News today on the capture of Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani in Iraq makes Richard Clarke, the former national security operations coordinator, look dim and foolish. (Photo Roggio)
The discredited Richard Clarke published his analysis today on the latest National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, that was released this week.
This is what he had to say about Al Qaeda in Iraq:
Second, the NIE notes that Al Qaeda may use "regional terrorist groups" and cites, as an example, "Al Qaeda in Iraq." What it does not say, but can be read between the lines: "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is a different organization than the folks in Pakistan and Afghanistan who attacked us. Put another way, the President is wrong when he claims that we are fighting in Iraq the people who attacked New York and Virginia. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" did not even exist until after we invaded Iraq.No, Richard Clarke, you are wrong.
The news earlier today shows how far off you are on the Al Qaeda organization in Iraq. This is what was reported just today:
Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid, was captured in Mosul on July 4, said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a military spokesman.You see, Mr. Clarke, these terrorists in Iraq ARE the same people who attacked New York and Virginia.
"Al-Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network," Bergner said. He said al-Mashhadani was a close associate of Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Bergner said al-Mashhadani served as an intermediary between al-Masri and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
"In fact, communication between the senior al-Qaida leadership and al- Masri frequently went through al-Mashhadani," Bergner said.
"Along with al-Masri, al-Mashhadani co-founded a virtual organization in cyberspace called the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006," Bergner said. "The Islamic State of Iraq is the latest efforts by al-Qaida to market itself and its goal of imposing a Taliban-like state on the Iraqi people."
"In his words, the Islamic State of Iraq is a front organization that masks the foreign influence and leadership within al-Qaida in Iraq in an attempt to put an Iraqi face on the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq," Bergner said.
Today we learned that Al Qaeda tried to fool the people in Iraq by putting an Iraqi face on the foreign run organization.
It looks like someone was fooled.
They fooled you, Richard Clarke.
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ReplyDeletenot the first time Clarke has proved himself to be an idiot (not to mention outright liar, or should i say 'nuanced' truth teller)..
also not the first time the loony BDS sufferers have absorbed an NIE report as being the gospel truth (ironically, an NIE report is exactly where Bush got his info on Iraq from) w/o so much as reading past an MSM headline, or doing research (which is just out of the question for the "back to square one" trolls).. gah!!
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Captured two weeks ago and they magically frag info out of this guy that jibes perfectly with their case.
ReplyDeleteOh yes I'm sure it's all on the up and up. These people have been lying to you for years and still you believe them. Pathetic.
Getting out of Iraq will allow us to devote the resources we need to destroying the people who attacked us on 9/11. The few thousand AQ wannabes in Iraq will be exterminated by the Iraqis as soon as we leave. The occupation of Iraq
is to the solution, it's the problem.
Clarke is a political whore and a geopolitical idiot [if he actually believes his own drivel]. A new Zogby Poll shows that Congress is at an 83 % disapproval level [which the moonbat nutroots will say is because they haven't got out of Iraq---just what do these psychos smoke & how can I get some?]
ReplyDeleteThe US is making slow progress which puts an iron bar in the Harry Reid/Burka Pelosi plan to lose in Iraq for political gains on the Dhimmi-crat ticket in '08.
Bush can't call these treasonous cowards traitors, and the mugwump Repubs are scared of their own shadows---a recipe for throwing in the towel.
Hope Thompson comes in and calls these traitors to account.
At this point, why should we believe the military?
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ReplyDeleteflashback form Talisman Gate..
Al-Baghdadi Names Pseudonyms—for ministerial portfolios
excerpt:
[6-Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Mashhadani, Minister of Information (The Mashahidah are a minor Sunni tribe north of Baghdad, and I've speculated that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi himself is a Mashhadani.)]
he nailed it..
Earth to Analmouth @ 10:17 PM
June 21, 2006
excerpt:
[US forces had been tracking Mansur al-Mashhadani, identified as the top al-Qaeda religious leader in the country. General Caldwell said: “We do know that Sheikh Mansur was a key leader in al-Qaeda in Iraq with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials within that organisation.”]
dave in boca, re:
Hope Thompson comes in and calls these traitors to account.
i presume you mean the old guy with the "trophie wife" vs.. oh lets say.. the (_o_) with the "(fill in the blank) trophies" in spite of his wife..
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Ahhhh, Richard Clarke....
ReplyDeleteYa know, I'd still like to see someone ask him about December 1998. The 911 Commission says that's when the campfire brainstorm plan of the 911 attacks was finally authorized. Clarke himself says that the threat of an AQ attack at the time (Christmas, New Years, Desert Fox) was the highest in American history up to then. Soooooo, why wasn't he in DC, NYC, or even in the US? Oh, that's right, our Counter-terrorism Czar was off in the UAE selling F16i fighter planes to the same sheiks who paid for the 911 attacks, the same ones who were seen 2 months later falcon hunting with UBL, and the same ones Richard Clarke tipped off about a strike on that falcon hunting camp. Glad ya got those F16's sold Dick. btw, what was your commission on that, and...why wasn't our counter terrorism czar in the US rather than snugglin up to the very same people who paid for the attacks?
