From Washington Times via Defense Tech

 

Sabotage potential
We have no evidence that the U.S. was able to sabotage North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile, which malfunctioned 42 seconds into launch on Tuesday and crashed.
But we do note that special operations forces (SOF) are playing an increasing role, overt and covert, in the world under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s rule. We also note that one of the reasons that SOF procured the powerful .50- caliber Barrett’s sniper rifle was to have the capability to disable ballistic missiles. It’s a scenario for missile defense you won’t see in any literature from the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency: insert a commando behind the lines, who positions himself within shooting range of the launchpad.
“One of the original reasons for procuring the .50-caliber sniper system was to disable missiles,” a SOF source says. “A round pumped in prior to launch, or during to cover the noise, in the right place would cause a catastrophic malfunction.”

 

It is kind of neat to think of come ACU clad James Bond/”The Unit”/Jack Bauer types gliding into NoKo on stealth wings taking a bead on Kim Jong Ils Dong with one of  these …but we’ll never know…unless the New York times finds out about.

Nah, they’d never print anything that Al Queda can’t use.

More news the New York Times should be telling the people of the US instead of acting as an Information Service for thier enemy:

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060705-084534-9287r

Iraq hints at compromise as nearly 20 rebel groups talk of peace
Ammar Karim
AFP
July 5, 2006
 
BAGHDAD –  Iraq hinted on Wednesday that it might be ready to compromise in negotiations with insurgents as officials said that nearly 20 rebel groups had expressed an interest in opening talks on certain conditions.

While folks round these parts keep saying that things are going badly in Iraq, and there is still plenty of violence, the number of rebel groups negotiating with the Maliki government continues to grow.

Just 10 days ago, I reported that seven insurgent groups were negotiating with the Iraqi Government in my post It All Started With a JDAM Enema, Part 2.  The number has more than doubled.  While there is still more than enough violence to go around, and the more hardline of the bad actors in Iraq will likely increase their violent acts against innocent civilians in order to make this developement appear to be insignficant, the movement towards peace cannot be denied.  It’s all just a matter of the details of the agreement reached between the parties involved.

Be prepared for the Anti-War left to characterize and Amnesty as a failure of the Bush Administration, but keep in mind that they really do not want the war to end, as it gives them what they think is thier best politicall tool.

My personal desire would be that the Maliki government hold fast on it’s determination to make any withdrawal of US troops contingent on conditions on the ground, rather than a set timetable.

As to any Amnesty for folks over there who atacked only US troops…whatever it takes to bring the other 130,000 of them home without iraq devolving into a vicious Civil War and keeps them as freinds and allies in the Global War on Terror will be a realization of what our troops have fought and died for.  This post by a soldier currently serving in Iraq sums it all up nicely for me:

Much is made over the enormous civilian cost of the Iraq War, as if Saddam could have been removed by a simple vote of no confidence at the UN. The Arab world concedes that it is a good thing to be rid of the Butcher of Baghdad, yet lectures us that it is something that Iraqis should have done for themselves. But what do you suppose the toll of a true Iraqi revolution would have been? Assuming they could even have pulled it off in this lifetime — a stretch by any imagination — would not a bona fide civil war have been the result? And not simply a low-intensity cycle of revenge killings and random violence as we’re seeing now, but a Lebanese-style wholesale shelling of neighborhoods and annihilation of cities? Is there any doubt that out of the ashes would have arisen yet another monstrous power-mad tyrant? That the hard decision we declined to put off was between a bad choice and a worse alternative?

The U.S. military could have about-faced and got the heck out of Dodge after the statues came down and returned home en masse to another Gulf War parade with less than 150 flag-draped caskets. And then we could have flipped on the tube and watched the genocidal bloodletting from the comfort of our couches just like most of our countrymen do today. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.

But that was then, this is now.

“War,” according to Thomas Paine, “involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances…that no human wisdom can calculate the end.”

When I was a kid, this was printed on the front page of the hometown newspaper.  It covered the entire paper except the masthead, and was printed in red ink to remind us of the sacrifice of those who realized it’s dream.

I wish more news papers would do that toady.  I wish I could change the font color to red. 

In Congress, July 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION
By the REPRESENTATIVES of the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
In General Congress Assembled.

