What created such imbalance in the journalism universe that while a factually challenged James Travers is paid for free-associating on the pages of a major newspaper, an IT guy in Minnesota is providing actual analysis for free?
For those who want action in Pakistan, it seems to be coming true. The US has tried to avoid trammeling Pakistani sovereignty in the past in order to keep from destabilizing Musharraf. The deal Musharraf signed with Waziri tribal leaders has changed the American perspective, it appears. If Musharraf will not fight for his sovereignty in Waziristan, then the US apparently has decided that we do not need to honor it, and will attack AQ assets ourselves. Admiral Mike McConnell signaled this last week in testimony to the Senate. The new Director of National Intelligence told the Senators that he would focus “with great intensity” on AQ’s Pakistani outposts.
It seems as if Dick Cheney’s visit to Pakistan meant something rather significant for Musharraf. With AQ more active than any time in the last five years, and with Musharraf sitting on his hands, Cheney’s visit was meant as an ultimatum for action. If Musharraf won’t fight terrorists, then we have less interest in preventing his destabilization. Musharraf responded by arresting two senior members of the Taliban outside of Waziristan, and his lack of response thus far to American operations in Waziristan seems to indicate acquiescence to the new American policy.
Yiippeee, this good news out-trumps the bad news on the US/Mexico Border. Good Hunting Troops ! May the Wind be at your Enemies Backs and the Sun in their Faces.
,
Deputy Taliban commander in Waziristan captured by http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/03/a_cross_border_raids.php
” rel=”nofollow nofollow nofollow nofollow nofollow”> Task Force 145
Canadian blocking force.
I only got this far in The Star article: “theory that a butterfly’s wing beating in Asia may stir an earthquake in, say, South America.”
Apparently Leftists really believe this bullshit. It’s merely an excuse to either dismiss or promote any idea they choose: Conservatives (note that Liberals are off the hook) driving SUVs are killing polar bears. And now, apparently, global warming is the main cause of the violence in Darfur (according to The Atlantic).
If a butterfly can cause chaos accross the globe, then why is “there no such thing as terrorism” acording to Mikewhale Moore? Is a butterfly more powerful than al Queada?
And I got this far:
“For anyone not following the melodrama, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s then chief of staff was caught hiding a few facts from the FBI. Among the most important was that he discredited the Washington diplomat who exposed the empty Bush administration claim that Iraq was shopping Africa for nuclear weapons material.”
Is Travers really this stupid? Wilson did not expose anything. A bipartisan Senate panel declared that Wilson had lied to the press about his trip. In fact, his initial report to the CIA had largely confirmed the claim by UK and Italian intelligence that Saddam had tried to get uranium from Niger. Why? Because the Niger president told Wilson that Iraq’s senior nuclear official had visited his country and the president believed that the official was seeking uranium. This is what Wilson told the CIA but when it came time to write a column for the NYT he lied and said the opposite.
I mean, seriously, how stupid can Travers be for not getting this after all this time?
I actually wrote him privately to ask just that question – how could he be that stupid? Does he research his columns at Rabble?
Makes sense, and may have been the plan.
Musharreff to Warzistan tribes….you want to run your own affairs and not have the national military in there….fine….Us gets to act with relative impunity.
PAkistani military cannot object to what it cannot or is not allowed to see.
The only response is for the Warzi’s to ask for the central governemnt to come back in. Somehow I think they hate the central government in Islamabad more…..
Travers will ‘get it’ finally, about 2 micro seconds after some suicide bomber detonates the C4 laden ball bearing packages in his vicinity.
Travers notion of threat assessment is to assert:
“the Libby case connects serendipitously to Canada’s Afghanistan mission, the wild acceleration of political spin, and relations between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the media.”
Travers hasn’t passed a simple logic course. In what way is Canada’s Afghanistan mission connected to Libby’s lying about the events that precipitated Iraq?
What a dope, no pun intended, Afghanistan was precipitated by the World Trade Centre event and its Al Qaeda links in Afghanistan.
Travers is attempting to draw too long a bow, with the result that his arrow has snapped in his fingers and is no where near his target.
If Travers is attempting to show that he is an utter moron, he has succeeded. Good luck with your next column.
I don’t think Travers does any in-depth research and he certainly has no capacity for analysis. He defines himself as an ‘opinion columnist’ and sees no need to support his opinion with facts or logic; it’s simply his opinion.
I’ve given up on him long ago, but it is disheartening to see that he continues to be paid for his ignorant and biased opinions.
