Tag Archives: foreign policy

German Intelligence Assessment of Afghanistan

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According to Spiegel Online International, here’s what the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, the German Federal Intelligence Service), in their report “Afghanistan until 2014 – A Prognosis,” is telling the German government about the situation in Afghanistan.

Of the Karzai government, the report says

Susceptibility to corruption, influence peddling by individuals and nepotism will continue[.]

On Afghanistan’s security, the report says, as summarized by Spiegel Online,

[T]he number of attacks that members of the Afghan security forces carry out against Western soldiers will continue to increase.  It also predicts that the program for reintegrating former Taliban fighters who have renounced violence will have “no effects” on the peace process.

And

[T]he Afghan government’s efforts to hold talks with insurgents have no chance at success.  It says that the latter only want to negotiate with the US and not with Kabul, and that “no greater progress” is to be expected by 2014, the year of planned [American] withdrawal[.]

And

Up to 35,000 foreign soldiers—mostly trainers for the Afghan army, combat troops required to protect the trainers and as many elite soldiers as possible to hunt down terrorists—will be needed to stabilize the country [post-2014.]

If this is accurate, what does this say about American intelligence capability?  Or, what does this say about what the administration is willing to tell us, publicly, about what our intel is telling them?

He’s Been Booker’d

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Fox News reported this last night:

The office of the United States’ top intelligence official appeared to take the blame Friday for the Obama administration’s changing narrative on the US Consulate attack in Libya, saying administration officials who initially claimed the attack was spontaneous did so based on intelligence officials’ guidance.

The statement by Shawn Turner, spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, was put out late Friday….

As Fox News put it, “Turner’s statement marked a complete reversal from the initial claims.”  Turner’s statement included this, in part:

In the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo.  We provided that initial assessment to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress, who used that information to discuss the attack publicly and provide updates as they became available.  Throughout our investigation we continued to emphasize that information gathered was preliminary and evolving.

However, Fox News also has been reporting that two intel sources have told them that intelligence officials knew within 24 hours that the attack was terrorism and that they suspected it was tied to Al Qaeda.  As Fox dryly put it, it’s unclear why the intelligence community told Executive Branch officials it was spontaneous.

This is highly reminiscent of the event late last spring involving Newark, NJ, Mayor Cory Booker.  In a May “Meet the Press” interview, Booker told NBC’s host, Dick Gregory, that the Democratic Party campaign’s attacks on Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (in all but name at the time) for his time at Bain Capital were “nauseating.”  Twenty-four hours later, Booker had been browbeaten by the White House into apologizing for his nauseating remark.

This is what is being done to Clapper—he’s being forced to take the fall for this administration’s dishonesty in its mischaracterization of the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left our Ambassador to Libya murdered along with three of his staff.

First, the Official Denial

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…now comes a partial enumeration of the weasel words and evasion.  I wrote a bit ago about the official denial that the Blind Sheik, he of the first World Trade Center bombing, would be released/transferred to Egypt at Egypt’s behest.

Here’s what former Judge and US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has discovered in the way of that evasion and those weasel words.

Asked before Congress in July whether there is an intention “at any time to release the Blind Sheikh,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded: “Well, let me just say this.  I know of no such intention.”

And

The State Department’s spokesperson last week, after the ceremonial “let me be clear,” said that there had been no approach on this topic “recently” from any “senior” official of the Egyptian government….

I suppose Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi isn’t senior enough for this spokesperson.

And this:

All of this plays out in the context of an Obama administration that hasn’t hesitated to employ executive orders to get around Congress, led by a president who was caught on a “hot mike” assuring Russia’s leaders that if he wins re-election he will have more “flexibility” to accommodate Russian demands that the US curtail missile defense in Europe.

Since the guy who occasionally sits in our President’s chair refuses to say definitively that the Blind Sheik won’t be released/transferred anytime or under any conditions, all of this sounds pretty definitive to me.

Who Skipped Out?

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On Saturday, during his periodic radio address, Democratic Presidential Candidate bellyached about Congress adjourning before his precious addenda had been carried out.

Last week, without much fanfare, members of the House of Representatives banged a gavel, turned out the lights, and rushed home, declaring their work finished for now.

He added

See, when they skipped town, members of Congress left a whole bunch of proposals sitting on the table—actions that would create jobs, boost our economy, and strengthen middle-class security.

This from the guy who thought it more appropriate to attend his fundraiser and party in Las Vegas than to be in the White House dealing with the attacks, vandalism, and flag desecration at our Cairo embassy and the attacks, destruction, and murders at our Benghazi consulate.

This from the guy who has time to sit face to face with the Ladies of the View but who has no time to meet with world leaders—even those who explicitly ask for such a meeting.  “Give me a call on the telephone,” he says through his press rep, Jay Carney, and his campaign advisor, Robert Gibbs.

This from the guy who, for three years, has declined to present a serious budget proposal to Congress, instead proposing exploding spending, increasing deficits, and deepening debt—disingenuous proposals the last two of which couldn’t even get a single Democrat’s vote.

This from the guy whose Democrat-controlled Senate is sitting on 38 House-passed jobs-related bills without even permitting their discussion, much less an actual vote.

Who is it, really, who’s skipped town?  And been out of town all these years?

So Now Our Government

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…is apologizing for the uniquely American value of free speech?  And we tax payers are paying for this shameful behavior with our own dollars!?

This from Fox News:

The American Embassy in Islamabad, in a bid to tamp down public rage over the anti-Islam film produced in the US, is spending $70,000 to air an ad on Pakistani television that features President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video.

And beyond this appalling obsequiousness, there’s this blatant duck and cover [emphasis added]:

In the ad, Obama is seen talking about America’s tradition of religious tolerance and Clinton is seen saying that the US government had nothing to do with the video….

It’s not us—we in government didn’t do it.

It gets…better:

[State’s spokeswoman Victoria] Nuland said it was common practice to pay to air public service announcements in Pakistan and noted that the embassy there had done it at least one other time, in the aftermath of a deadly 2005 earthquake that hit the country.

So, here’s our government putting its apology for American values on a par with expressing sympathy for a tragedy.

Can we afford four more years of retreat and timidity concerning American rights and culture?