The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 09/10/2006 - 09/17/2006

Saturday, September 16, 2006

A Party Adrift On National Security

Wonder what national security will be like under a Democrat-controlled Congress? Wonder no more. Minority leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats are telling you right now, and it isn't comforting.
Apparently preparing for her accession to speaker of the House after November's election, Pelosi gave an interview Wednesday explaining her views on the war on terror.

If you believe, as we do, that America is engaged in such a global war, and you think it should be prosecuted to the fullest, be afraid � very afraid. For Pelosi made clear she doesn't think the war in Iraq is even part of the war on terror. It's more like a distraction.

"The war in Iraq is the wrong war," she said. "No matter how many times the president wants to say it, the war in Iraq is not the war on terror. The war in Afghanistan was."

That, in a nutshell, is the wisdom of today's Democratic Party, congealed into a semiofficial policy stance. And if Democrats win in November, House leader Pelosi will make it all official.

For the record, the jihadists now sending suicide bombers to create chaos in Iraq don't see it that way. They � and this includes Osama bin Laden � see Iraq as absolutely central to their war aims.

In October, the Director of National Intelligence released a letter from al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri to the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In it, DNI said, he affirmed the "centrality of the war in Iraq for the global jihad."

"The jihad movement is growing and rising," wrote al-Zawahri. "It reached its peak with the two blessed raids on New York and Washington. Now it is waging a great historic battle in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and even within the Crusaders' own homes."

He also outlined a four-step plan to restore the lost Muslim caliphate and establish radical Islam's domination across the world.
And what was step one? "Expel the Americans from Iraq."

Yet, somehow, Pelosi and her pals seem to think we can buy peace simply by leaving Iraq or focusing on Afghanistan or coming home. And Democrats think the unpopularity of the war in Iraq will be their winning hole card this November.

Iraq War foe Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., complained Wednesday of the war's "crushing burden" on the Army. Well, just think how crushing it will be if jihadists take over Iraq, and someday get a nuke.

Then there's John Kerry, eyeing another presidential run. On Thursday, he accused President Bush of "cut and run" in Afghanistan � laughable, of course, coming from someone who voted for the war in 2002, then flip-flopped all over the place on supporting it, but who now backs a pullout.

All this serves to undermine the war effort, and for what? One election. This shouldn't be about politics, but many Democrats don't seem to recognize this is World War III. And if they don't agree, they don't have to take our word for it.

"The most important and serious issue today for the whole world is this Third World War," bin Laden said in a special message to Iraq back in December 2004. "It is raging in the land of the two rivers (Iraq). The world's millstone and pillar is in Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate." (Emphasis is ours.)
Those who don't understand this and refuse to fight basically would hand the war on terror to our enemies. This is as inexcusable today as it would have been in World War II.

Would Americans of the Greatest Generation ask their politicians on D-Day, "What does this have to do with Pearl Harbor?" Of course not. Yet, today, that's precisely what the Democrats seem to be doing.

Having seen exactly the same intelligence as the Bush administration, Democrats in October 2002 voted to go to war against Saddam Hussein. It was the right decision then, and remains so today. But when the going got tough, and the far left of their party started screaming, the qualms got the better of them.

We don't know if the next Congress will be Democrat or Republican. But we do know that all other issues pale in comparison to the war on terror .
If the Democrats win in November� which we doubt � they'd better stop posturing and get serious about a war in which our very civilization is at stake. If they don't, they risk disaster � something for which American voters may never forgive them.

Al-Qaeda preparing large-scale attack on Israeli & UNIFIL forces in So.Lebanon

According to some Western and Lebanese intelligence sources, al Qaeda has named veteran Abu Rush al-Miqati, 56, an old Middle East hand, to organize the attack. Lebanese interior minister Ahmad Fatfat reports 13 al Qaeda cells are operating in Lebanon and are being mustered for the attack.

The Italian defense minister Arturo Parisi, who visited Italian forces at Ras a Maroun in South Lebanon, reminded them that al Qaeda�s Ayman Zawahiri this week stated that UNIFIL forces in Lebanon faced attack as �enemies of Islam.�

Parisi said he was not surprised by al Qaeda�s message and warned the soldiers their mission could be �long, risky, costly and difficult.� But we are here, he said, to defend the security of Israel and strengthen Lebanon�s ability to control its territory. �We know the terrorists are not on our side.�
Italy has agreed to send up to 3,000 soldiers to Lebanon, making it the biggest contributor to the UN's force there. Over a thousand Italians are already deployed.