Well, actually we do have an interest in preventing Musharraf’s destabilization (read assassination): who’s likely to replace him after the coup? The Pak army and internal security services are full of AQ sympathizers, which both limits what he can do in his own country while opening up opportunities for playing us in his own political maneuvers. It’s all too clever, of course, and reminiscent of the way the Saudis try to make their way between their own Wahabi extremists on the one hand and their international allies on the other. But like the Saudis, Musharraf knows that we’ll back him because the alternatives are worse.
More information on the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/3xnws2
A hundred dollars say this is all bluster on America’s part. They should go into Waziristan. But I dont think they can. Nor do I think they can twist Musharraf’s arm into allowing them to operate there.
Very simple reason, really. Nuclear weapons.
Musharraf’s running a government that claims to be pro-western and whatnot, but the bureaucrats – especially the senior ones – were recruited at a time when the Islamic influenced ideology of Zia ul Haq was still in place. The top leadership – Musharraf et al, think one way. The rest of the body thinks another. But for the time being the bureaucrats are playing Musharraf’s line, because he is, at the very least, protecting Pakistan’s sovereignty in the face of overwhelming pressure.
Fast forward to a violation of sovereignty and you get a weakened pro-Western Musharraf, and adventurous (misadventurous?) bureaucrats. And guess what they have. Nuclear weapons. Guess whos next door? Iran. Guess whos very accessible by air and sea? Saudi Arabia. Guess whos running the show in most of Afghanistan, minus Kabul and a couple of other areas? Islamic extremists.
Musharrafs sitting on top of a fragile column. He is purging his government ever so slowly. Smashing that column – not a good idea. Canadians and Americans probably wont feel the immediate impact. If a bomb is provided to terrorists its more likely to be detonated in India than in North America, and while some people here might think that is an acceptable cost, as, at the very least, no Americans are dying, and at best, no Canadians are dying either, its only a matter of time before those bombs surface on this side of the planet.
Musharrafs a moron, but he does have experience in an Army that was becoming very Islamic before he took the helm. Hes correcting the course ever so slowly, and he has been fighting the extremists. In the words of Khruschev, hes a son of a bitch, but hes our son of a bitch.
Waziristan, NWFP, have always been autonomous as have the Northern Areas (which is supposedly independent), and there has traditionally been very little government interference there. It is not something that started with Musharraf. No Pakistani leader, from the secular liberals of the 50s and 60s to the fundamentalists of the 80s and 90s, have tried to control this region.
For the most part, its been an insignificant area with no real worth. Of course, Reagan, with his dazzling political acumen, failed to see what so many on this board claim to see with such brilliant clarity. That fundamentalist Islam is inherently anti-Western. He brought them into the loop. The money that went to Pakistan to fight the Soviets put guns in the hands of the Waziristanis amongst others. The Kalashnikov culture thats haunted the region since the eviction of the Soviets is now biting America in the ass. All a bit amusing really. But then how can you not be amused, or bemused for that matter, when cheap cannon fodder scares the living bejesus out of liberty loving Americans to the extent that they re willing to sign away their precious freedoms.
Ironically enought, these areas were the most anti-Partition areas (they were opposed to a separate muslim homeland created out of the partition of British India).
This WaPo editorial sums the whole Wilson affair up nicely.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602020.html
Has Mr. Travers replied to your email, Kate?
I always thought that Travers was gay anyways. I don’t mean gay… gay but like limp wristed gay.
US sends in spies to kill Osama bin Laden. You can read more here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
C’mon now.
We are talking about the Toronto Star here.
I mean, it’s not as if it were a serious newspaper.
Thomas Walkom writes for it.
“Not punching our weight”
http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/009018.html
Mark
Ottawa
Not much point chasing Talibani around the hills.
Priority one is to disable the smart and well organized leaders however.
Leaders like OBL who have the charismatic ability to motivate followers.
Leaders like Moqtada al Sadr who moivate and offer Iranian payola to roving *blackshirts* death squads in white Toyota pick-up trucks.
Good to see the military finally aiming for the *Correct* target.
The *Blackshirts* will become rudderless and fade back to normal society if their leaders are taken out.
Ahmadinejad will have to scramble to find other effective leadership to finance with unstable oil income.
Straights of Hormuz war games and instability all about keeps his oil income high.
Iran is losing oil output at 10% per annum. Part of the reason for a desperate, now or never *Madmud* Ahmadinejad. = TG
I find it amazing that Iran is a net importer of oil, yet their leadership hasn’t been removed.
I wrote Jim Travesty and he blocked me after not refuting my points. Here is the exchange:
James,
How do you look in the mirror in the morning or whenever you get up?
