"Muqtada has shown a great deal of patience not calling for an all-out war yet with so much pressure on him," said Mohan Abedin, director of research at London's Center for the Study of Terrorism and an expert on Shiite affairs. "The Mahdi Army is by far the most powerful Iraqi faction. It can cause damage on a massive scale if it goes to war."
Thursday, April 24, 2008
US Official: "...but it's a video presentation, like a Powerpoint presentation. IT IS NOT a video of the facility."
No video? A video of the photos? .... and the con jobs continue! Yahoo News, here via MoonOfAlabama.
"...A US official, requesting anonymity, told AFP: "There are still photographs of the facility as part of the video, but it's a video presentation, like a Powerpoint presentation. It's not a video of the facility."
The New York Times and The Washington Post, had earlier cited unnamed senior US officials saying a video showing North Koreans inside the Syrian reactor would be shown at the hearings..."
Cheney's Compulsive Obsession with Syrian nukes & Iraq WMDs..
An agent inside with a video camera is a littler more "24".. than typical clandestine op.. not sure how or why the Syrians let a video cam. inside?!
ArmscontrolWonk, here
"There are still tons of unanswered questions, but I suspect folks will ask those in the Congressional briefings:
- Who took the video, when and why? How did the Israelis get a copy?
- Where are the fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities? I would be surprised if Syria would be willing to depend on foreign fuel and, even more, on foreign reprocessing services.
- Why weren’t Administration officials willing to call it a reactor, even off-the-record? "
French Deputy to Kouchner: "What happened to Zuheir Siddiq?"
In the French Assemblee-Nationale: "M. Gérard Bapt demande à Mme la garde des sceaux, ministre de la justice, des éclaircissements sur les conditions dans lesquelles le syrien Mohammed Zouheïr Al Siddiq a, selon M. le ministre des Affaires étrangères, disparu depuis 1 mois. Témoin principal interrogé par la commission internationale chargée d'enquêter sur l'assassinat, en février 2005, de l'ex-premier Ministre libanais, Rafic Hariri, les accusations portées par cet ancien membre des services de renseignements syriens avaient conduit à l'arrestation de 4 généraux libanais toujours détenus. Arrêté à son arrivée en France, en vertu d'un mandat d'arrêt international, il avait été remis en liberté sur le territoire français malgré une demande d'extradition provenant de la justice libanaise. Il lui demande de rendre publiques les informations dont elle dispose sur la disparition de Monsieur Al Siddiq, quelle est la situation juridique de ce citoyen syrien, et si une enquête a été lancée concernant le sort d'un témoin important du dossier de l'enquête internationale en cours sur l'assassinat de Rafic Hariri et de plusieurs autres personnalités libanaises." 
... the Siddiq saga, in line with epic "con jobs" ... (Lebanese Minister of Justice, Charles Rizk, sensing an American eclipse, in a crazed race against time, lobbies to hurry efforts to nominate Canadian Judge Daniel Belmar as "special prosecutor" to thwart any possibility of release of the incarcerated Generals ... )
Back to the Jordanian option: "The Jordanians won’t admit this publicly, yet a Palestinian state in the West Bank is the worst solution for them.."
In case you missed this a few days back, ... in YNetnews, here
"....We should reshuffle the cards and try to think about other solutions as well. One of them is a return to the Jordanian option. The Jordanians won’t admit this publicly, yet a Palestinian state in the West Bank is the worst solution for them. They too know that within a short period of time such state would be ruled by Hamas. The moment Jordan—which features a Palestinian majority as well as powerful Muslim Brotherhood opposition— will share a border with a Hamas state, the Hashemite regime will face immediate danger...."
US Sells Secret Anti-IED Tech to Iraq amid fears that this is tantamount to a technology transfer to Iran...
In Military.com, here via World Politics Review.
"You have to assume that about the third one that we ship over there is going to go straight out the back door," said John Pike, director of the Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-area defense research group. "We have a fundamental dilemma here in trying to indigenize these security forces."
Fearing a War, Lebanese Prepare by Buying Up Arms
Price Inflation .....In the WaPo, here
"There are more arms dealers in this country than there is hair on my head," said Abu Omar, who has long white hair and who refused to be named more precisely out of concern the government would take away his gun licenses...."
Bush's "secret" letter gave Israel permission to expand the West Bank settlements...
Help Bush from himself ... In the WaPo, here
"... Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza...."
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Douglas Feith 'sacked' by G'town?
In the HOYA, here
Asked about Feith's status, Robert Gallucci, dean of Georgetown's foreign service school, told us that when Feith was hired -- something that caused an uproar among the faculty -- it was understood he "was on a two-year appointment." Any decision not to renew should not be seen as "a judgment on his performance," Gallucci said, noting that Feith's students' "course evaluations were really good." Word is that keeping Feith on beyond the two-year term again would have infuriated a number of faculty members. .." in the WaPo
Iraqi Troops: Asleep on the Job?
In Time, here via MoonOfAlabama
And at least one American soldier said he was angry that the role of Iraqi troops was exaggerated after the battle. "A gunfight broke out and we were fighting [the Mahdi Army] for about four hours," the soldier told TIME. "The army article made it sound like we were just there supporting the Iraqi Army, but we did all the work. We just had four humvees out there with some Iraqi [troops]."
U.S. intelligence officials: "no solid evidence to date that Syria was actually building a nuclear facility"...
in TWN, here
"...In a closed congressional session tomorrow, Israeli intelligence officers will provide Members of Congress with details regarding Israel's air raid last September on an alleged nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. However, there is no solid evidence to date that Syria was actually building a nuclear facility, according to highly-placed U.S. intelligence officials.
CIA analysts suggest the Syrians might have been building some kind of air missile facility. But the Bush administration is keen on darkening Syria's image, as are the Israelis, so they must promote the nuclear line. President Assad of Syria has joked to Western visitors that his engineers are so incompetent that if they tried to build a nuclear facility it would become another Chernobyl.
Vice-President Dick Cheney continues to tell associates that the Syrians were constructing a chemical weapons plant. At the time of the attack, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused the Israelis of taking "the law into their own hands" and demanded more information about what was hit. To date, the IAEA chief has received no such briefing......."
Carter: Rice statement untrue, I wasn't warned not to meet Hamas
In Reuters, via Haaretz, here
"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him [Carter] to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President [Bashar] Assad or leaders of Hamas," said a statement released by the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which speaks on the former president's behalf..."
Maliki voiced frustration with Arab for failing to send ambassadors and relieve Iraq’s debts...
In the NYTimes, here
"...Ms. Rice seemed sanguine about aid to Iraq, saying that debt relief was on the way and that diplomatic issues would soon be resolved. The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking to reporters alongside Ms. Rice and the Turkish foreign minister, Ali Babacan, said, “we have to be patient with our Arab brothers.”
"...Mr. Maliki and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was also at the Kuwait meeting, have made similar appeals over the past year. Those have resulted in numerous verbal expressions of support, and even pledges to send ambassadors to Iraq, but little tangible progress..."
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