising him, even though Clinton hasn't endorsed him.

When Democrats like to talk about how they're not playing up the hate, just remember that they're the ones who demonized and threatened President Bush and Vice President Cheney for eight straight years.

Can you just feel the love with the claims that Cheney was a war criminal?

The same kind of hatred and derangement from the right against President Obama is also corrosive to politics. One can hate the policies and practices without hating the person. All too often, the two get conflated.

This Is What Got Democrats In A Tizzy?

Pardon me while I stop laughing at all those who breathlessly wondered when US Attorney General Eric Holder would start filing indictments against Bush Administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

Apparently the super secret program that the Vice President kept from Congressional leaders was nothing other than a plan to capture and kill top al Qaeda leaders.

A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.

The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance.

According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn’t become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it.

In 2001, the CIA also examined the subject of targeted assassinations of al Qaeda leaders, according to three former intelligence officials. It appears that those discussions tapered off within six months. It isn’t clear whether they were an early part of the CIA initiative that Mr. Panetta stopped.

So why exactly did CIA Director Panetta stop this program? What exactly was he uncomfortable about? More to the point, why was this program not fully operational when Panetta ended it? Could it be that this program was ended because it wasn't an efficient use of CIA limited resources at a time when other efforts, such as UAV airstrikes, have been shown to be quite effective?

The takeaway from this is that the Bush Administration was contemplating a secret initiative that would have worked towards a goal of eliminating top al Qaeda terrorists like Zawahiri and bin Laden. Seeing how a President's foremost goal is to provide and maintain the security of the United States, eliminating the terrorists responsible for the grievous loss of life on 9/11 would be a priority.

Democrats will claim that this proposal somehow broke the law because Congressional leaders were not kept apprised of the CIA proposal, but given how this plan fizzled out before it got to the operational stage, and was superseded by other programs like the UAV airstrikes that have killed dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban thugs, including several high profile targets, this is much ado about nothing. It's part of an ongoing attempt by Democrats to politicize and criminalize policy differences.

Serious Fire At Executive Office Building

News outlets are reporting a serious fire at the Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. The fire is centered on an area near Vice President Dick Cheney's office. The entire building has been evacuated.

Needless to say, the leftists and kooks will have fun with conspriacy theories over the fire and whether it was done to destroy evidence of misdeeds.

They're already on the case at Democratic Underground. (HT: Yankee Division Son at LGF)

It wont take long before they're making the rounds at Daily Kos or the other leftist haunts.

The fire was apparently started by an electrical fault:

The blaze appeared to be located near the ceremonial office of Vice President Dick Cheney on the second floor of the building. The vice president was across the street in his office in the West Wing of the White House.

Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford said the Old Executive Office building was evacuated as a precaution. District of Columbia firefighters poured water on the blaze and moved furniture from the building onto a balcony.

It's also being reported by Drudge that the Secret Service is preventing investigators from entering the scene.

UPDATE:
The fire is now out. Good work DC's Bravest.

UPDATE:
The unhinged DKosers are truly off the rails. Here's an example:

I'm sure that will now be used (0 / 0)
as an excuse for any papers that are subpoenaed. Too bad Cheney wasn't in the office while it burned.

(- 4.63, - 5.18) Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is. --Winston Churchill

by mkfarkus on Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 08:44:15 AM PST

And another:

Logged in just to see if y'all were thinking that (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:sc kitty
this was a prime way to destroy evidence.....

Yup. First thought I had. The creeps.

by jm taylor on Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 07:29:10 AM PST

And another:

Cheney figured out that a shredder (2+ / 0-)
Recommended by:annrose, labwitchy
Would take until 2010 to dispose of the evidence.

So a fire was required.

Another Reichstag?

The biggest threat to America is not communism, it's moving America toward a fascist theocracy... -- Frank Zappa

by NCrefugee on Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 07:01:41 AM PST

UPDATE:
Think Progress shows that they need a wee bit more thinking and a whole lot more progress.

The Weakest Link

Air security is only as good as its weakest link. And watching how Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport handles its air security and screening during the overnight hours, one can only say that security is asleep at the switch.

Security checkpoints are just part of travel these days. They're supposed to keep us safe, so we use them - but not all of us and not all the time.

We've discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There's no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it's apparently not a problem.

Afraid to show her face, one long time Sky Harbor employee talks about the security most people don't see.

Lisa Fletcher: "You're telling me Sky Harbor's not safe?"

Employee: "I'm telling you Sky Harbor's not safe and hasn't been for a long time."

It's what we discovered in the middle of the night - TSA agents going away, and security guards taking over. It's 4.5 hours - every night - when an employee badge becomes an all-access pass.

Night after night, our hidden cameras captured what security experts tell us is a disaster waiting to happen.

The X-ray machines were off, the metal detectors were closed, and bags with unknown contents were carried to the secure side of the airport where the planes are.

We watched as a security guard let people with purses, coolers and suitcases
walk right through - bags unchecked.

When you have passengers and other individuals who are able to gain access to the secured areas beyond the inactive x-ray scanners and screening section without inspection of baggage, one wonders how exactly can this be called security?

What makes it all the more galling is that the TSA supposedly has signed off on this arrangement despite TSA regulations that require baggage checks at airports 24/7/365.

How many other airports around the country have substandard baggage checks during the overnight hours and does anyone at the TSA actually care? If someone is able to get into the system, they're able to fly around the country and the world and no one would be any the wiser that someone was able to bring contraband or worse aboard.