Your story is evidence that you have no concept of the meaning of the word “Truth.” You are not a reporter but a propagandist. You are a pathetic little dishonest man to whom the facts are only valid if they fit your ideology.
It’s deluded folks like yourself that are making me seriously consider moving to the US but have a nice day Jim.
The Capt.
Jim says:
Perhaps all that froth obscurred a rather salient point – I’m not a reporter, I’m an opinion columnist. Your gratuitious insults and the total absence of any substance in your note is wonderfully reassuring so in that sense I want to thank you for your note.
I replied:
Well James,
I will apologise for calling you a reporter, I knew better, must have been the froth.
You, as is everyone, are entitled to whatever opinion you so choose but you are not free to make up your own facts to sway someone else’s opinion. That is blatant dishonesty and you sir, are dishonest.
I have a life to live so I won’t perform a thorough Fisking but I am sure someone with the right credentials is working on reaming you a new one as I write this.
A few salient points.
1. Wilson did not expose the claim that Iraq was seeking yellowcake from Niger. He confirmed they were. What Wilson did do was to write a piece in the Times saying he didn’t find any evidence and he ( Wilson ) was exposed for the lie.
2. The WMD are not and never have been fictional.
3. You may not know it but Canada is a member of NATO and believe it or not we are in Afstan because we honour our obligations. If you had been of age during the second great unpleasantness I’ll bet you would have been against taking up arms against Hitler.
I am not much of a writer but I know dishonesty and garbage writing when I see it. You appear to have installed a large pair of ideological blinkers and have lost the ability to sort out the facts and make reasoned analysis. My only worry is that there are too many like you, you know, guys like Dr. Fruit Fly and Algore.
The Capt.
Then Jimbo said:
sorry, you are of course correct. Libby did not perjure himself. Invading iraq led to the discovery and destruction of the wmd international inspectors wrongly said weren’t there. that we went to afghanistan as part of a nato and not a u.s driven operation. don’t know how I could have gotten so much wrong, been so stupid.
What bothers me is not so much any weak writing as the the remarkable lack of civility and total reliance on assumptions. Just for the record, I come from a long line of people with distinguished service records. You can insult me, but not them. Please do not bother responding to this. Your e-mail will automatically deleted as spam, not because of the criticism but because of the personal abuse.
I think the Jimster is on the rails. His grammar and spelling have gone to the dogs and I find that his cloaking himself in the patriotism of his ancestors speaks volumes.
The Capt.
sarge here. good lord rove and cheney must be desperate. kate and the other little neocon tools go on and on shouting and hyperventilatin about wilson “lying”, but the fact remains-the documents wilson investigated were forgeries out of italy which is not what bush said in his speach…bush said them brits found documents saying the iraqis tried to buy yellow cake-incontrivertible proof-this after cia tried to take them words out of NIE docs ’cause them forgeries were so crude. yer “wilson lied” argument is a straw man. just ’cause some governement man in niger tells wilson that he thinks some iraqis visiting niger might have been thinking about asking for some yellow cake is not the same as actually asking for some-i think yall may be about to take up arms against the lawful governemnt of canada but till you say so it don’t bear repeating to the canadian feds. none the less, wilson related that story to cia and no one of reasonable intelligence says otherwise. the 16 words regard commander bunny pants saying the brits had proof in the form of documents. the whole argument is pointless since no way could sadam have purchased the yellow cake in any case. sad little kanukistani do ya even know who actually controls the sale of uranium in niger?
so one more time-sarge is gona say it slow my little simpletons…no one from Iraq ever asked the nigereians for yellow cake and the documents saying they did were crude forgeries, as reported by wilson, the cia and other folks from a variety of agencies including the US state dept, and several foriegn governemnts-even old colin powel said it didnt pass the smell test. really pretty simple to understand for enyone with normal intelligence and memory.
is this is really canadia’s most important political blog, or is it most of yer country men/women aint delusional crackpots spending way too much time on line screatching like angry little monkeys??
That ‘American sarge’ is hijacking my good name again. Change your name buddy, ‘Dopey’ would be a good one.
That “american sarge’ is hijacking my good name again. Change your name buddy, “Dopey” would be a good descriptor.
Sorry for the double post.
sarge thinks sarge has been sarge for just a tad longer than sange has been sange, but why doncha do somthing cool like tell sarge why hes wrong about what he just said?
ps, sarge is tempted to ask why ya screetch monkeys hate america so? hard not to take it all kinda personal since the country sarge loves and has fought for is in deep trouble with anti democratic criminals at the helm. sarge might be tempted to lay a few on some meddling foriegn scum even if peak freen digestive bisquit overdosing is probably the real culprit for yer loose stool train of thought.
sarge, normally I’d just ignore your kind of illiterate screed but my kids are in the bath and I have a couple minutes, so what the hell.
