The Iraqi interior ministry lauded its achievements over the past year on Saturday, saying that 75 percent of Al-Qaeda’s networks in the country had been destroyed in 12 months.
Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf also outlined sharp falls in the numbers of assassinations, kidnappings and death squad murders.
He told a news conference that increased patrols along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria had slowed infiltration by militants and played a key role in Iraq’s improved security situation.
“We have destroyed 75 percent of Al-Qaeda hide-outs, and we broke up major criminal networks that supported Al-Qaeda in Baghdad,” he said.
“After eliminating safe houses in Anbar province, which used to be Al-Qaeda’s base, we moved into areas surrounding Baghdad and into Diyala province. Al-Qaeda headed north and we are pursuing them,” he said.
Khalaf said kidnappings were down 70 percent and that an average of three to five people killed by death squads were being found each day in Baghdad compared with 15 to 20 a day in February.
Bush Condemns Bhutto Assassination
President George W. Bush condemned the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday, an act of violence that shredded U.S. hopes for democratic elections in the country that is a key ally in Bush’s war on terrorism.
“The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy. Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice,” Bush said in a statement to reporters at his Texas ranch.
The president praised Bhutto’s courage in returning to Pakistan in October to participate in elections aimed at restoring a democratic government after eight years of military rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Interesting commentary from John Podhoretz – The End of the Primary’s Holiday From History
The past three months have seen an odd turn in the presidential primary process in both parties — a turn away from the key issues confronting the United States and toward emotional and social vapor. The success of the surge in Iraq, coupled with the bizarre “we’re safe” reading of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, drained some of the passion from the anti-war fervor in the Democratic primary electorate and from the hawkish fervor of the Republican primary electorate. In their place came the Christian identity-politics rise of Mike Huckabee on the Republican side and the “we need a nice new politics” rise of Barack Obama on the Democratic side. Republicans squabbled about sanctuary cities and sanctuary mansions. Democrats squabbled about how many uninsured there would be left if their various health-care plans were imposed on the country.
The horrifying assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan this morning comes only one week before the Iowa caucuses and 12 days before New Hampshire. It is a sobering and frightening reminder of the challenges and threats and dangers posed to the United States by radical Islam, the nature of the struggle being waged against the effort to extend democratic freedoms in the Muslim world, and the awful possibility of a nuclear Pakistan overrun by Islamofascists. This is what the next president will be compelled by circumstance to spend a plurality of his or her time on. This is what really matters, not the cross Mike Huckabee lit up behind his head in his Christmas ad.
Very true words.
Two For One and All for Power
In his column today, Dick Morris reveals that Hillary Clinton flirted with the idea of running for governor of Arkansas in 1990…
Bill, determined to seek the presidency in ’92, was weighing whether to run for another term as governor or to step down and seek the presidency as a private citizen. Key to his decision was whether Hillary could take his place, both to keep the seat warm for him should he lose the presidential race and to stop any unwanted revelations from surfacing while he was off campaigning.
But the polls I took at the Clintons’ behest found that voters saw Hillary merely as an extension of Bill, not as an independent political figure. Arkansans saw her possible candidacy for governor as an attempt to be a placeholder for her husband.
This says a lot of things about both Bill and Hillary Clinton. No matter how much Hillary tries to separate herself from Bill, they are a team. They can’t help thinking about taking the next climb up the political ladder without having something to fall back one. That’s why Hillary chose to run for the U.S. Senate in New York: a reliably blue state with a lot of electoral votes. The Clinton’s don’t care about the people they ask to elect them… they only care about power, be it gaining it or retaining it.
Abolish the CIA
When the CIA was founded in 1947, a large portion of the initial personnel were recruited from the World War Two-era Office of Strategic Services (OSS). An unfortunate fact of life about the OSS is that it was heavily staffed with communists and fellow travellers. The reason for this? Simple – we were fighting on the side of communist Russia in WWII, and a communist OSS operative would (a) likely never voluntarily surrender to the Nazis and (b) would never turn traitor for the Nazis. Of course, these communists were not at all adverse to working for communist Russia once the United States and Russia came into a post-WWII collision course.
Essentially, CIA was founded with a built in series of moles who were highly placed – and not only able to provide secrets to the communists and deceive American policy-makers, but they were also able to continually recruit and advance like-minded individuals in the CIA over the years. It should be kept in mind that when CIA was founded and the FBI suggested background checks on employees of the new agency, CIA said they would take care of it themselves. As far as I know, there has never been an indepedent audit of CIA personnel – and given the number of moles which have emerged in the CIA over the past 60 years, it seems very likely that a certain percentage of CIA employees continue to give their loyalty to persons, nations and movements other than the United States of America.
Robert Novak notes a growing dismay – partially bi-partisan – over the way the CIA is behaving as a policy-making rather than advisory-and-executive organization on matters of intelligence. The recent NIE on Iraq – while a multi-agency product – is heavily CIA in content and was clearly designed to influence policy rather than offer dispassionate advice. I believe this and other outrages and failures of the CIA is attributable to a continuing fifth collumn (as it were) in the CIA – and it is good to understand that once a spy, always a spy; once a foreign entity recruits you, you can’t un-recruit yourself save by turning yourself in to the authorities, with all its risk of long-term incarceration. It doesn’t matter that the USSR which originally penetrated the CIA is no more – the Republic of Russia retains its spies, who are traitors whether they are working for the USSR or the Republic of Russia. Russian policy vis a vis Iran is to thwart US action against Iran’s nuclear program – and its just too neat a coincidence that just as crunch time is coming on Iran’s nukes, a NIE comes out saying, in effect, “no worries”.
