UK: BLAIR MIGHT LIFT MP WIRETAP BAN

BBC:

The Cabinet is considering allowing the tapping of MPs' telephones, Defence Secretary John Reid has acknowledged. The covert surveillance has been banned for 40 years under a convention known as the Wilson Doctrine [named for PM Harold Wilson who initiated the executive order]. [The]... proposal to lift the ban was suggested by the Interception of Communications Commissioner... Tony Blair is preparing to announce the scrapping of the ban as part of an expansion of MI5 [the British CIA/FBI] powers after the July 2005 London bombings. New powers to monitor e-mail and other communications were brought in in 2000 as part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

There is a good reason to be able to intercept MP's communications: They might be leaking stuff to the press which can compromise national security. Even in the USA Congressmen have been known to leak, occassionally. This move by Blair is, no doubt, bound to piss off the British Left - who, like our own Left, care more about how their own government REACTS to the very real threat of jihadoterror, than they do the very real threat of jihadoterror. Screw 'em; our security is more important than appeasing the Left (especially since the Left would rather we appease the enemy than fight them).

KING GEORGE BUSHITLERBURTON VERSUS ISLAMOFASCISM AND THE LEFT

DENNIS MILLER - from TRANSTERRESTIAL MUSINGS (hat tip American Future):

"To believe the left, Bush is Hitler, Cheney is Hitler, Ashcroft is Hitler, Rumsfeld is Hitler, but the guy with the mustache who gasses people and hates Jews and wants to conquer the world isn't Hitler. Go figure."

Miller's pithy quote accurately depicts a basic prblem with today's post modern Left. Today's Leftist places more value in figurative comparisons, analogies and over-the-top papier macher guerilla theater than literal relations.

That islamofascist jihadoterrorists actually explicitly call for genocide and totalitarianism - and use genocidal attacks against fellow Muslims (Shias and Sufis), Hindus (in India), Buddhists (in Thailand), as well as Jews and Christians - is denied by today's Left, as is the fact that Bush has actually liberated 60 million Muslims from tyranny. The upside-down/inside-out insanity of their position is truly Orwellian, to say the least.

They fear and hate Bush more than they fear the jihadoterrorists. For isnatnce, they believe that Bush has created a police state even though his expanded use of POTUS/CiC war-time powers has been far more benign than presidents they adore: for example, FDR (who put 50,000 American citizens in concentration camps during WW2); or Lincoln (who suspended habeus corpus during the US Civil War). In fact, Bush has used his war-time powers less than ANY other war-time president, EVER. The Left's formulation is indefensible ON BOTH COUNTS! In fact, Bush is better than they believe, and the enemy worse. IOW: the Left couldn't be more wrong. Or deluded.

SAM ALITO HAWKS VERSUS GEORGE MCGOVERN DOVES - or traditionalists versus "progressives"

JOHN LEO: '60s Cultural Divide Still Visible in Alito Hearings -

In the summer after Alito graduated [from Princeton], the McGovern revolution transformed the Democratic Party. On the theory that the old New Deal coalition was dying, the party made a fateful and conscious decision to come down on the side of the anti-traditionalists, abandoning the white ethnics, union members, southerners, Catholics and, as it later turned out, a huge percentage of married and Protestant voters. To replace the Roosevelt coalition, the party turned to young people, the peace movement, educated suburbanites, feminists and blacks. The deep cultural fissure that resulted did indeed show up at the Alito hearing, still powerful after more than 30 years.

Leo lists how; RTWT. (BTW: In a contest between Reaganauts and McGovernites, Reaganauts win - EVERYTIME. Thank God.)

SOCIALIST PRESIDENT OF SPAIN VOWS TO FIND WAY TO ARM SOCIALIST PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA

NYTIMES:

The United States will not allow Spain to sell military aircraft with American technology to Venezuela, saying the sale would aid the increasingly "antidemocratic" government of President Hugo Chávez and would destabilize the region, the American Embassy announced Friday. The Spanish government, led by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said it regretted the decision, but vowed to move forward with the deal after acquiring the necessary technology elsewhere.