Regarding the “forgeries”, the UK’s Butler report on which Bush made his claim states the following:
“The forged documents were not available to the British Government at the time its assessment was made.”
Further, the Iraqi official who visited Niger was Wissam al-Zahawie, who happened to be the international point man for Iraq’s nuclear program.
Three-quarters of Niger’s exports consist of uranium.
Niger was the source of uranium used in Iraq’s nuclear program in the 1970s, before it was destroyed by an Israeli raid in 1981.
Niger’s other export is sheep.
Maybe Iraq sent its chief nuclear official to pick up some rugs?
Lets just use a little common sense if we can get over the oxymoronic concept of that term.
On 7 June 1981 the IDF bombed the Osirak reactor just south of Baghdad. Said reactor was about to go online and the IDF had intelligence that indicated that the chief by-product of that reactor was plutonium destined for nuclear weapons. There never has been much disagreement internationally that the facts were such.
After our boy Saddam got over the shock don’t you think he would not only get back on track but work extremely hard at making sure his efforts were a tad more clandestine? De Nile is not only a river in Egypt.
sarge here. i’m waiting fer proof wilson lied, but hell, lets play in the mean time.
iraq’s ambassador to the vatican was the point man for the iraqi nuke program? sarge thinks thats damn rich-did put him in the very country the forgeries came from which is damn convienient, specially since the backround to the niger hoax required Wissam al-Zahawie to be survieled, no doubt by berscleoni’s SS. sarge would point out nigers resources include uranium, coal, iron ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum, gypsum, salt, and petroleum, but do tell sarge how them iraqis was supposed to get the yellow cake without actually asking for some?
common capt crunch you really think its ok to bomb folks and destabilize the mideast based on wishful thinking? denial? don’t make sarge laugh, that little c@cksucker bush said he had proof. if this is all the better you(or bush) can do, ya better go home for ya hurt yerself
sarge here. feel free to make sense of it on yer own.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_94
I’m not sure to what extent I would believe the validity of any reporting – there seems to be a bit of conjecture in all news these days (ie. words like it seems, I’m sure, could, apparantly, most likely, etc.).
I’m sure (conjecture) that the US wants to maintain good relations with Musharraf and the Pakistani Gov’t. They have helped a great deal already and the US realizes the political climate in Pakistan. Respecting Pakistan soverienty and the gov’s authority to govern has to be the No. 1 job of the US because places like Afghanistan and Iraq are kiddy toys compared to the problems that could occur (conjecture) if Pakistan went south.
If a commando raid across the border got caught (we’ve already seen the effects in Pakistan of the US drone that bombed a compound) in would just undermine America’s only friend in the region.
Here’s an article – the text of the speech given by Richard A. Boucher on Mar. 8 (before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee).
The section on Pakistan outlines the issues and plans being developed to stabilize the border regions with Afghanistan long term.
http://www.state.gov/p/sca/rls/rm/2007/81606.htm
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2007/03/no_time_for_the.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2139609/?nav/fo/
http://www.slate.com/id/2140058/
Jeremiah said: “The Kalashnikov culture thats haunted the region since the eviction of the Soviets is now biting America in the ass.”
There is some validity in your post. I wonder however, if US armed AQ indirectly, why wouldn’t it be the M16 culture biting America in the ass?
US and world tried to help Afghanistan. It was Carter, BTW, who was in power when USSR invaded Afghanistan. Shouldn’t we blame Russians – after all they were the ones who invaded.
WRT blowback, there is lots to go around for everybody. America didn’t operate in a vacuum or alone, there were lots of players. WRT US “imperialism,” check the countries China and USSR invaded (I mean troops on ground).
Read Walter Lafeber’s book about Cold War. It’s not kind to Americans, though it gives good synopsis of what happened, rather than sanitized view of USSR-infiltrated peace groups.
WRT Pakistani nukes. Yes this is troublesome, because terrorists cannot be deterred. If they take over a state, however, they can. Plausible deniability will be impossible for Pakistan should nukes, God forbid, be used. Nobody will care about denial in this case. We cannot just let AQ have a base of ops in Pakistani border area, because we are scared they will nuke us. Lasting peace in the region depends on destroying AQ in the short run, albeit with the risk of nuclear genie getting out of bottle. If we don’t deny them a base of operations, it is only a matter of time before they acquire some kind of nuclear capability.