Enemy of Their Enemy
Eli Lake at NY Sun on a new NIE claim that Iran is hosting al-Qaeda:
WASHINGTON — One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted a good part of the terror conglomerate’s senior leadership structure.
That is a consensus judgment from a final working draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, titled “The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” on the organization that attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The estimate, which represents the opinion of America’s intelligence agencies, is now finished, and unclassified conclusions will be shared today with the public.
The classified document includes four main sections, examining how Al Qaeda in recent years has increased its capacity to stage another attack on American soil; how the organization has replenished the ranks of its top leaders; nations where Al Qaeda operates, and the status of its training camps and physical infrastructure.
Lake notes problems with the concept: Shiite-Sunni oil-water problem, but also notes the known history of al-Qaeda taking refuge in Iran and the possibility that Iran might be able to overlook theological and ideological differences for short term benefits:
Mr. Nasr, however, said Iran’s recent entente with Al Qaeda could be simply a matter of statecraft. ” Iran and Al Qaeda do not have to like one another,” he said. “They can hate each other, they can kill each other, their ultimate goals may be against one another, but for the short term Iran can unleash Al Qaeda on the United States.”
Mr. Cressey said the Iranian regime’s relationship with Al Qaeda is one of tolerance as opposed to command and control.
“I think the Iranians are giving these guys enough latitude to operate to give them another chit in the game of U.S.-Iranian relations,” he said.
But you’ll want to read the whole thing.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:42 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2007
37 Responses to “Enemy of Their Enemy”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
July 17th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Iran Hosting Al Qaeda
Expect to hear plenty of simpering from the left over this report later today, questioning the timing, of course. They refuse to believe Al Qaeda had any presence in Iraq before we toppled Saddam Hussein, and they could see video of Mahmoud Ahmadinej…
July 17th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
enough already!
Don’t we have enough for an a dozen Adlai Stevenson presentations?
We’ve intercepted couriers repeatedly carrying al Qaeda battle plans, the EFPs, Qods training the Kazahli network to kidnap and kill our troops, etc, etc.
I can’t wait to hear the equivocating from the left.
“no, no, no, you don’t understand, this is an old Muslim tradition.
They are merely being good hosts…as the Quran says…”
July 17th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
One wonders, once again, just how many acts of war against the U.S. we are to endure before we act. It helps, I suppose, to equivocate by continuing to call the Quds Force a “rogue” unit.
July 17th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Why should we believe the U.S. military can do anything about Iran?
Maybe if they managed to catch Osama?
July 17th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
“Eli Lake at NY Sun on a new NIE claim that Iran is hosting al-Qaeda:”
Same thing they’ve been saying since we invaded Afghanistan. So, quit talking about it and start acting.
No point in having half our navy parked in the Persian Gulf, and just letting it sit there while the Iranians are screaming “Death to America”, supporting terrorist groups that have murdered American citizens, and keep getting closer to having nuclear weapons.
Take ‘em out…NOW!
It ain’t going to get easier if you wait until they have atomic bombs, ya dopes.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
We need to take some of the EFP’s in to mine the meeting place and then leave a dead squirrel as a calling card. Kind of an infiltration and evasion exercise.
Just to return the favor, as is only proper.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
The Iranians are grand masters at getting others to do their dirty work, so it should be no surprise to anyone that they’re willing to use al-Qaeda to hit at us. But they’ve already engineered more than enough atrocities against Americans to justify intervention, and I’m getting sick and tired of not hitting back. If the administration is waiting for some kind of political opposition to bring down the mullahs, they’re making a big mistake.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
The hopes of “dialogue” are that the gullible and politically ambitious can be talked to death by the bigwigs, while the rank-and-file are pressed into duty in the name of virgins, paradise, or something else that’s a million times better than their hellhole.
Capture or kill Osama, and you give Iran one less (but important) toy to play with. Clamp down on Iran, and al Qaeda’s influence evaporates in that area.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Why should we believe the U.S. military can do anything about Iran?
Because we have warships and Iran has ports and a shaky economy?
I’m told JFK used the Navy in a similar situation — to great effect. But maybe all those history books are just propaganda and the Navy was out fly fishing instead.
