What looks to be an amateur car bomb has detonated near Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville. Fortunately, the only fatality was the driver. Via James Joyner, who observes:
But, had this been a sophisticated terrorist operation, a lot of the people in those 2881 rooms and the adjacent shopping mall could have been killed. If we can’t stop amateur suicidal nuts–and we can’t–then we can’t stop committed professionals.
The day is coming.
James Joyner: “So, he accidentally took documents more than once, and only after a pattern emerged did the staffers report him.”
Sandy Berger was National Security Advisor. What the hell was going on?
Update – Glenn Reynolds has extensive followup this morning., and on the further collapse of Joe Wilson’s credibility.
This email he recieved is enlightening:
Just to back up some of your other correspondents. I spent 27 years total in the AF – with a Top Secret clearance. I had at times, specific appended code word clearances, which are controlled on a strict need-to-know basis – because they often involve sensitive sources (say, you are getting data from a mole in the Itanian Gov. – that particular data would be graded TS and then given a code word to further identify it as very sensitive and to restrict access from those with just general TS clearances). In a nutshell, the security system from least classified to most classified was: Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, Top Secret codeword). When we worked on Top Secret codeword (it might read something like Top Secret Fishhook), it was in a vault and our notes were put in burn bags. We were not allowed to take any notes out -period. We clearly understood that you didn’t screw around with Secret, much less TS or TS codeword. For us a slip-up meant the slammer. What Berger did is so far removed from accepted security procedure, that I can only see two possible explanations: dishonesty with an ulterior motive (political CYA, I would guess) Or he’s crazy. There is no way a veteran in the security business doesn’t understand the gravity of walking out with TS codeword data.
Doug Rivers
USAF Ret.
President Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a Justice Department investigation after removing highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned.
Berger’s home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after he voluntarily returned documents to the National Archives. However, still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration’s handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.
Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had made while reading classified anti-terror documents at the archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said.
That’s a lot of inadvertant.
Update – Notes inadvertantly found their way into his socks, too.
And, Hugh Hewitt reminds us to apply the “Rice test”.
Even if the Commission was a genuine non-partisan effort instead of a show trial designed to keep the eye off of Clinton’s indifference to al Qaeda throughout the ’90s, it would still have needed all the records, and in an untampered form. How can anyone think it was a good idea to let a potentially responsible party review the evidence against him and his colleagues?�
[…]
Had Rice been the one caught tampering with the records of the Bush Administration relating to terrorism, Rice would already have been forced by a baying press to resign, and Bush would be threatened with a Watergate-style meltdown.� But it is a pro-Kerry media, so watch for Berger’s attempted cover-up to get its own cover-up.
Another update – Berger has stepped down from the Kerry team.
Well, duh.
Memri news ticker is reporting that the new Iraq government will be releasing names and countries of those involved in the UN Oil-For-Food Scandal.
THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE IRAQI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SAID HIS COUNTRY WILL SOON RELEASE TO THE IRAQI PRESS DOCUMENTS REVEALING THE NAMES OF COUNTRIES AND INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE ‘OIL FOR FOOD’ SCANDAL. (AL-SABAH AL-JADID, IRAQ, 7/ 6/04)
I am reporting that the chances that CTV and CBC national news will bump this story to a Tonya Harding – Amy Johnson rematch.
hat tip – Tim Blair
Iranian Intelligence caught in Baghdad with explosives.
The arrest of� the two Iranians suspected of attempting to carry out a vehicle bombing�has focused new attention on how Tehran is trying to protect its interests in the country it fought for eight years in a devastating war.
So far, Iran is believed to have used money, not guns, to influence Iraq – particularly by spreading wealth among Shiite political factions – while avoiding a direct confrontation with its longtime rival the United States.
�A group of armed, masked Iraqi men threatened Tuesday to kill Jordanian militant�Abu Musab al-Zarqawi �if he did not immediately leave the country, accusing him of murdering innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion.
Now, there’s a beheading video I’d pay money to watch.
