It is also notable that within days of these events, the embassy of Saudia Arabia, a state which until recently was viewed as a potentially heavyweight broker in the negotiation process, has decided to pull up stakes and evacuate its staff from Kabul.
h/t Bill Roggio
New York is an annual ritual Ahmadinejad looks forward to. The U.N. indulges his fantasies of being a world statesman, and he gets a vacation from the internecine rivalries and political intrigues that have become a hallmark of the Iranian regime.
Most of all, he relishes the opportunity to pontificate in the presence of academics and opinion makers. Last year, for example, a group of Yale University students held a question and answer session with Ahmadinejad in New York. The students were led by Hillary Leverett, a Yale professor who, a few months before, authored an article with the title, “Ahmadinejad Won. Get Over It.” Even the dullest of minds can imagine the obsequious tone of that conversation.
Away from the bosom of the Ivy League, Ahmadinejad can give an interview to one of the many broadcasters eager to repeat his past tete-a-tetes on the major networks. Should the interviewer pitch an adversarial question, Ahmadinejad can be relied upon to smile and take a swipe at Israel or America in response.
And let’s not forget the extremists of various hues seeking photo opportunities.
Past recipients of Ahmadinejad’s embrace include the Nation of Islam, along with a tiny sect of ultra-orthodox Jews whose hatred of Israel leads them to consort with a Holocaust denier, and a bewildering range of organizations claiming to be “progressive.” In 2010, we were treated to the spectacle of “Code Pink,”a group of self-proclaimed feminists, exchanging pleasantries with the president of a country that punishes women convicted of adultery by stoning them to death!
Ahmadinejad’s most well-known encounter with the U.S. elite was back in 2006, when he appeared before a packed audience at Columbia University at the invitation of its president, Lee Bollinger. He may get a second opportunity this year, if the reports of an intimate dinner with students under Columbia’s auspices turn out to be true.
All these gatherings have one feature in common: Iranian dissidents like myself are nowhere to be seen.
(At time of writing) a Google News search for “Ahmad Batebi” produced only one network result: Fox News.
With a party of Jew-hating totalitarians to vote for;
On Thursday, a team of 15 to 20 armed al-Qaeda terrorists (members of the Palestinian Popular Committees, an al-Qaeda affiliate) snaked through tunnels from Gaza to Sinai. From there, they hiked 200 kilometers over land, either ignored or facilitated by Egyptian army forces. They were thus able to sneak into Israel through the porous border at Eilat — porous because Israel has not needed to worry much about its Egyptian border for the last 30 years.
At around noon, the terrorists took up positions along the highway and opened fire at buses and cars. One detonated a suicide belt. In all, eight Israelis were killed and 30 more wounded. The terrorists shot to death a family of four who were just out driving in their car — father, mother, and their 6- and 4-year-old kids (“resistance” against the “occupiers,” as Islamists like to say). Barry Rubin counts this as al-Qaeda’s first successful terrorist attack against Israel.
From here, the story gets more frightful.
Read the whole thing. But hey, how ’bout that Libyan thing!
So while we wait for the commentariat to sort out their adjectives, and review what I’ve heard is the shooter’s 1500 page “manifesto,” I’ve been struck by other interesting aspects of the case of the man I like to think of as “the Bill Ayers of Norway”…
Good to know he’s facing hard time.
Related! Democrat congressman and climate change “hawk” David Wu (more here) accused of sexually assaulting teen. (See how easy that was?)
Also, on the religious relativism watch – anyone got tape of fundamentalist Christians taking to the streets to celebrate? Pass it along, please.
Darkness in Palestine: Michael Totten visits Hebron.
Despite nearly a decade of war, al Qaeda is stronger today than when it carried out the 9/11 attacks. Before 2001, its history was checkered with mostly failed attempts to fulfill its most enduring goal: the unification of other militant Islamist groups under its strategic leadership. However, since fleeing Afghanistan to Pakistan’s tribal areas in late 2001, al Qaeda has founded a regional branch in the Arabian Peninsula and acquired franchises in Iraq and the Maghreb. Today, it has more members, greater geographic reach, and a level of ideological sophistication and influence it lacked ten years ago.
h/t FM
Indeed! “I can’t believe the same crowd that wanted Abu Ghraib pictures endlessly published find a photo confirming Osama bin Laden’s demise to be possibly inflammatory.”
Reaping the benefits of the Bush War For Oil: is there nothing that Obama can’t do?
“Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti was a senior al-Qaeda facilitator and subordinate of [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]. Al-Kuwaiti worked in the al-Qaeda media house operated by [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] in Kandahar and served as a courier.”
The file suggests that the courier’s identity was provided to the US by another key source, the al-Qaida facilitator Hassan Ghul, who was captured in Iraq in 2004 and interrogated by the CIA.
Somewhat unsafe for work.
Also – Cheney’s “assasination ring” are today’s heroes. What a difference a Democrat makes.
(Heh).
Furthermore – pay no attention to where the one-in-a-million Islam distorting extremist chose to nestle his security fortress.
Osama Bin Laden is dead, taken out by a covert US operation outside Islamibad. A huge setback for civil rights lawyers.
Update: Watched Obama and details of Bin Laden’s dispatch on CNN. Now switching to #CBC to see how other side’s taking it…
This earlier report was certainly related. Google map. Military base is located at corner of Kakul and Awami, Bin Laden compound reported to be on Kabul Road, “within 1,000 ft” of the base. (Edited to remove satellite photo until I have better info.)
Update – here’s a page showing the compound’s location.
More – Brief ABC video of the inside.
Morning reaction from a corner of Canadian Progressistan;
I’m closing comments on this post even more so because I cannot process the dancing in the streets I saw in the US last night. My soul is chilled and shaken. It aches and trembles on a level I cannot articulate. I am struck silent watching the mobs, as I was struck silent the day the twin towers came down.
Waterboarding – is there nothing it can’t do?
In all my years working for the U.S. government I have rarely seen anything as mystifying as our outreach to Muslims. Do we really need it? Sure. We need to be reaching out to the Muslim leaders who are working to prevent radicalization, not the ones who are making it happen. But that isn’t what we’re doing.
Instead we’re having countless meetings from the Cabinet level on down with groups and individuals that we know are bad guys and who we’ve repeatedly said in court are actively working to support terrorist groups overseas. We even had [FBI General Counsel] Valerie Caproni meeting regularly with these Hamas guys to get their guidance. What advice do you think they were giving her?
And she knew exactly who she was dealing with. It was the FBI who went into federal court and said that CAIR is Hamas.
US withdrawing its warplanes from Libya mission.
Looting a Yemeni ammo factory – what could possibly go wrong?
Yemeni state media blamed the disaster on al-Qaida, saying terrorists who raided the factory had lured civilians into a “trap.” Residents said someone may have dropped a cigarette in the building Monday, triggering the explosions and resulting fire.
They’re on the other side – CNN celebrates jihad-martyrdom suicide bomber as hero
