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Doing anything that supports the enemy during war makes you a murderer.

A Muslim Constitution in Europe

This is what we are up against, heartbreaking letter

Great Americans

Special: Secretary Snow's Letter to the New York Times (hat tip Bruce)

New Evidence in HADITHA - soldiers' accounts of what happened are backed up by videotape shot by an ultralight vehicle

Censure Murtha

The Iraqi Holocaust

UPDATE: This is not about selling papers. It's about selling us out

How To Deal With Good News From Iraq
One of the more interesting types of stories exchanged by Iraq veterans is how their embedded reporters get screwed by their editors. The basic problem is that reporters tend to get close to the troops they are embedded with, and the troops form a good sense of what kind of story is being written. But then, when the story appears, it often has no connection with what actually happened, other than the names of the reporter and the soldiers or marines. The troops get curious about how this can be. Reporters have learned to dread inquiring emails from the troops they were recently embedded with. Sometimes the reporters are still embedded when some of their reporting appears in print or on the air. The troops note the discrepancies and ask questions. The answer to all these queries is simple. The reality of Iraq is too positive for the editors back home. Good news doesn't sell. The reporting has to be darkened a bit and a negative spin added. The troops tend to shrug their shoulders, and shake their heads. There's always the "alternative media" (blogs and web based stuff in general), and occasional accurate reporting in some mainstream outlets. But, in general, it's as if there were two worlds; the real one the troops live in, and a more "media friendly" one created by editors back home.

Comments

[Richard Davis]

I emailed all the Congressmen in PA (my rep is Chaka Fatah - only surfaces when the "black caucus" has something to say, like he's gonna do anything).

I know Curt Weldon and Joe Pitts will fight to press charges against the NY Slimes.

I read Joe Keller's (NY Times Editor) pathetic condensending response "to all the emails he's received" about this act of treason - basically he said, "Americans are dumb and the NY Times is smart, and the Bush Admin is lying, so shut up because we know what's in your best interest".

Must Read: Two letters at Powerline, one from a soldier in Iraq and the other by Treasury Secretary John Snow, both written to the NY Times - Outstanding letters.

Here's a taste:

"You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the "public interest" in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of - even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you've seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available - lawfully and responsibly - to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times."

Sincerely,
John W. Snow, Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury

And this from Lt. Tom Cotton in Iraq:

"Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars."

Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq

[goesh]

Thanks.

[Cousin Dave]

Back in the '80s, Japan was buying into a lot of American institutions, and there were times when their intentions weren't entirely honorable either. (Anyone remember "The Japan That Can Say No"?) So what happened? To put it bluntly, they spent themselves into a hole. Their economy wasn't nearly as healthy as they thought it was, and they couldn't sustain their spending rate. They wound having to sell a lot of those assets a few years later, at pennies on the dollar.

So, the question is: how can we make the same thing happen to the Saudis? Yes, I know it's not a perfect analogy. On the other hand, the Saudi economy is a lot shallower than Japan's ever was -- the House of Saud might be rolling in dough, but nearly everyone else in the country is dirt-poor. It wouldn't take a big push to make the Saudi economy collapse. So how do we give it that push? Travel bans? Embargo Saudi oil? Freeze/seize assets? Maybe we need to get some class-action suits cranked up with regard to Sadui support of Wahabbists. A couple of good RICO suits against the Saudis in relation to 9/11, we get courts to freeze their assets, they can't move money anymore... suddenly they don't have the power they had.

[Russ Duckworth]

> So, the question is: how can we make the same thing happen to the Saudis? [collapse their economy]

Conserve energy, and use public transportation. If every person in this country took major steps to reduce their use of energy and gasoline, the amount of demand for gulf oil in the world would drop significantly, and so would the profits of the saudi royal family.

[Don]

To reply to "Cousin Dave"...

I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about.

Conservation is not the solution to high oil prices. If you can afford to buy gas at $X/gal, buy it and don't feel bad about it - if you don't someone else will. If you can't afford it, find less expensive forms of transport - and I don't mean a brand-spanking new hybrid. Cost of depreciation and insurance on a new car, hybrid or no, is *much* higher than the temporary high cost of gasoline. The cheapest car to buy is almost always the one you already own.

That cars and SUVs are as popular as they are indicates that they are the right answer for most people. Free market capitalism works every time it's tried.

It is not your fault (is it?) that the Democrats and numerous RINOs have systematically gutted any legislation that might actually helped solve the real problem: Lack of supply.

The price will drop if you increase the supply. You can't do that if you won't drill where the oil is known to be, e.g., ANWR, and off the FL and CA coasts. Lowered transporation costs will make such oil more available than the imported stuff in the US and less costly at the pump as gasoline or diesel. And even then, it will take time.

SO, if you want to deprive the Saudi Royal Family of their burgeoning assets, you need to drill closer to home.

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For Pamela

There are lots of lost souls and demonstrably stupid people who actually believe what they read on the liberal fever swamp blogs. Truly frightening considering that it's absolute rubbish.

Yours may not be the easiest read - you cover some really tough subjects, and must have an iron will to do so - but you have as much or more passion as the pinheaded libs, and you deal in verifiable fact.

Thanks! And keep up the good work.

[joeyess]

You are a........................WIIIIIIIIIINGNUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!