zenpundit.com

IRAQI SPYMASTERS CAPTURED

We may possibly find out what sort of activities Iraqi intelligence carried out inside the United States and if there are any American political figures or celebrities like the British Labor Party MP Galloway who is alleged to have been a paid agent of influence of Saddam’s regime. From the AP:

” Gen. Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib, the former head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, surrendered to U.S. troops Wednesday, a senior Pentagon official said.

He offered no details about how the Iraqi was captured but said there was one Iraqi casualty during the operation.

HITCHENS ON THE ANTI-WAR FOLKS go here.

Here’s a milder excerpt:

“But unless the anti-war forces believe Saddam’s fires should be allowed to burn out of control indefinitely, they must presumably have an idea of which outfit should have got the contract instead of Boots and Coots. I think we can be sure that the contract would not have gone to some windmill-power concern run by Naomi Klein or the anti-Starbucks Seattle coalition, in the hope of just blowing out the flames or of extinguishing them with Buddhist mantras. The number of companies able to deliver such expertise is very limited. The chief one is American and was personified for years by “Red” Adair—the movie version of his exploits (played by John Wayne himself!) was titled Hellfighters. The other main potential bidder, according to a recent letter in the London Times, is French. But would it not also be “blood for oil” to award the contract in that direction? After all, didn’t the French habitually put profits in Iraq ahead of human rights and human life? More to the point, don’t they still? “

THE DEAN GRASPS AT STRAWS

With the war issue toast, Democratic dark-horse candidate soon to be favorite son candidate Howard Dean assailed Senator Rick Senatorum’s recent outburst expressing a desire for a KGB of sex to police America’s bedrooms

“Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean on Wednesday called for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum to resign his leadership post after the lawmaker compared homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.

“Gay-bashing is not a legitimate public policy discussion; it is immoral. Rick Santorum’s failure to recognize that attacking people because of who they are is morally wrong makes him unfit for a leadership position in the United States Senate,” Dean said in a statement.”

The only problem is that Santorum, whose comments were scarily authoritarian as well as bizarre, never targeted gays specifically. That was inserted by the AP reporter. Santorum wants the states to regulate everyone’s sexual behavior according to the tenets of his brand of Christianity

The GOP needs to get back to telling the government to stay the hell out of our lives.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

-Thomas Jefferson

THE HIDDEN ASPECT OF IRANIAN MEDDLING IN IRAQ

Can be discerned in a key excerpt from the NYT:

“The leading Shiite cleric in southern Iraq is the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sestani, who is 73, and whose base is in Najaf. Like many Iraqi clerics, he has a long record of opposition to what has become the Iranian model of Shiite jurisprudence, which grants clerics a pre-eminent political as well as religious role. “

The truth of the political matter is that the hard-line clerical -Pasdaran faction that rules Iran, headed by ex-President Rafsanjani and ” Supreme Guide ” Khameini is not only a political minority in the nation they rule but a minority sect among the Shiite religious establishment as well. A majority of the senior theologians of Shiism, the Grand Ayatollahs, disagree with the theocratic model of governance where public power is wielded exclusively by the clergy. Moreover, most of the ” up and coming ” ayatollahs of Shiism in Iran and Iraq do not adhere to Khameini’s fascistic view of religious authority and even the regime’s own followers – like the Ayatollah Taheri of Qom, have taken their disenchantment with the regime public.

A free Iraq would mean that the Arab Shiite Holy city of Karbala and the scholars of Najaf would return to their pre-Saddam prominence and authority among Shiite muslims and challenge the sectarian and totalitarian views of Iran’s hardline rulers. Thus the impetus to meddle in Iraqi affairs is not merely motivated by the desire to contest with ” The Great Satan ” America but for Khameini and his crew to cling to power in their own demense; if necessary they will use violence, assassination and terrorism to maintain their shaky primacy.

The United States needs to put pressure on the regime in Teheran to respect human rights at home, speed democratic reforms and cease oppressing their own people. Pasdaran-trained infiltrators stirring up violence or threatening moderate Iraqi clergy should be imprisoned or expelled by occupation authorities and most importantly, Iraqi civil society should be given time to organize parties supporting a democratic and secular constitution.

An Iranian-backed Sharia dictatorship will come to Iraq only if we stand by and allow it. The Iranian dictatorship fears its own people and they need to be warned that regime change has many forms.