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops amoung us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Coun try, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, JOHN HANCOCK, President.
Attest.
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
According to the Authenticated List Printed by
Order of Congress of January 18, 1777 John Hancock.

New-Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

Massachusetts-Bay: Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Rhode-Island and Providence, & c.: Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

New-York: Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.

New-Jersey: Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.

Pennsylvania: Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read, (Tho M. Kean).

Maryland: Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North-Carolina: Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South-Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thos. Heyward, junr., Thomas Lynch, junr., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.

Hat tip PAJAMAS MEDIA

Pasted here in it’s entirety:

The following letter from the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to the DNI was sent today and obtained by PJM’s editors:

June 27, 2006

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director of National Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20511
Dear Mr. Director:

Unauthorized disclosures of classified information continue to threaten our national security – exposing our sensitive intelligence sources and methods to our enemies.

Numerous, recent unauthorized disclosures of sensitive intelligence programs have directly threatened important efforts in the war against terrorism.

Whether the President’s Terrorist Surveillance Program or the Department of Treasury’s effort to track terrorist financing, we have been unable to persuade the media to act responsibly and protect the means by which we protect this nation.

To gain a better understanding of the damage caused by unauthorized disclosures of this type, I ask that you perform an assessment of the damage caused by the unauthorized disclosure of some of our most sensitive intelligence programs. While your assessment may range beyond the President’s Terrorist Surveillance Program and Treasury’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, I am particularly interested in the damage attributable to these two unauthorized disclosures.

Sincerely,

Pat Roberts
Chairman

I was going to spend my lunch hour writing on how bloggers around the country have figured out that Jack Murtha advised the NYT to print it’s article exposing the SWIFT “scandal” but HOT AIR has that covered, and ACE OF SPADES HQ says what I wanted to say (CONTENT WARNING).

But then I see that Ace links to a story by the NYT that has me turned all around.

HAT TIP: JUNKYARD BLOG

Reprinted in it’t entirety here…because it’s a PUBLIC SERVICE

NY Times: U.S. Soldier spying on bin Laden

NY Times Special Report

By B. Arnold

WAZIRISTAN—An American soldier, clinging to a cliff face littered with broken shale and animal bones in Waziristan, northwest Pakistan, is currently engaging in direct, unwarranted surveillance of Osama bin Laden, confidential sources have revealed to the New York Times.

The soldier’s conduct raises questions about the Bush administration’s policy of covert surveillance and intelligence gathering in support of his “War on Terror”. Constitutional experts are “troubled” by this and similar unwarranted searches that are designed to gather information on terrorists, but may reveal private information about American citizens instead.

“If there were an American citizen down there sunbathing in that Waziristan village next door to where bin Laden is conferring with his top lieutenants, then the Defense Department would now be passing around her photos,” said Cass Sunstein, a law professor.

Mr. bin Laden, who could not be reached for this interview, is a Saudi-born spiritual leader who, some say, was connected with the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The attack killed nearly 3000 people, many of them women and minorities. He is currently meeting with twelve lieutenants to discuss a worldwide spiritual initiative set to take place in Jakarta, Addis Ababa, Melbourne, and Houston, Texas on July 11th.

Observing the heavily guarded meeting from about fifty yards away is Lt. Thomas “Turk” Dobrovsky, of Houston. Crouched in a camouflaged “ghillie suit”, Dobrovsky adjusted a concealed antenna in an effort to record snatches of Arabic conversation in the mud meeting hall below. He is partially concealed by a rock outcropping, the one with the two scraggly bushes, but is awkwardly positioned and unable to defend himself. A burst of AK fire or an RPG from the guards below could kill him easily.

When contacted by a New York Times reporter, Lt. Dobrovsky became agitated and waved us away, and made a threatening motion by drawing his finger across his throat. In a climate of jingoism whipped up by talk radio and right-wing internet sites, such threats are not unusual. This is not the first time that journalists have been threatened by American soldiers eager to prosecute the War on Terror (see Editorial, “Trigger Happy Psychos who Hate the Free Press and the Constitution”, p.A-19.)

As the Times reporter filed his story, however, Lieutenant Dobrovsky pled with us not to reveal his position, whispering that he had a wife and child back home that could be destroyed “in a Houston chemical weapons attack” by Mr. bin Laden’s organization. He could not produce a search warrant and did not know whether there were any American citizens in the meeting, but said that if there were, he “hoped they got what’s coming to them.”

