HT Ray Robison

Okay, this is an expose on a CIA analyst with a forth coming book about "curveball".

While the administration has repeatedly acknowledged intelligence failures over Iraqi weapons claims that led to war, new accounts by former insiders such as Drumheller shed light on one of the most spectacular failures of all: How U.S. intelligence agencies were eagerly drawn in by reports about a troubled defector's claims of secret germ factories in the Iraqi desert. The mobile labs were never found.

[...]

So I offer this as a direct challenge to the Bush Administration. Respond to this article in the WP. Write an editorial and explain that:

1. curveball was not the only source

2. tell them about the other intel

3. explain that more experts than not believe the trailers we captured were for WMD production

4. explain that even if they weren't the weapons trailers, the sourcing was more than enough for intel analysis to conclude they were exstant

5. stand up for yourselves dammit!

6. and stand up for Powell who served this country faithful, for he was mostly correct, don't let this nonsense discredit him in history. Powell is an American hero, a real American hero, he deserves better and so do we.

Read More

HT The Counterterrorism Blob

New Osama Bin Laden Video Tape Released (updated 6/30)
By Andrew Cochran

Some early quotes from CNN's translation: "I say to Bush, you should deliver the body to his family, and don't be too happy. Our flag hasn't fallen. Thanks to God, it has passed from one lion to another lion in Islam... You have prevented Abu Musab from entering his homeland alive. Don't stand in his way now... Our dear Muslim nation, we were deeply saddened by the passing of our loved ones, Abu Musab and his companions. But we were very happy that their souls have flooded these great battles as they were defending the Islamic law... We were very happy to find in him a symbol and role model for our future generations." And more quotes from the AP: "Our Islamic nation was surprised to find its knight, the lion of jihad (holy war), the man of determination and will, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed in a shameful American raid. Even if we lost one of our greatest knights and and princes, we are happy that we have found a symbol for our great Islamic nations, one that the mujahedeen will remember and praise in poetry and in stories secretly and aloud." Laura Mansfield has a complete copy of the tape in Arabic.

[...]

Read More

The Great Allah from Hot Air has these comments:

New Bin Laden tape: Iraq is the key to the whole region

When’s someone going to take him aside and explain that Iraq’s a “distraction” from the real war on terror?

The message urged militants in Iraq to continue their fight.

“Stay steadfast and don’t leave Baghdad, otherwise all the capitals in the region will fall to the crusaders,” said the message.

SITE has a summary and video (sans subtitles). He warns the west not to interfere in the jihadization of Somalia, and tells Sunni terrorists in Iraq that it’s open season on Shiites. Not that they need any encouragement.

Read More [For links]

Update:

HT Counterterrorism Blog

Reading between the lines of the latest bin Laden statement
By Jeffrey Cozzens

Reading between the lines of bin Laden’s recent eulogy of al-Qa’ida in Iraq’s leader, Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, several themes emerge that are worthy of analysis in an otherwise rote statement. Though not entirely novel, the manner in which these themes were presented—often repeated and largely conveyed through poetic verse—gives us some indication of their importance to UBL and sheds light on his current perceptions of both the situation in Iraq and the global jihad generally. These themes include:

•The glorification of al-Zarqawi’s ‘heroic model’
•A need to defend al-Zarqawi to protect the jihadi movement
•UBL’s role as a global humanitarian-cum-revolutionary

[...]

Read More

HT The Conservative Voice

Perhaps the MSM will catch on to this big story in their quest of objectivity NOT!

Iraq’s WMDs: The Russian Connection

by Rod D. Martin
July 01, 2006 10:55 AM EST

"Every senior member of a Western, European, or Asian intelligence service whom I have ever met all agree that the Russians moved the last of the WMDs out of Iraq in
the last few months before the war." -- John Loftus

Senator Rick Santorum’s announcement last week of over 500 weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq went largely ignored by the mainstream media.

The National Ground Intelligence Center’s newly-declassified report proves conclusively that Saddam Hussein lied -- and George Bush and Bill Clinton told the truth -- about Iraq’s WMDs. This doesn’t square, of course, with the media’s mantra that “Bush lied, kids died”, so they gave it short shrift.