Michael Niewodowski worked as a chef at the Windows on the World restaurant at the WTC until Sept. 11, 2001.
Moore’s film is the first major motion picture about Sept. 11, 2001. This bears repeating. When future generations look back on the Sept. 11 massacre, their first impression, through the medium of film, will be a work in which the president and the government are blamed for the attacks, and the soldiers who are protecting this country are defamed. Instead of a film version of Lisa Beamer’s book, “Let’s Roll,” or Richard Picciotto’s “Last Man Down,” we are presented with this fallacy. How could this happen?
[…]
Could we have been more prepared for a terrorist attack on Sept. 10, 2001? Certainly. Could we have been more prepared for an attack on Dec. 6, 1941? Most definitely. In the weeks and months following Pearl Harbor, there were reports and criticisms that the government and military should have been more prepared. The difference is that the people of the nation did not waste a lot of time pointing fingers at each other. Rather, they unified and engaged the enemy head-on. I guess that is why we call them “The Greatest Generation.” How will future generations refer to us?
So, how do we explain Moore’s film to future generations? I wonder. More than that, I wonder how I would explain this film to Nancy D., Jerome N. or Heather H. I am sure you don’t know their names, but their faces haunt me day and night. How would I explain to them that a film was made accusing the president and vilifying the soldiers, the same president and soldiers who are attempting to avenge their murders and protect other citizens. Moore has not only insulted the nation, he has insulted the victims of the terrorist attacks.
During his acceptance speech at the Oscars, Moore said, “Shame on you, Mr. Bush.” Well, I say, “Shame on you, Michael Moore.” Shame on everyone who supports this travesty of a film. Shame on a society that allows this sham of a film. You have weakened the nation.
hat tip – Roger Simon
Paul Martin’s exploitation of Alberta’s promised health reforms was the singularly most divisive tactic the Liberals used in the campaign. From the Toronto Star coverage;
The Prime Minister has been daring Klein to make his plans public and has accused the Conservative Alberta premier of cloaking his medicare-threat proposal in a bid to help his “silent partner,” Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. Martin has been saying it was ominous that Klein, whom the Liberals described last week as a “public health menace,” was proposing to release his plan on June 30, just two days after the federal election.
Klein finally responded, his Health minster stating that the new proposals amounted to little more than increased spending. But it had put Harper on the defensive at a time when the attack ad campaign was in full swing.
Well, congratulations Mr. Martin. It worked. You won. And now you get to back up your challenge that Harper wouldn’t defend the Canada Health Act, and you get to back it up by taking on Alberta, just two days after your victory, and with your words fresh in the minds of the electorate.
This morning Ralph Klein unveiled the Alberta health reforms. There are some pretty drastic changes, including a user pay scheme and a 50% cut to health spending growth.
He accused the federal Liberals of cutting the public system on one hand, while delivering empty promises on how to sustain it.
“They keep saying they’ll save medicare but they don’t say how,” he said as he rolled his eyes.”The bottom line is we still need substantive system reform, and we need to know where the federal government stands.”
Klein says nothing will be implemented unti the fall, after Albertans have had the opportunity to give the input.
After making the sanctity of public health care front and center in his campaign, what bigger political landmine than to face parliament at war with Alberta over the Canada Health Act, but unable to directly engage Klein about it (consultation period, Mr. Martin) – with the BQ on the side of defending provincial rights to control of health delivery and the NDP demanding he put the hammer down?
Balls in your court, Martin. Let’s see what you’re made of.
You know, if this were the US, and these were Republicans I’d almost be thinking a Rove rope-a-dope here.
Update Well, considering the breathless reporting of this story when it hit the airwaves, I wondered why there was no scramble to get Paul Martin’s take. And then, why such a bland response from the feds. I know that had these details been released prior to the election, they would have been agressively denounced. Today, there’s not so much as a whimper and some snark from Roy Romanow.
Colby has more. And an interesting scenerio. Stephen Harper as premier of Alberta? I hope he’s right.
