Wednesday, July 13, 2005

'Witch hunt' at State Department as officials rally around anti-Bush activist

State Department officials are on a "witch hunt" to find out "who talked" about the fact that a John Kerry partisan and ExxonMobil advisor is unilaterally blocking a White House-supported project to promote democracy in Iran.

The individual, as FourthWorldWar reported earlier this week, holds the sensitive Iran post on the Policy Planning staff.

Instead of trying to root out who blew the whistle on the sabotage of administration policy, the State Department should be asking this question: How did someone with documented credentials against presidential policy and a possible conflict of interests with an oil company ever get appointed to the Iran policy planning job?

And why are some of its officials rallying around the saboteur when they should be carrying out the president's policy?

Monday, July 11, 2005

Junior State Department official and Kerry partisan blocks Iran democracy funds

A junior member of the State Department's Policy Planning staff - known as a political partisan who wanted to serve in a John Kerry presidential administration - is blocking the expenditure of $3 million to promote pro-Western democratic forces in Iran.

That's what our sources tell us, saying that even though the rest of the State Department has given approval to spend the funds in support of President Bush's policy, the junior Policy Planning staffer is blocking the expenditure.

State Department policies must have consensus approval from all relevant offices, so even a junior official in the right position has the power to hold up a presidential agenda.

That individual is Suzanne Maloney, the Iran advisor on the Policy Planning staff.

A Council on Foreign Relations fellow, Maloney is a Middle East policy advisor for ExxonMobil.

According to our source, "She deferred her fellowship by a year in the hope that she could serve in a Kerry administration."

Maloney was the project manager for the CFR's Iran: Time for a New Approach report.

She got the job, we are told, not for partisan reasons but because Policy Planning "could avoid paperwork" by hiring a CFR fellow.

Friends of the democratic opposition in Iran are urging Policy Planning Director Stephen Krasner to reassign Maloney to a less sensitive portfolio, and to offer the Iran policy slot to a staff member who supports the president's policies.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

¡Gracias, España! After inviting more Madrid-style bombings, Zapatero offers to help UK 'chase the criminals'

This morning's London bombings are no surprise after Spain's cowardly response last year to the bombings of the Madrid subway system. By pulling Spain's troops from Iraq as the terrorists demanded, Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero effectively invited more attacks.

Showing no sense of the irony, Zapatero now offers to help the British clean up the mess and, in the words of a Spanish government statement, "chase down the criminals" of July 7.

Initial news reports cite a supposed al Qaeda-related Website as saying that the March, 2004 Madrid bombings and the Spanish public's immediate election of anti-war politician Zapatero motivated today's bombings in London.

The terrorists had demanded a Spanish pullout from Iraq (Reuters today misses the point completely, calling the Madrid bombings "punishment" for Spain's military presence in Iraq), and the Spanish under Zapatero's leadership gave them what they wanted. Critics said such conduct would only invite more attacks.

Other early reports today say that an al Qaeda Website is threatening coalition members Denmark and Italy with the same terrorist treatment.

Zapatero quickly denounced the London attacks, ordered more security, and his government offered to "help chase the criminals" responsible.

For the eurosocialists, terrorism is still a law-enforcement issue. Not a war.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Say what you want about her reporting, but Judy Miller is a hero

A judge locked up a heroic person today.

Judith Miller, a reporter for the New York Times, refused to burn her sources in the out-of-control federal investigation about who leaked what about CIA operative and liberal activist Valerie Plame.

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ordered Judy locked up for not revealing her sources to a federal grand jury, and said she must remain in jail until the grand jury dissolves in October, or until she submits to his diktat, whichever is first.

Forget about the liberal spin in her reporting or the sleazy lawyer who's representing her. Judy Miller is among the courageous few in an age when government is encroaching ever further into our lives and subverting our freedoms. She didn't weasel out like her counterpart at Time magazine, even though she didn't even write a story about Plame.

It isn't often I would agree with agree witih New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., but he was right when he said today: "There are times when the greater good of our democracy demands an act of conscience. Judy has chosen such an act in honoring her promise of confidentiality."

Way to go, Judy. I wish our senators whom the nation entrusts with classified information could keep secrets as well as you can.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Senators: Temper your words, as the enemy is using them

When American politicians make speeches, they seldom consider whether or how the rest of the world will use their words.

Al Jazeera's ample coverage of Democrat Senator Dick Durbin's comparison to American terrorism-fighters with the Nazis and the Soviets is a case in point.

But Durbin is far from alone. Some of his Republican colleagues also use sloppy rhetoric that the enemy uses against our country.

Take Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.

Just as President Bush was preparing to rally the country not to become demoralized over the daily terrorist attacks on our troops, Hagel pre-empted him.

America is losing the war, Hagel declared to US News & World Report. He might as well have told Al Jazeera directly. This is what he said:
"Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

A soundbite made to order for enemy propagandists. Few statements are more powerfully exploited than careless morale-busting comments from a member of the president's own political party. Al Jazeera editors loved Hagel's comment so much that they highlighted it as a sidebar.

Other senators, including Republican John McCain and Democrats Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden, were more temperate in their criticism of the administration and its portrayal of the war.

Senator Hagel - he decorates his website with important-looking pictures of himself with American servicemen, including our troops in Iraq - ought to follow their example. He can criticize the administration without subverting the war effort. Comments like his only undermine our nation's will and reassure the enemy that its attrition strategy is working.