But 500 hidden sarin, nerve and VX weapons is no small thing: it’s one of the world’s major chemical weapons arsenals. Its presence completely vindicates George Bush and Tony Blair. Though unreported, it’s obviously major news.

Yet there’s an even bigger story. And you probably haven’t heard it either.

Earlier this year, some of America’s top counter-terrorism and national security experts gathered for their 2006 Intelligence Summit. There, UN weapons inspector Bill Tierney provided a first-ever translation of captured tapes featuring Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants discussing -- you guessed it -- WMDs.

One tape features Saddam and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz discussing the ease with which Iraq could conduct -- and arrange for a third party (presumably al Qaeda) to carry out -- a biological weapons attack against America in such a way that "they wouldn't finger us."

Others detail Iraq’s success in hiding its rockets and its chemical weapons factories from UN inspectors. Saddam himself makes clear -- as the Duelfer Report later asserted -- that his program, far from dormant, would crank into full gear as soon as sanctions were lifted.

Most important: the tapes conclusively establish that Saddam had no intention of destroying his WMDs after the Gulf War -- just as the NGIC report now proves.

But Saddam clearly had far more than the 500 older WMDs the NGIC found. So where did they go?

John Shaw, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense just before and after Iraq's liberation, answered:

"[T]hey went to Syria and Lebanon."

According to Shaw, the WMDs “were moved by Russian Spetsnaz [special forces] out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence."

Shaw was one of the first to learn of the countless (universally confirmed) Iraqi truck convoys crossing the Syrian border (and returning empty) in the run-up to the war. At the summit, he detailed how former Russian intelligence head and KGB general Yevgeni Primakov came to Iraq in December 2002 -- the same month Israel’s Mossad first detected the operation -- to supervise the WMDs' removal. Primakov's orders were "to erase all trace” of Russia’s extensive, long-term involvement in Saddam's WMD programs.

This revelation confirms what National Geospatial Intelligence Agency head Lt. General James Clapper, WMD inspector David Kay, former Justice Department official John Loftus, top Israeli General Moshe Yaalon, this author, and a host of other experts have insisted for more than three years.

Two former Iraqi generals corroborate Shaw's account as well. General Georges Sada, author of Saddam's Secrets and former second-in-command of the Iraqi air force, and General Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, the notorious "Butcher of Basra", have separately confirmed that Iraq possessed significant chemical and biological weapons stockpiles, transported them across the Syrian border by truck and plane beginning in late 2002, and did so with Russian assistance.

Indeed, as John Loftus put it, “Every senior member of a Western, European, or Asian intelligence service whom I have ever met all agree that the Russians moved the last of the WMDs out of Iraq in the last few months before the war."

What was their motive? Saddam’s Iraq was Russia’s foremost Middle Eastern client state. Vladimir Putin could not afford to have the extent of Russia’s dealings with Saddam -- arming, training, Oil-For-Food payoffs, etc. -- to be made public. He wanted to secure as many of Saddam’s WMDs as possible. He also wanted to give America a black eye.

The Bush Administration was in no position to complain. Thinking it could race to Baghdad before the transfer was complete, it found itself holding the bag. Announcing the removal of WMDs to Syria would have required another invasion; outing the Russians could have started a new Cold War.

So the President kept his peace.

But this much remains: Syria, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, cannot possibly be trusted with these weapons (indeed, the Palestinians claimed just this week to possess a new chemical weapons capability, supposedly created ex nihilo). Meanwhile, our media would rather push its domestic political agenda than report this very dangerous truth. And as with the New York Times’ treasonous outing of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program this week, the price to be paid in American lives and extinguished liberty is yet uncounted.

We have a problem in this country. It’s a good thing we have a “new media”. Because the old one is fitting your daughter for her burqa.

Copyright: Rod D. Martin, 29 June 2006.

Rod D. Martin is Founder and Chairman of TheVanguard.Org, America’s premier conservative movement online. A noted author and speaker, former policy director to Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Special Counsel to PayPal.com Founder Peter Thiel, he is a member of the Arlington Group, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, and the Council for National Policy’s Board of Governors. He also serves as Executive Vice President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), “the Republican Wing of the Republican Party”.