All UN troops in South Lebanon are on terrorist alert.

French sources report that a new message was posted on Islamist websites by Deputy al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, calling on a militant Algerian Islamist group to target France. In a taped recording Zawahiri called on the Algerian GSPC group to become "a bone in the throat of the American and French crusaders".

He also urged the GSPC - the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - to sow fear "in the hearts of the traitors and the apostate sons of France" and to crush the "pillars of the Crusader alliance". Prime minister Dominique de Villepain advises treating this warning with the greatest seriousness. France must prepare for the worst, he said.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Swift Boat Leader Responds to Kerry

by John O'Neill

John Kerry recently volunteered that he was prepared to �kick [the Swift Boat Veterans�] ass from one end of America to the other� and that he would �demolish� us. He ought to take a Christmas cruise to Cambodia to calm down. Maybe he could take a side trip to tour �Genghis Khan� ruins.

It is a little difficult to imagine Kerry (�I voted for it before I voted against it�) kicking the most decorated living serviceman, Bud Day, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, or our salty commander, Adm. Roy Hoffman, anywhere. Perhaps Kerry had in mind using a �Rice Fanny Grenade� as he did by mistake on himself shortly before leaving Vietnam. If so, based on the record, he is in far more danger than anyone else.

Kerry and his friends certainly seem to show much greater anger and hatred toward us than toward the murderous al Qaeda terrorists. This is actually a positive thing. Based on his record of switching to adopt the North Vietnamese position in 1971 and (after voting to send our kids to Iraq) proposing to cut and run in Iraq, it is likely that Kerry will be endorsing our positions by 2008 and (in his words) �Swift Boating� himself. If not, it is OK. After living for 34 years with his claim that our comrades, living and dead, were like the army of Genghis Khan, we will always remember and be grateful for the support of the American people in 2004. Nothing he will ever say can demolish that or will speak nearly so loudly.

Bush �Transformed� Fight Against Terror

President Bush has �fundamentally transformed� the way the country fights the war on terror, Frances Townsend, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism, said in an interview.

In effect, Bush operates as the CEO of the war on terror, pushing countries to cooperate, keeping track of terrorists, asking tough questions, and guiding the agencies responsible for combating terrorism.

On the morning of the interview with Townsend in her west wing office, Bush was briefed on a particular piece of intelligence, Townsend said. Bush asked, �Isn�t that the guy that you told me about six months ago?� and gave a related fact, Townsend said.

�It was just extraordinary to everybody in the room, with as much as the president manages and hears and gets facts and information on, he�s got an incredible facility for detail in this area,� she said. �He�s good with names; he�s good with facts; and oftentimes, I think people would be surprised when he is being briefed on something, he will ask operational questions: Are agencies doing particular things to follow up? And so he takes his responsibilities in the terrorism area very personally.�

Unwavering

Despite going over constant threats that come in every day, �I�ve never seen the president ruffled,� Townsend said.

Nor does Bush waver in the face of criticism of his often controversial decisions.

�The president, not just by his words but by his actions and his decisions, has made perfectly clear that first and foremost in his mind is personal commitment to protecting the American people � even if it results in criticism of him personally. That doesn�t get factored in as far as he�s concerned,� Townsend said. �He is of single mind and single focus about preventing the next attack and never letting that happen again.�

In the days before the British took down the terrorist plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, Bush was following the developments while on vacation at the Crawford ranch.

�The challenge there was you didn�t want to let it go too far,� Townsend said. �You can imagine that if something had gone wrong, there�s no question that people would have second-guessed the decisions that were being made.�

What triggered the decision to arrest the terrorists was the fact that the Pakistanis could not locate Rashid Rauf, a dual Pakistani-British citizen, who was believed to be a key player in the plot. When the Pakistanis found him, they arrested him. The British then decided that it was time to move in on the others in the U.K.

No Vacations for Bush

�People talk about the president being at the ranch on vacation,� Townsend said. �I will tell you that, even if no one else had talked to him but me, we occupied a good amount of his time on this U.K. plot by video conference. He was very, very involved in terms of knowing what the details were, knowing what the progress was, what actions we were taking. He was talking to Prime Minister [Tony] Blair. So this was very much a partnership with our British colleagues to disrupt the plot.�

FBI agents immediately began checking any contacts the British terrorists might have had in the United States.