This man owes the US more than an apology at a 911 Commission hearing. He owes us some jail time.
"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son." - Dean Wormer
ReplyDeleteThis also applies in the case of Richard Clarke.
If it's part of your agenda, if your propaganda coincides with terrorist propaganda are you being played for a fool? When the MSM makes itself a branch of the Democrat Party, promotes everything the Democrats want are they being played by the Democrats?
ReplyDeleteIn both cases, I think the answer is no. You're not being played. You are actively participating in the agenda.
Since Richard Clarke worked in the Bush Administration, he probably be tagged as a "staunch Republican", who's disgruntled with GOP policy and will support the Dems in the next election.
Those MSM guys, they're like eels, they can wriggle around anything.
Not to rain on a good blog rant, but Clarke is correct in a sense.
ReplyDeleteAQI and AQ are two organizations and AQI didn't exist at the time of the 9/11/01 attacks. AQI was a new creation of Jordanian and Egyptian terrorists specifically to fight our troops in Iraq.
However, and this is where Clarke buries his head in the sand, AQI and AQ have merged. Zarqawi swore allegiance to OBL back in... 2005 IIRC. Zarqawi essentially was bought out by a larger company. For all intents and purposes now, they are indistinguishable. If we attack one, we attack them both. If we destroy one, we destroy them both. If we retreat from one, we retreat from both.
Clarke is using a legitimate fact: the AQ that brought down the towers is not the AQI that we know and hate, and is hoping you won't realize that the two organizations are now so intertwined as to make no difference. The President is most assuredly not wrong when he says we are fighting the people who attacked New York and Virginia. Clarke should know better. It's curious to wonder why he doesn't.
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ReplyDeletefyi: (disclaimer: not the best source, but whatever..)
excerpt:
[During the Clinton Administration, Clarke became the counter-terrorism coordinator for the National Security Council. He remained in that position in the first year of the George W. Bush Administration, and later was the Special Advisor to the president on cybersecurity and cyberterrorism. He resigned from the Bush Administration in 2003.]
Transcript: Clarke Praises Bush Team in '02
excerpt:
[RICHARD CLARKE: Actually, I've got about seven points, let me just go through them quickly. Um, the first point, I think the overall point is, there was no plan on Al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.
Second point is that the Clinton administration had a strategy in place, effectively dating from 1998. And there were a number of issues on the table since 1998. And they remained on the table when that administration went out of office — issues like aiding the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, changing our Pakistan policy -- uh, changing our policy toward Uzbekistan. And in January 2001, the incoming Bush administration was briefed on the existing strategy. They were also briefed on these series of issues that had not been decided on in a couple of years.
And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.]
The Two Faces of Richard Clarke
excerpt:
[Bush Called for Elimination of al Qaeda, Five-Fold Increase in Covert Funding
In the two weeks since the release of his book, Against all Enemies-Inside America's War on Terror, former National Security Council aide Richard Clarke has labored in the liberal media to portray the Bush Administration as doing nothing to deal with the threat posed by al Qaeda in the period between Bush's Jan. 20, 2001, inauguration and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Touting his book in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" on March 21, Clarke said that Bush had "ignored" the terrorist threat. In an interview with MSNBC's Hardball on March 31, he said the only thing Bush did about it was to ask - passingly - in May 2001 for a "strategy" for dealing with al Qaeda
But in an August 2002 White House background briefing for reporters Clarke said that in March 2001, two months after coming into office, Bush changed President Clinton's policy on al Qaeda. Whereas Clinton had called for rolling back al Qaeda, Bush called for "eliminating" the terrorist group. Not only that, but a month later, according to Clarke's background briefing, the White House secured authorization of a five-fold increase in funding in the fiscal year 2002 Intelligence budget for lethal covert action against al Qaeda.
To anyone who understands the budget process in Congress, what Clarke described was a remarkable policy turnaround on al Qaeda - started within two months of Bush's taking office.
On March 24, the White House released the transcript of Clarke's August 2002 background briefing. When Clarke testified that day before The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, former Republican Gov. James Thompson of Illinois said to him: "Did they authorize the increase in funding five-fold?" To which, Clarke responded: "Authorized, but not appropriated."
"Well," said Thompson, "but the Congress appropriates, don't they, Mr. Clarke?" In fact, as the transcript below shows, Clarke told reporters in August 2002 that the Bush Administration secured the authorization and budgeting for the five-fold increase in funding to destroy al Qaeda in the first fiscal year after entering office - and the process started in March 2001 with President Bush's decision to eliminate the terrorist group, something President Clinton never tried to do.]
Al Qaeda absent from final Clinton report
back up link..
excerpt:
[The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.]
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Dear Dickie,
ReplyDeleteI'm confused.
Does this mean that somebody eventually did "Boogie to Baghdad," or that they didn't?
Just trying to keep our stories straight.
Love, Bubba