In rejecting Spain's request, American officials said the sale amounted to support for an oppressive government that threatened to spread instability. "Despite being democratically elected, the government of President Hugo Chávez has systematically undermined democratic institutions, pressured and harassed independent media and the political opposition, and grown progressively more autocratic and antidemocratic," the embassy said in a statement.

Spain (unlike the USA, according to the Left), is led by a typical European: a more "enlightened," "progressive"; "humanist"; "better-educated"; "more realistic"; "more sophisticated" and "less hegmonistic" socialist Zapatero. Just like Russia, which is led by Putin. Together, these socialist appeasers are arming Hugo Chavez, the ranting and raving tyrannical and demagogic anti-Semite anti-globalist tyrant of Venezuela. Hugo's hero is Fidel - the tyrant who has systematically ruined Cuba by depriving Cubans of freedom and the prosperity that only freedom creates.

Now explain to me again why the US Left thinks that Old Europe is more advanced than us, and why we should emulate them?! Please, tell me why should we emulate Chirac and Schroeder and Zapatero!? Sheesh. Following this crew would be like following "Thelma and Louise" drive off the cliff.

UPDATE: POWERLINE points out that Chavez is also ALIGNED WITH IRAN (whose biggest trade allies are Germany and Russia - and Russia has been helping them build their "nuclear energy" infrastructure), and that this axis now also includes the openly pro-cocaine industry Left-wing demagogue president of Bolivia. Powerline links to an article by Mary Anastasia O'Grady in the WSJ which says, in part:

With Iranian nuclear aspirations gaining notice this week, it's worth directing attention to the growing relationship between Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. The Reagan administration repulsed Soviet efforts to set up camp in Central America. Iranian designs on Venezuela perhaps deserve similar U.S. attention.

I AGREE: Bush must get tougher on the new axis of evil in our own hemisphere.

1/11/06: RELIAPUNDIT RECOMMENDS KHADDAM "FORM GOVERNMENT IN EXILE"; 1/14/06: KHADDAM ANNOUNCES SAME

I get results. Here's my 1/11 post:

HOW TO OUST ASSAD: THE FIRST STEP SHOULD BE ESTABLISHING A GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

I think we should call a for an international congress of Syrians interested in forming a transitional, and transparent government in exile for Syria - modeled after the international conference on Afghanistan (held in Germany) AFTER we overthrew the Taliban. By doing it BEFORE we might be able to make the transition - from the Assad regime to an elected Syrian constitutional assembly (and then to an elected constitutional government) - proceed much more smoothly in Syria than it did in Iraq. I think that the former VP Khaddam might be a good contender for "transitional president" or chairman of the government in exile, and/or chairman of the constitutional drafting committee. Here's a good article on him - and how leading Syrian dissidents feel similarly about him. RTWT.

Here's TODAY'S news: "Reuters":

Former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam, a fierce critic of President Bashar al-Assad, told a German magazine he was forming a government in exile and believed Assad would be forced from power this year.

Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, told the weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday that Assad was facing growing pressure from economic problems at home and the international investigation into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. "His fall has already begun. I don't think his regime will last out this year," Khaddam, who accuses Assad of ordering Hariri's murder, said. ... Asked by Der Spiegel whether he was seeking to form a government-in-exile, he said: "That is correct".

THIS IS A GOOD FIRST STEP. I hope the international community picks up on it! The Free World should swarm Khaddam with advisors and see to it that he forms a broad coalition which is representative of the entire Syrian opposition. NOW! (BTW: Regular readers know this is NOT the first time I have predicted events, or scooped the MSM and the blogosphere. SPREAD THE WORD!)

NOT ZAWAHIRI? NOT SO FAST!

