Broken Heart, New Alfa Romeo, Funded by Belgian Taxpayers From Reason Magazine.

After Action Report—General Barry R McCaffrey USA

Tanker-Grabbing Pirates Drown, with Bounty from Danger Room.

From The Telegraph…..

“In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favour,” Mr Olmert said

“I said ‘get me President Bush on the phone’. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care. ‘I need to talk to him now’. He got off the podium and spoke to me.

“I told him the United States could not vote in favour. It cannot vote in favour of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favour.”

That is Olmert talking tough to impress an Israeli audience. He even saw fit to mentioned how Condoleezza Rice was humiliated in the same article. I suppose that reveals him to be a true gentleman of the finest qualities.

It may have gone down well in Israel, but I can’t think that it made him very many friends in America. I can’t think of how he could have possibly done more to make it seem like the US was Israel’s lap dog.

This week’s rant of the week is “The World’s Pornographic Interest in Jewish Moral Failure” by Jeffrey Goldberg.

From The New York Times….

President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.

I don’t understand why this article got printed. It is a known fact that the New York Times will print anything and everything without regard to national security. But the article reads like a bunch of Bush supporters were trying to do some legacy enhancement. In the process I think they damaged America’s national interests.

Particularly harmful was the article’s assertion that Israel has decided that it can not effectively attack Iran without US help. I have long suspected that was the case. But leaking an official assessment to that effect (or pretending you are) does not help the cause of halting Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons.

It would have been better had there been strategic ambiguity in regards to Israel’s ability. After all, even though everybody and their brother might suspect that Israel could not do much on their own, nobody can be quite sure given Israel’s past history. And that was useful pressure all the way around.

I suppose the article could be full of disinformation. In which case it is all well and good. But hard experience has taught me never to expect government officials to leak things for the right reasons.

From the Long War Journal…..

The identity of the other handlers has not been provided, but India has accused elements within Pakistan’s intelligence service and the military of supporting the attack. The handler identified as “Major General” implies the involvement of a current or former military officer. The Inter-Service Intelligence agency is a branch of the Pakistani military. The ISI chief and Army corps commanders achieve the rank of Major General or Lieutenant General.

A senior US military intelligence official familiar with the dossier said that the “Major General” is indeed Hamid Gul, the retired former chief of the ISI. “It’s Gul,” the official told The Long War Journal. “This is why the US is trying to get him on the UN list of terrorists.” In December 2008 the US attempted to get Hamid Gul and other former military and intelligence officials added to the UN list of designated terrorists but has so far been rebuffed.

The whole post was very interesting in a sick sort of way.

From the Wall Street Journal….

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday sacked the country’s national security adviser, Mahmood Durrani, for confirming that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, is a Pakistani citizen.

The unexpected move exposed deep strains in the shaky civilian administration. President Asif Ali Zardari, who appointed Mr. Durrani to his post, wasn’t consulted on the decision to fire him and learned of it only after it had been made public, according to presidential aides.

Rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon. From Belmont Club….

The NYT reports that 3 rockets have been fired into Israel from the North. This raises a number of questions: is Hezbollah opening, or threatening to open a second front? Has UNIFIL been effective in preventing the reoccupation of the border towns and Hezbollah’s rearmament?

I don’t agree with the Belmount Club on this one. I think that Abu Muqawama has it right when he says……

For once, I am inclined to believe a Hizballah spokesperson. (Although this particular spokeswoman is most certainly “Madam No” herself, quite possibly the worst spokesperson in the history of spokespersons. Or speaking.)

a) I honestly do not believe that Hizballah has an interest in sparking an Israeli counter-attack (just yet) through an action of their own.

b) If this was Hizballah, I would think it would be a little more spectacular than three to four rockets.

c) This has happened before. Some rogue Palestinian group or Sunni group will manage to launch a few rockets into Israel. Hizballah will get a case of the red ass because, hey, resistance along the Blue Line is their territory — and theirs alone. And as long as the Israelis play it cool, no one else gets hurt.