What the media missed.

Fred Thompson takes note of a few issues the media has missed in its coverage of George Tenet and his newly released book:

On the issue of al Qaeda’s relationship with Iraq, for example, Tenet said that the CIA had proof of al Qaeda contact with Saddam’s regime; that the regime had provided safe haven for al Qaeda operatives and that Saddam had provided training assistance for al Qaeda terrorists. He went on to say that the CIA had no proof that the relationship was operational or that they had any ongoing working relationship — that it could have been that each side was just using the other. Maybe my recollection is faulty on this, but that doesn’t seem to be inconsistent with what folks in the administration said. In other words, there was clearly contact and a relationship, but no one knew exactly what it meant.

On the issue of weapons of mass destruction, although Iraq undoubtedly had such weapons in the past, Tenet acknowledges that everybody got it wrong as to whether they would have them at the time of the invasion. On the nuclear issue, he said that the CIA thought that Saddam was five to seven years away from a nuclear capability — unless he was able to obtain fissile material from another source.

Irony: Fort Dix terror suspect was once an Albanian refugee at Fort Dix

Via Michelle Malkin:

As I suspected, Agron Abdullahu, one of the Jersey Jihadist suspects, was indeed one of the thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo whom we welcomed there in 1999 (hat tip: Allah):

A trained sniper during the war in Kosovo, Abdullahu and his family were among thousands given safe haven in the U.S. under the Clinton administration to protect them from the Serbs. For months, they would be housed in refugee camps at Ft. Dix, a circumstance which now points to a terribly ironic twist.

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Well, here is the thanks we get. Eight years ago, America opened its arms to tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo. The first planeload landed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Military leaders worked day and night to turn the base into a child-friendly village. They coordinated medical and security checkups, mental health and trauma counseling and ethnic food preparations.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg traveled up from North Carolina to assist in refugee operations at Fort Dix. Then-U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mitchell M. Zais also assembled a team of about 80 soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta. The New Jersey National Guard and American Red Cross teamed up to coordinate charity relief. The military also supported the relief effort's interagency task force, headed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition to food and shelter, we provided translators, welfare consultants and Muslim chaplains. The base constructed prayer rooms and handed out Muslim "sensitivity" cards to the troops. Said Gen. Zais: "We want to welcome these people to America the way we might wish our grandparents and great-grandparents had been welcomed to Ellis Island."

Apparently, despite our goodwill, at least one of them harbored ill-feelings towards America.

Liberal bloggers make light of Fort Dix terror arrests

Ann Althouse highlights reactions from Wonkette and Firedoglake, who obviously don't take the Fort Dix terror plot seriously. Ann's comment hits the nail right on the head:

Now, I don't blame bloggers for riffing impetuously on anything than sounds stupid, but of course, you must realize that the idea of hijacking four planes with boxcutters and knocking down buildings would seem like "the dumbest fucking terrorist plot" if it hadn't happened.

More from All Alone in the Night:

The price of living in a free society is having a lot of places where people can kill effectively. Personally, I'd rather live in that society than one where my safety is guaranteed by taking away most of my rights, but poo-pooing the threats strikes me as an ignorant response to the problem.

Interview with Patrick Lasswell of Moderate Risk

Via Moderate Risk, of course. He was interviewed by From Holland to Kurdistan. The interview is chock full of info and interesting photos from Patrick's time in Kurdistan with Michael Totten. Some excerpts:

A recent UN report talked about corruption, nepotism, lack of press freedom and honor killings in Kurdistan. Do you think this report is correct? What are your negative experiences with Kurdistan? And what are your positive ones?

The notion of the UN calling anybody else corrupt and nepotistic is somewhat surreal, and their relationship to honor and death is it's own category of disgrace. Regrettably, the report is probably also an understatement. I will be writing on this more extensively soon.

On the PKK:

There is no need to crater the runway at Erbil International Airport in order to control the PKK. If Turkey is serious about controlling the PKK, they'd be better off interdicting the Frankfurt airport, Dubai banks, or just shooting heroin dealers in Paris. The PKK is a persistent problem because they are exceptionally well funded through extortion and other criminal activities taking place in Europe. There are also indications that other Central Asian powers are providing the PKK with support as a distraction for Turkey.