UPDATE:
It's those kinds of things that keeps VP Cheney up all night, and Newsweek points to a new biography of the Vice President and spins some of this worry as a negative - the gloomy demeanor of the man. The VP has long worried about additional terrorist attacks and continuity of government should an attack decapitate the chain of command, and it is actually good to see that someone was taking an interest in such a dire and unspoken concern.

Yet, the Newsweek piece is also informative in that the intel that was coming into the WH was so much garbage. There was no way to process and weed out reports:

Most Americans have not quite grasped how imminent and overwhelming the danger seemed to be, at least to those reading the incoming intelligence. Under pressure to produce something—anything—about terrorist planning, the CIA and FBI flooded the White House with raw intelligence, much of it dubious or just wrong, but terrifying in its totality. At one point, security officials believed that the home belonging to Elizabeth Cheney, the veep's daughter, had been hit by an anthrax attack. Elizabeth had to call her nanny to get her to take the kids to "the mall," as she put it—so they could be tested for exposure.

In a revealing interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (at the time Bush's national-security adviser), told Hayes, "[Cheney] read every intelligence report. I mean every intelligence report no matter how minor. And I was feeling kind of driven crazy by not knowing how to—at that time we didn't really have a good system for sorting what was reliable and what wasn't. I mean, we were just getting raw reporting of everything that was coming in, you know. So I remember thinking that he had an extraordinary memory ... for all of these things."

How exactly could anyone make a rational decision when the intel on which they had to act was faulty, inaccurate, and contradictory. Hindsight may prove the intel to be faulty, but when one looks at the volumn of reports, one had to err on the side of caution and do what was best for the nation's national security. It's an ongoing problem, and building in new layers of bureaucracy do little to improve intel gathering and analysis.

UPDATE:
The TSA has taken action as a result of being embarrassed by the major failings to screen passengers and personnel 24/7 at Sky Harbor.

As a result of an ABC15 Investigation, Transportation Security Administration administrator Kip Hawley has determined Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is violating TSA policy which requires all workers to be screened at security checkpoints.

The TSA has reportedly placed the Federal Security Director at Sky Harbor on administrative leave.

The TSA also says it will resume 24-hour screening tonight at all airport security checkpoints.

A follow up question should be whether other airports engaged in similar behavior. I suspect it was not alone.

Plame Lawsuit Dismissed

Valerie Plame, whose name launched a federal investigation into who leaked her identity to the press and netted Scooter Libby in a tangled web of contradictions leading to his conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice charges (and commuted by President Bush after Libby was ordered to prison), had her lawsuit against members of the Bush Administration dismissed.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit against members of the Bush administration in the CIA leak scandal.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband's criticism of the administration.

The fact is that Richard Armitage admitted to being the first person to leak the name to the media, and that no one in the Administration purposefully leaked her name or violated federal law in discussing Wilson's wife.

Expect the whining to begin from the Left and the spin from the Right.

UPDATE:
This story has more details:

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband's criticism of the administration.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove and former White House aide I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby.

Plame's attorneys had said the lawsuit would be an uphill battle. Public officials are normally immune from such lawsuits filed in connection with their jobs.

It would have been entertaining had this case actually gone forward as the discovery portion would have been a complete hoot, especially when the defense teams would have gotten their licks in on Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie. I suspect that Wilson is secretly relieved that this matter has been dismissed because he can now claim that it was not only an uphill fight, but the cards were stacked against him, and the Libby conviction shows that he was in the right. Of course, the fact is that Libby was convicted on the basis of not being able to keep his story straight - the same problem that faced various other witnesses against him including Tim Russert. Only Libby was prosecuted, and that came after Fitzgerald knew that Armitage was the leaker. Fitzgerald was busy tying up loose ends in dealing with Libby.

So, once again, I'll trot out an old favorite because this is the one scene that the Left will not get to enjoy - No Fitzmas for you!



UPDATE:
Hot Air wonders whether anyone should be surprised that the AP screwed up its legal analysis of the rationale for the dismissal of the case. They completely ignored pages of the decision? When you have an actual case or document to work from, it's always a good idea to go back and actually read what it has to say. The AP screed ignores key evidence and legal reasoning behind the dismissal. Plame and Wilson failed to state a cause of action and the evidence was stacked against them, including the fact that the defendants were operating in official capacities at all times due to the nature of their jobs. The only thing this decision doesn't address is the actual leak itself - or its legality. It's characterized as unsavory, but that is when seen in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs.

Others blogging this circus: Macranger, Outside the Beltway, Tom Maguire, Michael van der Galien, Paul at Wizbang, Wake Up America, AJ Strata, and memeorandum is keeping tabs on the reactions.

Michelle Malkin wonders whether they'll now go away. Don't count on it one bit. They'll be making the talk show circuit this weekend and expect a movie deal before long too. The inconvenient fact is that the only person who actually leaked matters was Richard Armitage.

Where We're Headed In Iraq

From Frontpage Magazine (HT aboo-Hoo-Hoo at LGF) :

In such circumstances, where two similar and yet rival civilizations claim true faith, conflict is inevitable, according to Lewis. Conflict with the Christian West began at the dawn of Islam when Muslim warriors burst out of Arabia and conquered Syria, Palestine and other lands previously held by Christian Byzantium. The Moors conquered Spain, and the Ottoman Turks captured land previously held by Christians, extending their conquest to Europe. In the 17th Century, Ottoman Turkish Corsairs raided Western Europe, and Europe was able to recover some of these lands, and enter the Islamic domain in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

“We are now experiencing a third attempt to bring Islam to Europe,” Lewis pointed out. Unlike the previous attempts that were primarily military in nature, the current Muslim push is through migration and demography. Freedom of expression, economic opportunities and moderate climates encouraged Muslim migration to Western Europe. The contrast between the high birthrates of Arab-Muslims in Europe and the negative rates of native Europeans, who marry late and have fewer children, may finally provide Islam with the chance to Islamize Europe.