His wife, Helen Dobrovsky, refused to speak with Times reporters when contacted at her workplace, Reliable Carpet Service, at 456 W. Poplar Ave. in Houston. The dark-haired Ms. Dobrovsky (see picture at left) works as a receptionist at the front desk. We contacted her at her home, the only house with a white picket fence on Gladiolus Circle in Conroe, Tx, but she again refused to speak with the Times. Leaning on her green Honda Accord, with the Texas license plate number THX-9509, she directed a stream of obscenities at our reporter, calling him a “miserable traitor”, and a “murdering un-American bastard” who ought to be “thrown in a cell with a bunch of Al Qaeda butchers to see if they really will kill you last, you f—-ing traitor.”

Lt. Dobrovsky’s daughter was no more forthcoming. When contacted at Houston’s KinderCare pre-school, Haley Dobrovsky, 4, (see picture) refused to address the constitutional issues presented by her father’s surveillance, stating only that her “Daddy is very brave.” Haley, who is blond and carries a distinctive red Hello Kitty backpack, was then whisked away by the pre-school’s unarmed security officer, who asked our reporter to leave.

Back in Waziristan, a goat wanders through the village near where bin Laden camps. Like bin Laden, the goat is currently unaware that three F-16s have just taken off from Bagram AFB in Afghanistan, in response to an emergency radio call placed by Lt. Dobrovsky, who was angered about Times reporting of his illegal activities. While the Times reporter is safely out of the way, Lt. Dobrovsky remains behind to maintain a laser dot on the hut to guide the bombs to their target, and will likely be killed when the bombs strike.

If Mr. bin Laden has the New York Times web edition on his RSS feed, however, he will know that he has twelve minutes to finish his meeting, shoot Lt. Dobrovsky, and disappear before the aircraft are within strike range.

Times correspondents in Houston, Tehran, Pyongyang, and Damascus contributed to this report.

“It started with a JDAM enema” is what you can tell your Lefto buddies when they ask “What went wrong?” in 2008.

Part 1 of “It Started With a JDAM Emema is HERE  wherin we discuss how the Left has missed the boat on Saddam’s terror connections, and how they opened the door when, in thier haste to convince people that Zarko’s JDAM enema was not a big developement, they pulled up articles on the web showing that Zarqawi was running an al Queda training camp in Iraq before the war and saying Bush was a putz b/c he didn’t “get him when he had the chance.”  I say they did it in “haste” because they didin’t realize that this only shot down their argument that Saddam was not associated with Al Queda before we went into his country and Liberated the Iraqi people….you know like they;ve been telling us for two years. 

It also shows the kind of government documents Liberal Media outlets ignore while they are pursuing an agenda to elect Democrats by trying to convince us that the country is being taken over by Texas Oil Nazis, who will take away all our freedoms and make us sit in Sunday School all day.  And they do it no matter how many US soldiers it kills or how badly it affects the GWOT because “it’s in the public interest.”  The documents do show an Al Queda/Iraq connection prior to the war, and they are the kind the NYT should be going after and informing the public of instead of working for the enemy.

In the meantime, Leftos have been spending the last two years telling us that we’re losing, that we can never win, that the combat pressures on our troops are so high that they “snap” and kill babies, and this all results in the United States being the greatest threat to world peace in history—even worse than NoKos with nukes AND missles or Iranians with just nukes.

Suddenly though, they find themselves in another corner entirely: criticizing what looks to be the dawning of Victory in Iraq.  And their problem is that they have been so busy keeping the information you need FROM you, (and giving the enemy the information it needs) they find themselves with only their own propaganda to rely on.  Which will make them look even more foolish and deceitful in the future.

Of course, using the theory that you are too stupid to notice that things are going our way in Iraq, they are trying to position this as if they were right all along, and recent announcements of troop reductions vindicate their claim that things in Iraq are “a disaster.”

 So here we provide you with some in depth facts, given to you by people who have been paying attention, and who haven’t been lying to you about how bad the war is…or how bad we are as a Nation.