I have no love of the PKK. Their supporters sound just like Hezbollah stooges and they have lied about my friends. I suspect the PKK of all kinds of villainy and vice and know that they have used terror on a regular basis. I also understand why my Iraqi Kurdish friends are sympathetic to the oppressed Kurds of Turkey. What most of my Iraqi Kurdish friends don't know is the reason why their sympathies are not divided is that the PKK attacks rival and divergent groups with much greater vigor than they ever attack the Turkish state. The PKK has a monopoly on Kurdish insurrection in Turkey and they murderously suppress anyone who tries to compete with them. What kind of government do you think they will make if they are ever put in charge...or even allowed a seat at the table?

Read the whole thing.

Islamic Radicals arrested in plot to attack and kill soldiers at Fort Dix, NJ

Big Hat Tip to Pajamas Media who has lots of coverage and useful links. Probably the most comprehensive briefing comes from the NJ Star Ledger:

In a statement released this morning that confirmed an earlier report on nj.com, The Star-Ledger's website, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the men planned to "kill as many soldiers as possible."

The alleged plot included conducting surveillance of the Army base and purchasing multiple firearms, including hand guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, according to the federal complaint released this morning.

The bust came after several of the suspects were lured by a secret informant to a meeting with an arms-seller, according to the complaint.

Some of the would-be attackers have been living illegally in the United States, while others are legal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a sixth was born in Jordan, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Emphasis mine.

"Demography is Destiny"

Michael Barone's article in the WSJ Opinion Journal today is a must read:

Twenty years ago political analysts grasped the implications of the vast movement from Rust Belt to Sun Belt, a tilting of the table on balance toward Republicans; but with California leaning heavily to Democrats, that paradigm seems obsolete. What's now in store is a shifting of political weight from a small Rust Belt which leans Democratic and from the much larger Coastal Megalopolises, where both secular top earners and immigrant low earners vote heavily Democratic, toward the Interior Megalopolises, where most voters are private-sector religious Republicans but where significant immigrant populations lean to the Democrats. House seats and electoral votes will shift from New York, New Jersey and Illinois to Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada; within California, House seats will shift from the Democratic coast to the Republican Inland Empire and Central Valley.

Demography is destiny. When I was in kindergarten in 1950, Detroit was the nation's fifth largest metro area, with 3,170,000 people. Now it ranks 11th and is soon to be overtaken by Phoenix, which had 331,000 people in 1950.

Big hat tip to PowerLine.

Electricity kills animals

At least when done right, as Tim Blair explains:

The New York Times reports the latest evidence of green child abuse, following several recent cases:

The children are all too familiar with the apocalyptic warnings of climate change. “A lot of people are going to die” from global warming, a 9-year-old girl from Harlem announced at one point. And a 7-year-old boy from Park Slope said with a quiet lisp, “When you use too much electricity, it kills animals.”

Well, it does if you hook up the electrodes right.

Idiotarian alert: Paul Watson calls for a reduction in the earth;s population to 1 billion people

I'm with Glenn on this one, this dude scares me:

Watson’s May 4 editorial asked the question “The Beginning of the End for Life as We Know it on Planet Earth?” Then he left no doubt about the answer. “We are killing our host the planet Earth,” he claimed and called for a population drop to less than 1 billion.

The commentary reminded readers that Watson had called humans a disease before and he wasn’t sorry. “I was once severely criticized for describing human beings as being the ‘AIDS of the Earth.’ I make no apologies for that statement,” the column continued.

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“No human community should be larger than 20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas.” New York, London, Paris, Moscow are all too big. Then again, so are Moose Jaw, Timbuktu and even Annapolis, Md.

· “We need vast areas of the planet where humans do not live at all and where other species are free to evolve without human interference.”

· “We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion.”

Emphasis mine. That's the part that scares me: how do you radically and "intelligently" reduce the human population to less than 1 billion without resorting to draconian and totalitarian methods? Simple: you don't.

Blown F350 Ford engine: Because of Biofuel or Ford's own injector problem?

I am going to defer to my mechanically inclined engine guru writing partner, whose occupation involves all sorts of grease-monkeying, but this poor chap, who is a member of the San Francisco Biofuels group, blew up the engine in his brand new Ford F350 and was told he voided his warranty using biofuel. Later Ford changed their tune and he found out Ford had issued a major recall for injector problems - the symptoms of which he claims were exactly the same for his engine.

"To my understanding, biodiesel has a higher flash point and I can't understand how one blows up an engine on a vegetable-based fuel. Ford markets the ultra-low-sulfur engine as the cleanest in the industry. I ran B100 in my 2004 F25- for 2 years-a similar, high performance PowerStroke."
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Skip several interesting exchanges later, Ford scrambled and is now covering everything-and has even offered to take the truck back and sell me a new one (mine had only 200 miles on it). Next, I found out that Ford just offered a massive recall for injector problems that create a hydrolock that produces white smoke and can cause a massive bang-exactly what happened to me.... The whole things seems to have been a ploy to cover up something they eventually had to admit to on a massive scale. Go Ford."