AFP:

Egypt has provided the United States with DNA from Ayman al-Zawahiri's brother, which would allow officials to positively identify the fugitive al-Qaeda leader, Time magazine said Saturday. US Central Intelligence Agency sources said earlier they had unconfirmed indications that a high-level target, possibly Osama bin Laden's Egyptian number two, died in a raid by a US Predator drone in Pakistan early Friday. "We are investigating and as of now we are not in a position to say yes or no," Major General Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf and for Pakistan's military, told AFP when asked to confirm whether Zawahiri was killed in the air strike.

Privately, senior Pakistani intelligence officials said it was unlikely Zawahiri was in the tribal village near the Afghanistan border when an alleged US airstrike killed 18 people there.

XINHUANET:

U.S. officials will conduct DNA tests on the dead bodies left by a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that apparently targeted al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, U.S. media reported Saturday. The tests are aimed to determine whether Ayman al-Zawahri, deputy of al Qeada's top leader Osama bin Laden, was among the dead, U.S. media reported, quoting a U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The DNA tests will be performed in the United States, probably in the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, which has extensive DNA research capabilities and expertise, said the official. However, Pakistani officials said Zawahri was not in a village near the Afghan border where a purportedly CIA airstrike on Friday killed at least 18 people, including women and children.

Denials from Pakistanis might be (a) correct; (b) disinformation to through off al Qaeda; (c) attempts (by al Qaeda symp's within the Pakistani military and intel services) to cover up FOR al Qaeda and make the USA look bad.

I find it VERY VERY curious that AS SOON as the attack was reported we announced that Zawahiri was the intended target and that we were testing the remains and wouldn't know for 48 hours. Then - ONLY 24 HOURS LATER - the Pakistanis announce that we were off-base and that they are pissed off at us for violating their airspace and killing civilians with bad intel.

I'm gonna wait until we hear something from OUR side before I believe anything - ESPECIALLY in view of these MOST RECENT reports. MUCH MORE HERE. And more HERE.

UPDATE - 1/15/06/"Reuters"; (hat tip JIHAD WATCH):

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target. Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there. "He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

ER um... the "evidence" might be splattered all over the dirt floor of the hut he was in! Sheesh. REMEMBER: We might NOT want al Qaeda to know that Zawahiri is dead - NOT FOR A WHILE. WHY?! SO we can use the laptops/phones the Egyptian had with him to round up other jihadoterrorists.

EXIT STRATEGIES

DOES ASSAD HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY? (Saddam didn't.)
DOES ZAWAHIRI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES ZARQAWI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES KIM JONG IL HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES AHMADINEJAD HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES NANCY PELOSI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES HARRY REID HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES TEDDY JO KENNEDY HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY? (Mary Jo didn't.)

I think Bush can give them ALL exit strategies - and the sooner the better!

COPS BUSY IN LEBANON

THE DAILY STAR: Lebanese authorities arrest 13 Al-Qaeda suspects

Lebanese authorities have arrested 13 people suspected of belonging to the Al-Qaeda terror network, the official National News Agency reported on Friday. Military court prosecutor Ahmad Oweidat charged the 13 on Friday with "establishing a gang to carry out terrorist acts, forging official and private documents and possessing unlicensed arms."

The 13, three Lebanese, seven Syrians, a Saudi, a Jordanian and a Palestinian, were arrested in various Lebanese areas last week after they were put under surveillance by Lebanese security forces, court officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Asked if any of the 13 were members of Al-Qaeda, Oweidat told The Associated Press: "This information is not contained in the file referred to me." But he added that the group's possible Al-Qaeda link would be examined during further investigation by top military magistrate Rashid Mezher.

According to judicial sources, the 13 have given contradictory statements, claiming at times that they were part of Al-Qaeda and at other times part of "Jund Al-Sham," an Islamic radical organization which claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri shortly after his killing.

THE PENINSULA (AFP):

Syrian arrested in Lebanon over Hariri probe - Lebanese authorities yesterday arrested a Syrian national for giving false testimony to investigators trying to shed light on the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al Hariri, a judicial source said.

We are systematically getting all our ducks in a row...