The Bin Laden terrorist phenomenon has, according to Lewis, much to do with the perception that Jihad defeated the Red Army in Afghanistan. “The crucial moment” for the rise of Bin Laden, said Lewis, was the defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union. Some regard that as a Western victory; for Bin Laden, however, it was a victory for Islam and Jihad.

According to Lewis, Bin Laden exploited the all too willing Western media. Bin Laden’s argument was that the “ongoing struggle is between the superceded word of G-d and the latest word of G-d.” In Bin Laden’s vision, he was chosen to restore Islam and lead it to victory. Lewis explained that as the Jihadists see it, the end of the Caliphate (1924) following the abolition of the Ottoman Empire Sultanate (1922) by Kamal Ataturk was for Bin Laden the “ultimate humiliation.”

For Bin Laden, it is now the final stage in a three-act play. Having “destroyed the stronger and more deadly superpower,”the Soviet Union, “the effeminate American Empire is not a problem.” Bin Laden attacked U.S. installations in 1998 with impunity. Americans responded with “angry words” followed by “let’s get out of here.” This attitude began in 1983 Beirut after the U.S. Marine compound was destroyed and 241 U.S. Marines were killed, repeated in Somalia in 1994. Bin Laden’s attacks on American interests continued throughout the 1990’s, culminating with September 11, 2001, when Bin Laden opened the third phase - bringing his Jihad to America.

Bernard Lewis knows more about the Middle East and the cultural/political/religious divides than practically anyone else on the planet. He's forgetten more than most have ever learned about the subject, and that includes the members of Congress who think that if the war wasn't won by the May sweeps, we've lost.

Lewis knows that this is a conflict fought on a generational scale, not one that fits neatly into a US political calendar.

Unfortunately, the US politicans don't have the foresight or wherewithall to see this. They put their own personal political agendas ahead of that, and it undermines US national security.

And this has specific ramifications for the situation in Iraq, given as the media is taken with the idea that we've either lost or are losing the fight. Perhaps many in the US and Democrats in Congress have lost the will to fight, but the US hasn't lost in Iraq, and those who are on the ground there disagree with that assessment.

The problem is that those on the ground in Iraq aren't the ones making the decision. It's the members of Congress who keep putting together funding bills that would effectively result in defeat and retreat for the US, ceding the theater of operations to al Qaeda and the Islamist movement.

Complicating matters is the possibility that the Iraqi parliament will go on a 2-month vacation and are continuing to squabble over various issues. Some US politicians are mad as hell at the possibility that the Iraqi government would go on vacation during a crucial time. They might have a point, except that Congress went on a vacation during Easter break and didn't take any action on a funding bill (and since then have only submitted two different versions of a defeat and retreat bill that the President has either vetoed or would veto if passed). Maybe the Iraqi parlimentarians think that the US can solve their problems for them, and that's the concern that US politicians have (including the Administration given VP Cheney's visit to Baghdad this week). US politicians need to see the Iraqis working to solve their own problems as much as seeing results on the ground with US armed forces. The Iraqi government has to address hard issues, and going on vacation is perhaps a sign of denial and avoidance. However, that the Iraqi parliament has decided to go on vacation might speak to the strength of the Iraqi government and its faith in itself, rather than a sign of weakness of resolve since they believe that their country can sustain itself despite a break in the political action. Perhaps that is overly optimistic or even naive, but the Iraqis themselves don't seem to have a problem with the break.

US politicians do because there are US forces who are continuing to fight and die in Iraq against the ongoing insurgency and terrorist threat. They want to see signs that the Iraqis are committed to the fight. Taking a vacation doesn't help matters because the perceptions mean more than the reality.

And this says nothing of the ongoing threat posed by Iran. Opponents to the conflict in Iraq will claim that the US is trumping up the Iranian threat, even as Iran itself aggressively pursues nuclear weapons and is building an infrastructure to enrich uranium - that with enough time can produce nuclear weapons grade materials.

UPDATE:
Sauce for the goose - the Iraqi President thinks that the Iraqis need US forces in the country for another year or two. If I were going to be sarcastic, I'd say he's underestimating the situation by a couple of decades based on the European model (US forces are still in Germany). However, the Iraqis need to better show that they're capable of handling matters themselves without having the US Congress push benchmarks or timetables on them.

Major Announcement Expected From John Edwards

This doesn't sound good for Elizabeth Edwards given the way the media is running with the story. She had battled breast cancer a while back and the expected announcement may relate to the fact that Edwards may be forced to reconsider his run for the Presidency.

WASHINGTON, March 21 — John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat making a second bid for the presidency, announced late Wednesday night that he would hold a news conference Thursday, a day after he and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Mrs. Edwards’ doctor to assess her health following her recovery from breast cancer.

Mrs. Edwards, in a brief interview from her home in Chapel Hill, said she and Mr. Edwards would discuss her health at the news conference, but she declined to elaborate.

“I’m still here,” she said.

Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Edwards campaign, said that she would not provide any details in advance of the press conference, which will be held in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Edwards campaign announced the news conference at the end of a day when Mr. Edwards canceled a campaign appearance to join his wife at a visit to her doctor. Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, almost on the day that Mr. Edwards, running for vice president on the Democratic ticket with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, lost to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mrs. Edwards subsequently wrote “Saving Graces,” a memoir that recounted her battle. On the campaign trail, when talking about health care, Mr. Edwards has frequently talked about his wife’s battle with cancer, and the treatments she underwent.

Mr. Edwards had waited until he and Mrs. Edwards’ doctors were confident about her recovery before announcing that he was making a second bid for the presidency. Since then, he had established himself as a contender in a race that has included Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. A decision by Mr. Edwards to withdraw, should he decide to do that, could have thus have a profound impact on the dynamics of this Democratic contest.

I wish Elizabeth and the rest of the Edwards family well. This is not news anyone should have to hear.

If Edwards does withdraw, this certainly will change the dynamics of the Democrat party race as both Obama and Clinton will rush to fill the void and try to pick up Edwards' support. Frankly, I'm not sure how much that support is worth - considering that he was a one term Senator with no foreign policy experience, but as a trial lawyer, he's connected to lots of money and that will be what the other Democrat candidates are looking at.

UPDATE:
Edwards is going to be suspending his campaign in light of the recurrence of Elizabeth's breast cancer.

UPDATE:
All the early prognostications have proven false that Edwards would quit or suspend the race. Edwards is not quitting the race and will continue despite the fact that Elizabeth has bone cancer that was discovered after she had a bone scan following cracking a rib. She will continue to work with the campaign and receive treatment as needed.

UPDATE:
Politico has issued a retraction/apology for getting its story wrong. They relied upon a single source and that proved fatal to their reporting that Edwards would quit/suspend the campaign.

Hot Pursuit

Has someone in the military gotten the message that if you see the bad guys you're not going to stop at the border? Apparently, US forces pursuing al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan have not bothered to stop at the Pakistani border and are instead following them into Pakistan in order to eliminate the ongoing threat:

They said the Taliban threat is greater now than it was a year ago, and they agreed that the Pakistan government can and must do more to get at the large, ungoverned sectors along the remote Pakistan border that are safe havens for Taliban insurgents.

"We have all the authorities we need to pursue, either with (artillery) fire or on the ground, across the border," said Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Lute, who is chief operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said soldiers can respond if there is an imminent threat. But he said they would have to seek the Pakistan government's permission to go after a munitions factory further inside the Pakistani border.

The discussion came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in an effort to urge a more aggressive Pakistani effort to hunt al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who are expected to increase attacks into Afghanistan this spring.

The Pakistani military has been more aggressive in going after al-Qaida than the Taliban, who are more protected by tribal leaders in some of the border regions.

Musharraf has insisted that his forces have done all they can against the extremists, but senators said it's simply not enough. And they quizzed Lute and undersecretary of defense for policy, Eric S. Edelman, about what more the U.S. can do if Pakistan won't or cannot do more.

The primary reason that the Taliban and al Qaeda are threatening now is that they've been able to reconstitute inside the safe haven of Pakistan. The Pakistanis had made deals with the border tribes to stop going after al Qaeda and Taliban, which essentially provided a safe haven for the terrorists.

In response, the US has turned the screws on Musharaf and have worked out an arrangement where the US forces are able to go after al Qaeda and Taliban in hot pursuit if they've crossed the border into Afghanistan in hit and run attacks.

There are limitations as to what the US can do in these circumstances since Pakistan is a sovereign nation, but since the Pakistani government appears to have consented to this action, the US actions to go after the Taliban and al Qaeda if they engage in hostile acts or demonstrate hostile intent. That's a pretty wide brush and left up to the commander on the scene. However, targets deeper inside Pakistan may still be off limits and there is a need to share information.

Bill Roggio has more on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban Official Rumor Mongers That Bin Laden Still Alive

He's not yet a martyr. Thanks for that update.

A senior Taliban commander says Osama bin Laden is alive and in contact with leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents, according to an interview aired on British television.

Mullah Dadullah said he had not met bin Laden since the fall of the Taliban regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but said “we know he’s still alive.”

“He’s not yet martyred. Such information would be easy to get — his comrades stand shoulder to shoulder with us. They keep us informed,” Dadullah said in an interview broadcast Wednesday by Channel 4 News.

The authenticity of the information could not be confirmed. Channel 4 did not say how it had obtained the footage, and it was not known when or where Dadullah made the comments, which were translated into English.

Now, if you would be so kind as to provide his current whereabouts, it would be much appreciated. Latitude and longitude are acceptable for mapping his coordinates. I'm sure that there are a list of folks who wouldn't mind paying him a visit.

Oh wait. Dadullah says he hasn't actually seen him alive, but has been told by others that he's alive and yet this passes as news? What makes this qualify as news? It's a guy repeating a rumor. Yet, it gets treated as a high importance news story?

Heck, I think I saw Elvis a few months ago. Seriously. I did. Stop laughing. He was working at the Quik-E-Mart. Quit laughing! Oh, you mean that I'm starting nothing but a rumor and Elvis is dead? Say it isn't so. He's not dead, but only went home? You're kidding, right?

UPDATE:
Did I mention coordinates? Seems that a high level Taliban was picked up by the Pakistanis today. Heh.

Pakistani security forces have captured a high-ranking Taliban leader in the southwestern city of Quetta, a senior Pakistani security official and Taliban sources said on Thursday.

The capture of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund marked the first time Pakistan had arrested a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001, and thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan.