I remember seeing Beckie Scott interviewed just moments after she made Olympic history in Salt Lake City – the first North American to capture an Olympic medal in cross country skiing. It was a bronze.
She was angry. She said some intemperate things about the two Russians who had bested her.
Textbook sour grapes. I hear it all the time in my own sport – subject to subjectivity and political alliances and feuds, complaining about dirty tricks is commonplace, but neatly deflected by the “sore loser” accusation.
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Maybe Beckie has something to teach us about the difference between sore losers and undeserving winners and standing your ground in the face of contraversy. |
Today, it’s a gold. Congratulations, Beckie!
TORONTO — A man with five guns and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition set himself up beside a Beaches water plant yesterday planning to commit mass homicide. But a dog’s affection apparently persuaded him not to go through with his plan.
The man started to ready his weapons in the early afternoon sunshine outside the grounds of the R.C. Harris filtration plant at Victoria Park Avenue and Queen Street. He later told police that he planned to shoot people in the park and then drive around the city killing whomever he could to ensure he would get life in jail.
[…]
The man had several rifles and telescopic lenses, a camouflage balaclava, as well as a .357 magnum and a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, a machete and other knives.
He had loaded his pistols and was readying the rifles, police said. They were in his car’s trunk along with the ammunition; he had removed the safeties and trigger locks.
He changed his mind when a dog on a walk in the park would not leave him alone.
“He happens to be a pet lover, and he decided that if there was such a nice dog in the area the people were too nice and he wasn’t going to carry out his plan,” Det. Ashley said.
He was not known to police, and all his guns were registered.
I’m sure someone at Animal Control is checking into leash law violations, though.
Typically, the Iranian kidnapping of British servicemen and patrol boats is being given less coverage than the Olsen twin anorexia story.
Wretchard, at the Belmont Club has useful insights, as usual.
If there’s any doubt that the enemy full-court press has begun, the seizure of three RN smallcraft by Iran and the attack on 4 US Marines in Ramadi, probably by Ba’athist special forces, should erase any doubt. Fighting with the Ba’athists began again after the US killed two dozen foreign terrorists in Fallujah. It was only a matter of time before they struck back, as they do in Lebanon, where many of the Syrian-backed fighters train with Hezbollah. That was expected. But the seizure of the Royal Navy patrol vessels is surprising because it represents a public and unilateral escalation by Iran. As a political statement, it must rank with Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, which was calculatingly delivered against a weak Jimmy Carter. It is an indication of how politically emasculated the Mullahs think the Coalition is, that they should have attempted this at all. Shortly after the conclusion of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Mullahs were practically trembling on their thrones. But now they smile; the BBC has done its work well.
Though, speaking of underreported stories on Iran…. perhaps the little guy from Shawinigan can make use of his new Iranian oil connections can negotiate a quiet little deal. You know, dictator to dictator…..
crossposted at the Shotgun
| In the latest Harper attack ad, the Liberals use a series of “negative” images – among them the barrel of a gun, pointed directly at the viewer, ostensibly to illustrate the dangers we face if the gun registry is revoked…. but that isn’t all there is in the ad. |  |
Free Dominion;
I downloaded the Liberal attack ad off their own website and converted it to quicktime to have some fun editing it. I didn’t expect to find what I found though.
…
The location of the flash matches up with the gun and it CLEARLY is a subliminal message that the gun has been fired at the viewer. It seems to be the only subliminal message in the ad. If that commercial gave you a creepy, uneasy feeling you couldn’t explain, that is why.
Go check out the images for yourself.
hat tip – Shotgun
A story you won’t find on the CBC.
UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after
The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.
The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam’s missile and WMD program.
The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.
An obvious explanation that is conveniently avoided by sophmoric critics of the Iraq war and “absence” of weapons of mass destruction. (Not that weapons and precursor materials haven’t been found – more sophmoric denial there). The months long “rush to war” didn’t exactly deprive him of advance warning.