Hat tip to PajamasMedia.

Capitalist America: We don't know how good we've got it

I've often commented to bewildered friends and acquaintances how rich Americans are and how all Americans should be thankful everyday that they live in this fantastic country, including those considered poor or living under the official poverty level. I tell them how the majority of the rest of the world would give their right arm if they could live as well as our so-called poor do. America's economy is so strong, so developed, that even our poor are rich by most other countries' standards.

With that in mind, Arnold Kling's recent TCS Daily article is a must read:

In the United States, the poverty threshold for a family of four is just under $20,000 a year in income. However, consider what would happen if you were to force every family of four all over the world the world to live on $20,000 a year. The majority of families would say, "Thank you." Outside the United States, there are more people living under our poverty threshold than over it. Perhaps as many as one billion people are living on less than one-tenth of our poverty threshold, or less than $2000 a year for a family of four.
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Overall, as David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper wrote three years go for TCS, virtually every American alive today is in the top one percent of income, if one takes a worldwide historical perspective. It would be better to live on $20,000 a year in America today than to be a relatively wealthy person living here one hundred years ago.

He also quotes Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation who points out that:

Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions; Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception; Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Rector would not deny that there is real poverty in the United States. The point is, however, that the standard definition of poverty includes many families who are far from destitute.

Hat tip to PajamasMedia.

"Keep your stinking nukes!"

Gateway Pundit has lots of notes and pictures on the latest protests in Iran and quips:

It's crunch time for the mullahs.
The masses are restive and the economic future does not look promising.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

"...conjure up the image of 40 or 50 thousand Muslim mothers smiling into the faces of healthy babies."

Fred Thompson notes some very good news on women's access to health care and infant mortality rates in Afghanistan, and points out that none of this would have been possible without the help of U.S. and Coalition soldiers.

A new study from Johns Hopkins University indicates that, since the Taliban was ousted five years ago, Afghan infant-mortality rates have improved dramatically. Every year, more than 40,000 babies live that would have died under Islamofascist tyranny — and the statistics are still improving. The main reason, according to the study, is improved women’s access to medical care.

Some people, including World Bank health specialists, say infant-mortality rates have improved far more than the Johns Hopkins study shows — because the data used is several years old. We know, for example, that the number of Afghan children who are getting vaccinations has doubled and redoubled in just the last few years. Similarly, the number of pregnant women receiving pre-natal care went up six-fold between 2003 and 2006.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Romney's government health care disaster

I haven't had time to digest all the feedback and commentary on yesterday's Republican candidates debate, but from many accounts it sounds like Mitt Romney did the best, or at least looked and sounded presidential. I think Romney is a polished politician and very professional and so far sounds like he is running a smart campaign. As an Independent I won't be participating in the primary, but if I was I would not be voting for him, nor will I vote for him for President. And one of those reasons is because I am very uncomfortable with his eager embrace of government controlled health care.

This morning Cato-at-Liberty reminds us of some of the elements of Romney's health care plan in Massachusetts:

Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties.

Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies for a family of four earning as much as $62,000 year, effectively extending welfare well into the middle class.

Creates a Hillary Clinton managed-competition-style regulatory authority called the Massachusetts Health Care Connector. This new regulatory body has already mandated that every health care policy sold in the state must cover prescription drugs and has outlawed policies with deductibles of more than $2,000.

Imposes a penalty on businesses that do not provide health insurance to their employees (although in fairness, this provision was enacted over Governor Romney’s veto.)

Greatly expands the state’s health care bureaucracy, creating at least 10 new boards, commissions, and other institutions to study and regulate health care.

The folks at Cato-at-Liberty have a lot more on Romney-care here, here, and here. There is a health care problem in this country, but universal, government sponsored or controlled health care is not the answer.

Bill Roggio's Daily Iraq Report 5-3-07

Bill Roggio reports some welcome news from Iraq as one of Al-Qaeda's staunchest supporters in Anbar has now turned against them and joined the Anbar Salvation Council:

Sam Dagher of the Christian Science Monitor reports on how the Anbar Salvation Council, led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Rishawi, turned the Albu Fahd tribe against al Qaeda. The Albu Fahd was one of the six original Anbari tribes to support al Qaeda and its Islamic State in Iraq. These six tribes are known in some military intelligence circles as the "Sinister Six". The Albu Fahd [described as the Bu-Fahed] has now joined the Anbar Salvation Council and pledged to throw its weight behind the fight against al Qaeda.