In the end, �While the terrorists were homegrown in Great Britain, there is no doubt in my mind we will find there were some very definite connections back to al-Qaida in Pakistan�s Federally Administrated Tribal areas,� Townsend said.

�This U.K. plot was intended by our enemies to be a second 9/11,� she said. �It was going to be multiple, simultaneous attacks aimed at killing thousands. It�s just chilling to me that, five years later, their determination to kill us is undiminished.�

Bush�s efforts to enlist the cooperation of countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have paid off, Townsend said.

�Prior to 9/11, it would have been unthinkable to most people that you could make an ally out of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia,� Townsend said. �They have become actually critical players in the fight. They have enabled us to be successful in terms of gathering intelligence on real threats. We never would have had that intelligence absent their cooperation.�

Sharing In the Fight

The creation of the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va., has made a difference. At the NCTC, analysts from the FBI and CIA sit side-by-side 24 hours a day, sharing and analyzing threats and parceling out leads to pursue.

�The most important thing has been an overall strengthening of the intelligence community,� Townsend said. �It�s intelligence reform, it�s greater resources in human intelligence, it�s the transformation of the FBI, it�s the Patriot Act, and the technical tools like the NSA terrorism surveillance program and the financial program. The sum of these changes is greater than the parts.�

As someone who was involved in the U.S. Attorney�s office in Manhattan and at the Justice Department in the investigation of the East Africa embassy bombings, the USS Cole, and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Townsend said she has seen changes that have been remarkable.

�We have an entirely different approach, and it�s so much more effective than waiting until something blows up and then coming in afterwards to try and piece together, from what you find, what happened historically,� she said.

Townsend said those efforts have been undermined by media disclosures of methods for hunting down terrorists.

�It never fails, when we see an unauthorized disclosure, we suffer from it,� she said. �You know people often say the terrorists assume we�re tracking them. But it�s different when you have government sources coming out and either confirming it or you have the details of it and how we do it published. We find that after these disclosures, the enemy shifts their tactics around based on what they learn we are doing.�

Massachusetts Teen Supports Deployed Troops

Last week, a Brewster, Mass., teen marked
a milestone in his support of U.S. troops deployed overseas.

Dylan DeSilva, 13, mailed off the 1,000th care package from his
organization, "Cape Cod Cares for Our Troops." The package went to a Marine
first sergeant in Iraq who will distribute the various toiletries and
snacks inside to the 1,200 Marines in his company.

DeSilva founded Cap Cod Cares for Our Troops two years ago, taking the
idea from a Boy Scout project. Since then, he has relied on donations
and the efforts of volunteers to send packages to troops in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Alaska and Djibouti.

"It's important to show the soldiers, Marines, Air Force and (Navy)
that we care for them and that they have support," DeSilva said during a
visit to Washington, D.C., yesterday.

DeSilva can send as many as 30 packages a week, which take about five
hours to pack and an hour and a half to mail, he said. The packages
usually include a bag of toiletries, two bags of snacks, socks,
flashlights, powdered drink mixes, cards from children, and blank cards for the
soldier to write home with.

DeSilva's organization also sends about two packages a week filled with
toys for Iraqi children, he said. He recently sent a box full of soccer
balls and has sent stuffed animals and other toys.

To get names and addresses of servicemembers, DeSilva relies on
referrals from other troops who have received his packages, battalion
commanders and chaplains, he said. He hears back from most of the troops who
get his packages, he said, and many of them send photos.

In May, DeSilva graduated at the top of his class in the Young Marines
program. He said he plans on joining the Marine Corps, but doesn't know
yet what he will specialize in.

DeSilva is in D.C. with his mother, Michelle DeSilva, and congressional
candidate Jeff Beatty, of Harwich, Mass., who decided to reward DeSilva
with the trip after hearing of his efforts. So far, they have attended
a Washington Redskins football game, toured the Capitol building, and
toured the Pentagon.

Clinton aides had hand in Dubai deal

In the spring, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was denouncing the Dubai Ports World deal, a consulting firm run by her top advisers was quietly lobbying for a Dubai takeover of two U.S. defense plants, Newsday has learned.