The security official, who requested anonymity, and the Taliban sources, said Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership council, was arrested late on Monday, hours after a surprise visit to Pakistan by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Taliban Attack Base Where VP Cheney Was Present

A bombing in Afghanistan at the base where Cheney was visiting, and the Taliban come out and claim that it was an assassination attempt.

A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20. Cheney was unhurt in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban and was the closest that militants have come to a top U.S. official visiting Afghanistan. At least one U.S. soldier, an American contractor and a South Korean solder were among the dead, NATO said.

Cheney, who visited with President Hamid Karzai and then left the country two hours after the blast, said the attackers were trying "to find ways to question the authority of the central government."

The vice president had spent the night at the sprawling Bagram Air Base, and it was about 10 a.m. when the explosion sent up a plume of smoke visible by reporters accompanying. U.S. military officials declared a "red alert."

"I heard a loud boom," Cheney told reporters. "The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate."

If I were the Taliban, I'd be worried right about now. Cheney's pretty good with a gun and can hit lawyers from 30 paces in his sleep. Imagine what he can do if he's motivated. Now multiply that by a couple million times - that's what the US armed forces are like.

The Taliban have to make high profile attacks to stay relevant. Going after Bagram while the Vice President is on base is definitely one way to get the media exposure they need. This single suicide bombing doesn't mean that the Taliban are resurgent or that they're successful at undermining the Afghan government and coalition forces rebuilding efforts. It means that a single suicide bomber managed to get to the front gate of the base.

However, it does show that the US and NATO must exert even more pressure on neighboring Pakistan to clamp down on the border and to go after al Qaeda and Taliban on the Pakistani side of the border. A safe haven in that region means that no one is safe and that the Taliban and al Qaeda will continue to be a menace not only to Afghanistan but the rest of the world. Failed states and regions have a way of doing that.

UPDATE:
Guess who is applauding the Taliban attempted assassination of the US Vice President. AJ Strata has more on the leftist reaction. It isn't pretty. These folks are openly rooting for enemies of the US to assassinate US leaders.

UPDATE:
Did someone within the Pakistani ISI tip off the Taliban as to where Cheney would be going? That appears to be the direction things are headed.

Wayback Machine Should Hit Joe Wilson Hard

It wasn't long ago when Joe Wilson said he would sue Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and the Tooth Fairy in order to get to the bottom of L'affair Plame.

So, when faced with the opportunity to confront the very folks that he claims outed his wife, Joe Wilson is trying to fight a subpoena to testify in the Lewis 'Scooter' Libby case.

Former ambassador Joseph Wilson asked a federal judge Wednesday not to force him to testify in the CIA leak case and accused former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of trying to harass him on the witness stand.

Libby, who faces perjury and obstruction charges, subpoenaed Wilson as a defense witness this month. Libby's attorney, William Jeffress, said in court Tuesday that was a precautionary move and he did not expect to put Wilson on the stand.

Libby is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding Wilson's wife, outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame and Wilson have sued Libby and other Bush administration officials, accusing them of plotting to leak Plame's identity as retribution for Wilson's criticism of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

"Mr. Libby should not be permitted to compel Mr. Wilson's testimony at trial either for the purpose of harassing Mr. Wilson or to gain an advantage in the civil case," Wilson's attorneys wrote.

While Wilson and Plame are at the center of the CIA leak scandal, Wilson is a minor figure in Libby's perjury trial. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has sought to keep much of the back story of the leak out of the case.

Walton might try to keep much of the back story out of the case, but the problem is that without that backstory, there was no case to begin with as the Patrick Fitzgerald searched for nearly two years without a single indictment for the actual leak.

There was no Fitzmas. No one was indicted for violating federal law. Richard Armitage was fingered as the person who first mentioned Plame's name to a media source, and no charges were filed against him.

Instead, we get a dog and pony show to somehow justify Fitzgerald's investigations. For his part, Libby has every right to bring in witnesses to testify to the criminal acts asserted and/or factual circumstances that would show that there was no criminal act. Wilson knows that he's fighting a lost cause on his own civil suit, and doesn't want to have to run the gauntlet twice - perhaps irreparably damaging his civil case before he can get to trial.

Others picking up the story: California Conservative, Bullwinkle Blog, Joe's Dartblog, and Let Freedom Ring.

Rangel to Mississippi: Drop Dead

“Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?” Mr. Rangel said.

Classy.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is likely to head the House Ways and Means Committee. He's going to decide just what money is appropriated in the new session.

Lots of class, that Charlie Rangel. Whatever kudos he got for telling [T]hugo Chavez off after calling the President a devil is gone. Rangel wants to be able to say those kinds of things exclusively. He's already said as much about Dick Cheney. And he's planning on saying drop dead to the military.

Now, after realizing that he's made a serious gaffe of his own, Rangel is trying to backtrack.

This is exactly the kind of thing people on the Gulf Coast don't need right now as they're still trying to put back together their lives after Katrina. Mississippi was among the most devastated part of the Gulf Coast - taking the brunt of Katrina's wrath. Entire towns were wiped off the map.

GOP and the City has more.

UPDATE:
Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering (R) calls for Rangel to apologize. Good luck with that.

Technorati: rangel, mississippi, politics.

Polling On The November Election Outcome, Part II

I previously wrote about what I thought was going on with the polling and general sentiment around the country. Namely, I believed that Foleygate had little to no effect on the outcome, as the GOP was in substantially the same position as it was in at the beginning of September - before Foleygate broke and before President Bush began his more emphatic defense of the war on terror and defending the conflict in Iraq as the right thing to do.