An astute observer (not you Alphie) will note that the Navy and Air Force aren’t particularly taxed right now.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:15 am
I believe it was indeed me that pointed out the press corp has lost more people than th U.S> Navy and the Air Force combined in the GWOT, PA.
And while they have billion dollar toys, they aren’t much use.
If they can’t get Osama, they certainly can’t get a few imaginary al Qaeda guys in Iran.
Iran currently hosts about 1,000,000 refugees from the paradise on earth you guys turned Afghanistan into.
Do the neocons suggest we slaughter them all?
July 18th, 2007 at 2:33 am
As much as I understand the temptation (one which I’ve been guilty of giving into), please don’t give sugar to the ant (that’s alfie to newcomers). It just encourages him to come out of his hole to feed, causing him to soil himself and leave a mess all over Jules’ place.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Haha, salty,
Sorry I pop your wingnut propagnda bubbles.
Speaking of which, I notice Eli “all Muslims belong to al Qaeda” Lake’s little tidbit didn’t actually show up in the NIE today.
I imagine Bush’s toadies where too embarrassed to release that gem to the puplic, so they leaked it to the usual sources instead.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Moron
Imbecile
Idiot
Pretty simple (alphies, contribution)
Invertebrate
Nematode
Amoeba
Pond Scum
alphie
The only thing YOU “pop” is the pimple filled with pus, that is your head, every two hours.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Here’s something that I’ve noticed a lot in the dronish leftie posts both here and elsewhere:
“Iran currently hosts about 1,000,000 refugees from the paradise on earth you guys turned Afghanistan into.”
It’s not America at war - it’s those neocons! For one thing, note the inherent prejudice: they aren’t other Americans who happen to hold different opinions, they’re “neocons” and we are all supposed to HATE them!
Secondly, and more importantly, if you feel that way then why do you actually give a damn? I know it’s not because you actually care about “brown people”, otherwise you might have wanted to do something about the 500,000+ children that the UN starved to death in Iraq, back in that “good” president’s term when we were all at “peace”. You lefties don’t have anything to lose in the battles in Iraq or Afghanistan - there are no Democrats in the military, and you’ll go on with your decadent, oil-soaked, carefree lifestyles no matter what happens (or so you think). So here’s my point - why give a damn? It doesn’t affect you except that you have to read about it in your leftie newspaper. Turn this war over to us “neocons”. We’re fighting it. We’re winning it, actually. We suffer the losses, enjoy the triumphs, and generally pay the price while you sit back fat and happy and don’t do anything but whine!
It seems you can solve everyone’s problems by just turning off your TV, sparking up another doob and leaving those responsible citizens of the world - your “neocons” whom we are supposed to hate - to take care of things.
That’s all. Carry on.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Oh, and as for the “Afghanistan paradise” thing - you might want to talk to Europe about that, since it was Russia’s invasion of the place that crushed it into the splattered mess that we’re trying to clean up today.
The same Europeans that, I might add, invaded a small Muslim land named Chechnya not once but twice. Just like in Afghanistan, they did so solely in the name of imperialistic conquest! Evidence exists that they’ve used massed artillery strikes against civilian areas and god knows what else.
Now, let me ask you this - have you marched against the global war on terror?
And have you marched against the European conquest of Afghanistan? How about Chechnya? What is your real motive, here? Standing up for Muslims in small countries that you supposedly care about, or trying to make your favorite politician look good?
And is that really important at all?
July 18th, 2007 at 10:59 am
q_mech–Superb work.
I’ve copied and saved it to a word file.
Thanks.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Shorter CEO q-mech: If you just ignore all those expenses, we’re showing a profit!
July 18th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
HA! You see, q-mech, it really isn’t important or the ant would have answered you with something approaching a coherent thought. The only thing important is the snark.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Oh, let me backpedal a little here. While the snark (i.e., the sneer at the world) is important, it is only a tool used by those pathetic loners who live in their mother’s basement, a place lit only by the light of their monitors as they virtually throw mud at a world that has little use for them. It is the attention that is most important to such losers. Any attention. Even negative attention, which is all they are capable of earning.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
salty, q,
Where I come from, if you try to “protect” someone against their will, we call you a stalker.