BTW: almost exactly one year ago - to the day - I wrote this prescient post: THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS GOES THROUGH BEIRUT. Today, I'll go out on a limb and predict that before July Fourth, Assad will be living in exile and an interim government in Damascus will be planning elections in Syria.

HAS THE NYTIMES NSA LEAK LED TO A SURGE IN DISPOSABLE CELLPHONE PURCHASES?

ABCNEWS (hat tip DRUDGE):

Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

The phones — which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card — have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists. ... "There's very little audit trail assigned to this phone. One can walk in, purchase it in cash, you don't have to put down a credit card, buy any amount of minutes to it, and you don't, frankly, know who bought this," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI official who is now an ABC News consultant.

Law enforcement officials say the phones were used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004. The FBI is closely monitoring the potentially dangerous development, which came to light following recent large-quantity purchases in California and Texas, officials confirmed.

In one New Year's Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said. In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident.

RELIAPUNDIT: ALL of these large sales came RIGHT AFTER the NYTIMES NSA leak (12/15/05). Though this is circumstantial, it is HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE that the leak alerted the sleeper cells HERE (and perhaps elsewhere), and that they are adapting their SOP's as a result; thus, they are making it tougher for us to prevent an attack.

The jihdoterrorists might now each be using a series of phones (each only once or twice) to communicate with other jihadoterrorists who are also using a series of disposable phones - each only once or twice. All they have to do is tell their comrade which cellphone number to use next. NOW HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET WARRANTS ON THAT!? It's impossible. Which is why it's ABOSLUTELY necessary for the POTUS, as CinC, to use his Article II powers during wartime in order to get the foreign intelligence we need to DEFEND OURSELVES.

By exposing the NSA intercept program, the leakers and their comrades at the NYTIMES have CONFIRMED valuable information to the enemy, alerted the enemy to the information, and NOW - AS A RESULT - the enemy has adjusted. Therefore, the leakers and the NYTIMES have endangered the lives OF MILLIONS of Americans, and our entire economy and also the world's economy (which after all depends on the US economy). They should ALL be charged, tried, convicted, and executed for TREASON.

UPDATE 1/13/06: More discussion HERE and an excellent post HERE from THE ANCHORESS. MORE HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

And BY THE WAY: I WAS THE FIRST BLOGGER TO CONNECT THE NYTIMES "NSA LEAK" TO THE "DISPOSABLE PHONE PURCHASE SURGE".

8/14/06 UPDATE: here.

ALITO DEFEATS DEMOCRAT $LANDER MACHINE

Varifrank NAILS IT: THAT'S IT? ...

... Is this the "Big Bad Democrat Machine"? This is supposed to make me quake in my conservative right wing fanatic boots? Are you kidding me? It's like hearing Kerry is running for President again, you salivate for this sort of match. Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, the Mt. Rushmore of modern liberalism.... ( no wonder their party is going into the dumpster faster than undercooked airline food). Why would anyone ever give a dime to support these frauds? Its not like they get anything for their money, These guys arent even "good TV". ... Every public display of pompus bloviation from Teddy is worth another electoral vote for the Republicans. Everytime Biden smiles, its another 100,000 votes for Republicans. Everytime Schumer looks over his glasses, another Generation X kid says 'whoa, dude. Youre harshing my mellow..."

I was worried about Miers getting through the dreaded "Democrat Gauntlet" but after this pitiful display I think one of the Bush twins could get in.

There's plenty more: RTWT. Also check out RIGHTWING NUTHOUSE on the hearings.

MY READ: I think the MAIN culprit is the Democrat Party Leadership, and their greed for campaign money: Teddy Jo Kennedy (who did after all hand-pick the last presidential nominee), Reid, Pelosi, Dean, AND Schumer (who is raising money for the Dem Senate campaign). This so called leadership is EXPLOITING the rabidness of their extreme left-wing (and allowing a good man like Alito to be slandered) JUST FOR THE MONEY. This isn't surprising: They SLANDER the POTUS and the US ARMED FORCES everyday – for the campign contributons it raises from their rabid base – so why WOULDN’T they slander a SCOTUS nominee. If they were REAL LEADERSHIP, then they'd behave like the ADULTS in the room, and not like child exploiters!