Election Projection, which all but nailed the 2004 elections and did far better than the professional prognosticators, seems to confirm my take on the House, which would remain in GOP control. The Senate is a dead heat, with the GOP retaining power on the tiebreaker (aka Dick Cheney). That particular scenario also gives someone like Joe Lieberman quite a bit of power since his fellow Democrats all but screwed him in the aftermath of the primary. They'll now try to butter him up to make sure he sticks with the caucus. Given his voting record, that shouldn't be that difficult, but he could extract quite a toll on Democrat leadership. The currently weekly wrapup is here.

That isn't going to stop those from trying to argue that polls show the GOP losing the House. The poll itself is here.

Hung Up on Ethics

What a surprise.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) hung up on the AP when questions got a little too close for comfort about his ethical dealings on a land deal that netted a sweetheart $1.1 million deal. Now, that's the kind of media management that deserves kudos. Just a wee bit more subtle than the Dick Cheney "Go f-bomb yourself."

Imagine if Denny Hastert hung up on the AP over questions about Foleygate. The holy hell that would break loose wouldn't cease for days. This gets not much more than a footnote and a Drudge headline (though one shouldn't underestimate a Drudge headline).

As to the meat and potatoes of the situation here, check out Ed Morrissey for more. Lots of shennanigans here - Reid made $1.1 million on a property he didn't even own.

The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing _ except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.

Land deeds obtained by The Associated Press during a review of Reid's business dealings show:

_The deal began in 1998 when Reid bought undeveloped residential property on Las Vegas' booming outskirts for about $400,000. Reid bought one lot outright, and a second parcel jointly with Brown. One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported. The seller never talked to Reid.

_In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a limited liability corporation created by Brown. The senator didn't disclose the sale on his annual public ethics report or tell Congress he had any stake in Brown's company. He continued to report to Congress that he personally owned the land.

_After getting local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center, Brown's company sold the land in 2004 to other developers and Reid took $1.1 million of the proceeds, nearly tripling the senator's investment. Reid reported it to Congress as a personal land sale.

The complex dealings allowed Reid to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown's company without public knowledge, but still collect a seven-figure payoff nearly three years later.

Where can I get a deal like that? Oh wait, you've got to be a member of the Senate to pull something like this off.

Don Surber takes note of all the poor folks in Congress. By poor, I mean by Congressional standards, not what you or I would consider poor. Harry Reid is poor by Senate standards, ranking only 31st among Senators. Awww. Guess he was trying to raise his position.

Others blogging: Powerline, Steve Verdon, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, and Dan Riehl.

UPDATE:
Jack M. posting at Ace raises some interesting questions about the sources of the information used in the AP article. It suggests a well-placed senior staffer was involved, and that can't be good news for Reid at all. Read it all.

Technorati: harry reid, land deal, nevada, windfall, congress, culture of corruption.

The Web of Leaks

So what do we call McCarthy and other thus far unidentified leakers involved in the release of classified information that undermines US national security (secret prisons and the NSA information gathering programs)? Moles? The leakers have their defenders - and using the media to try a wee bit of equivalence failing to note the difference between a legal but questionable release of information for the purpose of refuting a partisan hack with an unauthorized and hence illegal release of information that damages national security and undermines the ability to defend this country from terrorist threats. ABC is in the act of whitewashing McCarthy's actions. And the idiotic excuses continue to roll in.

Porter Goss has made it a priority to clean up the CIA and eliminate leaks of classified information. That's what a good director is supposed to do. So, predictably it has meant hard feelings for those who don't like the fact that the agency is investigating its own to clean house.

Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director, has for three months carried out one of the most intensive leak investigations in the agency's history, using polygraph tests to determine who at the agency may be behind what Mr. Goss says is an explosion of damaging leaks to the news media.

According to C.I.A. officials, staff members have been summoned by the agency's Security Center to undergo polygraph tests in an effort to find out who revealed to reporters information about classified programs, including the agency's secret overseas detention jails for high-level Qaeda detainees.

It is uncommon for C.I.A. directors to make leak crackdowns a priority of their tenure. Mr. Goss's use of "single issue" polygraphs in a leak investigation — which led to the firing on Thursday of the C.I.A. officer, Mary O. McCarthy — is a sign of how serious he is about enforcing discipline in the agency's ranks.

When Mr. Goss took the helm at the C.I.A. in September 2004, he inherited an agency that was widely viewed in Washington as being at war with the Bush administration.

Mr. Goss, a longtime Republican congressman, was mulling retirement when President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney pressed him to take the C.I.A. job, in part to rein in what they viewed as a coordinated campaign of leaks to the news media from C.I.A. insiders hostile to the administration.

But some believe that the problem has grown under Mr. Goss's leadership, and many see Ms. McCarthy's firing as an effort by Mr. Goss to send a message to the agency's rank and file.

Well, that widely held view was apparently accurate as the information is being played out. McCarthy's links to highly partisan figures and her political leanings make for a delicious situation. The folks who are complaining most about the leaks are those who have the most to lose from eliminating leaks and going after those who are committing criminal acts by the unauthorized leaks of classified information. And that means the media doesn't like this crackdown.

They lose their scoops. They lose the freewheeling information sharing that they rely upon for the investigative pieces that garner some Pulitzer Prizes. And they have to let their sources know to lie low because Porter Goss and the molehunters are looking for them too.

