House Intel Chief: Al-Qaeda is Shi'ite

Does this concern anyone? [H/T: The Belmont Club]:

The dialogue went like this:
Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?
“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about
predominately?”
“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.
He couldn’t have been
more wrong.
Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al
Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.

Wow! The guy that will run the house Intel committee fundamentally misunderstand the most prominent enemy of his country (and of the West). So, just in case you think this gap in understanding is a partisan matter, consider Trent Lott, incoming Republican Minority Whip:

Trent Lott, the veteran Republican senator from Mississippi, said only last September that “It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people.”

“Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion?” wondered Lott, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after a meeting with Bush.

“Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference?

“They all look the same to me,” Lott said.

We're in lots of trouble if this is the quality of people the U.S. electorate want leading them in a war whilst they discard someone of Rick Santorum's calibre:

Our growing challenge, however, is that Iran is not alone in its rhetoric, intent or capacity to threaten the security of the U.S. It is important for Americans to know that the threat is more complex, and has grown more complex.The enemy that has to be named is greater than Islamic Fascism.

Many Americans are sleepwalking, just as they did before the world wars of the last century. They pretend it is not happening, that it all has to do with the errors
of a single American administration, even of a single American president. Some even pretend that it will all go away if only the Democrat Party-including my opponent who did not even know the name of the former Iranian president whose presence kicked up a firestorm a few weeks ago by coming to America-is elected in November.

How do they propose to save us from these people? By negotiating at the United Nations? By removing U.N. Ambassador John Bolton office? By relocating American forces from Iraq to Okinawa? By abandoning the Iraqi people to Iranian and Syrian slaughter and domination? By engaging in more direct talks with a nuclear North Korea?

We mourn with you Lebanon

Several weeks ago, I read an article in the Middle East Times quoting members of a Lebanese Christian Youth party. They were arguing for the rearming of Christian villages to defend themselves against Hezb'allah's oppression. More recently, there has been news that the Sunni and Druze are allying to mitigate the Shi'ite expansion supported by Iran and Syria.

Your country is once again on the cusp of civil war. May God protect you and your children, and may he grant the forces of evil a quick, decisive and catastrophic loss.


UPDATE: The forces of evil also targeted Michael Pharaon (H/T: Michael Totten) after the assassination of Pierre Gemayel. This would have toppled the Saniora government and given Hezb'allah an effective veto on government policy.
UPDATE 2: The WaPo reports on the deepening pessimism in Lebanon.

Australians Unite: Support Democracy in Iran

Pajamas Media have just published an appeal by an Iranian dissident for help from the International Community.

Iranian dissident Zahra Kamalfar has been living with her children under unspeakable conditions in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for 73 days. A one-time demonstrator against the extremist theocracy with a lengthy prison sentence, she escaped from an Iranian prison when on a two-day furlough to visit her children. She ended up being buffeted from country to country. Now in imminent danger (possibly Monday, if the Russians cooperate) of being taken back to the Islamic Republic for the Mullah’s version of justice, Ms. Kamalfar speaks out in this dramatic video smuggled out of the airport to Pajamas Media.

I ask that Australian citizens contact the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, urging him to step in and support Zahra and her two children. In doing so, he will be supporting the democratic movement in Iran. I have sent him the following email (minister.downer@dfat.gov.au):

Dear Mr Foreign Minister,

I am writing to you to draw you attention to the plight of an Iranian woman and her two young children.

Zahra Kamalfar has been jailed (along with her husband) for participating in protests in Iran in 2000. Her husband is still incarcerated. She fled Iran whilst visiting her children for two days.

Currently, her and her children are trapped in Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow in the transit area. The Russians have just permitted the Iranians to come to the airport to arrest her. Her children desperately require medical attention and she will almost surely be the recipient of unspeakable horror if she is arrested by the Iranian regime.

Pajamas Media, an online blog collective, has published her appeal for help at You Tube:

http://politicscentral.com/2006/11/18/ledeen_on_the_kamalfar_video.php

As a concerned Australian citizen, I strongly plead that our country avail itself of all diplomatic options to ensure the safety of Mrs Kamalfar and her two young children. Our country is a strong proponent of democracy in Iran. Let us demonstrate to the world that we support those Iranians who desire liberty in their own country, who desire life without being subject to tyranny.

I urge citizens of other countries to contact the relevant government ministry to help Zahra.

Update: Seems like the US is interested in providing Zahra and her kids asylum in the US of A. This continues a recent trend of people fleeing Muslim oppression in European countries being aforded protection by North Americans: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, Wafa Sultan, etc etc.

Update II: Zahra and her children may be forcibly deported in the next few hours.

Western Media - Shills for Enemy

Now let's see. We have AP summarising Ahmadinejad's speech as "Iran Leader says U.S. abusing U.N. power". In that article, we have the following statement regarding the U.S. President's speech:

Bush directed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the hard-line government.

Two problems:
1. The U.N.'s cost of operations is overwhelmingly paid for by the U.S. When Iran starts putting more of its petro-dollars into the U.N. can Ahmadinejad squeel unfair.
2. Why would a free western media outlet use the speech of its enemy to denounce its leader?

We live in Orwellian times.