LOOKIT: I’ve been a registered Democrat since 1974. I voted Gore 2000, (but Bush 2004). And I am so so so SO SO disgusted with virtually every Democrat in Congress, (except for Lieberman, Harman, Hoyer and maybe a few others). IT'S SIMPLE: The Democrat Party is veering Left and becoming the party of doves again like in 1972. It's becoming a party of McGovernites trying to relive their glory days of Vietnam and Watergate. This is an act of blatant denial -denial of what the REAL lessons of the 1970's REALLY are, and what the world is REALLY like NOW. And this return to the failed policies of the past (blatantly clothed in the rhetoric of the past) is simply suicidal for the Democrat Party. And the leadership doesn't even know it. But if this is what the party has become, then GOOD RIDDANCE!

SARKOZY LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SAVE FRANCE

UK GUARDIAN:

Nicolas Sarkozy, France's most popular politician, yesterday set out his stall for the 2007 presidential elections, proposing major reforms to the country's power structure and declaring he was determined to "embody its future". In a new year's address to the media, the ambitious interior minister, freshly reunited with his wife and most valued aide Cecilia after an eight-month separation, also said EU enlargement should be frozen until the bloc has agreed a watered down and purely practical constitution. ... The interior minister, who turns 51 this month, said France's worst civil disorder since the 1968 student-worker uprising "reflected the extent of the failure of our public policies" over the past 30 years.

UK INDEPENDENT: Sarkozy launches presidency bid with assault on 'do nothing' Chirac

The French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has launched a campaign for the presidency in all but name, demanding radical changes in France's aloof style of government. His new year speech to the press yesterday amounted to a direct assault on the record and "feel-good" rhetoric of his nominal bosses, President Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. ...

Without mentioning him by name, M. Sarkozy also mocked a call by M. de Villepin the previous day for France to be happy and confident and not dwell on its economic or social problems. Such attempts to "jump-start" French "greatness" were inappropriate from a "powerless state... stuck in its own debt," M. Sarkozy said. Although the presidential election is not due until May 2007, this amounted to an early declaration of political war by M. Sarkozy on his own side. France now faces the bizarre prospect of a year of merciless electoral combat between the three most important figures in its centre-right government. ...

... M. Sarkozy went far beyond his briefs as Interior Minister and leader of the ruling UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party. He called for the biggest shake-up in the structure of French government in almost 50 years. If he was elected President, he implied, he would turn the presidency into, in effect, a "super" prime ministership, directly accountable to parliament and responsible for the day-to-day running of the government. ... As President, M. Sarkozy implied, he would try to revive the first part of the proposed EU treaty, which set out to streamline European decision-making. This could be put to the French, and other national parliaments, without a new referendum, M. Sarkozy suggested. In the meantime, there should be a freeze on enlargement of the EU.

PEOPLE'S DAILY:

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called on the European Union (EU) on Thursday to suspend its enlargement until the 25-nation bloc has reformed its institutions. "I think it necessary not to proceed with any new enlargements as long as new institutions have not been adopted," Sarkozy said in a policy speech at his traditional New Year gathering with reporters.

AP:

His feisty nature, straight-talk and policy proposals have set him apart from the mainstream left and right. Sarkozy says the French economic model no longer works; he champions strong policing and tougher immigration controls; he opposes Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union; he says France must adjust its secular foundations to better integrate its 5 million Muslims.

GO SARKO GO! VITE!

MORE PROOF THE NSA INTERCEPT BROUHAHA IS MERELY A RANK PARTISAN SMEAR

THE AMERICAN THINKER:

Echelon [See HERE - relipaundit] was, or is (its existence has been under-reported in the American media), an electronic eavesdropping program conducted by the United States and a few select allies such as the United Kingdom.