Of course, I could be wrong – the recent NIE could be the absolute truth of the matter. But I don’t know – and I don’t know because there is no reason for anyone to place any reliance on information which comes from – or is influenced by – the CIA. Too many traitors have been proven to be there for us to have anything other but very strong doubts. The only way to break this particular logjam is to just abolish the organization.
It is certain that most of the employees of the CIA are dedicated Americans who want what is best for the nation – and we can re-hire them at a successor agency, but only after an exhaustive background check not just on themselves, but on who hired them and promoted them over the years. America needs a central intelligence agency, but we can’t afford to retain the CIA – better to amalgamate the Defense Intelligence Agency with people from State (for foreign political intelligence) and Treasury (for foreign economic intelligence) into a new intelligence group, with the pick of the litter from the defunt CIA to fill out the organization.
The need for good intelligence for both the Executive and Legislative branch is too important for us to have any doubts – we must be certain that our lawmakers and Administration are working on the best data available, presented without any agenda, and without any leaking to the MSM (no intel agency should ever release any info to the press – such releases of info should only come via the Executive or the relevant intel committees in the House and Senate). Abolish the CIA – start over from scratch; and start to build America the sort of intelligence agency its needed, but sadly lacked, for the past 6 decades.
Having a Nice Christmas?
Good. Hope everyone has received and given some wonderful gifts and are enjoying a peaceful day in the loving embrace of family and close friends.
But, you know, not everyone is having a great day today – given this, perhaps we can all go to these websites and throw a few dollars towards helping the less fortunate?
Missionaries of the Poor (Works with homeless people, abandoned children and prisoners)
St. Jude Children’s Hospital (Treats children with cancer)
Christian Children’s Fund (Aids poor children around the world)
Several Sources Foundation (Aids unwed mothers and their children)
Plenty of opportunities to help – heck, if each of our readers sent just $1 to each of these worthy organizations (or some organization you personally know of), it would be a major blessing for the poor and hurting of this world.
Merry Christmas
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirin’i-us was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” – Luke, 2:1-14
We here at Blogs for Victory wish all a peaceful holiday and a prosperous New Year.
Welcome to Rome, Tony Blair
Tony Blair converts to Catholicism:
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism.
Blair’s official spokesperson told the British Broadcasting Corporation that the former leader converted to Catholicism on Friday night, adding that it was a private matter.
Blair was received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor during Mass in the chapel at Archbishop’s House in Westminster.
“I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church,” the cardinal said.
“For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he has been following a programme of formation to prepare for his reception into full communion.
“My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together.”
There is some criticism – understandable, if not really justified – from Catholics over this; Blair, as Prime Minister, was instrumental in advancing the Culture of Death in Britain. Of course, conversion isn’t just an instant thing – there does come a moment when a person realises what they are called to do, but the process of conversion does actually take some time, and sometimes a very long time. I’m not going to critique Blair over positions he held prior to becoming Catholic – if for no other reason than I don’t want to have an avalanche of criticism directed at me for what I did while I strayed away from the Church (he who is without sin, ya know?). As a Catholic, I merely welcome my brother into the faith.
Ronald Reagan’s "Time of Choosing" Speech
It was given by Ronald Reagan in the closing days of the 1964 campaign between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. I happened to catch it on Mark Levin’s radio show as I was coming home this afternoon…and, man, do we need a Ronald Reagan in 2007!. Here’s a quote:
It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, “We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.” This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. For almost two centuries we have proved man’s capacity for self-government, but today we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest, a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism; and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path. Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.
Today there is an increasing number who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without automatically coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they would seek the answer to all the problems of human need through government. Howard K. Smith of television fame has written, “The profit motive is outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state.” He says, “The distribution of goods must be effected by a planned economy.”
Another articulate spokesman for the welfare state defines liberalism as meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government. I for one find it disturbing when a representative refers to the free men and women of this country as the masses, but beyond this the full power of centralized government was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew you don’t control things; you can’t control the economy without controlling people. So we have come to a time for choosing. Either we accept the responsibility for our own destiny, or we abandon the American Revolution and confess that an intellectual belief in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
Where is the man (or woman) who will stand up and say such things in 2007? We’ve lost a lot of political courage in the 43 years since that speech was given, and we’ve got to get it back – because this 1964 speech even speaks to our current difficulties in the War on Terrorism:
The specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. We are told that the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the greatest possible immorality. We are being asked to buy our safety from the threat of “the bomb” (Ed.Note: in 2007, “the bomb” has been replaced by “terrorists”) by selling into permanent slavery our fellow human beings enslaved behind the Iron Curtain (Ed.Note: in 2007, those ruled by Islamo-fascists), to tell them to give up their hope of freedom because we are ready to make a deal with their slave masters.
“We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right”. President Bush has shown this courage since Septemer 11, 2001 – will any of the Presidential candidates, Democrat or Republican, have the courage to do the right thing? On the answer to that question will turn the fate of America is 2008. Now, go read the whole thing and become a Reaganite.
Attacking By Attacking The Attacks
Man, it is so amusing to watch Democrats pretend like they are above negative campaigning and attacks (with the exception of attacking Bush or Republicans, of course) and yet, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both launched sites chronicling attacks made against them by the other. There’s Obama’s Hillary Attacks site and there’s Hillary’s Attack Timeline site.
It’s nice to see that Democrats are above attacks and negative campaigning.
Another Campaign Joins Blogs For Victory
I would like to welcome another campaign to Blogs For Victory. Today we welcome Tom Rooney, Republican congressional candidate in Florida’s 16th congressional district. This is not only the second campaign to blog here, but it’s also the second campaign of the 16th congressional district in Florida, where the Republican Party hopes to take back the seat currently held by Democrat Tim Mahoney, who barely won Mark Foley’s seat in 2006.
Be sure to check out out Rooney’s official campaign site. You can also join his campaign’s official Facebook group, and add him as a friend on MySpace.
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