I have been trying, first in my former blog, then on other blogs, to provide updates on successes.  Two elections that they said would never happen meant nothing to the Leftos, nor did the formation of the government they said would never happen.  The Leftos in the audience have been somewhat successful in Pooh-poohing successes as they do come in short intervals made necessary by the devices of politics (both Iraqi and American) and the demands of a largely covert war. So they can be made to look like small things…that is until the aforementioned JDAM Enema administered to Al Zarqawi. 

This is where Hillary Clinton’s stand on the war is going to start making a good deal of sense to people voting in 2008, when the nation is faced with choosing between people who stood behind our troops and our nation in a time of war (or at least straddled the fence like Hillary), and those who stabbed her in the back for short term political gain.  Keep in mind that her husband is a former President, after all, and will have sources of intelligence not available to “lesser lights” within the party (or even the New York Times, who only to demands declassification of stuff harmful to the gummint, instead of joining with members of Congress who follow the rules and demanding the Declassification of the WMD finds being made all over Iraq at the rate of one every other day).  Back stabbing indeed.

Let’s start this way:  go HERE and HERE.  Those are two posts I made in just the past 5 days to show how the pace of operations is ramping up, and the fortunes of the Insurgency is ramping down accordingly.  That brings you current to operations since Zarko became worm food and 6/23.

 Now, go HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, to bring yourself up to speed on what’s happened in just the past 3 days.  They all describe raids wherein more than 25 terrorist have been killed and many captured, fro three different Insurgent groups in Iraq, and all on actionable intelligence from Iraqi civilian informants or intelligence gained on previous raids. 

Or you can go here to STRATEGY PAGE and read the story that goes along with these money quotes:

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over 30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link, from the United States and other locations. 

But all we hear from Jackiepoo Murtha is that we can’t hope to win, and the NYT is too busy running a covert operation for al Queda to notice.

Perhaps the most valuable finds have been al Qaeda planning documents confirming what has been suspected of  terrorist strategy. Also valuable have been the al Qaeda assessment of their situation in Iraq. The terrorist strategy is one of desperation.

snip

Zarqawi considered al Qaeda’s situation in Iraq as “bleak.” The most worrisome development was the growing number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police. These were able to easily spot the foreigners who made up so much of al Qaeda’s strength. Moreover, more police and soldiers in an area meant some local civilians would feel safe enough to report al Qaeda activity. The result of all this is that there are far fewer foreign Arabs in Iraq fighting for al Qaeda. The terrorist organization has basically been taken over anti-government Sunni Arabs. That made the capture of Zarqawi even more valuable, as his address book contained a who’s who of the anti-government Sunni Arab forces. This group has been hurt badly by last week’s raids. 

OK, so a lot of bad guys are assuming room temperature, there’s more where they came from, right? 

 Wrong…

 Strategy Page’s concluding paragraph continas this:

The  damage done by the post- Zarqawi raids has spurred the Sunni Arab amnesty negotiations. These have been stalled for months over the issue of how many Sunni Arabs, with “blood on their hands”, should get amnesty. Letting the killers walk is a very contentious issue.

Killing and capturing bad guys eventually leads to two things:  no bad guys, or bad guys trying to make nice at the negotiating table.  proven by this post from Iraq The Model 

Seven militant groups announced their desire to join the political process in accordance with the reconciliation project and said they were ready to enter a truce and stop the violence.

MP Hassan al-Sinaid-whose close to PM Maliki-said third parties conveyed the message of the seven groups confirming that they were not involved in Iraqi bloodshed suggesting they’re eligible to benefit from the initiative.

Al-Sinaid said it was possible that Maliki would meet representatives of these seven groups either directly or indirectly, because he’s concerned about the success of the initiative and is keen to gather support for it. Al-Sinaid adds “al-Maliki believes in political measures now, and not only in military ones”.

According to those third parties, the militant groups consider the initiative tempting which encouraged them to respond positively, and at the same time pointed out that it’s possible to win other groups into the project as they will not find a good reason to say no.
Initial information indicates that the seven groups are: the brigades of the 1920 revolution, the army of Mohammed, Heroes of Iraq, the 4/9 organization, Al-Fatih brigades and finally the general command of armed forces.

For my history imparied freinds on the Left, when the bad guys comes to yournegotiating table, instead of you to thiers, that’s how wars end and Victories begin.

