HT Powerline

Powerline is reporting that Scott McClellan resigned. Click over to GOP and the City for their recommendation for his replacement.

An excellent suggestion for the LL and the MSM many of whom have never been under live fire and have no clue of the bravery, power, and creativity that the US Military brings to the GWOT.

The MSM Whitehouse Press Corps are largely little ankle biting clueless dogs.

This would quickly rectify those who are talking out of their AH without a clue of what it means to go into harm's way.

They are like cheerleaders from the visiting team whipping up a fury from the rest of the world.

RBT

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McClellan Resigns

Scott McClellan resigned as White House press secretary this morning. I think McClellan has done a capable job, and it's probably wishful thinking to imagine that the President would appoint someone who would take a more combative attitude toward the White House press corps. To be fair, McClellan has sometimes pushed back. But I think there is a lot of room to take a more aggressive approach. Tony Snow is among those rumored to be possible candidates for the job.

UPDATE: GOP and the City has a good suggestion as to who the new press secretary might be.

Posted by John at 09:40 AM

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013811.php

Great well reasoned article by J.R. Dunn over at The American Thinker on the actual vs. hyped threat of EMP strike on the US>

RBT

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The EMP Threat: ElectroMagnetic Pulse Warfare
April 21st, 2006

Concerns are rising about the threat of an EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) attack, aimed at destroying our electronic guts. What if our computers and other electronics didn’t work? What if electronic records of your bank account were immobilized? What would happen to our technology-dependent transportation, financial, and production systems?

America’s vulnerability to EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) attack looms large in the minds of many. Public attention was focused on the topic by the release in 2005 of a government-sponsored study by the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. The results were further publicized by Frank J. Gaffney in a widely-read article, “EMP: America’s Achilles’ Heel”, and was also featured in his recent book, War Footing -10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World.

Just last week Col. Gail “Wojo” Wojtowicz, the Air Force’s chief of future concepts and transformation, gave a public briefing on the problem. “The one thing that makes me lose sleep,” Col. Wojtowicz said, “Is an E-bomb, an EMP.”

EMP is an effect created by setting off a nuclear explosion at extremely high altitudes. In striking the upper atmosphere, the explosion’s initial gamma-ray burst creates high-energy electrons (through a phenomenon called “Compton scattering”) that become trapped in earth’s magnetic field, generating a pulse of electromagnetic energy.

[...]

Read More

HT Scott M.

RBT has long said that nothing happens in Niger that the French mining concerns don't know about. Now the question is what role did they really play in the Plame-Wilson Affair.

RBT

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IT TURNS OUT BUSH WAS RIGHT ABOUT IRAQ'S QUEST FOR URANIUM

By John LeoMon Apr 17, 6:42 PM ET

In a surprising editorial, The Washington Post deviated from the conventional anti-Bush media position on two counts. It said President Bush was right to declassify parts of a National Intelligence Estimate to make clear why he thought Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. And the editorial said ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson was wrong to think he had debunked Bush on the nuclear charge because Wilson's statements after visiting Niger actually "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium."

In the orthodox narrative line, Wilson is the truth-teller and Bush is the liar. But Wilson was not speaking truthfully when he said his wife, Valerie Plame, had nothing to do with the CIA sending him to Niger. And it obviously wasn't true, as Wilson claimed, that he had found nothing to support Bush's charge about Niger when he (Wilson) had been told that the Iraqis were poking around in that uranium-rich nation.

Testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, Wilson said that the former prime minister of Niger told him he had been asked to meet with Iraqis to talk about "expanding commercial relations" between the two countries. Everybody knew what that meant; Niger has nothing much to trade other than uranium.

Christopher Hitchens made the latter point last week in a muscular column subtitled "Sorry, everyone, but Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger." The "Sorry, everyone" phrase indicates the strength of the reigning orthodoxy — that Bush simply lied when he uttered the famous 16 words in his 2003 State of the Union speech: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Hitchens made these points: Saddam Hussein had already acquired a large amount of uranium from Niger once before, in 1981, so he knew where to go. Amid suspicions that Saddam was trying to revive his nuclear program, Iraqis made a 1999 visit to Niger. The head member of the visiting Iraqi team was Saddam's senior public envoy for nuclear matters. Hmmm.

Defenders of orthodoxy have a fair point to make here. They say that the alert French, who were in total control of Nigerian uranium, would never have allowed it. Maybe, but the alert French turned out to be the payoff-oriented French on a very large scale in the oil-for-bribes scandal.

[...]

Read it All

Update:

Kobayashi Maru has this related piece on our intel community.

HT jveritas at Free Republic via Ray Robison

Ray just alerted me to this find by jveritas who has also been crunching away at the Saddam Regime documents. As noted by Gen. Sada "special weapons" is a Regime euphemism for WMD including bio/chem.

