I took time out from the discussion at Jihad Watch to snap some photos, cook some dinner, play with the puppy, and paint the bathroom. Here is this evening’s moon.
Day: January 20, 2008
Anti-War Group Opens Hotline to Iran From New York
The Clinton’s Foreign Entanglements
Dick Morris points out the Clinton’s support from foreigners at the American Congress today in light of the debate answer on Saudi investment in Citigroup.
Now we have Saudis who are heavily invested in the Clinton Library:
Now, comes word from Dick Morris of a political issue that surfaced during the recent Nevada debates: should we be concerned about such strategic investments from the Saudis and oil-rich Gulf Sheikdoms. Hillary Clinton thought it was alright, if the investments were vetted properly. As Morris, who was a political counselor to her husband, has pointed out President Clinton has received $10 million annually from Saudis and the oil Shiekdom of Dubai for his Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. That revelation is tantamount to a real conflict of interest between the Clinton and the American public over the threat of financial sharia this Presidential year.
In the past I’ve detailed those entanglements as well:
Previous articles on the Clinton Campaign of Corruption:
There’s a growing list of suspect and criminal Hillary Clinton supporters that just keeps getting bigger, today it’s time to add Aaron Tonken to the list.
William Danielcyzk ; Hsu Surrenders — Board of Trustees for New School, New York ; Sant Chatwal – Indian Immigrant Bundler ; “Ray” Jinnah Rehman — previously of Pal-C ; Vinod Gupta — of InfoUSA ; Mayor Samuel Rivera ; Peter Paul??; Aaron Tonken.
It’s also noteworthy that former Senator Bob Kerrey, and his “The New School’s” connection to Clinton surfaced again a few days back in an attack on Obama. The New School is part and parcel of the Clinton Machine, as evidenced by the previous board members (see links above,) and the 9/11 commission hearings orchestrated there.
Share
The Florida Campaign: the Race is Really on Now
“I supported the Bush tax cuts. John McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts with the Democrats twice,” he said before a crowd of mostly older voters. He later said Mr. Romney was “equivocal” in his support for the cuts.
Asked during a press briefing if he was breaking the 11th Commandment, Mr. Giuliani replied, “You mean contrast? Nah, I just pointed out where there are differences”
In Florida Rudy Guiliani is still running at the top of the pack with McCain in the polls, and this comes after a virtual vacumn of Guiliani news in the press the past two weeks. He’s really had no exposure as the initial small delegate primary wars have staged, but he’s still the man to beat in Florida for the other candidates.
In one primary Rudy can jump to the front of the pack and take the lead in the hunt for delegates. He’s actively challenging the others on their policies and positions, and the campaign now promises to turn very interesting. Story from AP:
Girding for battle as the rest of the GOP field descended upon Florida, Rudy Giuliani challenged them for the first time by name.
“Do they agree that you should have a national catastrophic fund?” he said in a Saturday tour of the Everglades. “I support it — I was the first one to support it. Now let’s find out where the others — John McCain and Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson — let’s see what their position is on this.”
For weeks, the former New York mayor has had this state to himself, having pulled out of the early primaries to focus time and cash on Florida’s 57 delegates. While others rallied late votes in South Carolina, he attended a round table about Florida’s space industry and toured the Everglades.
But it has cost Giuliani — in raw delegate counts and lost news cycles to those men who did contend the six Republican primaries so far. Giuliani finally won his first delegate Saturday, in Nevada. But he is behind even long-shot Ron Paul in that department, after Paul picked up four out West.
Stretching to stay relevant, Giuliani went on the attack and called two big allies to his side.
Actor Jon Voight and former FBI director Louis Freeh, Giuliani’s homeland security adviser and Delaware campaign chair, introduced him at a rally in the central Florida retirement community The Villages.
This will concretize the rest of the debate in the race for the Republican nomination – unlike the other candidates Guiliani is running an open campaign. He’s laid out actual commitments and very clear specific positions on numerous issues. The other Republicans will need to move from postures and generalities to clear stances and positions on specific issues when they hit Florida to compete.
It’s noteworthy that while there was a vacuum on Rudy news in the national press, the regional press in Florida has been running a steady stream of stories as the local reporters have been thrilled to have sole access to one of the Republican front-runners the past two weeks.
Share
How the TTP Works in the Sindh and Punjab
The Tehreek-e-Taliban stronghold is in the Waziristans, with the main nexus being South Waziristan, but occasionally you see them very active with targetted strikes in urban areas of the Sindh and Punjab. The most significant operations were Lal Masjid, and the various assasination attempts including the successful one against Benazir Bhutto (more on that here and here.) It’s notable that they have met with more success at the edges of the Urban areas and the frontiers – Lal Masjid and the successful assasination attempt were at the edge of the frontiers.
To effect operations in urban areas there are really only three options for them; all of which have drawbacks. They can ally with particular groups, they can import the operatives, or they can hire.
The best example of all three is Lal Masjid. The majority of the students in Lal Masjid were from the frontiers, or from the families of Old-guard ISI, the Hamid Gul contingent. They also worked with some criminal gangs to gain their weapons.
In the assasination attempts on Musharraf you see clear signs of them working with disaffected Military personell (the weapons used have been military rockets and machine guns, both obtainable only from the Army.)
The targetted assasination attempts against Benazir Bhutto were both logistically enabled by importing small cells and arming from criminal gangs.
What are the drawbacks of these methods? Importing operatives makes them less than effective since they tend to not know the city and they stick out; using criminal gangs for hire makes for mercenary allies who can be turned; and once an Army insider is used then that particular resource is burnt.
Their enablers and sympathizers in the cities are one part of the MMA party and JI, the Madrassahs, and some student groups on various campus’ in the cities.
So as with all insurgencies it would pay the government to watch for new people in the cities, the criminal gangs, and the student groups for that is where the insurgency will grow if TTP makes a bid to move into Urban areas.
In an example of how these things fall apart once moving deeper into the Sindh and Punjab you see this failed attempt in Karachi.
Karachi—Timely scanning helped police to round up five suspects here Saturday allegedly involved in planning to give a terror blow to Karachi during religious processions of Ashura-e-Moharam.
Four of the arrested terrorists had undergone training at a terrorist camp in Mir Ali’s tribal area. The gang leader Mohammed Aijaz alias Abdul Rehman had been imparting training in terrorism at various training camps after Afghan war and was a teacher at a “warfare” training camp in South Waziristan.
Azhar Farooqui IG Police Sindh told a press conference that five terror suspects including an alleged suicide bomber Aziz Ahmed alias Muhammad Khan, Muhammad Ejaz alias Abdul Rahman, Jamil Ahmed alias Wazir Akbar, Muhammad Hamid alias Qasim and Muhammad Wasim alias Imran.
IGP said that police recovered 6Kg explosives laid in the suicide jacket, 3 hand grenades, 6 detonators, 15 meter detonating wire, 500 grams cyanide, one generator used to generate remote control, 2 TT pistols with 20 rounds, 2 Kg ball bearings and one Kg spikes.