The Conservative Voice Link

HT The American Thinker

Talking with Iran

June 29th, 2006

This April, as we awaited Iran’s official response to the IAEA’s April 28th “deadline” to halt its uranium enrichment, Amir Taheri predicted that the Mullahs might offer “confidence building measures” – namely, a temporary suspension of the enrichment process – as part of an overall strategy to “play” the diplomatic game for another two years until Bush becomes a “lame-duck,” unable to take military action against the mullahs.

Little to do with potentially nuclear-armed Iran is ever encouraging, but in the short-run, if Taheri had been correct and Iran was waiting out the Bush administration, we’d at least have stepped back from the precipice of confrontation.

But Taheri was flat wrong. With the American left and the “international community” pre-emptively and systematically de-fanging any threat of military action, Iran perceived little need for diplomatic maneuvering, and knew it was free to proceed at will – with little to fear but an oversupply of rugs and caviar. In short, the IAEA “deadline” wasn’t a “deadline” at all, but yet another milestone for Iran’s emergence as a frightful nuclear maverick.

[...]

The proverbial “elephant in the room” following the May 31st announcement was that the US, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, China and Iran all knew that the offer, in the absence of anything short of a coup in Iran, would be rejected. The Bush administration also knew diplomatic ties wouldn’t need be restored. And Tuesday, Iran’s bluster led it down precisely the path the Administration set for it – reminding the world that “diplomacy” is feeble in the face of a threat like Iran.

The Bush Administration realized that Iran would fasten its own noose. Now, with Iran staying its announced course, the case for confrontation, if it becomes necessary, is crystallizing, and the US comes away from the last two months on far more solid ground – the anti-war nuts will be hard-pressed to portray the President (credibly, at least) as “mongering” for war with Iran. Let’s give President Bush credit where it’s due.

Read More

HT The Strata-Sphere

Breaking: Iranians Caught Fighting In Iraq

Iraqi and US forces have been battling Shiite Militias, militias which have been staffed by Iranians clearly working to destabilize the Iraq democratically elected government.

Iraqi and U.S. troops battled Shi'ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, and witnesses and police said U.S. helicopters bombed orchards to flush out gunmen hiding in the palm groves.

Iraqi security officials said Iranian fighters had been captured in the fighting, in which the commander of an Iraqi quick reaction force and two soldiers were shot dead by a sniper. They did not say how the Iranians had been identified.

This is very important news if true. It will be hard evidence of Iranians trying to destabilize Iraq, and could be seen as an act of war against Iraq. And Iraqi Shiites will lose a lot of credibility in being associated with Iranian efforts to break apart the fledgling government. If I was the Kurds, I would be having some serious discussions with the Sunnis about now.

[...]

Read More Here

*****
HT In From the Cold

A Major Legal Setback

Drudge has the headline (and now a link): Supreme Court blocks Gitmo War Trials. By a 5-3 ruling, the high court has determined that the Bush Administration overstepped its authority by ordering military tribunals for terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Supreme Court made its ruling in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national who once worked as a driver for Osama bin Laden.

Today's majority decision was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's most liberal member. He was joined by the usual suspects, plus Justice Anthony Kennedy (surprise, surprise). New Chief Justice John Roberts was barred from voting in the case. As a federal appellate judge, he ruled against Hamdan when the case was brought before his appeals court. Today's ruling overturns the appellate court decision.

[...]

Read More

*****
HT Iraq the Model

Breaking News…Samarra bombers arrested!!

In a news conference currently being broadcast on TV, Iraq's national security advisor Muwaffak al-Rubaie says Iraqi security forces arrested Abu Qudama al-Tunisi in a raid in the suburb of al-Dhuloiya north of Baghdad.
15 other foreign terrorists were killed in the raid according to al-Rubaie.

The terrorist of Tunisian origin confessed that he was responsible for the attack that destroyed the Askari Shrine in Samarra back in February 22 of this year. Muwaffak al-Rubaie said the security forces are still searching for Haitham al-Badri who is believed to be the field commander under whom Abu Qudama was operating.

[...]

Read More

*****
HT Roger L. Simon

Bin Laden has ANOTHER new audio tape

Why doesn't someone just give him a show? [Maybe you could use him at Pajamas Media with one of your podcasts.-ed. Yes, we are planning on expanding those. I'll think about it. Who's his agent? Maybe he'd like to be on the Glenn and Helen Show.]