RBT

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Iraq document orders transfer of "special weapons" memo March 16, 2003

March 2003 Top Secret Memo: TRANSFER OF SPECIAL AMMUNITION (POTENTIAL CHEMICAL WEAPONS) Translation
Pentagon/FMSO Iraq Pre-War Documents ^ | April 17 2007 | jveritas

Posted on 04/17/2006 8:40:37 AM PDT by jveritas Hat Tip Jeff

Beginning of partial translation of Pages 85-96 in document ISGP-2003-0001498

Document ISGP-2003-0001498 ISGP-2003-0001498 contains a 9 pages TOP SECRET memo (pages 87-96 in the pdf document) dated March 16 2003 that talks about transferring “SPECIAL AMMUNITION” from one ammunition depot in Najaf to other ammunition depots near Baghdad. As we know by now the term SPECIAL AMMUNITION was used by Saddam Regime to designate CHEMICAL WEAPONS as another translated document has already shown. For example in document CMPC 2004-002219 where Saddam regime decided to use “CHEMICAL WEAPONS against the Kurds” they used the term “SPECIAL AMMUNITION” for chemical weapon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601810/posts. What is also interesting is that these “SPECIAL AMMUNITION” were listed as 122 mm, 130 mm, and 155 mm caliber shells which are not by itself SPECIAL unless it contain CHEMICAL WEAPONS. In fact the Iraqi have always used 122 mm, 130 mm, and 155 mm caliber shell as a main delivery tool for Chemical Weapons Agents by filling these type of shells with Nerve Gas, Sarin, Racin, Mustard gas and other Chemical Agents.

Beginning of partial translation of Pages 85-96 in document ISGP-2003-0001498

See here for the translation Free Republic.

Ray: I checked out the Fox News time line for that period and these "Special Weapons" indicated in this document do not appear to be part of a "discovered" batch of Mustard gas turned over to the U.N. in late Feb- early March of 2003. Documents detailing that event are here Iraq document articles.

So I don't think this document is involved with moving these weapons for declaration or destruction purposes.

FYI, the 23mm ammo I believe is for anti aircraft guns and the 14.5 ammo I think is for antitank weapons.

[...]

Read More with Hot Links I haven't embedded yet.

Update:

Also see the developing thread at the Free Republic that is expanding by the minute as the Army of Davids is coming alive.

GEE CIA this is FREE! And they have loyal American patriots fluent in Arabic who are willing to translate these docs!

Wonder what motivates them?

RBT

From Freepers thread. Others are commenting the docs say large this was large transfer which would be a clear violation of UN disclosure/destructions sanctions.

DAH! Go figure!

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To: OXENinFLA; jveritas
From the CIA:
16 June 2004: Two 122mm SAKR-18 Artillery Rockets
An Iraqi source turned over to Polish Forces two 122mm rockets obtained at the Khamisiyah Depot�a former CW storage site declared by Iraq to have housed 122mm filled rockets (see Figure 6). Details about the provenance of these rounds remain unclear but the source Sarin/Cyclosarin believes the missiles were housed in a bunker struck during the Gulf war and subsequently hidden in canals and lakes in the area. Analysis of the liquid residue revealed the nerve agents Sarin (GB) and Cyclosarin (GF) as well as a number of impurities and known degradation products of GB and GF. Given the age, leakage, decomposition of nerve agent, and small quantity of remaining liquid, these rounds would have limited, if any, impact if used by insurgents against Coalition Forces (see Figure 7).
Historical context: Iraq declared having produced the following numbers of 122mm nerve agent rockets, but made no distinction in its declaration about the type of sarin fill: GB, GF, or GB/GF mix. We suspect, based on data from the declaration and the UNSCOM 239 Report that GB/GF-filled rockets were included in the 1988 and 1990 declaration figures. Although the origin of these rockets has not been clearly stated, the Khamisiyah Ammunition Storage Depot where the rockets were found has a long history of CW storage, Coalition bombing, and UN investigation.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/chap5_annxF.html

HT Atlas Shrugs

A MUST READ!

Please if you ever cared, come to my blog and read about the life and ideas of a very typical persian girl and tell those of your friends who has never met an iranian about me too..


See this comment that just popped up in a thread at Atlas Shrugs on Glick's JP article:

GWOT - Glick: The Fateful Hour Has Arrived [RBT Link]

RBT has been harping on this for a long time. This demonstrates the incredible the power of the Blogos to tear down the walls and of these repressive totalitarian regimes who try to repress the free will of men and women!


A call to other bloggers:

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORDS OF NARGES FOR ALL TO SEE!

RBT

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Hi,I just came accross your blog. I'm Narges, a 22 year old iranian girl and university student who lives in Tehran in Iran and well... I just wanted to point out something.

