The disciples of Alger Hiss appear still to be on the job at the State Department:Heaven forbid anyone should suggest Bush-hating apparatchiks at the State Department set up Abu Risha for an Al Qaeda hit. But it seems clear that "American military officials" realize that the United States and our Iraqi allies have enemies down at Foggy Bottom.Yesterday, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi had applied for a visa to visit Washington. "We cleared him with absolutely no reservations, and the visa was being held up due to paperwork with the application and sponsor," the spokesman said.
Sheik Abdul Sattar, or as Iraqis called him, Abu Risha, was the leader of the Anbar Awakening, a political front that President Bush and General David Petraeus credit with driving Al Qaeda from its base in Anbar province this year. The late sheik was also emerging as a national Sunni politician who could provide Iraqis an alternative to the corrupted Sunni Tawafuq faction that started a boycott of the government in August. The Tawafuq bloc comprises three Sunni fundamentalist Muslim parties that have called for a withdrawal of American troops and supported violence against American troops. Some of the party's leadership has been implicated in acts of terrorism.
An American military official yesterday said the delay in Abu Risha's visa was in part political. This source pinned the decision to scuttle the trip on senior leaders at the State Department. However, the State Department spokesman yesterday dismissed the charge. [Emphasis added.]
Where is Senator Joe McCarthy now that we really need him?
(Hat tip: Eli Lake's article via Stephen Spruiell.)
THIS TIES INTO DALRYMPLE'S ARTICLE TODAY ABOUT HOW ISLAMISTS ARE TODAY'S MARXISTS:
ReplyDeleteIN THIS CASE, ARABISTS ARE THE NEW MARXISTS.
THE REAL SINISTER FORCE OPERATING BEHIND THE SCENES IS NOT THE "ISRAEL LOBBY" BUT THE ARABISTS.
I thought Theodore Dalrymple's article at the City Journal was excellent.
ReplyDeleteWith the collapse of Marxism-Leninism, the "coercive utopians" who comprise the left need a new totalitarian ideology to provide a philosophical framework and an ideology for their bureaucratic tyranny. They are indeed finding it in Islamism. Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, "Carlos the Jackal," was one of the first to espouse Islam and Bin-Ladenism as the new leftism. Unfortunately, we will be seeing more of this.