[...]

Read More

*****
HT In From the Cold

Calling Card [Israel buzzes Syrian Presisdent's Retreat]

As we've noted before, it isn't easy being Bashir Assad, the current Syrian dictator and son of that nation's long-time ruler, Hafez al-Assad. After succeeding his father in 2000, the younger Assad has committed a series of blunders that have weakened Syria and his own, personal authority. In 2003, he openly sided with Saddam Hussein and Iraq in the run-up the the U.S.-led invasion, further isolating his regime.

[...]

Has Bashir Assad finally over-played his hand? That seemed to be the message yesterday, delivered by the Israeli Air Force. A flight of four IAF jets (apparently F-16s) overflew Assad's seaside villa near Latakia, in northwestern Syria --and the Syrian President was reportedly at home when the F-16s made their run. Damascus claims that its air defense forces "drove off" the Israeli formation, but such claims are laughable, considering Syria's long-standing inability to effectively engage the the IAF. Consider these examples over the past 25 years:

[...]

If I had to bet, I'd guess there weren't any Syrian fighters within 50 miles of the Israeli formation. It is possible that ground-based defenses got off a shot or two, but they had no apparent impact. Like most dictators, Bashir Assad has assured that his nation's air defense network covers his vacation home, but yesterday's IAF incursion proves that (a) Syrian air defense is almost a contradiction in terms, and (b) Israeli intelligence is adept at tracking Mr. Assad's movements.

Yesterday's aerial calling card was designed to send a clear, unambiguous message to Bashir Assad. Use your influence to free the kidnapped Israeli soldier and get Hamas back in line, or face the potential consequences. Or, the next time the IAF flies over Latakia, they may deliver a different sort of calling card (call it a Zarqawi special), the kind that leaves a large crater, and drives down property values.

Read More

*****
HT Dr. Rusty Shackleford

The Jawa Report returns after cyberterrorist attack

Please help me spread the word.

[...]

After nearly two weeks of fighting a cyberterrorist attack launched by Turkish Islamists, and then wrestling with a new server, The Jawa Report is back!

We promise to continue the reporting the news the only way we know how--with mediocre analysis & plenty of offense. If that's just a little bit more than Islam can allow, then to quote Kos, screw them.

For free thinking Muslims of the world we say: join us on our quest of exposing the danger of the bearded ones. While they may attack our website, we know you are exposed daily to much greater dangers which may result from offending their religous sensibilities.

Our website may have been beheaded for the last two weeks, but it is nothing compared to the barbarity, torture, and murder done in the name of Allah on a daily basis. You have our sympathy and our solidarity.

[...]

Read More

See Update on related thread below at In the Bullpen re AQ may use uncoventional weapons in the near future.

*****
Great minds think alike! :--)

See this comment I sent to Instapundit re his new article up at TCS

RBT

*****

Great article on avian flu.

Here's another heads up on the flu from an expert who was on the Oprah show:

http://rocketsbrain.powerblogs.com/posts/1138690242.shtml

See this link from NewsMax re smallpox as potential bio-weapon.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/26/211433.shtml?s=et

Granted NewsMax can go a little overboard but Bill Frist has written on smallpox before.

And then consider using smallpox in a low tech way along our Southern Border.

See this piece:

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/12/truthdare_conse.php#c70989

Also here's a great site where health experts and others are debating the flu issue, a classic example of the "Army of Davids" effect:

http://www.fluwikie.com/

RBT

Update:

HT In the Bullpen

British Intelligence Says When not If on Chemical Weapons Attack

[...]

Islamist terrorist groups will use some kind of unconventional weapon in a Western capital in the near future, or so says British intelligence.

Read More

UPDATE: Scroll Down

Ray Robison has completed the final part of his three part series on the translation of a notebook of an Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) agent.

RBT

PS - Slow blogging lately. Made another bomber run to the Northwest from So Cal with another rental truck.

*****

Was Saddam Regime a Broker for Terror Alliances?

Sunday , June 25, 2006

Ray Robison

[...]

Prologue:

Newly declassified documents captured by U.S. forces indicate that Saddam Hussein's inner circle not only actively reached out to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and terror-based jihadists in the region, but also hosted discussions with a known Al Qaeda operative about creating jihad training "centers," possibly in Baghdad.