And of course, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was “Mother Of All Exterminators” Again – far, far too many dots to connect for mere media consumers to digest, so it’s been ignored by the press “analysts”.
update – some have expressed speculation that this is the only source.The New York Times also reported on this story on the 9th.
UNITED NATIONS, June 9 – Equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been emptied from Iraqi sites since the war and shipped abroad, the head of the United Nations inspectors office told the Security Council today.
Demetrius Perricos, deputy to the former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and now the acting executive chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, told a closed- door session of the council that many of the items bear tags placed by United Nations inspectors as suspect “dual use” ones having capabilities for creating harmless consumer products as well as unconventional weapons.
Mr. Perricos accompanied his briefing with a report showing satellite photos of a fully built-up missile site near Baghdad in May 2003 and the same site denuded in February 2004.
The crowds lining up to pay respects to Reagan have exceeded all expectations.
Former NDP Ontario premier Bob Rae (another former Paul Desmarias employee) is the chair of the Canadian taxpayer funded Institute for Research on Public Policy. According to Kevin Libin at the Shotgun, the institute’s publication Inroads features an editorial offering a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s a dandy.
In the absence of a bilateral solution, and after a short deadline, an international force should invade, force compliance with the commission’s determinations, and leave troops behind to maintain compliance and ensure the security of both sides.
The imagination blooms with the possibilities….
AP – “Today Gerhardt Schroeder approved the deployment of German combat troops to join an international force policing Israeli territory …”
Via Jeff Jarvis this commentary from an Iraqi blogger;
The beginning for the new Iraq has started and the people of Iraq finally got a government they should be proud of. I was so happy this morning watching the new Iraqi government and the names of those ministers and of course the new president. There was one moment during the whole ceremony that equated to the moment when they announced the capture of Saddam and that is when they announced the new president of Iraq, to me that was a dream comes true. I believe most of us young Iraqis when we hear the phrase president of Iraq, we think of Saddam and only Saddam. Well, history was made today Saddam and his clans have no chance of getting the power or any position in the new Iraq. Iraq is changing and I believe it is changing toward a free and democratic Iraq. I spoke with my family in Baghdad twice today and they are so excited about the new government, my brother was telling me that we all are praying for these guys and Inshallaha god will be with them. I think this is a new era for us and for the Middle East as a whole. Listening to all the names that were announced today, you can not, but think that this new government is the most educated individuals among all the governments in the Middle East. Most of them have a doctorate in their fields of expertise not to mention a lot of them have lived and gained there experience in the west. With the help of the US and the rest of the world, I believe these guys will definitely get Iraq out of this mess.
Don’t sit up late tonight watching for this on Canadian network TV.
I’m going to be off line for a few days, as of tomorrow. So, while I’m gone, make a point of checking out the Iraqi bloggers on the sidebar. It’s difficult for some of these people to get net access, and its expensive. The least we can do is read what they have to say, as an reminder to us all that there are those among us who would gladly send them back in time, and return them to Saddam Hussein.
I suggest you begin with this; Omar translates comments from ordinary Iraqis.
For a long time I’ve been listening to the apologists and critics of the war in Iraq. They generally begin “Of course it’s a good thing that Saddam is gone…” and then with a simple three letter word, leap forward with their criticism, accusations, conspiracies, and dire predictions – to tell us what they really think.
To these people: Drop the hypocrisy. Stop trying to hide in that clever and convenient alternate Universe of What If – for it does not exist. You have no third choice to pluck from a world of your imagination. Indulge your negativity and partisan agenda, if you must, but stop insulting the people of Iraq with the word “but”.
Try some intellectual integrity – stop prefacing your statements with approving nods to the removal Saddam Hussein. You don’t mean it, and we know you don’t mean it. If you believe that the “war was a mistake”, then stand up and own it – all of it. Reclaim ownership of Saddam. Take him to your breast and hold him tight.