Please don't think Iranian people are suppoirtive of Ahmadinejad's political views. As an iranian I tell you how he was elected so unexpectedly... He had a lot of economical promises and the poor population of the country simply voted to him because of their poor economical situations and in hope of a better one.

These people are too poor and illiterate to understand politics. And from we who did, half of us voted to the other reformist candidates and half of us didn't attend the election at all (An act which is really worthy of every blame, since they could prevent this and didn't) ... As you see, iranian people don't support these politics at all.

Anyway, this was something I thought you or people who come to your weblog need to know.

Iranians are a quite peaceful nation and want to live their own life and we don't want to wipe Israel from the map and certainly never ever want atomic bombs. Frankly, we insist that other countries that have these terrifying weapons get rid of them as well. This picture that you see in the media isn't a correct representative of iranians and, of course I know that you don't usually meet a typical iranian guy, and all you hear and see is from the news which is always about iranian mullahs and ahmadinejad so what you think about us is quite understandable...

Please if you ever cared, come to my blog and read about the life and ideas of a very typical persian girl and tell those of your friends who has never met an iranian about me too..

http://livinginiran.livejournal.com

We Iranian people are in the worst situation. On one hand our own government repress us, and on the other hand, other countries think we are terrorists! This is really painful. If anyone in iranian government reads this, I'm off to prison and if I don't try to at least show the truth about Iranian people, well, who does?

Love and Peace,
Narges.

Link to Atlas Shrugs

Update:

An answer to Narges from epaminondas at Atlas Shrugs.

RBT replied:

Lose Intapundit's Army of Davids ! ! !

RBT

*****

A suggestion to all in the Blogos lets take this mission to topple the Mad Mullahs of Iran to My Space ( http://www.myspace.com/ ) to unite youth of the world in this battle.

The youth at My Space can spread Narges word to their own email lists without a My Space domain address to avoid the filtering/blocking - agents/bots of the Mullahs' thought police.

The thought police will have a hard time blocking/filtering infinite web portals/IP addresses.

The truth will flow by osmosis through the void of interstitial CyberSpace.

Think chinks in the Mullahs' virtual walls as in Shakespeare's, A Midsummers Night Dream here at Act V Page 2, 2nd Prologue:

... Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder; And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content To whisper. ...

Lose Intapundit's Army of Davids ! ! !

Trust me, RBT, is no literary genius but had to memorize this prologue line as he played the Wall in a junior high play in a summer drama class.

His first and only great thespian moment.

RBT

*****

Narges, I hope you read this.

First and most importantly, it's impossible for me to believe the pasdaran/intelligence/security apparatus allows anything to completely slip by, so I hope you are in one piece. It's relatively simply to throttle the internet connections through choke points and filter ip's. If you came on my site, I'd have your IP address, and so can they. Even at a Univ site, this renders you vulnerable, or dupe-able.

Next, having read your site I see and understand you despair at changing things. But you must. While there are many comments there disparaging Bush, via your comments at Juan Cole (who many here regard as being an idiot on issues of physical and moral consequence) the reality is this...unlike the Guardian Council's limited choices offered by the Iranian mullahs, Bush was elected by what in the USA was a solid majority, and free choice. In the USA while we do not hold the Iranian people responsible as a whole for what Ahmadinejad says, there is no doubt his personal beliefs, theories about the west, and america (and americans) are not only fully supported by the mullahs, but also they have placed their trust and hopes in his basij/hojjatieh lunacy, and ideas about elimination of the jews and the Great Satan, which means me and MY family, now or later. I and probably at least the plurality, if the not the outright majority of americans firmly believe that Ahmadinejad and the mullahs cannot be deterred from developing nuclear weapons for the "islamic" purpose of killing the jews, and perhaps us as a step to fulfilling the mahdi from the well prophesy he believes in.

The USA has accepted with reluctance, nuclear wespons in Pakistan, so the problem is not muslims with the bomb,it is the Mullahs.

The best hope for the world is for people like you to remove them from existance. So your despair is, if not unexpected, disheartening, because it means that if what Iranian leaders have been saying since 1979 is truly their policy, a lot of people are going to get killed. However, since 1979 is a long time for a theocratic dictatorship to kill off independent thought, and identify those willing to act in defense of it.

I believe based on the words of your leaders since 1979 that the government there has been and is racist in the extreme, and cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

This means the best hope rests on people like you.
I believe the words of men will not dissuade the mullahs, and diplomacy will fail because they think they are on a mission from god.

So if you are real, spread the word. We'd love to help. The best hope for the world is for the Iranian people to get rid of the mullahs.

Posted by: epaminondas | Sunday, April 16, 2006 at 12:09 PM