Ray Robison, a former member of the CIA-directed Iraq Survey Group (ISG), supervised a group of linguists to analyze, archive and exploit the hundreds of captured documents and materials of Saddam's regime.

This is the final installment in a three-part series concerning a notebook kept by an Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) agent called Khaled Abd El Majid, and covers events taking place in 1999. The translation is provided by Robison's associate, known here as “Sammi.”

The first two translations from this notebook detailed an agreement between members of the Saddam regime and the Taliban to establish diplomatic and intelligence based cooperation. This final translation further advances the link between the Saddam regime and world-wide Islamic Jihad terrorism.

[...]

In this notebook, we see a Saddam Hussein actively seeking to expand his sphere of influence in a region at the heart of the world-wide Islamic jihad movement.

This now-public relationship between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Saddam Hussein deserves great scrutiny.

As we researched the Maulana, a picture came into focus that our team was not looking to find: The Maulana is a senior leader of an affiliation of Pakistani groups supportive of Islamic jihad. These groups include the JUI and the Jamaat Islami (JI). The JUI provided direct support to both the planner and paymaster of the 9/11 attacks. The Pakistani government accused the JI of working with Al Qaeda. The Maulana mediated an intelligence pact between the IIS and the Taliban.

Clearly, this evidence indicates that the Maulana was in a position to procure assistance from Iraq for the 9/11 attacks.

Dr. Laurie Mylroie, an expert on Iraq, testified in front of the 9/11 commission in 2003:

After al Qaeda moved to Afghanistan, Iraqi intelligence became deeply involved with it, probably, with the full agreement of Usama bin Ladin. Al Qaeda provided the ideology, foot soldiers, and a cover for the terrorist attacks; Iraqi intelligence provided the direction, training, and expertise…

This notebook demonstrates that Islamic jihad leaders in Afghanistan were seeking IIS assistance and Saddam was giving them that assistance.

The author welcomes your comment on the translation and analysis of this document. You can contact Ray Robison by emailing him at: saddamdossier@gmail.com.

Read it All!

Update:

I'm not holding my breath that the MSM will cover this anytime soon.

See this e I just shared with some other bloggers on Ray's great work.

Other bloggers now running with this story:

Hot Air
NoisyRooom.net
Liberty and Justice
The Real Ugly American
Flopping Aces
Captain's Quarters
The QandO Blog
Betsy's Page
The American Thinker
Cyber-Conservative

*****

OK all you Bloggers this is going to be big. SPREAD THE WORD!!!

It will crush the LL and MSM meme, "Bush Lied. Bush Died!"

See this new piece by Roy Robison at FoxNews.com

This is extremely critical if we have to face down the growing Iranian nuclear threat.

Just like the Third Reich, the Saddam Regime kept very detailed records of their attrocities. I guess it goes with this form of meglomania. Perhaps Dr. Sanity and Dr. Helen could comment on this.

These docs are a treasure trove like the Arc of the Covenant in the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc. As you may recall we last saw the Arc languishing on a shelf in some government warehouse soon to be forgotten.

It's amazing to me that the Bush administration is not firing back on the LL and the MSM on this and other relevation about Iraqi WMD. I'm guessing the foggy bottom folks don't want to disclose the Russian, Chinese, and French fingerprints all over this stuff. The State folks believe their support is necessary to reign in the Mad Mullahs and don't want to embarass them in public.

The only problem is that the President MAD and his religious mentor Imam Yazdi are on a crusade to hasten the return of the 12th Imam and bring about Armageddon no matter what the rest of the world may think or do.

See the American Thinker

and these pieces at Rocketsbrain:

Here and Here

We need to bring this story directly to the American people and screw the MSM. The MSM of late has been in bed with or at the very least stooges of the enemy in War of Information in the GWOT. We need the political support and will of the American people to topple the Mad Mullahs of Iran.

If the UN Oil for Food Scandal is any example of the MSM response, it took over a year before this story started to break the light of day. It was only through the dogged efforts of Eric Shawn (FoxNews) and Claudia Rosett (WSJ)[ed note: I screwed the spelling of her name in previous posts] that this story finally emerged.