Tellingly, the existence of the program was confirmed not by the New York Times or the Washington Post or by any other American media outlet – these were the Clinton years, after all, and the American media generally treats Democrat administrations far more gently than Republican administrations – but by an Australian government official in a statement made to an Australian television news show.

The Times actually defended the existence of Echelon when it reported on the program following the Australians’ revelations.

“Few dispute the necessity of a system like Echelon to apprehend foreign spies, drug traffickers and terrorists….” And the Times article quoted an N.S.A. official in assuring readers “...that all Agency activities are conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal and ethical standards.” Of course, that was on May 27, 1999 and Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush, was president.

Proving once again the BDS and NOT constitutional or legal principles are what's driving the NSA intercept brouhaha. WHAT MAKES IT WORSE THAN MERE PARTISANSHIP: These BDS afflicted Lefties have jeoparidized NATIONAL SECURITY in order to carry out their rank partisan smear - WHICH IS THE LOWEST, POOREST, SCHMUCKIEST REASON FOR LEAKING CLASSIFIED DATA EVER! It's nothing less than an attempted coup d'etat.

TERRORISTS BOMB PIPELINE IN PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN TIMES:

Suspected tribal insurgents blew up a gas pipeline in southern Pakistan, the latest act of sabotage in the troubled region, police said. The explosion happened near Kandh Kot in Sindh province, around 450 kilometres (279 miles) north of Karachi, local police officer Shahab Mazhar said. "We believe that this is an act of terrorism and the same group which has in the past been suspected of other attacks is thought to be behind this one," he added.

AP:

A powerful explosion early Thursday ruptured part of a state-owned gas pipeline in a restive southwestern Pakistan province, briefly disrupting supplies but injuring no one, police said.No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Kundkot, a town at the edge of Baluchistan province. An area police chief, Mazhar Shahab, said engineers had started repair work. Tribesmen often target gas pipelines in the resource-rich part of the country.

Thursday's attack came a day after Pakistani security forces killed 12 suspected tribal militants in a gunbattle near a gas field at Pir Koh, 240 miles east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the provincial police chief. The gunfight followed a land mine explosion that killed three soldiers and wounded three.

Baluchistan is on the border with....AFGHANISTAN. Pakistan's government needs to do ONE thing: establish THE RULE OF LAW in their border/tribal regions. They should use WHATEVER and ALL NECESSARY means to do this - and the faster the better. Continuing tribalism in these eastern regions of Pakistan only retards Pakistan's evolution to true democratic self-rule and stability and prosperity.

ANOTHER OLD-TIME LEFTIE TRYING TO RELIVE THE 1970'S

Elizabeth Holtzman in THE NATION:

Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.

When will the Left realize that they are no longer living in 1970's and that Vietnam and Watergate were a long long long LONG time ago?! Iraq is NOT Vietnam, and The NSA intercepts program is NOT Watergate. Sheesh.

IAEA REFERRAL AGAINST IRAN: RICE GETS RUSSIA ON BOARD

WASHPOST (hat tip PRAIRIE PUNDIT):

The Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, American and European officials said yesterday.

The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran's resumption of sensitive nuclear work.

Prairie Pundit adds: "The Russian's are not that helpful when you get to the bottom line. Like the Iraq vote, they agree to preliminary maneuvers but balk when it comes to actually doing something."

I AGREE. WE NEED TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON PUTIN. One way of doing this is to him (and the France) is IGNORING THE UNSC - and taking direct action (perhaps pre-emptive) independent of the UN; (the basic source of Russian and France's international power is their UNSC veto power).

OPRAH'S POST MODERNIST BOOK CLUB: AUTOBIOGRAPHIES WHICH ARE FAKE BUT ACCURATE

CNN:

... Frey's memoir of alcohol and drug-induced mayhem sold 1.77 million copies last year after being chosen by Oprah Winfrey's book club in September, making it the best-selling nonfiction book in 2005. Only Harry Potter sold more copies.

... investigative Web site The Smoking Gun Sunday reported the book, published by Random House's Doubleday division, was full of exaggeration and inaccuracies.