The Glover Park Group, whose principals include Clinton insiders Howard Wolfson, Joe Lockhart and Gigi Georges, was paid about $100,000 to help the government-owned Dubai International Capital Corp. in its acquisition of the British engineering firm Doncasters Group Ltd.

The four-month lobbying effort apparently didn't include any contact with Clinton's office. "They [Glover Park] didn't have contact with us on either" of the Dubai deals, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.

But it underscores the awkwardness of Clinton's political kitchen cabinet being housed inside a firm that features one of Washington's most aggressive and fast-growing lobbying operations.

Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who helped to sink the takeover of port operations by a Dubai company, supported the Doncasters acquisition, saying it didn't pose nearly as significant a security threat.

Glover Park's contract with Dubai was channeled through the Los Angeles law office of Raj Tanden, the brother of longtime Hillary Clinton policy adviser Neera Tanden, according to people familiar with the situation.

Raj Tanden, who represented the emirate's royal family in its 2005 acquisition of $1 billion in U.S. real estate holdings, declined to comment. His sister didn't return a message left at her office yesterday.

Neera Tanden served as a congressional liaison for Bill Clinton before moving on to become a key Hillary Clinton campaign aide and the senator's legislative director.

Gas Prices to Plunge To $1.15 A Gallon ?

The recent sharp drop in the global price of crude oil could mark the start of a massive sell-off that returns gasoline prices to lows not seen since the late 1990s �perhaps as low as $1.15 a gallon.

"All the hurricane flags are flying" in oil markets, said Philip Verleger, a noted energy consultant who was a lone voice several years ago in warning that oil prices would soar. Now, he says, they appear to be poised for a dramatic plunge.

Crude-oil prices have fallen about $14, or roughly 17 percent, from their July 14 peak of $78.40. After falling seven straight days, they rose slightly Wednesday in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to $63.97, partly in reaction to a government report showing fuel inventories a bit lower than expected. But the overall price drop is expected to continue, and prices could fall much more in the weeks and months ahead.

Here's why:

For most of the past two years, oil prices have risen because the world's oil producers have struggled to keep pace with growing demand, particularly from China and India. Spare oil-production capacity grew so tight that market players feared that any disruption to oil production could create shortages.
Fear of disruption focused on fighting in Nigeria, escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear program, violence between Israel and Lebanon that might spread to oil-producing neighbors, and the prospect that hurricanes might topple oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil traders bet that such worrisome developments would drive up the future price of oil. Oil is traded in contracts for future delivery, and companies that take physical delivery of oil are just a small part of total trading. Large pension and commodities funds are the big traders and they're seeking profits. They've sunk $105 billion or more into oil futures in recent years, according to Verleger. Their bets that oil prices would rise in the future bid up the price of oil.

That, in turn, led users of oil to create stockpiles as cushions against supply disruptions and even higher future prices. Now inventories of oil are approaching 1990 levels.

But many of the conditions that drove investors to bid up oil prices are ebbing. Tensions over Israel, Lebanon and Nigeria are easing. The hurricane season has presented no threat so far to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. peak summer driving season is over, so gasoline demand is falling.

With fear of supply disruptions ebbing, oil prices began sliding. With oil inventories high, refiners that turn oil into gasoline are expected to cut production. As refiners cut production, oil companies increasingly risk getting stuck with excess oil supplies. There's already anecdotal evidence of oil companies chartering tankers to store excess oil.

All this is turning financial markets increasingly bearish on oil.
"If we continue to build inventories, and if we have a warm winter like we had last winter, you could see a large fall in the price of oil," said Gary Pokoik, who manages Hedge Ventures Energy in Los Angeles, an energy hedge fund. "I think there is still a lot of risk in the market."

As it stands now, the recent oil-price slump has brought the national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline down to $2.59, according to the AAA motor club. In the Seattle area, prices per gallon have fallen to $2.856 currently from $3.071 a month ago, a decline of 7 percent, according to AAA.

Should oil traders fear that this downward price spiral will get worse and run for the exits by selling off their futures contracts, Verleger said, it's not unthinkable that oil prices could return to $15 or less a barrel, at least temporarily. That could mean gasoline prices as low as $1.15 per gallon.

Other experts won't guess at a floor price, but they agree that a race to the bottom could break out.