And throw you in jail.
Stop “protecting” us, please.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
“Oh, and as for the “Afghanistan paradise” thing - you might want to talk to Europe about that, since it was Russia’s invasion of the place that crushed it into the splattered mess that we’re trying to clean up today.”
Don’t you remember the gigantic worldwide lefty protests against commie agression in Afghanistan?
Me neither.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
You rubes can’t have it both ways.
You can’t declare 9/11 the start of a Pol Pot-like year zero, where the past doesn’t matter, then use nonsensical historical snippets to try to minimize your failures.
St. Ronnie used to say you don’t need any more proof that the Soviet Union is a failure than all the refugees fleeing it.
Millions of people are fleeing the neocon-run Afghanistan and Iraq.
To places like Iran and Syria, no less.
You have failed.
Time to call it quits and give someone else a try.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Time to call it quits and give someone else a try.
Really? Who’s this “someone else”? The Taliban? Because we all know what a paradise they turned Afghanistan into. Al-Qaeda? Because they were working with the Taliban. Russia, who failed a 70-year communist experiment? Or China, perhaps, but then wouldn’t that also be imperial hegemony? You can’t very well come back with “Iraqis and Afghans” either, because last I checked, they already have those governments in place, democratically elected no less.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
“You can’t declare 9/11 the start of a Pol Pot-like year zero, where the past doesn’t matter”
True story, ‘tard.
“Two decades of civil war and serious human rights abuses have forced millions of Afghan men, women and children to flee their homes and seek refuge in other parts of Afghanistan or outside the country. Since the armed conflict began after the Soviet invasion in 1979, civilians - women and children in particular - have suffered enormously from the devastating consequences of continuous fighting. All the warring factions that have been party to the conflict over the years have given precedence to their military objectives over the lives and livelihoods of the people of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands have been killed or injured in indiscriminate bombing and shelling of residential areas. Thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and raped, “disappeared”, or murdered for their political affiliation, ethnic identity, gender, or in reprisal attacks by the various armed groups fighting for control of territory. Schools, hospitals, homes, and farms have been burned and destroyed leaving millions of Afghans displaced and dispossessed.”
“Between the years 1979 and 1992, more than a fifth of Afghanistan’s population - over six million people - were driven from the country in search of safety…”
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engASA110161999
It’s just the same old, same old in Afghanistan (and ditto for Iraq).
And, we didn’t invade Afghanistan or Iraq to ease the refugee problem or to turn those nations into paradise on earth, anyway…we went in there to kill terrorists, Talibaners and Baathists.
Whether that eases or increases the refugee problem isn’t an important issue. That’s not the point of our punitive expeditions.
Now, piss off, ‘tard.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
You do realize these crimes were committed by the neocon-created Mujahideen, right, Dave?
You guys have been screwing up for almost 30 years.
And you do realize your next failure will be to hand over nuclear-armed Pakistan to the Islamic funamentalists?
Please, just go.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
“You do realize these crimes were committed by the neocon-created Mujahideen, right, Dave?”
The problem began when the Soviet Union installed a commie government and then invaded Afghanistan, and it wasn’t the “neo-cons” who started supporting the other side, it was the Carter administration and the Democrat controlled Congress.
Now, do be a good little ‘tard, and piss off.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
a-tard–
…keeps bringing up the benevolent Syrian regime taking in all those Iraqi refugees.
Well, Iraqis, being non-Syrians, cannot work in Syria, so their teenage daughters are forced to turn to prostitution for slovenly Arab sex tourists.
Yes, Syria is the ellis Island of mid east, isn’t it A-tard.
this was on the leftist msnbc even. So Syria is getting attacked from all sides.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
“Between the years 1979 and 1992, more than a fifth of Afghanistan’s population - over six million people - were driven from the country in search of safety…”
I count one year of Carter and 12 years of neocon rule in there, Dave.
Math has never been a neocon strong suit.
You don’t even bother to try and count your victims.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
“You do realize these crimes were committed by the neocon-created Mujahideen”
The bad thing about leftists/liberals is is that they’re pathological liars.