"Winning over the Bu-Fahed tribe was a coup," said Mr. Dagher, who covered the tribal meeting where the Albu Fahd moved into the camp of the Anbar Salvation Council. "It had been one of Al Qaeda's staunchest supporters, and traces its lineage to the birthplace of the puritan form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism in the Saudi Arabian province of Najd. It formally threw its lot behind Sheikh Abdel-Sattar Abu Risha." the pickup of the Albu Fahd comes as the Anbar Salvation Council has made gains outside of its home province and is expanding in Diyala, Salahadin and Baghdad.

British midterm elections

Today is the day of the mid term elections in Britain, and no one has dared to predict an outcome. Labor is expected to lose power dramatically, and rightly so in my opinion, they have by and large failed Britain. The big question in Scotland is: will Labor hang on? or will the SNP gain power? Labor hanging on will mean business as usual, as it will send the message to Labor that no matter how much they suck, they still have power and know that people will still vote them into power no matter how poorly they run the country. If the Scottish National Party gets in, there's no telling what will happen. I will give a run down in the next few days of the outcome, and what I think it means for Britain.

Peshmerga Colonel Salahdin

Michael Totten posts his transcript of his discussion with a Peshmerga Colonel. Key excerpt:

I ask [Americans] not to leave us. All the time we have been frustrated from the pledges and help from America as we saw in 1974, 1920, and…from 1920 until now we have been frustrated and disappointed from their pledges and promises. Eight times we have been disappointed. I ask the American people, not make it nine times.

Victor Davis Hanson: The Crazy Middle East

VDH's latest is chock full of good stuff. Some excerpts:

On Iraq:

The war will be won or lost, like it or not, fairly or unjustly, in the next six months in Baghdad. Either Gen. Petraeus quells the violence to a level that even the media cannot exaggerate, or the enterprise fails, and we withdraw. For all the acrimony and hysteria at home, that in the end is what we face—the verdict of all wars that ultimately are decided by the soldiers, and then either supported or opposed by the majority at home with no views or ideology other than its desire to conform to the narrative from the front: support our winners, oppose our losers.

On why a majority of Muslims are anti-American:

Their prejudice apparently is chalked up to our omnipresence—like saving Kuwait, feeding Somalia, stopping Muslims dying en masse in the Balkans, ridding Afghanistan of the Soviets, paying astronomical prices for their oil, and giving nearly $100 billion over the years to the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians. Our prejudice surely could not be due to 19 Muslims slaughtering— to the delight of millions—3,000 Americans, nor to the news almost every hour of Christian-Muslim violence, Hindu-Muslim violence, Buddhist-Muslim violence, or secular-Muslim violence.

Read the whole thing.

Yes, women do actually commit mass murder

Dr. Helen quickly dispels the notion that women never commit mass murder:

Perhaps Dr. Schlesinger has a poor memory, because if she thought about it, she would know that the famous song by the BoomTown Rats entitled, "I Don't Like Mondays" was written about "non-existent" (at least to some experts) Brenda Spencer. Spencer was a seventeen-year-old high school senior in San Diego who in January of 1979 opened fire into a crowded elementary school across the street from her home. She killed the principal and a janitor and injured a police officer and eight children. Her reason? "I don't like Mondays. Mondays always get me down."

In the Lillelid mass murder that I have mentioned here numerous times, three of the perpetrators were women, but I guess women just don't do serious crimes like mass murder. Maybe someone should tell that to the victims of Jennifer San Marco who last year killed her neighbor and then six people at a mail processing plant. Do women kill less often than men? Of course, but to say that you can't think of any women who commit mass murder means that you must not be looking too hard.

Sheer idiocy from the military

Glenn's post says it all: "Bullet, meet foot."

Frankly, the "official" communications efforts on this war have been largely lame and ineffective, and most of the good stuff has come from milbloggers. I understand the importance of security, but this is going to do much more harm than good. Lots of stuff at the link above, and also read this post from Blackfive.

UPDATE: Still more here. Really, this is a bad idea.

Powerline's candidates forum

This is pretty cool.

The candidates for the Republican presidential nomination engage with you in these special Power Line forums.

Interestingly, McCain has the largest number of topics, currently at 14.