CNN/THE LARRY KING SHOW: Author, James Frey: "I never expected the book to come under the type of scrutiny that it has," Frey told King. "Memoir -- the word literally means 'my story.' A memoir is a subjective retelling of events."

Oprah Winfrey: "... the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me, and I know it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book." ... "To me, it [the controversy surrounding the fact that a BLOGOSPHERE researcher discovered the fact that the author lied and the work is NOT a memoir in a literal sense but a work of fiction] seems to be much ado about nothing," she added.

Typical Left-wing post modernist crap: "There is no such thing as a single truth; all truth is subjective." IN OTHER WORDS: "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY IS FAKE BT ACCURATE." At least the Left is consistent on the issue: "The REAL truth doesn't matter to us." (More HERE and HERE.)

MAJOR SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: FORESTS ARE A MAJOR SOURCE OF GREENHOUSE GASES

BBC:

Scientists in Germany have discovered that ordinary plants produce significant amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which helps trap the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, have been described as "startling", and may force a rethink of the role played by forests in holding back the pace of global warming. And the BBC News Website has learned that the research, based on observations in the laboratory, appears to be corroborated by unpublished observations of methane levels in the Brazilian Amazon.

Until now, it had been thought that natural sources of methane were mainly limited to environments where bacteria acted on vegetation in conditions of low oxygen levels, such as in swamps and rice paddies. But a team led by Frank Keppler of the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, stumbled upon this new effect when studying emissions from the leaves of trees and grasses in conditions similar to those they would encounter in the open air. To their amazement, the scientists found that all the textbooks written on the biochemistry of plants had apparently overlooked the fact that methane is produced by a range of plants even when there is plenty of oxygen.

WANT TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING?! THEN CUT DOWN THE AMAZON! Heh. Seriously, this should reinforce the fact that MAN-MADE global warming is a hoax - and that the science that the Left uses to bolster their ideologicial attack against America and industrialism is FAR from settled.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ: INSURGENCY BREAKING; MORE SUNNI TRIBES BATTLING AL QAEDA

EVEN THE NYTIMES HAS TO REPORT NOW:

...the split within the insurgency is coinciding with Sunni Arabs' new desire to participate in Iraq's political process, and a growing resentment of the militants. Iraqis are increasingly saying that they regard Al Qaeda as a foreign-led force, whose extreme religious goals and desires for sectarian war against Iraq's Shiite majority override Iraqi tribal and nationalist traditions.

While American and Iraqi officials have talked of a split for months, detailed accounts of clashes were provided by men claiming to be local insurgents. ... According to an American and an Iraqi intelligence official, as well as Iraqi insurgents, clashes between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Iraqi insurgent groups like the Islamic Army and Muhammad's Army have broken out in Ramadi, Husayba, Yusifiya, Dhuluiya and Karmah. In town after town, Iraqis and Americans say, local Iraqi insurgents and tribal groups have begun trying to expel Al Qaeda's fighters, and, in some cases, kill them. ...

"The tribes are fed up with Al Qaeda and they will not tolerate any more," said a senior Iraqi intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The intelligence official confirmed reports that a Sunni tribe in Samarra had tried and executed Qaeda members for their role in assassinating a local sheik. "It was a beautiful mistake," the intelligence official said of the sheik's assassination by Al Qaeda. "Now the tribes will kill Al Qaeda. Now they have the courage."

THERE'S PLENTY MORE IN THIS FASCINATING ARTICLE. RTWT! This red-on-red VIOLENCE hasn't REALLY been reported on in the MSM since last summer, which means it must be picking up. IOW: WE ARE WINNING! (No thanks to Kerry and Murtha and Dean and Pelosi and Kennedy and Reid and Moran and McDermott and - of well, you get the idea!)

HOW TO OUST ASSAD: THE FIRST STEP SHOULD BE ESTABLISHING A GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

I think we should call a for an international congress of Syrians interested in forming a transitional, and transparent government in exile for Syria - modeled after the international conference on Afghanistan (held in Germany) AFTER we overthrew the Taliban.