Don’t protest that this is absurd, that it’s not at all what you mean, for it is. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot declare the war in Iraq was a mistake without propelling the Butcher of Baghdad back into his opulent palaces, without flinging thousands of innocents back into prisons, without pulling the Omars from their beds in the night, amputating their hands for the crime of writing, cutting out their tongues because they dared to speak.
If you believe the price has been too high, fine. Say so. But you must bring Saddam back. Take to the streets if you must. Demand the return of Iraqi women to the depravity of the rape rooms and their children to the silence of mass graves.
You know how to use a shovel, don’t you? Get digging.
Take your pick. Either A or B. Omar or Saddam.
You cannot have them both. Omar cannot exist in the world of Saddam Hussein. Omar is alive and speaking to the world today as a free Iraqi is because the decision was made to remove Saddam by force.
Too black and white you say? You prefer to layer your world view in varying shades of rippling grey? I’m afraid that the truth is not available in that colour. There is no halfway point between life and death, freedom and slavery, so take your greys, take your alternate universes, set them aside and make your decision.
Omar or Saddam?
For those who think campaign finance reform in the US was encroachment on freedom of speech…
Get a load of this;
“Furthermore, on balance, the contextual factors favour a deferential approach to Parliament in determining whether such limits are demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. While the right to political expression lies at the core of the guarantee of free expression and warrants a high degree of constitutional protection, there is nevertheless a danger that political advertising may manipulate or oppress the voter. Parliament had to balance the rights and privileges of all the participants in the electoral process.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is from the decision* handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court of Canada., upholding the law that curtails spending during elections by “special interest groups”. The law limits spending to only $3000 per riding.
A decision, by the way, conveniently pushed forward to coincide with the eve of a federal election campaign – which, courtesy of new Liberal government legislation, will be directly funded by taxpayer dollars.
Lucky us.
Kevin Steel says he’s calmed down a little. He does a better job of covering the implications than I could hope to.
I don’t think I’d want to see him angry.
*link updated 2014
I can say, without any reservation whatsoever, that Mark Helprin is the best fiction writer currently drawing breath.
From Winter’s Tale -“Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic politcal acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another. Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.”
Few had heard of Helprin before he penned Bob Dole’s senate retirement speech on the eve of his run for the presidency. (I can’t find it online.) Helprin has other writing available, much of it political. His Written On Water series is archived online at the Wall Street Journal.
One unfortunate consequence of reading Helprin, is that it can be extremely frustrating to read other writers in his wake. A Soldier Of The Great War has had that effect on me, and on others. Judging by discussion on email groups, he has an extremely devoted following – (and frustrated – damn you Helprin – write something…) And it’s interesting to watch the reaction of the leftist, anti-war devotees he draws, who safely assume their favorite genius is likeminded. For someone who writes like this –
“Only in the lightning and in the foreground is the light active. The woman and the soldier steal the light and color from everything that is in ruin. Unclothed and unprotected, with her baby in her arms, she defies the storm unwittingly. Entirely at risk, she shines out. Don’t you understand? She’s his only hope. After what he’s seen, only she and the child can put the world in balance. And yet the soldier is distant, protected, detached. They always say about the soldier that he’s detached. That’s true, for he’s in the eye of the storm, his heart has been broken, and he doesn’t even know it.”
… couldn’t possibly think like this.
Lots of other good stuffat the traffic jam today.
At only 15.3 hands, he’s small. Nice size for a Quarter horse. Rock Hard Ten and Eddington and most other thoroughbreds tower over him. He’s survived the murder of his trainer and a skull fracture.
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They say his pedigree lacks stamina and star power. Secretariat, Foolish Pleasure, Mr Prospector, Northern Dancer – all now generations back. And maybe he does – the mile and half Belmont is yet to come. But he’s yet to be beaten, on any track, by any rival. He’s won 7 million. He took the Kentucky Derby in the mud, under a jockey making his first Derby start and a trainer with his first Derby entry. And he won the Preakness today by 11 1/2 lengths – a new record. Go, Smarty. |
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