Al Qaeda’s Defeat In Iraq

The Democrats and Obama keep trying to separate Iraq from Al Qaeda. But they can't. The Invasion of Iraq is old news... but they keep talking about Iraq as if it were the pre-invasion Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It isn't anymore. The insurgency is mostly Al Qaeda and similar terrorist groups that kill more Iraqis than Americans.

Fighting in Iraq today IS fighting Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. There is no long any legitable "insurance" fighting to free Iraq.

Obama needs to quit saying Iraq IS currently a distraction from the real fight. Maybe it was at one time, and maybe not, but today it very much IS the center of our efforts to fight terrorism.... and we're winning...

Commentary » Blog Archive » Al Qaeda’s Defeat In Iraq [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Limits on CIA Interrogations

FOXNews.com - Congress Pushes Limits on CIA Interrogations in Face of Threatened Bush Veto - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum:

"Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, voted against the measure Wednesday."

WOW!! I had expected McCain to vote FOR this. I wonder what his reasons are. I support limiting what the CIA can do, but maybe not this much.

The CIA should have a window of very harsh methods (including water boarding) for getting current information quickly. But once that window has passed, there are less and less reasons to continue to use the harsh methods. To me "torture" is the POINTLESS inflicting of pain and suffering to punish someone, or to "get even" or just to be cruel or to get a false confession. If there is reasonable reason to believe the person has information that can stop an eminent attack, or lead to the capture of other terrorist, then I say just about anything goes. But if they hold out for days or a week or two then...

A - The info he has is old anyways.
B - He may start giving false info just to stop the interrogation
C - He may not really know anything (or anything more than he already told)
D - He may just be strong willed and have "beaten us".

There comes a time when the risk of option 'D' becomes small enough and the chances of A,B or C (or others) being true become large enough that we must stop the harsh techniques. They have become pointless and therefore I would consider continuing them to be "Torture". He could still be subjected to other less harsh, more long term, techniques but eventually he should become "just a prisoner" and simply held.

Until trial of course.

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By the way, the argument that Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller made that "Retaliation is the way of the world. What we do to others, they will do to us — but worse," is just silly. Terrorist have no limits on what they are willing to do. What we do with our prisoners may be used in propaganda, but will in no way make terrorist attack us more or in "worse" ways. Nor will it make them treat people they kidnap or capture "worse". It shows Mr Rockefeller doesn't know what he's talking about, and is just using this as his own propaganda against President Bush. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Engineers have a 'terrorist mindset'

Well, I'm certainly am inclined to take a conservative and religious position on things...and according to most democrats, my views are "extreme"... but I would hardly call myself a terrorist...

EETimes.com - Holy War! Researchers say EEs have a 'terrorist mindset'

PDF paper here Engineers of Jihad [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Americans should not fear talking -and listening to those whose views we loathe.

This is very well said. I for one thought the whole incident was over blown. I don't think I would have invited Ahmadinejad to speak at anything I was running, but I wouldn't protest him speaking anywhere either. But someone should accept this invitation to speak somewhere in Iran. Or maybe the President should write an open letter to the people of Iran and see how much of it gets published in Iran.

I think Ahmadinejad would soon realize that HE is the one that does not want an truly OPEN dialog between the people of the US and the people of Iran.

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists

FOXNews.com - Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum:

"'If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.'" -- Barack Obama

How is this different from President Bush having intelligence about Iraqi WMD and acting when the UN wouldn't act?? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The FBI --- "serious misuse" of the power

What did they expect. Give the FBI this power and they are going to use it all the time.

Audit: FBI snooping did not follow rules - CNN.com

Update:

You don't see statements like this Mueller: 'I Am the Person Responsible' too often. Nice for a change. [This Post Continues after the jump...]