AJ Strata notes that the WaPo article doesn't address the fact that these leaks violate their terms of employment, and violate federal law. Yet, the WaPo does note that the majority of agents spoken to believe that the action taken against McCarthy was appropriate. That shouldn't be much of a surprise given that most folks do take their jobs seriously. Well, AJ thinks that the media is in for a rude awakening because so many CIA agents take their jobs, and their oaths seriously.

MacRanger continues to plug the vast left wing conspiracy. Well, a lot of the folks he mentioned should be sweating because of the ongoing investigations. They may lose their choice sources for information, or worse. Prarie Pundit also notes Goss' housecleaning. Rick Moran notes that this may be less than a conspiracy, and more akin to an ongoing discussion between like minded individuals.

Mary McCarthy is part of a very exclusive community of like minded Democrats numbering at most 200 experts in national security and foreign affairs who staffed the Clinton Administration’s Departments of Defense and State (and the much more exclusive National Security Council). These were the undersecretaries and assistant secretaries that flesh out any administration and get their jobs thanks to both their political connections and their experience in foreign and military policy.

This experience comes from a variety of places including our intelligence agencies, military staff jobs, foreign service postings, think tanks, and Capitol Hill staff positions. They provide an invaluable service to the party by constantly developing policy prescriptions and position papers that bubble and froth by being debated and shaped at conferences and forums until a consensus of sorts is reached.

In McCarthy’s case, she was running with an exclusive club indeed if Sandy Berger and Rand Beers were her patrons at the NSC. But that alone doesn’t prove that her actions in leaking were part of conspiracy nor does it make it probable that those worthies mentioned above even knew she would violate her oath of secrecy so brazenly. Her contacts with Berger and Beers were probably confined to seeing them at the numerous conferences and scholarly forums where the rest of the Democratic contribution to the military industrial complex meet.

The Republicans, of course, have a similar group albeit much larger but perhaps more disciplined. Where the Democrats have a half dozen major think tanks with another dozen or so small but influential policy groups, the Republicans have a remarkable network of scholars, ex-military, ex-intelligence and foreign service as well as former bureaucrats who work through long established think tanks like The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.

The Belmont Club has lots more.

UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee rebuts Juan Cole's argument that the Administration is selectively prosecuting leakers. And CY does so with the full force and effect of existing law, which Cole conveniently avoids.

The Political Pit Bull has the video and Drudge has the following reaction from Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), former Presidential candidate in 2004. I think Kerry's refreshingly honest - he knows the value of such leaks for the cause of Democrats, but has to say that it should be prosecuted.

KERRY: ... Of course not. Of course, not. A CIA agent has the obligation to uphold the law and clearly leaking is against the law, and nobody should leak. I don't like leaking. But if you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that, at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you, you know, put on that person. Obviously they're not going to keep their job, but there are other larger issues here. You know, classification in Washington is a tool that is used to hide the truth from the American people. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was eloquent and forceful in always talking about how we needed to, you know, end this endless declassification that takes place in this city, and it has become a tool to hide the truth from Americans.

STEPHANOPOULOS: These --

SEN. KERRY: So I'm glad she told the truth but she's going to obviously -- if she did it, if she did it, suffer the consequences of breaking the law.

The truth is that Kerry and Democrats need information leaked to try and gain political advantage, regardless of the actual damage to US national security. National security is a distant thought for these prominent Democrats when undermining the Bush Administration.

And here's a further quandry for Kerry. Based on what we know thus far, it appears that the whole story of secret prisons in Europe is untrue. Several investigations have concluded that the prisons don't exist. The story may have been designed to ferret out those who leak classified information, and this particular story was too tantalizing for the leakers to pass up. It hit all the right notes for the leakers and the journalists who crave this kind of information. It would embarrass the Administration, undermine the war effort, and provide political advantage to Democrats going into an election year. And that means that we have actually uncovered the truth - that there are partisan hacks who are purposefully leaking information to undermine a sitting Administration.

Transterrestial Musings can't help but wonder why this news broke on Friday afternoon.

Missing the Real Story

For all the breathless reporting and hoopla by the big media about Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of hunting partner Harry Whittington, they've missed the real story. Bigtime.

Not the heart attack suffered today by Whittington, or the failure to provide news to the White House reporters as quickly as those reporters wanted it.

No. The real story is this:

Due to a lack of communication the personnel manning the front gate upon Kenedy County officer's arrival did not have any information and were unaware of the incident. Shreiff Salinas was informed shortly after the incident by Secret Service Agents by phone due to incompatibility of radio equipment.

In more than four years after 9/11, making sure that emergency responders are able to communicate with each other under all kinds of situations still isn't the priority. The problems haven't been resolved, and it's still putting people at risk.

It's inexcusable that the various law enforcement agencies and Secret Service were unable to communicate directly with their radios and had to rely on a phone instead. How much time was delayed - and more to the point - had the situation been life threatening, the delay could have been deadly.

Shooting Off

While the humor keeps flying about Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner - no Brokeback Mountain for those two - there are real serious questions that need to be addressed.

Why the delay?

It's a simple question that hasn't been answered to any satisfaction.

Technorati: Cheney, Dick Cheney, hunting accident.

Can't Make This Stuff Up

On a day when some members of Congress suggest investigating Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the Plamegate affair, the Vice President was involved in an accidental shooting while hunting on a friend's ranch. Harry Whittington, 78, was shot in the hunting accident:

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and found a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.