A couple weeks ago, Liberals and Democrats got caught unawares when Zarqawi got his JDAM enema and assumed worm food status.  Suddenly, they had been caught with news from Iraq that they couldn't immediately spin as being a negative developement.  In thier quest to make all news from Iraq BAD news, Left Wing bloggers andthier sock puppets scoured the web and found that US Intelligence knew that Zarko was running a training camp in Iraq before the war, and dutifully trotted that fact out to show that GWB was a failure becuase he hadn't gotten Zarko back then.  Unfortunatley, they did that before they realized just how much it undermined thier "Saddam had no connection to Al Queda before the war"  (Bushlied, people died) argument.  They had stumbled across information that guys like me had been telling folks all along, shooting holes in thier own arguments and validating mine in the process.A few months ago, the Gummint released a bunch of documents from Saddam's archives, putting them on this website .  Most of them were untranslated.  A guy named Ray Robison, a former member of the Iraq Survey Group, and some volunteers took advantage of this—-something the MSM did not—-and went about translating some of the documents.  Robinson then began reporting the on Fox News.  Now the Leftos will tell you that Fox is biased, or even an "offical" arm of the Republican party…but that's because they really don;t wnat you seeing information like this.

 Robinson put together what he calls the "Saddam Dossier," and Fox reported it in three installments.  The documents show that Al Queda's ally and protector, the Taliban, were actively working with Saddam to spread terror across the globe.  Zarqawi set up his training campa ta bout this time, apparently as part of this effort.

Now the problem with all this, and it's something the Left takes advantage of, is that there is a lot of evidence here that "connects the dots," but most of us don't have time or inclination to go through all of it.  The three installment's of Fox's report are rather long and done in a fashion we don't often see from the MSM:  They provide links to source and supporting documents BEFORE giving you thier analysis, rather than just thier opinion of what they think it all means.  It's worht the time it takes to read it, but if no, here are some money quotes and the summary.Here's some money quotes from the first installment analysis of a document which describes a meeting between Saddam's Vice President and a doplomat from Pakistan.

This document appears to provide evidence that in 1999 the Taliban welcomed "Islamic relations with Iraq" to mediate between the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and Russia. It seems to provide evidence that the Taliban invited Iraqi officials to Afghanistan. According to this notebook, the Taliban did this via Maulana Fazlur Rahman. The notebook later mentions that another man, Fazlur Rahman Khalil, was visiting Iraq as well, although no transcript of that meeting is provided. snip

o what is the relationship between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and the Taliban and Al Qaeda? Rahman often is described in news articles as the father or godfather of the Taliban. It seems clear that Rahman was close to Al Qaeda through his friend Mullah Omar, who sheltered Usama bin Laden prior to the allied invasion of Afghanistan. A leading news Web site in India has a 2003 article entitled Beware the Maulana! . It gives an extensive history of Rahman and explains how he helped to organize the men that would later become the Taliban under his friend Mullah Omar. It also describes links to Al Qaeda(.)

Two captured documents — this notebook and the West Point document — seem to provide evidence of the same link between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and the Saddam regime, one captured in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan. The document captured in Afghanistan was used in a Combating Terrorism Center at West Point study about Al Qaeda indicating high confidence in its authenticity. The fact that two private communications captured in different countries with different authors make the same point is a good indicator that each is genuine. It thus lends creditability to the notebook that also indicates an Usama bin Laden associate was scheduled to visit Iraq.

 The second installment provides more information:

Note the Iraqi official says, “We hope that they will win and control,” referring to the Taliban. According to this notebook, Iraq has clearly thrown its support to the Taliban, the epicenter of Islamic Jihad. This is a clear indication that Saddam had no problem working with Jihadists outside of Iraq.

According to the notebook, the Iraqi official also tells the Maulana: “The third point which is important for us is outside Afghanistan. It is the spiritual relation which ties us with the Association of Islamic Scholars and we know your role in supporting the Iraqi cause and the effect you have on the Pakistani street.” This statement may indicate that a previous relationship was in place before this meeting between the Saddam Regime and the Maulana.