House Intel Chief: Al-Qaeda is Shi'ite

Does this concern anyone? [H/T: The Belmont Club]:

The dialogue went like this:
Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?
“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about
predominately?”
“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.
He couldn’t have been
more wrong.
Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al
Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.

Wow! The guy that will run the house Intel committee fundamentally misunderstand the most prominent enemy of his country (and of the West). So, just in case you think this gap in understanding is a partisan matter, consider Trent Lott, incoming Republican Minority Whip:

Trent Lott, the veteran Republican senator from Mississippi, said only last September that “It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people.”

“Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion?” wondered Lott, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after a meeting with Bush.

“Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference?

“They all look the same to me,” Lott said.

We're in lots of trouble if this is the quality of people the U.S. electorate want leading them in a war whilst they discard someone of Rick Santorum's calibre:

Our growing challenge, however, is that Iran is not alone in its rhetoric, intent or capacity to threaten the security of the U.S. It is important for Americans to know that the threat is more complex, and has grown more complex.The enemy that has to be named is greater than Islamic Fascism.

Many Americans are sleepwalking, just as they did before the world wars of the last century. They pretend it is not happening, that it all has to do with the errors
of a single American administration, even of a single American president. Some even pretend that it will all go away if only the Democrat Party-including my opponent who did not even know the name of the former Iranian president whose presence kicked up a firestorm a few weeks ago by coming to America-is elected in November.

How do they propose to save us from these people? By negotiating at the United Nations? By removing U.N. Ambassador John Bolton office? By relocating American forces from Iraq to Okinawa? By abandoning the Iraqi people to Iranian and Syrian slaughter and domination? By engaging in more direct talks with a nuclear North Korea?

We mourn with you Lebanon

Several weeks ago, I read an article in the Middle East Times quoting members of a Lebanese Christian Youth party. They were arguing for the rearming of Christian villages to defend themselves against Hezb'allah's oppression. More recently, there has been news that the Sunni and Druze are allying to mitigate the Shi'ite expansion supported by Iran and Syria.

Your country is once again on the cusp of civil war. May God protect you and your children, and may he grant the forces of evil a quick, decisive and catastrophic loss.


UPDATE: The forces of evil also targeted Michael Pharaon (H/T: Michael Totten) after the assassination of Pierre Gemayel. This would have toppled the Saniora government and given Hezb'allah an effective veto on government policy.
UPDATE 2: The WaPo reports on the deepening pessimism in Lebanon.

Australians Unite: Support Democracy in Iran

Pajamas Media have just published an appeal by an Iranian dissident for help from the International Community.

Iranian dissident Zahra Kamalfar has been living with her children under unspeakable conditions in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for 73 days. A one-time demonstrator against the extremist theocracy with a lengthy prison sentence, she escaped from an Iranian prison when on a two-day furlough to visit her children. She ended up being buffeted from country to country. Now in imminent danger (possibly Monday, if the Russians cooperate) of being taken back to the Islamic Republic for the Mullah’s version of justice, Ms. Kamalfar speaks out in this dramatic video smuggled out of the airport to Pajamas Media.

I ask that Australian citizens contact the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, urging him to step in and support Zahra and her two children. In doing so, he will be supporting the democratic movement in Iran. I have sent him the following email (minister.downer@dfat.gov.au):

Dear Mr Foreign Minister,

I am writing to you to draw you attention to the plight of an Iranian woman and her two young children.

Zahra Kamalfar has been jailed (along with her husband) for participating in protests in Iran in 2000. Her husband is still incarcerated. She fled Iran whilst visiting her children for two days.

Currently, her and her children are trapped in Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow in the transit area. The Russians have just permitted the Iranians to come to the airport to arrest her. Her children desperately require medical attention and she will almost surely be the recipient of unspeakable horror if she is arrested by the Iranian regime.

Pajamas Media, an online blog collective, has published her appeal for help at You Tube:

http://politicscentral.com/2006/11/18/ledeen_on_the_kamalfar_video.php

As a concerned Australian citizen, I strongly plead that our country avail itself of all diplomatic options to ensure the safety of Mrs Kamalfar and her two young children. Our country is a strong proponent of democracy in Iran. Let us demonstrate to the world that we support those Iranians who desire liberty in their own country, who desire life without being subject to tyranny.

I urge citizens of other countries to contact the relevant government ministry to help Zahra.

Update: Seems like the US is interested in providing Zahra and her kids asylum in the US of A. This continues a recent trend of people fleeing Muslim oppression in European countries being aforded protection by North Americans: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, Wafa Sultan, etc etc.

Update II: Zahra and her children may be forcibly deported in the next few hours.

Western Media - Shills for Enemy

Now let's see. We have AP summarising Ahmadinejad's speech as "Iran Leader says U.S. abusing U.N. power". In that article, we have the following statement regarding the U.S. President's speech:

Bush directed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the hard-line government.

Two problems:
1. The U.N.'s cost of operations is overwhelmingly paid for by the U.S. When Iran starts putting more of its petro-dollars into the U.N. can Ahmadinejad squeel unfair.
2. Why would a free western media outlet use the speech of its enemy to denounce its leader?

We live in Orwellian times.