The good thing about them is is that they can’t lie worth a damn.
The problem in Afghanistan was caused by the Soviets. The resistance created itself. It was the liberal Democrats who started helping the resistance.
That’s the truth,
July 18th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Dave,
Using your math, that would make Eisenhower completely responsible for the Vietnam War.
More so, in fact, because Carter was only in office for a year while the Soviets were in Afghanistan, and Reagan funded the proto-Taliban for the entire eight years he was in office.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Keep blithering ‘tard. And when you’re done blithering this:
“You do realize these crimes were committed by the neocon-created Mujahideen”
…and everything else you’ve said will still be a bald-faced lie.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Can anyone sane figure out how the Reagan administration was “neo-con” ? Or is Alphie once again ignorantly refering to neo-conservatives without a single clue what they are? Since others playing in his sandbox use it as a epithet for people they don’t like, alphie uses it without understanding its meaning - like a 5 yr old repeating a curse word he heard his mother use.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Haha, spqr
Let’s look at just a few of the people who worked on Reagan’s foreign policy team:
Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalilzad, etc.
Sound familiar?
July 19th, 2007 at 3:05 am
And the eight years of the Clinton administration? Or was he a neo-con as well?
July 19th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Party is just about over jihad boy.
Another expensive and futile round of posturing to the fifth column by their allies in the legislature is over.
The approval rating of congress was at 14% trending down going into this week - less than Nixon’s when he resigned.
Think the approval rating isn’t a reflection of opinion on what the congressional leadership has made their defining cause?
Where will it be when the polls are taken the end of this week?
Think it’ll go up?
Think the professional politicians aren’t getting a bit nervous about how to reverse this before the next election?
Think they aren’t reassessing exactly what the marching morons wing of their party brought to the table and the price of appeasing them?
Think they still think that if the can force the defeat in Iraq the marching morons want quickly enough the public giving them 14% approval for their efforts will forget??
Time to shift your narrative jihad boy.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Yes, the “marching morons” at MoveOn who have had the dem cong’s ear have done tremendous damage.
I’ve seen still shots of the Soros funded the daily satellite linked strategy sessions. Their pathetic brainstorming sessions are so transparent, usually by mid-Monday you can see the strategy of the week they have chosen to shame Bush and co.
This week it was “why haven’t we caught Osama?” One congresswoman, who drew the short straw, had to hold up a huge poster of Osama and read off his vital statistics, height, weight, eye color, and occupation (which she said was “unknown”). She did all this to “remind the president what he looked like”.
The MSM got in the act and hauled in a dialysis machine into the pressroom to ask “if Osama is carrying this around with him why can’t we catch him?” They must have asked why Osama hasn’t been caught seven times.
Democratics are their own worst enemy–Let them keep talking:
“Last week, Reid repeatedly refused to answer ABC News reporter Jake Tapper’s question of whether there is “a moral obligation of the United States to make sure that the Iraqi people are safe before the U.S. withdraws.”
This week, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told the Washington Post of his plans if genocide resulted from a U.S. pullout — including basing a rapid deployment force in Kuwait, possibly stationing U.S. forces in Jordan and even setting up buffer zones around Iraq’s borders.
The American people think the president and congressional Democrats are separated by a great philosophical divide on Iraq.
But it’s becoming clearer that Democrats know as well as the commander in chief that we have to win there. They just can’t live with the thought of George W. Bush getting the credit.”
From “can’t let Bush win” IBD
And from Ralph Peters—TWISTING INTEL
In 2001, al Qaeda had a country of its own. Today, it survives in isolated compounds. And guess which “veteran warrior” wants to go get them?
Sen. Barack Obama. Far too important to ever serve in the military himself, Obama thinks we should invade Pakistan.
Go for it, Big Guy. Of course, we’ll have to reintroduce the draft to find enough troops. And we’ll need to kill, at a minimum, a few hundred thousand tribesmen and their families. We’ll need to occupy the miserable place indefinitely.
Oh, and Pakistan’s a nuclear power already teetering on the edge of chaos.
Barack Obama, strategist and military expert. Who knew?
July 19th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Important typo correction:
14% meant to be 24%