This excerpt from the notebook indicates that both the Taliban and Saddam Regime agreed to a secret relationship involving intelligence services. We do not know the scope or extent of that operational relationship, but this notebook and other documents give us further clues. It might well be noted that if Saddam Hussein was merely looking for an Islamic voice to take up his cause, there are plenty of Arab and Muslim organizations that do not depend on violence and terrorism directed at the United States. This point is illustrated in the BBC article Anger and Dismay in South Asia:

snip

Due to the information provided in this notebook, we see a possible secret, intelligence based, operational relationship between the Taliban and the Saddam regime via Maulana Fazlur Rahman. We can discern that the Maulana most likely is meeting with Habbush al Tikriti, implicated in documents published by the Telegraph newspaper in reference to the training of Atta in Iraq. We also have an annotation that indicates Pakistani Fazlur Rahman Khalil, a known bin Laden associate, Al Qaeda terrorist and a 1998 fatwa co-signatory, also was traveling to Iraq in 1999. A further translation from this notebook indicates that in another meeting, again with the Maulana, the Taliban proposes joint military training with the Iraqi military.

The final installment puts it all together:

Let’s review what we have learned from the IIS notebook.

• We learned that in 1999 the IIS met with three significant leaders of Islamic jhad from Afghanistan: a warlord and Islamic jihadist; an Al Qaeda leader; and, a man known as the “Father of the Taliban.”

• The Saddam regime and Taliban leadership agreed to diplomatic ties and a secret intelligence service relationship. They discussed security cooperation with Hekmatyar’s Islamic Jihad group. The Taliban representative also agreed to support the Saddam regime in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier, a region sympathetic to and actively involved with the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the world-wide Islamic jihad movement. An Islamist, most likely the Al Qaeda and Taliban affiliated Fazlur Rahman Khalil, promised the support of Bangladesh.

• We see a request to the Saddam regime for a training center in Baghdad or Tajikistan from a jihad leader accused by the U.S. State Department during the Clinton Administration of running Islamic extremist training camps.

• There is a discussion about transporting something into these centers, including a discussion that appears to mention surface-to-air missiles.

• And, we have numerous statements of Islamic fidelity between Afghani jihad leaders and the Saddam regime, with many statements of mutual animosity towards the United States and intent to cooperate.

This notebook thus provides significant evidence that the Saddam regime collaborated with and supported Islamic jihad elements in Afghanistan at a time when the Taliban and Al Qaeda were attacking United States citizens and their interests and plotting the 9/11 attacks.

In this notebook, we see a Saddam Hussein actively seeking to expand his sphere of influence in a region at the heart of the world-wide Islamic jihad movement.

This now-public relationship between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Saddam Hussein deserves great scrutiny.

As we researched the Maulana, a picture came into focus that our team was not looking to find: The Maulana is a senior leader of an affiliation of Pakistani groups supportive of Islamic jihad. These groups include the JUI and the Jamaat Islami (JI). The JUI provided direct support to both the planner and paymaster of the 9/11 attacks. The Pakistani government accused the JI of working with Al Qaeda. The Maulana mediated an intelligence pact between the IIS and the Taliban.

Clearly, this evidence indicates that the Maulana was in a position to procure assistance from Iraq for the 9/11 attacks.

Dr. Laurie Mylroie, an expert on Iraq, testified in front of the 9/11 commission in 2003:

After al Qaeda moved to Afghanistan, Iraqi intelligence became deeply involved with it, probably, with the full agreement of Usama bin Ladin. Al Qaeda provided the ideology, foot soldiers, and a cover for the terrorist attacks; Iraqi intelligence provided the direction, training, and expertise…

This notebook demonstrates that Islamic jihad leaders in Afghanistan were seeking IIS assistance and Saddam was giving them that assistance.

Q:  When is a Time Schedule not a Time Schedule? 

A:  When Democrats say the Iraqis have come up with a plan that sets a time schedule for the US withdrawing from Iraq.

 I read with humor some newspaper articles and comments on Liberal blogs that the Iraqi Government has proposed a plan that included a date certain time schedule for the US with drawing from  Iraq, saying that this has vindicated the Democrat Cut and Run policy.

BUT this seems to be a case of the typical Liberal reporting something is true just because they want it to be, you know like indictments that turn out not to be indictments, investigations that turn out not to be investigations, and National Guard documents that turn out to be forgeries, and Marines are guilty of War Crimes before the investigation is over.  So you can go to blogs which report that way, complete with smart assed (but uninformed) comments, or you can come here where we wait to verify if things are true before we say they are.