By doing it BEFORE we might be able to make the transition - from the Assad regime to an elected Syrian constitutional assembly (and then to an elected constitutional government) - proceed much more smoothly in Syria than it did in Iraq.

I think that the former VP Khaddam might be a good contender for "transitional president" or chairman of the government in exile, and/or chairman of the constitutional drafting committee. Here's a good article on him - and how leading Syrian dissidents feel similarly about him. RTWT.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH: SAM ALITO AND MEL BROOKS?

I report you decide: Sam Alito. Mel Brooks.

BETWEEN ASSAD AND IRAN, THE UNSC WILL SOON BE VERY BUSY - and so might our military

(1) SYRIA -- "Reuters":

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened on Wednesday to send the inquiry into the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister back to the U.N. Security Council if Syrian "obstruction" continued. In a strongly worded statement, Rice also voiced grave concerns about what she said was Syria's "destabilising behaviour and sponsorship of terrorism" and said Damascus must stop interfering in the affairs of neighbouring Lebanon. "Syria must cease obstructing the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri and instead cooperate fully and unconditionally as required by U.N. Security Council resolutions," said Rice in a statement.

(More HERE and HERE.)

(2) IRAN --FORBES/AFX: The dispute over Iran's suspected nuclear arms program is 'more likely than ever' to be referred to the UN Security Council, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday.

The Christian Science Monitor (PARIS):

Iran's abrupt resumption of its nuclear program this week, throwing Tehran's clerical regime into open conflict with the rest of the world, appears to have doomed current diplomatic efforts to curb the country's nuclear ambitions.

"Reuters":

Britain called on Wednesday for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran after it vowed to resume nuclear fuel research and Washington said a referral to the body was "more likely than ever".

QUESTION: (a) How long after sanctions are enacted by UNSCR will it become necessary to take military action against Assad and/or Iran? And, (b), what might trigger military action?

I think that after sanctions are approved by the UNSC that we will attack the command&control apparatus of the Assad regime as soon as there is (1) another assassination in Lebanon; and/or (2) another major incursion by "insurgents" fromn Syria. BOTH may srve as pretext for a MAJOR military strike, like Clinton's 1998 OPERATION DESERT FOX against Saddam.

I think we will preemptively attack and disable Iran's nuclear facilities (1) as soon as we document ANY interference by Iran in Iraq; or, (2) at any time after sanctions are approved.

I think EITHER OR BOTH of these attacks against islamofascism will happen NOT LATER THAN late summer 2006 IFF Bush and the GOP are TRAILING BADLY in polls regarding the mid-term elections - (because Bush will strike before the appeasing doves of the Democrat Party gain control and attempt to tie his hands as they did Reagan's vis a vis the CONTRAS and Nicaragua). If Bush and the GOP are leading comfortably then Bush will bide his time.

[This is based on my understanding of Lincoln's approach to the US Civil War in 1864: In October of 1864, it appeared to Lincoln (and most everybody else) that he was CERTAIN to lose the election to Democrat dove/appeaser McClellan; therefore, Lincoln ordered his War Cabinet to pull out ALL the stops and do WHATEVER they had to in order to win the war before McClellan would be inaugurated in March 1865 - whereupon McClellan would immediately carry out his campaign promise to cut a deal with the Confederacy - either allowing them to secede or to re-enter the Union WITH slavery intact. This order by Lincoln led DIRECTLY to the great battlefield victories for the United States of America and to utter defeat for the rebels.]

US CITIZENS ELECTRONICALLY SURVEILLED WITHOUT WARRANTS ALL THE TIME

AJ STRATA:

"American citizens are open to ‘warrantless’ surveillance all the time in the US. ... A warrant for surveillance identifies a target for monitoring. All who contact that target are monitored without a warrant to monitor them specifically. Same thing with NSA. They monitor terrorists and all who contact them."

Just one more reason this whole brouhaha is really totally bogus and nothing more than a partisan smear.