UPDATE:
Count on this being a big story in the upcoming week. Late nite talkshow hosts will have fun with this for years to come - and rightfully so. It is a funny incident thankfully as Whittington will make a full recovery (though he may set off metal detectors at the airport for some time to come). This is the Vice President shooting someone in a hunting accident after all. While the Secret Service usually worries about other folks holding guns near their principals*, now they've got to wonder about their principals holding the guns.

And Dick Cheney moves ahead of the pack of characters who might put up a spirited fight against Jack Bauer.

Wizbang has more, and the following are also commenting: Stop the ACLU, Don Surber, Ace of Spades has a couple of posts - and yes, they're satire. I think.

UPDATE 2/13/2006:
Six Meat Buffet skewers Cheney, and even managed to throw in a Kerry reference for good measure. Point Five and Scrappleface also mines the incident for comedy.

*fixed typo

UPDATE 2/13/2006:
Arrgghhh! has a pretty funny roundup and points to an IMAO contest.

Intelligence on Intelligence

Are the new revelations about intel operations that involve collecting information from certain phone calls that originate or terminate outside the US really some profound change in policy? Is it a critical violation of civil rights or harming the rights of Americans? Has this snooping actually resulted in any tangible results?

For starters, it would appear that Congress had some knowledge of this program, which accelerated in 2002 as a result of the capture of Abu Zubaydah. Time sensitivity meant that exploiting the data captured along with Zubaydah was of the essence. There were only days or hours in which to act.

And we have come to learn that the Zubaydah data uncovered the plot by Iyman Faris to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. Faris was captured while still in the planning stages.

Have we really succumbed to giving up civil rights or is there so much nonsensical ravings on all sides that the truth is lost in the shuffle? And does this program have any relationship to data mining efforts taken after Able Danger was shut down - with the idea being that data recovered in various worldwide operations would be used to draw connections between disparate items that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

This particular aspect of national security also works hand in hand with the Patriot Act, provisions of which were rejected by the Senate. While Instapundit thinks that the rejection shouldn't adversely affect national security, and that the laws affect by the Patriot Act really were used for operations other than counter-terrorism, I'm a bit more wary. There's no evidence that the Patriot Act did not do as it was intended (proving the negative, I know).

But all we need to know is actually buried deep in the NYT article:

What the agency calls a "special collection program" began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, as it looked for new tools to attack terrorism. The program accelerated in early 2002 after the Central Intelligence Agency started capturing top Qaeda operatives overseas, including Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002. The C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, the officials said.

In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.

If the Bush Administration takes steps to protect the US from attack, its excoriated from the Leftists who think that it's infringing on civil rights. The failure in the other direction is unimaginable to consider - another mass casualty attack. Yet, that's what the Leftists are actually forcing the Administration to consider.

Another argument is that the Bush Administration did this without Congress knowing. That's not the case either - as per Michelle Malkin:

Contrary to the impression the piece and headline leave of an administration acting in complete secrecy and with total impunity and disregard for civil liberties, the reporters reveal that Vice President Dick Cheney, then-NSA director Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force, and then-CIA director George Tenet called a meeting with Congressional leaders from both parties to brief them on the program.

The administration trusted that the briefing would remain confidential for the sake of national security. Obviously, they trusted too much. [emphasis mine]

Quite a few people are blogging this, including Protein Wisdom, Brainster's Blog, Stop the ACLU, Martin's Musings, The A-Team Blog, California Conservative, Truth Above All, Mad Mikey's Blog, La Shawn Barber, Ace of Spades, The Unalienable Right, In the Bullpen, Anti Idiotarian Rotweiller, The Mahablog.

And the kicker is that the Times story is somehow tied to a book scheduled to be released by one of the principals in the Times story. Eric Risen is one of the authors of the Times story, and he's about to release a book that covers some of the same ground. There was no mention of the book in the Times story - so one is left to wonder about the timing.

Petty Partisan Pathologies

Drudge and others caught CNN playing games with Vice President Cheney's speech last nite. Someone in the control room at CNN thought it was funny to put an X on the screen over Cheney. Lovely. CNN is investigating. What's next? Painting in mustaches and devil horns?

Will they determine it to be fake, but accurate? Enough already!

It would certainly appear that more than a few people on the Left are incapable of acting their age. CNN is chalking this up to a glitch, but Don reminds folks that CNN is the former home of Eason Jordan, who got all cozy with Saddam Hussein for the privilege of broadcasting from Iraq (in return for not saying anything bad about Iraq mind you). Oh, and the same Eason Jordan who made bald faced assertions that US forces were targeting and murdering journalists.

Others blogging this are The Political Teen (who has the video), Wizbang, and Rick Moore, Politechnical, Blogs for Bush (which notices that there may be more to the message on the crawl), Michelle Malkin, Political Satire Fake News, Stop the ACLU, JunkYard Blog, Pundit Guy, Atlas Shrugged and many others. Memeorandum has more.

UPDATE:
As usual, PointFive, GOP and the City (circle marks the square) both note the humor in the situation. Flopping Aces goes through the technicals of the situation, and concludes that this wasn't a simple glitch.

UPDATE:
Evan Coyne Maloney thinks that this is an example of incompetence, not malice.

UPDATE:
The techie stuff seems to be all over the place, and the Political Teen has issued an update on the subject, which includes a retraction/apology for the video he's posted.

There was an “X” over Cheney’s head, correct? Like Drudge, I never claimed otherwise. I am just saying that when I posted the video I was being as impartial as I could. I did not give an opinion or claim that CNN was up to no good nor did I say the opposite.

CNN is still investigating the matter, and sticks to the computer/technical error.