Where we provide the links to the stories we comment on (albeit with the occasional smart assed, but informed comment), and where we wait for:

MNF Iraq to report the story in which it says:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 25, 2006) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki proposed new ideas Sunday to diminish violence in Iraq and reduce dependence on Coalition forces helping to secure the country.

Although there is no timeline for Coalition forces to withdraw, al-Maliki proposed strengthening forces within the ministries of Defense and Interior.

He seeks to reconcile with nonviolent insurgents and welcome them to the fold of Iraq's democratic government, but issued a stern warning to insurgents who caused death and destruction.

"The launch of this national reconciliation initiative should not be read as a reward for the killers and criminals or acceptance of their actions. No, 1,000 times no. There can be no agreement with them unless they face the justice," he said.

And then we look for another source to verify it, which we find reported in a story at  Global Security that tells us:

Stressing the importance of national reconciliation and dialogue, al-Maliki presented the plan to parliament following intense negotiation among the parties that make up the governing coalition.

SNIP

Al-Maliki said he was offering an "olive branch" to insurgents who renounce violence but said to those who "insist on killing and terrorism we present a fist of power of law."

He said the amnesty does not apply to those who have already committed murder or terrorist acts.

Al-Maliki, a Shi'a, also said that political parties taking part in the government must clearly reject "terrorists and Saddamists" and that his government would address the "problem of militias and illegal armed groups."

snip

But the prime minister's plan does not set any timetable for Iraqi troops to take over security duties from U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq. It was expected that al-Maliki would give some sort of schedule for such a shift in duties.

In the interest of truth, we will bring your attention to the parts of the both stories that say this is a plan presented to Iraq's Parliament.  It won't be final until the votes are taken and the bills signed.  It IS a Democracy now, after all (thanks to the United States), and things do take time. 

When the plan is finalized, though, you can be assured that we will not report the details until we have double checked them with ay least two sources, provide you with the links so you can check them yourselves, and not just report things we hope are true, or that we want you to beleive whether they are or not.

Even our smart assed comments are better.

In response to a comment about people requireing "Standing" to criticize Jackiepoo Murtha for his being a total ass.

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/milblogs/2006/06/17/#005727

 Posted here in it's entirety, an entry in MilBlogs by this gent:

http://www.cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/

Rep. Murtha plays the bully

[CDR Salamander]

All due respect to Rep. Murtha and all, but I am sorry; just because you served does not give you the right to play bully-boy with those who have not.

Sure, it is OK, sometimes, if you are backed into a corner to pull out your DD214 if someone who never served is talking about Tactical issues and is smearing and/or sending out bad gouge, etc; but when it comes to Strategic issues, I am sick of the "You haven't served, you can't disagree with me. My opinion cannot be questioned." way of avoiding the core issue.

That is so old, tired, and foolish. Prime Minister Thatcher never served, however it can be argued that she is easily in the Top 5 civilian leaders who "Got it." Should she have caved to the opinion of some Old Labor defeatist who thought they should give the Falklands to the Argentineans, or unilaterally disarmed in the face of the Soviets just because he spent the mid-1940 fighting his way up Italy? No. The Chickenhawk habit is way past Chicken$(%t. Here is the video. It says it was posted by ”Nancy Pelosi”, and most of the video "she" has is pro Left. Maybe it is just me, but I don't think this had the desired effect.

BTW…if you want to find out what people with "standing" think about Jackiepoo go here:

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/milblogs/

and type "murtha" in the search box on the RIGHT…then just feeeellll the looooove

After your done with that go here for some more folks with "standing":

http://www.armyranger.com/bb/

and type in "murtha" in thier search engine AT THE TOP.

CONTENT WARNING:  ARMY RANGERS CURRENTLY SERVING AND RECENTLY RETURNED FROM IRAQ FEEL VEEEERRY STRONGLY ABOUT JACKIEPOO AND ARE NOT AFRAID TO USE "COLORFUL" LANGUAGE TO EXPRESS THIER FEELINGS.

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/135159

MIAMI — American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.
Murtha was the guest speaker at a town hall meeting organized by Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Miami, at Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus. Meek’s mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, was also on the panel.

Of course, we can't criticize him, because he's a decorated combat veteran.